Christmas Eve 2012

Normal blogging will resume January 2, 2013.  Until then I leave you with my video of Christmas Carolers assembled by a Protestant chaplain in a remote spot in eastern Afghanistan.  Video from 2010.



Let your goodness, Lord, appear to us, that we, made in your image, may conform ourselves to it. In our own strength we cannot image your majesty, power and wonder; nor is it fitting for us to try. But your mercy reaches from the heavens, through the clouds, to the earth below. You have come to us as a small child, but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts, the gift of your eternal love. Caress us with your tiny hands, embrace us with your tiny arms, and pierce our hearts with your soft, sweet cries.

Healthiest and Deadliest Gun Cultures Around the World

Latin America has the deadliest gun culture while Western Europe has the healthiest.  Interestingly enough the United States is almost right in the center (which is not that bad when one considers it has the largest amount of guns per capita in the world).

With all the discussion about gun violence in the news I decided to compare number of gun homicides to number of guns.  The results are below

Of note I found it fascinating that number of guns and gun homicides seem to have no positive correlation.  In fact, most of the countries with the healthiest gun cultures have more guns, not less.

"Geographies": A Warning Term

A Catholicgauze rant.

In the past, up until the late 1980s, the term "geographies" was little used anywhere.  It was used simply as a plural term for "geography".  One could write about the "geographies" of New Zealand and Australia meaning just the geography of New Zealand and the geography of Australia.  However, many thought there was no need to make "geography" plural so the term "geographies" was rare.

An Ngram searched revealed that "geographies" as a term was reinvented in the late 1980s

However, starting in the late 1980s and surging in the 1990s, the term "geographies" was hijacked.  A coalition of "post-modern", "critical", openly Marxist, and other schools of leftist academia took the word "geographies" as one of their own.

No standard definitions of "geographies" exists, not even in academic geographic dictionaries.  What can be accepted though is that due to the hard left nature of the new "geographies"-users its usage is limited to human and barely used, if at all, in physical geography.  A basic understanding is that "geographies" claims there is no objective, unified truth combined with heavy usage of sociology.  An example would be that for City X, homosexuals, feminists, homeless, migrants, and rich all experience and "feel" the urban area differently.  One group's "geography" is then combined with other's to create a "geographies of City X".

Further, the "geographies"-using leftist geographers tend to advocate for somesort of change, "activist geographies", with their studies.  Further, due to the merging of hardcore leftism in academia many times the very geographic nature of some "geographies" project is in question.  For example, the emotional geographies conference has this blurb on their website about their upcoming conference

this fourth conference provides a forum for a range of people from different disciplinary backgrounds as well as societal partners and artists to creatively explore the role of emotion in thinking about and experiencing space and society.

All this has lead to me treating "geographies" as different from traditional geography and one of the main reasons there is such a disconnect between geographic studies/geography and academic geographers.  The main book on globalization "Commanding Heights" had no input from any geographer.  Try to name recent a mainstream/popular/impactful book by an academic geographer who uses the term "geographies".  I dare you.

For examples of these "geographies" which I dislike so much check out these posts Geographies of Feminist Art, Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, Communifesto for Fuller Geographies: Towards Mutual Security’, Urban Uprising/Re-imagining the City, Critical Geography Forum, and David "Most cited geographer ever in academia" Harvey's Reading Marx's Capital.

Note:  There has been a trend by some younger geographers to use the term "geographies" just  because older academics use the term.  These younger geographers sometimes lack political motive in their "geographies" studies.

BIG Map Blog

There is something fun and fascinating about looking at full sized maps, especially older ones.  BIG Map Blog allows both tastes to be satisfied with a random assortment of neat maps.  I am enjoying the Comparative View Of The Heights of Mountains map from 1816.  Maps can be downloaded on the computer and there is even an option to buy prints.

When Exactly Will the Mayan December 2012 "Doomsday" Begin?

For a previous geographical look at another claimed doomsday, check out When Will the Supposed Rapture of 2011 Start?

According to some, but not most Maya themselves, something like a doomsday is suppose to occur on December 21, 2012.  But the geographer in me realizes time and date are somewhat relative.  So I have to ask, when exactly will the dreaded "Mayan" December 21 apocalypse begin?

Main scenario:  Doomsday at Dawn

Most archaeologists agree that the Mayan day begins with the sunrise so we need to find when the sun would rise over the Mayan primate city to figure out when the "day" begins.  However, there was no one Mayan empire as Maya is actually a cultural grouping.  So to does this I searched for the easternmost (Tulum) and westernmost (Palenque) major Mayan cities.

I then looked up when sunrise will be for these locations by using the NOAA Solar Calendar.  The sun will rise in Tulum on December 21 at 6:21 am local time.  Meanwhile, the sun will rise in Palenque at 6:34 am local time.  This gives us an Armageddon window of 13 minutes.

So breaking this down the Mayan end of the world starts at the following local times according to sunrise over Tulum which starts the 13 minute window.

Place                                   Local Time

New Zealand                       1:21 am / 0121 on Saturday, 22 December

Sydney, Australia               11:21 pm / 2321 on Friday, 21 December

Beijing, China                      8:21 pm / 2021

Jerusalem, Israel                2:21 pm / 1421

Central Europe                   1:21 pm / 1321

London, UK                         12:21 pm/ 1221

U.S. Eastern                         7:21 am/ 0721

U.S. Central                         6:21 am / 0621

U.S. Mountain                     5:21 am / 0521

U.S. Pacific                           4:21 am / 0421

Hawaii                                  2:21 am/ 0221

Alternative 1:  The solstice is the hour of doomsday

Some, but not all, 2012 doomsayers claim the end will start at the solstice.  However, the Solstice actually occurs one hour before the sun rises (and therefore the Mayan day before the alleged end of the word).  However, here is the solstice in local times around the world for those who still try to merge the solstice and December 21 doomsday.

Place                                      Local Time
New Zealand                          12:21 am / 0021 on Saturday, 22 December
Sydney, Australia                  10:21 pm / 2221 on Friday, 21 December
Beijing, China                         7:21 pm / 1921
Jerusalem, Israel                   1:21 pm / 1321
Central Europe                       12:21 pm / 1221
London, UK                           11:21 am/ 1121
U.S. Eastern                           6:21 am/ 0621
U.S. Central                           5:21 am / 0521
U.S. Mountain                       4:21 am / 0421
U.S. Pacific                             3:21 am / 0321
Hawaii                                    1:21 am/ 0121

The Second Great Disappointment beings at...

The math is complex and anyone can argue that there is another way to figure out the exact time of the December 21 end of the world.  No doomsayer will hit the point of the Second Great Disappointment at least until the whole world changes over to December 22


Place                                      Local Time
New Zealand                          01:00 am / 0100 on Sunday, 23 December
Sydney, Australia                  11:00 pm / 2300 on Saturday , 22 December
Beijing, China                         8:00 pm / 2000
Jerusalem, Israel                   2:00 pm / 1400
Central Europe                      1:00 pm / 1300
London, UK                           12:00 pm/ 1200
U.S. Eastern                           7:00 am/ 0700
U.S. Central                           6:00 am / 0600
U.S. Mountain                       5:00 am / 0500
U.S. Pacific                             4:00 am / 0400
Hawaii                                    2:00 am/ 0200


The final nail in the coffin will be when the sun rises on December 22 over Palenque at 6:35 am local time thus ending the Mayan equivalent to 21 December.  Around the world this time is little more than half an hour after the whole world leaves December 21.


Place                                      Local Time
New Zealand                          01:35 am / 0135 on Sunday, 23 December
Sydney, Australia                  11:35 pm / 2335 on Saturday , 22 December
Beijing, China                         8:35 pm / 2035
Jerusalem, Israel                   2:35 pm / 1435
Central Europe                      1:35 pm / 1335
London, UK                           12:35 pm/ 1235
U.S. Eastern                           7:35 am/ 0735
U.S. Central                           6:35 am / 0635
U.S. Mountain                       5:35 am / 0535
U.S. Pacific                             4:00 am / 0435
Hawaii                                    2:35 am/ 0235


No one can agree when exactly the Mayan "doomsday" is set to begin because there is no Mayan doomsday scheduled for December 21.  I will end this post with Jesus Christ's saying to his followers who kept asking about when the world was going to end.


"But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Mark 13:32 RSV-CE

National Geographic Maps Bias During World War II

National Geographic is sometimes dinged for its pre-World War II support for Nazi Germany.  Its head management was progressive pro-Fascist/anti-Communist during the Great Depression, according to the excellent book Explorers House.  In fact, Douglas Chandler, writer of the 1937 article Changing Berlin (photos on Flickr, full article republished on French-language pro-Nazi website) defected to Nazi Germany to be a propagandist during the war.

However, once the United States entered the war the society quickly became solidly pro-Allies.  The legacy of the switch to pro-Allies is apparent when one examines the maps National Geographic produced.

For the October 1939 issues (map made probably right before the start of the war) shows all Nazi controlled lands including Germany and annexed Austria, Czech lands, and a portion of Lithuania as part of Germany.

For the May 1940 map Poland is still marked but its lands are given to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In June the Soviet Union invaded the Baltic states and annexed them.

Once the United States entered the war the map changed.  The June 1933 map show newly German-annexed lands in the Low Countries as belonging to their pre-war owners.  Poland was completely restored and the Baltic countries remained untouched despite the Soviet claim of annexing them.  Even Danzing is reverted back to a free city.  Interestingly though pre-war gains by Nazi Germany stayed on the map.  The war was illegitimate but National Geographic still gave diplomacy its due.

National Geographic reverted back to recognizing on the ground reality with its 1949 Europe map which had the Baltic states as part of the Soviet Union.

Historical and Geographic Illiteracy on Christmas Cards

I recently received a Christmas card showing the Holy Family in the village of Bethlehem at the time of the Nativity.

Fantus Paper Products' 50-7109 Christmas card has some issues

A quick look at the card reveals that the "little town" of Bethlehem has quite a skyline with domes and minarets.  Looking at the card I remarked out loud "That's not right".

The problem with the domes and minarets is that they do not belong to Herodian Judea.  Further, they do not belong to this time.  The video below shows a model of Jerusalem at the time of Herodian Judea/Tetrarchy/Roman Judea.  Notice that there are only a few domes anywhere and they mostly feature as accents on roofs.  Spires are almost unseen.



The modern dome was invented and popularized by the Romans which just reached Judea at the time of Christ's birth.  The widespread use of domes in the Middle East did not come until the Byzantine dome was popularized in the 500s and the dome's adoption by Muslim conquerors in the 600s.  Minarets meanwhile were based on Christian bell towers.  Bell towers were first introduced to churches by Saint Paulinus of Nola around AD 400.

After looking at the Christmas card pile I own I found even more historical geographical errors.

The card on the left, by Paper Magic Group, shows a 1,001 Arabian Nights-style Bethlehem  complete with olive domes and desert scenery.  Meanwhile the card on the right  has minarets and is published by the Catholic priest society the Columban Fathers.

On yet another card a minaret shows.

Even the Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity reach reports directly to the Vatican, has minarets on its Christmas card envelops.

Showing minarets and domes on the Christmas card gives in to some Orientalist fantasy which portrays the Middle East as somesort of permanent Arabia.  It ignores the varied history and geography within the region.

I suspect mere historic and geographic ignorance is to blame for the cards rather than a political statement unlike a priest adding a mosque to a nativity scene to promote inter-faith harmony or Austrians protesting a Swiss law by adding minarets to Christmas cards.