[MLB-WIRELESS] early morning musings

[Chris Bellmont]

Personally I have always thought about "the hills and valleys".Hight is
might.But maybe that is just the two way radio afficionado disease comming
out in me.  :-)

              Ghost

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au
[mailto:owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au]On Behalf Of Clae
Sent: Wednesday, 5 June 2002 9:51 AM
To: melbwireless at wireless.org.au
Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] early morning musings


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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