Globe

In last month’s issue of Frankly Speaking, I was disappointed to see a Mercator apologist being given platform to espouse tired rhetoric [1]. Mr. Kunimune’s article, while demonstrably erudite and well-researched, was and is totally unnecessary in a world dominated by the colonialist and abstractionist tyrannies of the Mercator projection.
The distortions inherent in the Mercator projection are by no means insignificant and should be reiterated: Greenland looks the same size as Africa, though Africa is in fact 14 times bigger; Alaska looks the same as Brazil, though Brazil is 5 times bigger, etc. In terms of teaching the size of countries, and, by extension, the relative positions of them, the Mercator is astoundingly bad.
This is not an unimportant issue when it comes to learning geography. The Western geography classroom has for decades been a site of colonialist indoctrination, and the Mercator projection’s continued use in this context serves as an aid to this end. Geography as an academic discipline in the US originated as an imperialist enterprise, and the practice of K-12 geography through the twentieth century emphasized learning about Western nations, colonies, and resources instead of people and places [2]. The use of the Mercator projection draws the eye to the global North: the US, UK, Spain, Germany, etc. while visually de-emphasizing all countries close to the equator (the global South, places historically colonised by the North).
Regardless of if these features of the map are mere “coincidence,” they likely helped it gain traction in geography education. Today, they make that education worse both in fact and in promoted ideology. Though the Mercator may have its redeeming qualities, i.e. for navigation, it should not see use as a general-purpose world map [3]. Surely, we can do better!
There’s one style of world map that can be pretty good, all things considered: a globe. For the unfamiliar, you can find a decent example of one by simply walking uphill from any place at Olin. In lieu of this, I’ve included a pseudo-globe (well, actually, a Dymaxion projection) that you can make yourself [4].
Finally, I’ll leave you with this: maps are mere abstractions (which is not to say that they’re pointless, but that they’re always wrong). As Korzybski once famously said, “The map is not the territory, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness” [5]. As Mr. Kunimune pointed out, all map projections are wrong because it is impossible to flatten a sphere. I will here add: all maps are wrong because they are not themselves the world.

[1] Kunimune, J. (2017). Defense of the Mercator. Frankly Speaking 9(1), 6-9. https://franklyspeakingnews.com/2017/09/a-defense-of-the-mercator-projection/
[2] Barnes, T. J. (Eds.). (2000). Inventing Anglo-American economic geography, 1889-1960. In Sheppard E. & Barnes, T. J. (Eds.), A companion to economic geography (pp. 11-26). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
[3] Cartographic Notes. (1989). In American Cartographer 16(3), 222–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.
1559/152304089783814089
[4] Gaba, E. (2009). Blank map of the world in an unfolded Fuller projection. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFuller_projection_rotated.svg.
[5] Map–territory relation. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Accessed 2017-09-26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation

If you’ve wandered around the first floor of the AC lately, you may have noticed some changes to the rooms closest to the parking lot. What we once called the machine shop is now, formally, The Shop. This summer, a group of six students and three and a half faculty undertook the task of renovating the space achieve three things: making the The Shop inviting to everyone in our community, making Shop/class integration more accessible and fluid, and changing the space to more accurately reflect our culture of Stewardship. We made a lot of changes that we’re really excited about, and we’d like to share them with you.
First and foremost, we thought about how we want people to interact with The Shop. And this wasn’t us making a bunch of decisions about how we think you should act; we took the exemplary practices that we see students acting by everyday and simply put them in writing. The document can be found here. Go check it out. Nothing in there should be too shocking, but it’s a living document. If something feels wrong, come by The Shop so we can understand why.
Most people know about (or at least have heard of) the Stock Market, our supply of machinable stock for various academic projects. This stock is also available for clubs, passionate pursuits, and other non-personal projects that would benefit from access to the material. Just be honest when filling out the form and try not to take a lot of stock when you can go out and buy it yourself. The Scrap Rack got an upgrade in the form of better organization and guidelines for what to donate and what to throw away. Finally, we made additional guidelines for the Hardware Cabinet, something that very few people on campus previously knew about. The cabinet has standard sizes of lots of hardware: nuts/bolts/washers, screws, dowels, etc. We also have tape, super glue, caliper batteries, and miscellaneous hardware. As with the Stock Market, if you need 100 bolts for a project, you should buy them yourself. Be aware that this is a community resource that The Shop maintains and stocks as it sees fit.
The Mini Shop is no more! AC 109, affectionately nicknamed BOB over the summer, is now The Workshop. It isn’t a smaller version of the main shop; it is an independent space with its own unique functionality. The Bridgeport and lathe were sold, most of the sheet metal tools were brought in, and we acquired a Roland 4-axis CNC (thank you Lawrence). The walls were painted and the floor was newly waxed, and the space has a renewed purpose. We are excited to introduce this revamped work space, with different tools and capabilities, to the community.
If you step in The Workshop and look to your left, you’ll see the beginnings of a tool wall. The tool wall is highly visible so that anyone can see at a glance what tools there are and what’s missing. While these tools are completely capable of leaving the space, especially since everyone has after hours access, they are taped in neon orange for a reason. Make sure that if something leaves The Workshop, it finds its way back as soon as you’re done using it.
AC 104 (the welding/plasma/waterjet room) also saw a lot of space changes: we painted the walls in fresh white, grey, and a little bit of green; the ducting is now red; the welding curtains are fixed to the ceiling but still allow for plenty of space customization if, for example, an entire chassis needs to be brought into The Shop. Many of our larger tools and surfaces were put on casters (e.g. the vice table, the cold saws). And if you look up, you’ll notice that the electrical stalactites are no more, and in their place are retractable extension cables.
The MechE Stockroom is no more! What was once essentially a project graveyard was completely cleaned out over the summer and coming soon, will be an advanced woodworking space. The wood lathe and chop saw will live there, along with a table saw, router table, and lots of new hand tools. Stay tuned for how to get trained once we get the space up and running.
We are now displaying Green Machine training pieces. Anyone who gets trained this academic year will have their piece (with their name) displayed in The Shop. Even if you don’t really use The Shop all that much, you are still a part of The Shop community, and the display is a reminder that you have just as much right and access to The Shop as anyone else. We also have a kiosk with easy access to training sign up sheets complete with reading and quizzes, and a cubby system for storing safety goggles (a bit neater than the old bins, no?)
Already several training documents have been completely re-worked, making getting trained easier than ever. For example, mill and lathe training have been completely revamped to make those machines more accessible by not requiring a full work day to learn how to operate. More trainings will become available throughout the semester, so keep checking the training sign up sheet.
Stop by The Shop and come see the changes for yourself. Get trained on a machine that you’ve always been curious about. We’re excited to see what our community does with these news spaces.

Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important festival in China – taking a back seat only to the Chinese New Year. The festival celebrates the harvest and always occurs in the middle of autumn (with a full moon) as the leaves are falling on Olin ’neath the cover of October skies. This year, the holiday falls on October 4th which happens to be within the National Day holiday (October 1-7) in China — a very popular time for traveling around to see friends and relatives.
The holiday is also referred to as the Moon Festival because it falls at the time of the year when the moon is at its roundest and brightest. It is observed in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia; many similar festivals revolving around a full moon are celebrated in other parts of Asia.
Folklore tells us that the archer Houyi (pictured) was awarded an immortality elixir by shooting down nine of the ten suns that scorched the Earth; but he chose to hide it away at home since he didn’t want to be apart from his wife Chang’e. Unfortunately, Chang’e had no choice but to drink the elixir when another figure, named Fengmeng, came for it when Houyi was out hunting. After Chang’e ascended to the heavens and started to reside on the Moon, Houyi, to remember his wife, displayed the foods she liked and created mooncakes that would allow for temporary reunion of the couple.
The tradition continued. Nowadays, family and friends gather for reunions and outdoor barbecues, give thanks for the harvest and for family, and pray for many of the important things in life including love, fertility, beauty, good fortune and longevity to name a few. Mooncakes can be found in a wide variety of flavors – from lotus seeds to meat filled, and they are still made the way they were hundreds of years ago. Close to Mid-Autumn festival, we always crave mooncakes; it’s as if there’s a little clock inside us that screams for mooncakes once every fall.
In addition to the Chinese mooncakes which are widely known, there are other food that are common on this very special occasion. For example, in Korea, families come together and enjoy a traditional South Korean dish called Tteokguk, or rice cake soup. It consists of a rich broth and thin slices of rice cake with flavorful toppings that commonly include egg and beef. The rice cake used for the bowl is white and long representing a long and fresh new life. Other traditions in China include hiding puzzles in lanterns or flying Kongming lanterns, but they are less popular today.
My mom and dad (this is Jingyi) would visit me at my high school for the holiday and bring various kinds of mooncakes: egg mooncakes, flaky mooncakes, mochi mooncakes and even ice cream ones. My memories of Mid-Autumn Festival involve sharing the mooncakes with close friends and family.
You might say Mid-Autumn Festival is a little like Thanksgiving in America only the Chinese, the Korean, and the Vietnamese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn since the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 -1046 BCE), so thousands of years versus hundreds.
As in the past at Olin and around the globe, we will recognize this holiday by staring at the moon! It’s going to be an opportunity for culture sharing and in the words of Van Morrison, a fantabulous night to eat mooncakes (and dumplings) and listen to music and the sound of the breezes that blow. Come celebrate with us under the moon (and the lanterns) on October 4th.

In this article, we have borrowed some lyrics from Moondance, a song by Van Morrison.

When you look at a beauty ad and see an unrealistic depiction of how women should look, is that sexism at work? Or was it instead just someone who looked at the potential to foster insecurity in women and thought, “I can make money by exploiting that?” When you look at a beauty ad and see a disproportionate share of people with lighter skin, is that racism at work? Or was it instead just someone who looked at who had money in the world and realized that it was white people, so why market to people of color? When you see heteronormative television, is it homophobia? Or is it hollywood recognizing that they will sell less content if it challenges society’s perceptions of what relationships should be like too much? The enemy at the root is actually Capitalism much more often than the system would have you believe. Why? Because it wants to deflect blame towards something else. So very often when we have a conversation about racism, sexism, what have you, what we’re actually doing is talking more about more symptom-level phenomena than root causes, and missing an opportunity to talk about the real enemy. We reward unethical companies for implementing “green” or “inclusive” practices, thinking they’ve become good guys, instead of thinking that they’re just cashing in on a different phenomenon. And when we do this, we further and disproportionately empower the most sneaky companies. Capitalism works by playing on the darkest parts of humanity: our fears and insecurities–of not being as beautiful as the person next to us, of people who look different, even fear of being regarded as not humanitarian enough–whatever it can get its hands on.

Of course sexism, racism, and other discriminatory isms exist. Have they been dramatically magnified and perpetuated by capitalism? Absolutely. Should we continue to fight against non-economic forms of discrimination? Absolutely. But we should also be aware of when our efforts align with what the money-making system wants: to deflect blame, and capitalize on your well-intentioned efforts.

Written by a white, heterosexual, cisgender, male

Inspired by article “Who Bullies the Bullies?” on TheLastPsychiatrist.com: tinyurl.com/Capitalism_True_Enemy

Across
1 Farm home
5 That’s the ___!”
9 LSD
13 Black and white cookie
14 Pierre’s“worst”
15 Bouncy sticks
17 Successes
18 Frankenstein helper
19 Relating to sound
20 Tying together
22 Gives out
24 Listen to
25 Irritating sound
26 Tree with the most rings
29 Small fights
31 Clothes after losing weight
32 Cookie guy
33 Narc agency
36 Apple eater
37 Buddha blessing
40 Olive or corn
41 “___ the land of the free”
42 Tired of
43 Valve type
45 Facility
47 Points the finger at
48 Mixer paddle
51 Baby kangaroo
52 Florida mammal
54 In the past (2 words)
58 T & Vanilla
59 Of wide range
61 Snitched
62 RN Employer
64 A war was fought against these Australians
65 Like Hand-me-downs
66 Indefinite article
67 Healthy skin
68 Okay grades

Down
1 Chip holder
2 Diva’s song
3 Egypt “names”
4 Cause for refusal of service
5 Harpsicord cousin
6 Kermit’s love
7 Spanish gold
8 Trillion prefix
9 Mini Java program
10 City near Albany
11 “Look what ___ ___”
12 Put on
16 Castaway’s plea
21 Norwegian playwright
23 Of the smallest amount
26 Butter alternative
27 Cupid’s goal
28 Someone not idle
29 Clever
30 Fragrant flower
32 Rice type
33 Marvel doctor
34 Green Isle
35 Different ways, informally
38 Knows of
39 Degeneres or Page
44 Earnings paper (2words)
45 School fundraising team
46 Allow
47 Collins of Funk
48 Fat calculator
49 Every one
50 Lichen type
51 He walked on water
53 Happily ___ after
55 Morristown, NJ school
56 Show starring Chris Colfer
57 You try to beat them
60 “I love” in Spanish
63 It’s a go, it’s___

Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22): They say that two birds of a feather flock together. It’s a wonderful thing to find a sense of community, a sense of belonging, a place that no matter how hard you mess up someone will always be around to tell you “well, at least you tried.” A lot of people strive for that. No one should take it for granted. Birds also flock in trees. Too bad Olin doesn’t have any.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21): Scorpions are pretty dangerous. If you see one, do not engage. It may try to lure you in. Be assured, it does not have tequila shots and will certainly not be giving any to you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21): When selling your next house remember: location, location, location.

Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19): Let’s see…(rolls die) 2? It’s gonna be a rough week because (rolls again)…4? Your cat will be sick. (Rolls again)…1? He’ll be fine. He’s scrappy

Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18): You won’t be able to connect to the Olin network, no matter how hard you try.

Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20): You might be allergic to grapes, Kevin.

Aries (March 21 – April 19): Winter is coming…with highs of forty degrees and lows of around twenty. Make sure to wear a nice coat, the scarf your grandmother made you, and sacrifice to your local weather deities today. Remember: a goat a day keeps the chills away!

Taurus (April 20 – May 20): You might find yourself with a pen that you swear wasn’t yours.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20): Stay away from Pisces on Friday.

Cancer (June 21 – July 22): Call your mom, Jerry. For Pete’s sake!

Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22): You know that thing you haven’t cleaned for a while? Yeah, now would be a good time.

Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22): The planets have aligned for you this month. You’ll find that the person you’ve been waiting to respond to you is…who am I kidding? I can’t do this. I’m not cut out for horoscopes just like I’m not cut out for taking care of basil plants. Every day it just sits there, dying, and I didn’t even notice, didn’t even care until it was dead. I was supposed to take care of it and it died. Here I am trying to tell you how to live your life, and I can’t even take care of a stupid basil plant.