The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 - Orono Weekly Times 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Basic Black by Arthur Black Riding on Spaceship Earth Ever try to make a map? It's a tough assignment which ought to give us that much more respect for pioneers like Marco Polo, Magellan, and our own Samuel Champlain ­ all dedicated mapmakers who took pains to leave a record of where they travelled and what they saw. Especially given what they had to work with, which wasn't much. Can you imagine trying to draw an accurate representation of the east coast of Canada or the proportions of the Great Lakes, using nothing but 17th Century technology? Champlain did it. Maps have fascinated mankind since... pretty well forever, really. The oldest manmade map we know was not of this earth at all. On the wall of a cave in Lascaux, France, there is a series of dots that astronomers confirm unmistakeably charts three bright stars, Vega, Deneb and Altair, as well as the star cluster we call Pleiades. Archeologists say the uncannily accurate map was drawn by cave dwellers nearly 19,000 years ago. Just think: our ancestors were mapping the night skies nearly 10,000 years before the New Stone Age began. Nowadays we're all mapmakers ­ or map facilitators, at least. Anybody with a GPS on their dashboard or a smart phone in their pocket can instantly conjure up the co-ordinates for a ski chalet in the Rockies or a good sushi restaurant in downtown Beijing. It's a far cry from the bulky Mercator Projection maps that hung off the blackboard when I was a kid. Those things gave most of us our first look at the wide world around us. Too bad it wasn't an accurate one. School maps altered our perceptions of the planet we call home and they left us with some peculiar ideas. Empires were assigned colours ­ The British Empire, I recall, was pink. I still think of the long-vanished renegade state of Rhodesia as rosecoloured. Other misconceptions abound. The maps depicted Norway and Iceland as almost the size of continents and Canada, with all those provincial borders slicing north to south, looked like a colossal pink salami. A clumsily carved pink salami at that. Oh, BC and the Prairie provinces looked neat enough, but then came Ontario with that chunk of gristle hanging off its chin. And the Maritimes? Forget about the Maritimes. Their borders made them look like some preliminary sketch scribbled by Picasso. The most astounding map I've seen is technically not a map at all. It's a photo taken on December 7, 1972 from the window of the Apollo 17 spacecraft as it whirled through space 45,000 kilometres from earth. You've seen the photo. They call it the Blue Marble because that's what the earth looks like ­ a wispy blue marble hanging against the inky black backdrop of interstellar space. It's an amazing photograph ­ perhaps the most amazing photograph ever taken. It changed the way we see ourselves. There are no borderlines on the Blue Marble. Russia is China is the Pacific is Canada is Earth. Everything we've ever known is in that photo. Everyone we know, everyone we hate, and the millions upon millions we will never know. Everyone that ever was and everyone that ever will be. Kings and carnival barkers; cardinals and courtesans. Everything mankind has ever built; everything we've ever sung, painted or written. All of us together, on a glowing blue marble. Our lifeboat in the sea of space. I hope we've got somebody aboard who knows how to patch leaks. Classified Business Directory LARRY JACKSON Debra Inglis Interior Design PLUMBING & WATER CONDITIONING Automotive Specialties BRIAN COUVIER Licenced Technician 117 Mill St. Orono L0B 1M0 "Look to us for all your general repairs to most make & models" Rims · Tires · Brakes · Tune-Ups Custom Exhaust Systems Castrol Engine Oil & Filter Service Specials Car & Truck Accessories Professional Installation Custom Drapery "Energy Saving Specials" Dealer & Fine Finishes by T. Osmond LDR CONTRACTING * Snow Removal * * Bobcat & Minihoe Service * Dump Trailer Service * * Tree Planting & Stump Removal * · Backhoe Work/Trenching · Pump Repairs & Installation · UV Lights · Water Softeners · Free Estimates For Friendly, Expert Service 905-983-9919 Furniture Repair and Restoration Caning · Veneering · Carving French Polishes & Wicker Repair COMPLETE Luke or Lindsay Porter H. 905-983-9924 C. 905-914-6979 905-983-6214 905-983-5900 www.inglisdesign.ca 4312 Conc. #6, Kendal Experience You Can Trust 905-786-2477 I&T Carpenters · Licensed · 27 Years Experience · Custom Homes · General Contracting · Additions · House Trim · Stairs · Decks ·Windows ·Doors · Barns And all carpentry related work. Orono Veterinary Hospital Complete Residential Renovations, Additions and New Structures Windows · Soffit · Interlocking Waterproofing · Doors · Roofing Ceramic Tile · Siding Eavestroughing · Chimney Repair ~ Specializing in Stone Facing ~ Dr. Derrek de Haan Dr. Mathew Stephenson 30 Cobbledick St., Orono L0B 1M0 Tel: 905-983-9010 Fax: 905-983-5308 · ADDITIONS · RENOVATIONS · DECKS DOOR & WINDOW REPLACEMENTS · EXTERIORS · CABINETRY Authorized Consumers Gas Dealer Independent Lennox Dealer Furnaces · Air Conditioners and Appliances Main Street, Orono 983-6221 Heating · Electrical Air Conditioning ROBERT E. JACKSON "We're here to serve you" Dan Zegers 905-983-9543 TYLER SMITH broker "KRACO" CARPENTRY & CONTRACTING Since 1976 · Custom Built Homes · Renovations/Additions · Designing IVAN JONES TONY FANARA Newcastle 905-987-5819 Hampton 905-263-9988 FREE ESTIMATES Call Mike Bonneau 6495 Leskard Rd., Orono L0B 1M0 Nails & More By Becky... 905-983-9883 32 Mill St., Orono 905·697·1900 * Residential * Farms * Rural Properties * Investment Mobile: 905-435-4181 Home: 905-983-9005 Rudy Kraayvanger www.homesmiths.ca 905-623-1101 www.kraco.ca