https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/15/weather-tracker-record-23c-at-night-makes-iceland-warmest-place-in-europeau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_forest_inequity

urban forest inequity

Mentions of humans thinning trees for better tree canopy in the section on black ash trees in Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

for - progress trap - dark futures scenario - like Easter Island but on a global scale

comment - The potential global breakdown of global industrialized society, rupturing supply chains so that our highly interdependent world becomes the very Achilles Heel that hastens its demise is chilling - It could mean a huge disruption to the most important aspect of civilization - the continuing accruing and inter-generational transmission of knowledge - It would be catastrophic to lose that, but it is entirely possible - As Wright himself famously said, to use a computer metaphor, we humans are like 50,000 year old hardware, running modern software - By that, he meant that our cognitive physiology (brain and sensory processing system) has not changed for tens of thousands of years, yet cultural evolution happens at exponentially faster rates, so much so that our biological systems are not adapted to keep up with the pace, and that spells disaster - When we no longer have the sensory or cognitive apparatus to sense danger, and we are offloading that to AI, we are in an extremely vulnerable situation

progress trap - Gedanken - Think of our ancestors from 50,000 years ago. - What Wright is saying with his metaphor is that if that child from 50,000 years ago were transported by a time machine to modernity, (s)he would have little problem integrating into modern society - LIKEWISE, if we lose all the knowledge fruits of accumulated over so many thousands of years, it would be like being born into a human tribe 50,000 years ago. - We would likely still have language, but all our technology may have to start from scratch!

for - progress trap - archeology - Easter Island

progress trap - archeology - Easter Island - The archeology tells the fascinating story of the progress trap that Eastern Island ancestors created. - Easter Island is desolate and only 64 square miles total - It is located 2,000 miles (3218 km) from the nearest landmass of South America - Archeologists trying to piece together the stone monoliths of Easter Island found pollen samples in the crater lakes on the island, proving that the place was once a thriving forest - By the time the first Europeans landed (the Dutch) on Easter Island, it was just grassy hills - How did it go from a lush forest land to a grass land? - The layers of pollen samples told a story - The aboriginal polynesians that the Dutch explorers encountered arrived about 1,000 years earlier - They cut down the forest, grew their population and used trees in many ways, including to transport the huge stone monoliths that paid respect to their ancestors - The original people multiplied then separated into separate warring tribes - The environment was devastated as the logging destroyed the forest and all the abundant ecosystem that provided for their sustenance - This created severe erosion and the soil became impoverished - The tribes collapses into warfare and cannibalism

progress trap - Easter Island - Sumeria etc - lesson - don't romanticize our ancestors - Human groups have continuously sabotaged themselves through overexploitation and lack of foresight - Progress traps have been a constant part of our species for a long, long time

for - comparison - Easter Island vs Climate deniers

comparison - Easter Island vs Climate deniers - When they cut down their last trees, the Easter Islanders could not even build canoes to transport themselves off the island - Climate deniers think the same way - justifying in whatever way they can the continuation of the current unsustainable system, until history will prove them too late

Vor dem vierten Treffen der Small Island Developing States hat der Chef der UN-Organisation für Infrastrukturentwicklung Unops dafür plädiert die Schuldensituation dieser Länder zu verändern. Sie haben überproportional sowohl unter Corona wie unter den Folgen der globalen Erhitzung gelitten. Zwischen 2016 und 2020 haben sie 18mal so viel für denSchuldendienst bezahlt als sie an Klimafinanzierung erhalten haben. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/27/world-has-moral-responsibility-to-help-small-island-states-survive-climate-crisis-un-agency-chief

Osijek ist einer neuen Studie zufolge die europäische Stadt mit den meisten Hitzetoten. Nach den Ursachen wird noch geforscht. Die hohe Feuchigkeit önnte genauso eine Rolle spielen wie Nachwirkungen des Kriegs. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/06/its-full-of-green-areas-mystery-of-europes-heat-death-hotspot

Eine Koalition kleiner Inselstaaten hat beim internationalen Seegerichtshof eine Aussage zur Belastung der Ozeane durch Treibhausgase beantragt. Wenn diese als Verschmutzung im Sinne des Seerechts anerkannt wird, lassen sich damit Klagen gegen die Industriestaaten auf Einschreiten gegen die globale Erhitzung begründen. https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/pollution/des-etats-insulaires-intentent-une-action-en-justice-pour-proteger-les-oceans-20230911_ATZV3N2EAZCMXEWEKUZ32ACL4Q/

Reportage der New York Times über die Folgen der globalen Erhitzung und vieler Eingriffen in die Ökosysteme für den Cowichan River auf Vancouver Island. Anlass ist ein Massensterben von Lachsen und Forellen.Vor allem aufgrund der Hitzewellen und Dürren der vergangenen Jahre kann das Flusssystem, von dem auch indigene Communities abhängen und das für seinen Fischreichtum berühmt war, nur durch aufwändige Schutzmaßnahmen überleben. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/world/canada/canada-wildfires-river-salmon.html

Not a pirate utopia, per se, but Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was serialized in 1881-82 and published as a book in 1883.

https://zephoria.medium.com/what-if-failure-is-the-plan-2f219ea1cd62

in relation to the character in the satire Penguin Island by Anatole France who dies by zettelkasten

Naturally a tapir is the nocturnal hoofed mammal with a stout body, sturdy limbs, and a short flexible proboscis, native to the forests of tropical America and Malaysia.

So the name Fulgence Tapir is essentially "a sparkling foraging pig".

Surely the fault of that savant was not neglect, but over-confidence in the virtue of the fiche [index card], and the true moral is that there is no necessary salvation in the fiche and the card-index [aka zettelkasten].

Here the author is referencing part of the preface of Anatole France's book Penguin Island (1908) where a scholar drowns in a whirlpool of index cards.

see: https://hypothes.is/a/rYHu0FQZEe2mm4_z4pvWLw

T., T. F., A. F. P., E. R. A., H. E. E., R. C., E. L. W., F. J. C. H., and E. J. C. “Short Notices.” History 8, no. 31 (1923): 231–37.

France, Anatole. L’Île Des Pingouins. Project Gutenberg 8524. 1908. Reprint, Project Gutenberg, 2005. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8524/pg8524.html

Death by Zettelkasten!!

(Coming soon to a theater near you...)

In the preface to the novel Penguin Island (L'Île des Pingouins. Calmann-Lévy, 1908) by Nobel prize laureate Anatole France, a scholar is drowned by an avalanche of index cards which formed a gigantic whirlpool streaming out of his card index (Zettelkasten).

Link to: Historian Keith Thomas has indicated that he finds it hard to take using index cards for excerpting and research seriously as a result of reading this passage in the satire Penguin Island.<br /> https://hypothes.is/a/rKAvtlQCEe2jtzP3LmPlsA

Translation via: France, Anatole. Penguin Island. Translated by Arthur William Evans. 8th ed. 1908. Reprint, New York, NY, USA: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1922. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Penguin_Island/6UpWAvkPQaEC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Small changes in the translation by me, comprising only adding the word "index" in front of the occurrences of card to better represent the historical idea of fiches used by scholars in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are indicated in brackets.

The walls of the study, the floor, and even the ceiling were loaded with overflowing bundles, paste board boxes swollen beyond measure, boxes in which were compressed an innumerable multitude of small [index] cards covered with writing. I beheld in admiration mingled with terror the cataracts of erudition that threatened to burst forth.

“Master,” said I in feeling tones, “I throw myself upon your kindness and your knowledge, both of which are inexhaustible. Would you consent to guide me in my arduous researches into the origins of Penguin art?"

“Sir," answered the Master, “I possess all art, you understand me, all art, on [index] cards classed alphabetically and in order of subjects. I consider it my duty to place at your disposal all that relates to the Penguins. Get on that ladder and take out that box you see above. You will find in it everything you require.”

I tremblingly obeyed. But scarcely had I opened the fatal box than some blue [index] cards escaped from it, and slipping through my fingers, began to rain down.

Almost immediately, acting in sympathy, the neighbouring boxes opened, and there flowed streams of pink, green, and white [index] cards, and by degrees, from all the boxes, differently coloured [index] cards were poured out murmuring like a waterfall on a mountain-side in April. In a minute they covered the floor with a thick layer of paper. Issuing from their in exhaustible reservoirs with a roar that continually grew in force, each second increased the vehemence of their torrential fall. Swamped up to the knees in cards, Fulgence Tapir observed the cataclysm with attentive nose. He recognised its cause and grew pale with fright.

“ What a mass of art! ” he exclaimed.

I called to him and leaned forward to help him mount the ladder which bent under the shower. It was too late. Overwhelmed, desperate, pitiable, his velvet smoking-cap and his gold-mounted spectacles having fallen from him, he vainly opposed his short arms to the flood which had now mounted to his arm-pits . Suddenly a terrible spurt of [index] cards arose and enveloped him in a gigantic whirlpool. During the space of a second I could see in the gulf the shining skull and little fat hands of the scholar; then it closed up and the deluge kept on pouring over what was silence and immobility. In dread lest I in my turn should be swallowed up ladder and all I made my escape through the topmost pane of the window.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Island_(novel)

In Penguin Island, Anatole France describes a scholar drowned by an avalanche of their own index cards!

Sah, P., Moghadas, S. M., Vilches, T. N., Shoukat, A., Singer, B. H., Hotez, P. J., Schneider, E. C., & Galvani, A. P. (2021). Implications of suboptimal COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Florida and Texas. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00620-4

Yee, A. (n.d.). COVID’s Outsize Impact on Asian Americans Is Being Ignored. Scientific American. Retrieved May 14, 2021, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covids-outsize-impact-on-asian-americans-is-being-ignored/

Book, J. (n.d.). The Inevitable Yo-Yo Ride of Pandemic Fortresses – AIER. Retrieved 13 May 2021, from https://www.aier.org/article/the-inevitable-yo-yo-ride-of-pandemic-fortresses/

The poem takes place on an island.

Lewandowsky, S. (2020, June 1). A tale of two island nations: Lessons for crisis knowledge management. Psychonomic Society Featured Content. https://featuredcontent.psychonomic.org/a-tale-of-two-island-nations-lessons-for-crisis-knowledge-management/

Urban heat island effect

Map of Santa Maria, 1700

Santa Maria is a possession of Chile, roughly 10 nautical miles from the mainland, and just south of the port town Concepcion. More recently the island was used as a penal colony for supporters of Chile's Salvador Allende after his government was overthrown by a US-sponsored coup.

Although Delano describes it as nothing more than a "desert, uninhabited island" it in fact has a well-documented history in the European colonization of South America, especially concerning the Dutch West India Company's conflicts with Spain in the late 16th century (note mentions of Santa Maria in Lane, pp. 73-77).

Note as well that by the conclusion of the narrative, the Saint Dominick does fulfill its intended journey from Valparaiso, Chile to Callao, a port just outside of Lima, Peru. (See map, contemporary with the composition of Benito Cereno.)

Amazing discovery story!

Paul de Man is buried on Gotts

Banks Island is the 5th largest western Arctic island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The island was discovered by Lieutenant Frederick Beechey on Sir William Parry’s expedition in 1820. Parry named the island after Sir Joseph Banks, who was the president of the Royal Society in England. The island was first inhabited by Europeans in 1850 by the crew of Robert McClure after their ship, the Investigator got trapped. His men inhabited the island for two months before they were discovered and rescued. The island has been inhabited for different periods of time for roughly 3000 years by the Pre-Dorset, Thule, and Copper Inuit people, but now mainly houses trappers (Marsh 2010). Banks Island is well known for its wildlife, including Arctic foxes, wolves, caribou, polar bears, and a diverse bird population (Encyclopedia Britannica 2005). A bird sanctuary is located on Banks Island to protect bird breeding grounds from physical disturbances associated with thawing permafrost (Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary n.d.). Banks Island is bordered by the Beaufort Sea, Amundsen Gulf, McClure Strait, and Prince of Wales Strait, as shown on the attached map. The topography of Banks Island varies between a northern and southern plateaus and low lands in between. Many glacier lakes can be found on Banks Island due to glacier erosion (Marsh 2010). Map: Description

Sources: “Banks Island.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. May 19, 2005. Accessed March 04, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/place/Banks-Island.

Marsh, James H. "Banks Island." The Canadian Encyclopedia. November 30, 2010. Accessed March 04, 2017. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/banks-island/.

"Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary (NT017)." Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary (NT017). Accessed March 04, 2017. http://www.ibacanada.ca/mobile/site.jsp?siteID=NT017.

My screencst version of Treasure Island: "The Maps of Treasure Island"

http://youtu.be/lG6Riht0a84?hd=1

Important to me because it looks like an significant date in the transition of Irish Christianity from the monasticism celebrated in Kenneth Clark's Civilization. For me the Irish monasticism focuses on Skellig Michael, most recently connected to the far, far away galaxy and Luke Skywalker

Synod of Whitby at Wikipedia

Hard for me to imagine this style of living as more than a weekend vacation since the need to be productive is greatly internalized. Always being on a fast track towards something whether it be academic, athletic, or personal I usually feel that I do not have time to "smell the roses."

Is the idea of island time dialectic?

In the sense that the ferry's pace shapes the place (people have excuses based on island time), and the place (way of living) shapes their slower pace of living.