A Landmark Restored, From Mosaic Marble Floor to Grand Dome - NYTimes.com

The Williamsburg Savings Bank headquarters restored in Brooklyn.  The old WSB tower a mile away is still the tallest building in Brooklyn

A Landmark Restored, From Mosaic Marble Floor to Grand Dome - NYTimes.com:





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Coordinates match

MH370: Satellite images show possible crash debris in South China sea – live http://gu.com/p/3nfka

Fr. Jack Alexander, S.J.

Fr.. Jack Alexander, S.J. moderator of the Brooklyn Prep Alumni Association and beloved former teacher has died, 90 years of age, at Murray Weigel Hall, Fordham, Bronx, NY.  He is an exemplar of that rare breed of men who foresaking family for celibacy dedicated his life to the service of others - particularly boys like me at Jesuit high schools who will always be grateful for the respect we were shown and the example he set.- GWC

Oil Rig Worker: I saw burning Malaysian plane

This guy knows how to make a report worthy of attention. - GWC

And his coordinates match the Chinese satellite's image of suspected debris.

I'll take Manhattan and Marble Hill too

So before the ship canal was blasted (where the blue "C" for Columbia is painted on a rock opposite Baker Field) Marble Hill was a virtual island.  It was a hill surrounded by the marsh through which the Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Haarlem Creek wound.  As the Times today reported the marsh was filled in, connecting Marble Hill physically and culturally to the Bronx when it was severed from the rest of the Borough of Manhattan by the canal dug in 1895.

Zoning Map of Manhattan.  Marble hill at the top is not an island.
It is severed from Manhattan by the ship canal.

Artifacts #2: Maps & State Secrets

Lots more in this article.  Check it out. - gwc

Artifacts #2: Maps & State Secrets: "JOSH MARSHALL – MARCH 10, 2014, 2:37 PM EDT1846
This is the so-called Cantino Map, a chart stolen by an agent of an Italian Duke from the Portuguese Crown in 1502. It provides an interesting follow-up to our discussion of the first map of the continent of Africa from Friday."



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The First Map of Africa - Josh Marshall // Talking Points Memo

This is a pretty good job - though not long after things got a lot better.  The Portuguese had rounded Cape of Good Hope and would soon be building forts and schools on the west coast of the Indian sub-continent; and landing Jesuit missionaries in Macao in 1579.  Josh has more to say so click though on this link. - GWC

Artifacts #1: The First Map of Africa: 

by Josh Marshall

"This is believed to be the first map of Africa, as a continent. "Africa" was originally a Roman term for the region of modern Tunisia and the western portion of Libya. The Arabs later adopted a similar definition. But this is the first known map of the new concept of Africa as a continent stretching from North Africa down to a southern tip that could be rounded and from which you could then sail on to India and Asia.

The map is the work of Sebastian Munster (1489-1552), a professor of Hebrew at the University of Basel. This is mid-16th century, so going on 60 years after Europeans first rounded the Cape of Good Hope to Asia, though the Portuguese had been exploring the western coast of Africa a good deal longer.  Still more remarkable is this Abraham Ortelius map from only 30 years later. Published at Antwerp in 1584."





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Niagara Falls Freezes Over

Mail online - UK Niagara Freezes Over

Still Winter

Not done yet.  Ice in the Hudson - March 4

The weather in Saskatchewan today

This is a big chill to start March.