1,022 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2016
    1. Barbara Mundy, chapter 1 from Mapping New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geográficas

      Mundy, B. "Spain and the Imperial Ideology of Mapping" in The Mapping of New Spain. Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geográficas. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1996

      While Mundy’s approach to the production of maps in the Spanish empire centers on the figure of the king and his connection to territories near and far from him, she does so in order to exemplify the way man in 16th-century Europe positioned himself within the world. Through this view, for example, the maps serve as a way for Phillip II to legitimate his rule over the empire, especially in the New World territories.

      Mundy's research questions explore why different/varied methods of representation were important in the 16th-century European context (i.e. choreographic vs. geographic maps), and how these translated into understanding space in New World from an Old World perspective.

      In order to answer her main questions, she examines two mapping commissions ordered by Phillip II and carried out by Anton van den Wyngaerde and Pedro de Esquivel. She identifies the distinct methods of representation used by the artists taking into account the broader historical and geographical context that would eventually influence the way the territories in the New Spain would be represented, as happened with the creation of the Relaciones Geograficas in New Spain.

      Mundy effectively help us understand the significance of mapping (along with the different methodologies of doing so) from a conceptual as well as a methodological point of view. Her analysis, as well as contextualization of the van den Wyngaerde and Esquivel maps offers a glimpse onto the conceptual frame that informed Europe’s initial understanding of the New World as part of the greater whole that was the Spanish empire. However, as she stresses the importance of the tangible nature of the lands (at least through maps), her visual examples become limited as she only provides an example of Esquivel’s work. It would have been very useful to compare it to the work of van den Wyngaerde (the distinction between choreographic and geographic maps remained unclear without a visual aid).

      Mundy's contribution lies in prompting us to think about different ways of engaging with space, and what that engagement signifies within a given context (i.e. for Phillip II, engaging his New World possessions through visual representations of the maps legitimized his status as king given that he could not physically rule overseas, thus he still has control over this space).

      “In both kinds of maps [van den Wyngaerde’s and Esquivel’s], man defines his relation to the world through his ability to measure it” (Mundy, 4)

  2. Nov 2015
  3. Oct 2015
    1. No joke is funny unless you see the point of it, and sometimes a point has to be explained.

      Sounds logical, in the abstract. But the explanation is often known to “kill the joke”, to decrease the humour potential. In some cases, it transforms the explainee into the butt of a new joke. Something similar has been said about hermeneutics and æsthetics. The explanation itself may be a new form of art, but it runs the risk of first destroying the original creation.

  4. Sep 2015
  5. Aug 2015
    1. American dysfunction and government negligence

      "Bush doesn't care about Black people," made clear the neglect that we felt immediately, but it was only later the I became aware of the years of incompetence and broken systems that led to the storm surge doing so much damage. Immediately -- and for me to this day -- New Orleans was a symbol of carbon corporate power. Where is BP in this sentence in the Times?

  6. Jul 2015
    1. "It is now more clear than ever that the New York Times report claiming there is a criminal inquiry sought in Hillary Clinton's use of email is false," he said. "It has now been discredited both by the Justice Department and the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. This incident shows the danger of relying on reckless, inaccurate leaks from partisan sources."

      oh snap. Quality of NYT has been falling for awhile

  7. May 2015
  8. Feb 2015
    1. The New York State attorney general’s office accused four major retailers on Monday of selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements and demanded that they remove the products from their shelves.

      As early as the opening, we can see issues with the handling of the subject matter that give ample room to herbal supplement apologists.

      The apologist could start with the semantic objection, "What is an herbal supplement that does not contain the ingredients on the label -- it is just a filler pill." He will go on to establish that this constitutes supplement fraud for sure. But the author seeks to smuggle the idea of danger into the idea of herbal medicine and would not be able to do that if the products were more carefully engineered. In other words, these fraudulent herbal supplements only present dangers because they're fraudulent; if they contained what they were supposed to they would be safe.

      The apologist would be deeply mistaken.

      Sadly, even though this is just one little paragraph, the problems do not stop there. The 4 major retailers targeted by the investigation are being set-up (through the use of that "major" label) as giants in the industry. While this may be true by the numbers, it's also a very easy point for an apologist to knock down. One can almost imagine the smaller scale "herbal remedy" operation -- "Is it really any surprise big corporations fail to provide a quality herbal product? They care about you. They only care about their bottom line."

      Suffice it to say, the handling oo the reporting, as well as the circumstances of the investigation look like they're going to leave much to be desired. If thee early presentation fails persist throughout the article, it would have the effect of turning this should-be exposé into little more than a flash the pan.

      We'll see this is exactly what happens.