Dec 19 2022 -True North

 

Up North goes a long way in Canada - right to the North Pole, as far as we're concerned.   "Canada's north is a vast area, the three territories alone, Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories, encompass approximately 40% of the total area of Canada."   Moreover, as soon as you travel north of Toronto by 100 kilometres, we call that Up North as well.  That's because most of live in that very narrow strip along the U.S. border.  SO everything North is part of Up North.   It could be that Canada is considered Up North by other places.  We have vast Arctic and subarctic territories, the land of ice and snow.  We may part that are on the same latitude as northern California and Italy, but really we are known as a far north country.   Here's what we said in a recent poll (2021). The other sense we have of  Canada and the North is  "True North".  The reference is repeated many times.  It is to Alfred Tennyson, as he was the first to describe the country as "that true North" in his poem To the Queen.  He meant being loyal to the British Crown.   And that made it to the national anthem as "true north strong and free". We have the sense of the North Pole and its magnetic "truth".   The Magnetic North Pole is located in Ellesmere Island, which is about 500 miles from the Geographic North Pole.  Canada made an official claim in 2019. The closest town is Alert, 820 kilometres away.  That proximity puts us in charge of Santa, his village, and his post office box at H0H 0H0.   Don't mind that Finland is identified as having a Santa's Village.  When I was a child we would travel to Bracebridge which we considered "Up North" and visit Santa at his summer home.   Another village, Strasbourg, in France, lays claim to being a real life Christmas village.  But we have the North Pole. CBC had an article in which I found out that Santa Claus is a legal Canadian citizen. He was declared a full Canadian citizen in 2008 by Canada's immigration Minister.  He was issued a Canadian passport in 2013, and he and Mrs. Santa received the 2,999,999th and 3,000,000th ePassports.   So there we are with at least one benefit of having so much Up North in our country.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

North Up

I have a bias that North is up and even that there is an up for world.  This has to do with the magnetic north pole and all the pictures of the world with the north pole at the top - real pictures and pictures we create - maps.  Somehow, intellectually, I realize this might not be the case - that this is our Western World view that continues to be bubblesome. Did you know that the Blue Marble photograph - the famous photograph of the Earth taken from on board Apollo 17 had the south pole at the top - and got turned around to match our familiar view? The Greek astronomer Ptolemy (90-168AD) set this in motion - that north is up.  In between much happened.  It got cemented by the European navigators using the North Star and the magnetic compass. Before that, the top of the map was to the East. It has never been to the West.  The West is traditionally a representation of death, where the sun sets.  Poor Australia, always represented at the bottom.  There are maps with Australia at the top - McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World is the great example.  There is a person named the Wizard of New Zealand who has made an imperial British upsidedown map. In the Ancient world, Arabia, put south at the top.  The explanation is that if you wake up and face the sun, south is on the right.  With the sea to the south of them, there was nothing "on top" of the country, so they predominated the map visually. (This is what maps are for - to show 'our position').  By definition, they are political, politicized. Buckminster Fuller created the Dymaxion Map - no compass direction consistently facing the same way - it is an unfolded icosahedron.  Didn't he reveal the global village - look how connected we are in this version! Then there is the Peters Projection:  "one of the most stimulating and controversial images of the world".  It is HERE.  It addresses the challenge:  which is bigger, Greenland or China?  It is described as an 'equal area' map. "When this map was first introduced by historian and cartographer Dr. Arno Peters at a Press Conference in Germany in 1974 it generated a firestorm of debate. The first English-version of the map was published in 1983, and it continues to have passionate fans as well as staunch detractors. " This map is used for world aid by charity organizations such as Oxfam.   The International Society for Global Inversion believes that flipping iconic world maps everywhere would be a symbolic ceremony to help mankind break its old thought patterns, and act in a more ecological way.  We conclude with the Guide to Unusual Maps on the Web HERE.  Flowers and Floyd Elzinga's metal sculpture are our images today.

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