" As a Micronesian he did not know the waters or the winds round Tahiti, far south-east. But he had an image of Tahiti in his head. He knew that if he aimed for that image, he would not get lost. And he never did. More than 2,000 miles out, a flock of small white terns skimmed past the Hokule’a heading for the still invisible Mataiva Atoll, next to Tahiti. Mau knew then that the voyage was almost over.
On that month-long trip he carried no compass, sextant or charts."
to a _small_ extent, this reminded me of a scene in david lean's classic lawrence of arabia: in a sandstorm not far into the long trek thru the desert from aqaba to the suez canal, lawrence suddenly discovers that his compass had fallen out of his newly given arab attire and is lost. he continues thru and makes it to the suez canal anyway.
may i recommend my 14-pocket REI hiker shorts with industrial strength velcro closures?
thanks for sharing this economist article jim, albeit w/o emoticons :)
14-pocket shorts with Velcro?rankestAugust 30 2010, 18:19:16 UTC
Well, now the secret's out about how you're able to schlepp around all those chatchkas during Scrabble tournaments.
But, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable wearing a label (REI) that the OSPD defines as "an Erroneous English form for a former Portugese coin." So until they're re-branded as SamShorts (TM), I think I'll stick to my khakis.
Weird coincidental timing, there was just an article in Sciam about a seafaring culture that navigated entirely by things like remembering which directions the wind came from and how long and (it claims) could determine the locations of islands unseen over the horizon by the patterns the waves made against the boat.
Comments 8
" As a Micronesian he did not know the waters or the winds round Tahiti, far south-east. But he had an image of Tahiti in his head. He knew that if he aimed for that image, he would not get lost. And he never did. More than 2,000 miles out, a flock of small white terns skimmed past the Hokule’a heading for the still invisible Mataiva Atoll, next to Tahiti. Mau knew then that the voyage was almost over.
On that month-long trip he carried no compass, sextant or charts."
to a _small_ extent, this reminded me of a scene in david lean's classic lawrence of arabia: in a sandstorm not far into the long trek thru the desert from aqaba to the suez canal, lawrence suddenly discovers that his compass had fallen out of his newly given arab attire and is lost. he continues thru and makes it to the suez canal anyway.
may i recommend my 14-pocket REI hiker shorts with industrial strength velcro closures?
thanks for sharing this economist article jim, albeit w/o emoticons :)
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But, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable wearing a label (REI) that the OSPD defines as "an Erroneous English form for a former Portugese coin." So until they're re-branded as SamShorts (TM), I think I'll stick to my khakis.
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we are now busy with SamPasties:
http://skin-it-mahatma.livejournal.com/51001.html
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