Ch. 7 The Chalk-Carts
*Interesting website on chalk in the UK:
http://www.geologyshop.co.uk/chalk.htm
*P. 138 The “ignoble army of noodles, who think nothing interesting or important but dinners, and balls, and races, and backbiting their neighbors…” Hee hee.
*The Odiham Chalk Pits are in Hampshire, Southeast England, UK
*copse: a small group of trees
*grubbed: removed by digging
*P. 139 “Learn from the thing that lies nearest you.”
*P. 141 Empirical knowledge: “…his knowledge is sound and useful because it comes from long experience.” The farmer’s knowledge came from careful observation.
*Chalk, a type of limestone, “sweetens” soil, or raises its pH, making it less acidic. (eHow)
*A great picture of the chalk grasslands in South England:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beachy_Head,_Sussex,_UK.jpg
*P. 142 The “silver Itchen” is a chalk stream. Chalk streams have unusual characteristics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_stream
*P. 145 Kingsley compares the chalk stream to the chalk-cart. They both carry chalk, but how differently they do it.
*marl: lime-rich mud (Wikipedia). Here is a photo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MatmorFormation2009.JPG
*P. 146 A possible transformation: chalk into marl into coral into limestone into marble.
*Whernside is in Yorkshire, Northern England
*A swallow-hole is also known as a sink-hole:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkhole
*P. 151 Cave formation; stalactites and stalagmites
*The dropping-well at Knaresborough, now known as the Petrifying Well:
http://www.mothershiptonscave.com/the_petrifying_well.htm
*Proteus: cave salamander or olm (http://a-z-animals.com/animals/olm/)
*P. 153 The vanishing lake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Cerknica
*Mammoth Cave in Kentucky:
http://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm
*P. 153-154 Cave adaptation: partial or total blindness, and, in the case of the ducks, lack of feathers. Interesting to note that the ducks quickly re-adjusted to life in the upper world—growing feathers and regaining their eyesight.
*The cave at Caripe, Venezuela:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_del_Gu%C3%A1charo_National_Park
*Guacharos, or Oilbirds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilbird
*P. 157 “It will not do for us (at least if we mean to be scientific men) to use terms without defining them.”
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Madam How and Lady Why Notes: Ch. 6
Ch. 6 The True Fairy-Tale
*Lapland: a region in northern Finland and Sweden. The indigenous people of this area are known today as the Sami.
*P. 121 “…at the mouth of the Lena and other Siberian rivers…” This very detailed PDF gives historical and geographical information on the River Lena. I never heard of this river before I read MHLW, but it is one of Asia’s major waterways, located in the Russian Federation. Its delta system is the largest in the world.
http://profpaulcutter.com/PDF/Historical%20writings/Siberian_River.pdf
*P. 121 Kingsley discusses various land bridges that existed before the Ice Age, as well as now-extinct animals that crossed into the northern hemisphere. The Ice Age idea has always been rather hazy to me, so I like to refer back to Answers in Genesis. This web page also deals with the propagation and extinction of woolly mammoths:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/where-does-ice-age-fit
*P. 122 “…the land was sinking…” This statement and its opposite is asserted several times in the book—the land was rising, the land was sinking. What does Kingsley mean? In the chapter on volcanoes, the land rises because of the addition of volcanic matter. Where earthquakes are concerned, tectonic shifts cause rising and sinking. This is called “uplift” and “subsidence”. In this chapter, could he mean the press of ice sheets on land caused it to sink? When the ice sheets melted, perhaps there was a gradual release of the land. Also, erosion would cause sinking as well as rising because of gravel and sand redistribution. Also, rising sea levels (such as in a global warming or a global flood) would cause an illusion of sinking land. Hmm. There is so much to consider when pondering the causes of geological change. I could not find satisfying links for this question, but here are a couple of somewhat unsatisfying ones.
*A global warming article from 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6226537/England-is-sinking-while-Scotland-rises-above-sea-levels-according-to-new-study.html
*“…mountains and valleys during the Flood were not the same height as they are today.” -Answers in Genesis (you may wish to refer to Ch. 5 for a reminder about the differing viewpoints of Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/07/06/did-noah-need-oxygen
*P. 122 “And it grew wondrous cold…” poetry from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*P. 124 The arrival of man in England, France and Germany. “Perhaps they came into that icy land for fear of stronger and cleverer people than themselves; for we have no proof, my child, none at all, that they were the first men that trod this earth.”
*P. 125 Kingsley wonders at the difference between the wit of man and the wit of apes. I love that part.
*Interesting archeological find (article published June 2011) at an ongoing dig site indicates very early human occupation of the Caucasus Mountains, which are between Europe and Asia. This mountain range is the location of Mount Ararat.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13774778
*Kent’s Hole is in Torquay, Devonshire (SW England)
*brecchia: rock composed of fine fragments embedded in sand or clay (Merriam-Webster)
*Cave etchings:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn977-ancient-cave-etchings-reveal-unusual-figures.html
*P. 128 “…[prehistoric man] had the same wonderful and mysterious human nature as you…”
*P. 129 Kingsley puts forth his “fairy” theory, that the “little people” were actual people smaller and weaker than the Picts and Scots and Gauls, and were driven underground.
*The story of Corineus and Gogmagog, as told by John Milton:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe004.htm
*P. 131 Neanderthal Man: The Neanderthal is a valley in Germany between Dusseldorf and Eberfeld. The famous Neanderthal Man, a prehistoric hominid skeleton, was found there. There are several theories regarding Neanderthals, some of which belie Kingsley’s description! Kingsley published MHLW in 1869. Neanderthal Man was discovered in the 1850s:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0217neandertal.asp
*P. 132 “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
*P. 134 “That you might wonder all your life long, God put you into this wondrous world.” In the final pages of the chapter, Kingsley encourages the young reader to marvel at the true stories of nature-- they seem like fairy tales, but are much deeper and stranger than stories devised by man. I am willing to wade through the dated science in this book for passages like this one-- passages that give us a beautiful way of thinking—a philosophy-- of science.
*Lapland: a region in northern Finland and Sweden. The indigenous people of this area are known today as the Sami.
*P. 121 “…at the mouth of the Lena and other Siberian rivers…” This very detailed PDF gives historical and geographical information on the River Lena. I never heard of this river before I read MHLW, but it is one of Asia’s major waterways, located in the Russian Federation. Its delta system is the largest in the world.
http://profpaulcutter.com/PDF/Historical%20writings/Siberian_River.pdf
*P. 121 Kingsley discusses various land bridges that existed before the Ice Age, as well as now-extinct animals that crossed into the northern hemisphere. The Ice Age idea has always been rather hazy to me, so I like to refer back to Answers in Genesis. This web page also deals with the propagation and extinction of woolly mammoths:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/where-does-ice-age-fit
*P. 122 “…the land was sinking…” This statement and its opposite is asserted several times in the book—the land was rising, the land was sinking. What does Kingsley mean? In the chapter on volcanoes, the land rises because of the addition of volcanic matter. Where earthquakes are concerned, tectonic shifts cause rising and sinking. This is called “uplift” and “subsidence”. In this chapter, could he mean the press of ice sheets on land caused it to sink? When the ice sheets melted, perhaps there was a gradual release of the land. Also, erosion would cause sinking as well as rising because of gravel and sand redistribution. Also, rising sea levels (such as in a global warming or a global flood) would cause an illusion of sinking land. Hmm. There is so much to consider when pondering the causes of geological change. I could not find satisfying links for this question, but here are a couple of somewhat unsatisfying ones.
*A global warming article from 2009:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6226537/England-is-sinking-while-Scotland-rises-above-sea-levels-according-to-new-study.html
*“…mountains and valleys during the Flood were not the same height as they are today.” -Answers in Genesis (you may wish to refer to Ch. 5 for a reminder about the differing viewpoints of Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/07/06/did-noah-need-oxygen
*P. 122 “And it grew wondrous cold…” poetry from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*P. 124 The arrival of man in England, France and Germany. “Perhaps they came into that icy land for fear of stronger and cleverer people than themselves; for we have no proof, my child, none at all, that they were the first men that trod this earth.”
*P. 125 Kingsley wonders at the difference between the wit of man and the wit of apes. I love that part.
*Interesting archeological find (article published June 2011) at an ongoing dig site indicates very early human occupation of the Caucasus Mountains, which are between Europe and Asia. This mountain range is the location of Mount Ararat.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13774778
*Kent’s Hole is in Torquay, Devonshire (SW England)
*brecchia: rock composed of fine fragments embedded in sand or clay (Merriam-Webster)
*Cave etchings:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn977-ancient-cave-etchings-reveal-unusual-figures.html
*P. 128 “…[prehistoric man] had the same wonderful and mysterious human nature as you…”
*P. 129 Kingsley puts forth his “fairy” theory, that the “little people” were actual people smaller and weaker than the Picts and Scots and Gauls, and were driven underground.
*The story of Corineus and Gogmagog, as told by John Milton:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe004.htm
*P. 131 Neanderthal Man: The Neanderthal is a valley in Germany between Dusseldorf and Eberfeld. The famous Neanderthal Man, a prehistoric hominid skeleton, was found there. There are several theories regarding Neanderthals, some of which belie Kingsley’s description! Kingsley published MHLW in 1869. Neanderthal Man was discovered in the 1850s:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0217neandertal.asp
*P. 132 “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
*P. 134 “That you might wonder all your life long, God put you into this wondrous world.” In the final pages of the chapter, Kingsley encourages the young reader to marvel at the true stories of nature-- they seem like fairy tales, but are much deeper and stranger than stories devised by man. I am willing to wade through the dated science in this book for passages like this one-- passages that give us a beautiful way of thinking—a philosophy-- of science.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Creativity, Thought and Relationship
Mariel is volunteering at a local library this summer. We love this library. I did in-home daycare the first few years of Aravis' and Mariel's life, and I have fond memories of into this grand old library with a double stroller of toddlers, flanked by preschoolers, for the weekly puppet show. At the time it was a huge undertaking to get the kids there and help them be quiet, but now all I remember is the excitement of a *real* puppet show every single week. Back then, the children's section was in one wing and the adult section in another. There was an atrium garden near the adult stacks, with a creek running through it-- the wonder of nature flourishing indoors.
They remodeled the library several years ago. The puppet show theater is gone, as is the atrium garden. But we still love it. So many memories. Now they have moved the children's and adult's sections closer together, so it is simpler for mommies to peruse big-person books while their children read at tables in the kids' section. And it is very, very quiet. I don't know how they do it with the two sections so close together. But it is like a monastery in there.
The children's section of the other library we visit is definitely not quiet.
You might wonder why we ever go to a different library when we are so happy with ours. Well, we no longer live within the city limits, and our favorite library requires that nonresidents pay a yearly fee to check out books. I don't blame them. We don't pay taxes in that city. But it makes me sad. I have even contemplated paying the fee. We haven't done it yet, so we find ourselves owning the experience of one library and checking out books at another.
Anyway, Mariel is volunteering at our library and having a great time. One of us drives her into town a couple times per week, and, if we don't have any errands, we stay and absorb the atmosphere. Without library cards, we cannot check anything out, nor can we avail ourselves of the computers or video games. This places us in the unusual position of having nothing to do but sit in the beautiful, blessed quiet and read books. I don't even hear the psychic noise of chores crying out to be done or bills to be paid: we aren't at home. I love that library. :)
Right now, Cornflower and I have a game going. For the first hour or so at the library, we each do our own thing. Then one of us finds Sister Wendy's Story of Painting and brings it to the other. Using the two-page spreads that are all-over detail from this or that painting (how we love those pages), we try to guess the painter and painting. (At first I thought Cornflower was just humoring me, but then she started bringing me the book and I knew the game belonged to both of us.)
This week I found a book called Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age. It is appropriate that I first read this book in the quiet of our library. William Powers gently argues that more is not necessarily better; perhaps we need space between digital encounters in order to obtain a satisfying depth of creativity, thought and relationship. He goes back to philosophers like Plato and Thoreau and, obviously, Shakespeare, in search of fit principles for our digital age.
I have only read a third of the book, but next week, in between rounds of the painting game, I will have more time to read. I've found a quiet space and I am taking advantage of it.
They remodeled the library several years ago. The puppet show theater is gone, as is the atrium garden. But we still love it. So many memories. Now they have moved the children's and adult's sections closer together, so it is simpler for mommies to peruse big-person books while their children read at tables in the kids' section. And it is very, very quiet. I don't know how they do it with the two sections so close together. But it is like a monastery in there.
The children's section of the other library we visit is definitely not quiet.
You might wonder why we ever go to a different library when we are so happy with ours. Well, we no longer live within the city limits, and our favorite library requires that nonresidents pay a yearly fee to check out books. I don't blame them. We don't pay taxes in that city. But it makes me sad. I have even contemplated paying the fee. We haven't done it yet, so we find ourselves owning the experience of one library and checking out books at another.
Anyway, Mariel is volunteering at our library and having a great time. One of us drives her into town a couple times per week, and, if we don't have any errands, we stay and absorb the atmosphere. Without library cards, we cannot check anything out, nor can we avail ourselves of the computers or video games. This places us in the unusual position of having nothing to do but sit in the beautiful, blessed quiet and read books. I don't even hear the psychic noise of chores crying out to be done or bills to be paid: we aren't at home. I love that library. :)
Right now, Cornflower and I have a game going. For the first hour or so at the library, we each do our own thing. Then one of us finds Sister Wendy's Story of Painting and brings it to the other. Using the two-page spreads that are all-over detail from this or that painting (how we love those pages), we try to guess the painter and painting. (At first I thought Cornflower was just humoring me, but then she started bringing me the book and I knew the game belonged to both of us.)
This week I found a book called Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age. It is appropriate that I first read this book in the quiet of our library. William Powers gently argues that more is not necessarily better; perhaps we need space between digital encounters in order to obtain a satisfying depth of creativity, thought and relationship. He goes back to philosophers like Plato and Thoreau and, obviously, Shakespeare, in search of fit principles for our digital age.
I have only read a third of the book, but next week, in between rounds of the painting game, I will have more time to read. I've found a quiet space and I am taking advantage of it.
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