[MLB-WIRELESS] early morning musings

[Clae]

One of the curious aspects of developing this network is the way it 
forces us into thinking about geography.  How many of us have 
previously given much thought to the hills and valleys of our local 
area?  Mostly, I am familiar with Melbourne from the man-made 
artifacts, the roads and streets, bridges and buildings, which have 
been constructed over the natural landscapes.  I think my way around 
the city by the lines on the Melways, not by following a stream or 
ridgeline.

But the line-of-site issue forces us to take this landscape into 
account.  For the first time, many of us are looking up, seeing the 
hills, following the high ground across town, seeing where it leads 
us.  Additionally, range issues force us to think about locality, 
about who and what is around us, and what we might want to say to 
each other.

This brings to mind the idea of the "bioregion" 
<http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/bioregio.html>, which is sometimes 
used in resource management and planning.  A bioregion is loosely 
defined as a a self-contained ecological and social area.  It's the 
area around you that you think of as home, and the human society that 
inhabits it, but also a distinct biological community, with plant and 
animal communities different from the bioregions around it. 
Boregions are nested within each other, as "Coburg" is in "Inner 
North" is in "Melbourne" is in "Victoria"

One of the definitions of a bioregion is the watershed of a 
particular stream or river, which is significant to us because it's 
the high ground that defines it.  The ridgelines determine whether 
falling water flows into the Yarra, for example, or the Maribyrnong, 
and also mark the boundaries of distribution of some plants and 
animals.  They also mark out the topology of our networks, blocking 
off one area from another, and forcing us to plan our routes around 
and over them.

No real point to all this: I always get wierd and philosophical at 
the end of an allnighter.

-- 
David Clae Gason
Secretary, Melbourne Wireless
mailto:secretary at wireless.org.au
http://wireless.org.au

i hate anarchists. i think there should be a law against them  -tahl

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