serendipityoucity

I like that the oldest words so far is image (1440), map (1527), fact (-1539), followed by geography (1542). Infrastructure does not appear as a word, statistics shows up in the 18th century and Canada in its first official incarnation not until 19th century. According to the dictionary that is… The first known statistics on Canada were 1666, shortly after the word data comes into usage, and the first map? Certainly Canada was first imagined way before 1666 so there must be some early representations. to be continued… The definition for Canada however, and the etymology of that word is best described in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

The following definitions are from: Onions, C. T. ed. 1957, Oxford International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Toronto: Leland Publishing Company.

Data, Infrastructures and Geographic Imagination: Mapping Data Access Discourses in Canada

notes: 1st date is the first occurrence, -date the latest limit of an obsolete word, ad.=derived by adaptation, t = obsolete, dist=distinguished, Arch.= from architecture, ME.=middle English, f. = formed on, L.=Latin, F.=French, Gr.=German, cf.=compare, transf.=in transferred and figurative use., exc.=except, onf.=old northern french,

Datum - PL. data, 1646, [L., neut, pa. pple. of dare] A thing given or granted; something known or assumed as fact, and made the basis of reasoning or calculation. Out of what Data arises the knowledge T. H. [Hale]. p.455

Fact - 1539, [ad. L. factum thing done, , f. facere. See also Feat]. 1. A thing done or performed: t a. an action, deed. Also in general-1815, t b. An exploit; a feat -1730, c. an evil deed , a crime. Now obs. exc. in after, before the f. etc. 1539 td. An action cognizable in Law Bacon. t2. The making, doing, or performing - 1808. 3. Something that has already occurred or is the case; hence, a datum of experience, a dist. from conclusion 1632. 4. Loosely, Something that is alleged to be, or might be, a ‘fact’ 1729, 5. (Without a and pl.) The circumstance and incidents of a case, as dist. from their legal bearing. p.667

Infrastructure - not in this dictionary!

Geographic - 1610 [ad. GR. Cf. F. geographique] A. adj. Of or pertaining to geography; of the nature of geography. Now rare. B. Geographics (rare), geographical science; t. a treatise on this 1610. p.787

Geography - 1542, [a. F. geographie, ad. L. a. Gr. Geo (earth)-+writing]. 1. The science that describes the earth’s surface, its form and physical features, its natural and political divisions, its climates, productions, etc. Also transf. b. The subject-matter of geography; the range or extent of what is known geographically 1737., 2. A treatise on this science 1559. p.787

Geographer - 1542, One who is versed in, or writes upon, geography. p.787

Image - sb. ME. [a.F. image, earlier imagene, ad. L. imago, imaginene; app. f, same root as imitari to imitate]. 1. An artificial imitation or representation of the external form of any object, esp. of a person a. A statue, effigy, sculptured figure. (often applied to figures as objects of worship.). b. (less usually) A likeness, portrait, picture, carving or the like. (now rare or obs. exc, in allusion to Matt. xxii. 20). t c. applied to the constellations as figures etc., -1674, d. fig. 1548. 3. abstractly. Appearance, form;, semblance, likeness (Now only with reference to biblical language exp. Gen. 1. 26, 27). ME. Also concr. (Obs. pr arcj.). 1530 4. A counterpart copy, ME. A symbol, emblem, representation 1566, a type, typical example, embodiment 1548, 5. A mental representation of something, a mental acute or impression : an idea, concept ME. 6. A vivid or graphic description 1522. 7. rhet. A simile, metaphor, or figure of speech 1676.

Image - v. 1440, [f. Image sb. earlier a. F. Imager]. 1. trans. To make an image of; to represent by an image, to figure, portray, delineate. Also fig. 1790 2. To reflect, mirror 1792. 3. To copy (rare) 1611; to represent (rare) 1701. 4. t a. to devise, plan -1460, b. to imagine, represent to oneslef 1708., 5. To describe (esp. vividly, graphically) 1628. 6. To symbolize, typify 1816.

Imagination - ME. [a.F. ad. L. imaginationem.]. 1, The action of imagining, or forming a mental concept of what is not actuall present to the senses (cf. sense 3.); the result of this, a mental image or idea (freq. characterized as cain, false, etc.). t2.The mental consideration of actions or events not yet in existence. a. scheming or devising; a device, scheme, plot; a fanciful project. Obs. exc. as a biblical archaism. ME. b. expectation, anticipation -1654, 3. That faculty of the mind by which we conceive the absent as ig it were present (feq. including memory); the ‘productive imagination’ ME. 4. The power which the mind has of forming concepts beyond those derived from external objects; the ‘productive imagination’. a. Fancy ME. b. The creative faculty; poetic genius, 1509, 5. The operation of the mind, thinking; thought, opinion. Now rare or obs. ME. p.958

Map - sb. 1527. [ad. L. mappa in class L. table-cloth, napkin, but in med. L. used transf. in mappa mundi Mappemonde.]. 1. A representation of the earth’s surface or a part of it, its physical and political features, etc. or of the heavens, delineated on a flat surface of paper. etc. according to a definite scale of projection. 2. fig. A detailed representation in epitome; a circumstantial account of a state of things. Now rare or obs. 1586. tb. The very picture (of virtue, vice, character, etc.). (so sp. mapa.)-1698 p.1204

Map - v. Onf. mapped, mapping, 1586. [Map sb.]. I. Trans. to make a map of; to represent on a map 1602. Also, transf. and fig. 2. M.Out a. To represent in detail on a map 1656, b.fig. to record minutely 1619; to plan out (a course of conduct, one’s time, etc.) 1883. c. To divide (a country) into districts, as by lines on a map 1860.

Cartography - also Charto-,1863, [f. F. carte, or L. charta, carta+Gr.] The drawing of charts or maps. p.269

Statistic - a. and sb. 1789 [as. G. statistik sb., statistisch adj. ad. mod.L. statiscus, f. *statista Statist] A. Adj. I.=next. Now rare. 2. O or pertaining to status 1871, b. sb.I.=statistics I rare 1796 2.=statistician 1804. p. 2007

Statistics - 1787 [pl. of statistic] 1. Construed as sing. In early use, that branch of political science dealing with the collection, classification, and discussion of facts bearing on the condition of a state or community. In recent use, the department of study that has for its object the collection and arrangement of numerical facts or data, whether relating to human affairs or to natural phenomena. 2. Construed as p. numerical facts or data collected and classified 1837. p. 2007

Statistical - a. 1787. [f.prec.+-AL I.] Of or pertaining to statistics, esp. with reference to economic, sanitary, and vital conditions. b. Of a writer, etc.: dealing with statistics 1787. The moral and s. features of the period 1841. b. some respectable s. writers 1787. Hence Statistically.p. 2007

Statistician - 1825, [f. Statistic+-ian.] One versed in or engaged in collecting and tabulating statistics. p. 2007

Access - ME. [In sense 4 a. Fr. acces; in other senses, direct f. L. accessus. Access is now usual]. 1. Approaching or being approached in various senses (see Quots). ME. 2. A way or means of approach/ lit. and fig. 1605. 3. A coming as an addition (replaced by accession0 1576. 4. A (sudden) coming illness, anger, etc. a fit ME. t.spec. in ague fit -1751.p.10-11

Accessible - a. 1610. [a.Fr.; see accede.]. 1. Capable of being used as an access (to). 2. Capable of being entered or reached; get-a-ble 1642; fig., open to the influence of (const. to), 1818. p.11

Discourse - sb. ME. [a.F. discours, ad. L. discursus, f. discurs-, ppl. stem of discurrence; see next]. t 1. onward course;=Course -1612, t 2. ‘The act of the understanding, by which it passes from premises to consequences’ (J.); reasoning, rationcination; reason, rationality. (obs. or arch). ME. 3. Communication of thought by speech; talk, conversation (arch.) 1559, t b. the faculty of conversing -1641, c. (with a and pl.) A talk; a conversation (arch.) 1632. t. 4. Narration; a narrative -1647. 5. A spoken or written treatment of a subject at length; a dissertation, treatise, sermon or the like. (The prevailing sense) 1581. t6. Familiar intercourse 1602. tb. Conversancy (in) 1604. p.522

Discourse - v. 1547. [f. Discourse sb.; prob. affected by F. discourir to discourse of]. t 1.intr. to run or travel of a space, region, etc, transf. to extend -1555 t 2. To pass from premises to conclusions (J.); to reason, -1700, Also ttrans. 3. intr. to hold discourse, to talk, converse, to discuss a matter, confer 1559. 4. intr, To speak or write a length on a subject 1564. 5. trans. To go through in speech; to treat of in speech or writing to talk over, to talk of to tell 1563. b. to utter 1602 6. To converse with; to talk to to discuss a matter with, to address. (obs. or arch) 1677. p.522

Canada - The name of a British dominion in N. America, used attrib. in names of plants, animals, products, etc. p.255

Canada (Canadian Encyclopedia) -

Canada, a name derived from the Huron-Iroquoian kanata, meaning a village or settlement. On 13 August 1535, as Jacques CARTIER was nearing Île d’Anticosti, 2 Indian youths he was bringing back from France informed him that the route to Canada (”chemin de Canada”) lay to the south of the island. By Canada they meant the village of Stadacona, on the future site of QUÉBEC CITY. Cartier used the word in that sense, but also referred to “the province of Canada,” meaning the area subject to DONNACONA, chief at Stadacona. The name was soon applied to a much larger region. The “Harleian” world map of c 1547, the first to show the discoveries made on Cartier’s second voyage, applied it to an area north of the gulf and river St Lawrence, and by 1550 maps were also placing the name south of the river.

Canadian - 1805 adj. Of or belonging to Canada or its people. sb. A native or inhabitant of Canada. p.255

Dominion - ME. [a. obs. F., L. Type * dominionem, deriv of dominium, f, dominus]. 1. The power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority; sovereignty; rule; control. Also fig. 2. The domains of a feudal lord. b. The territory subject to a king or a ruler, or under a particular government control. Oftern in pl. 1512. Also fig. 3. Law, ownership, property; right of possession. 1651. 4. Domination 1611. Applied to countries outside England or Great Britain under the sovereignty or suzerainty of the English crown. Designating the larger self-governing British Dominions. Name given by the British to Canada in 1867 and New Zealand in 1907. In the statute of Westminster (1931) the term includes the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, The Irish Free State, and Newfoundland. p.551

Vancouver artist Pamela Masik has painted 69 three meter high portraits of women who disappeared from the city’s Downtown Eastside. All of them will be exhibited together for the first time at MOA (formerly known as the Museum of Anthropology) for a show in February, 2011.

Finally, it is about the women: the left behind; the uncared for; the ones the system refused to acknowledge; the ones it was designed not to see; the ones it abandoned and then forgot.

VanMag: Lost and Found

She’s working on a surprise 70th portrait: herself. Why? “When one woman is violated, all women are. It could have been me.” Did she consider painting Robert Pickton, the serial killer charged with 20 of their deaths? She smiled wearily: “He’s already a kind of celebrity. A lot of people want to point the finger at Pickton and say he was the reason this happened. But these women were forgotten before they went missing.” Visitors often break down at Masik’s studio, perhaps because the work, displayed in a city overrun by Olympic boosterism, is unblinkingly insistent: this, too, happened here. One meaning of “to remember” is to reconstitute that which has been dismembered. Many of Masik’s subjects had limbs severed from their bodies. The attempt to put them back together with paint, to make them whole again, is both wrenching and heroic.

G & M: Paintings of Vancouver’s disappeared women given full exhibition Shameless: Paintings depicting Vancouver’s missing women

I was trying to figure out the fare from Ikea to home and discovered a way to do that using:

TaxiMe

I just wrote the following note to the CBC:

I thought the CBC was a public service supported with public dollars? If that is the case does Crown Copyright not already cover the content? And is your content not public domain and would a Creative Commons Attribution license not be the way to go? Otherwise why give you public dollars? You want my support, and I give it, but now you are going to far! This is not my CBC any more. My CBC broadcasts the news in myriad formats to keep us a critical thinking democracy, my CBC does not sell me the news or thwart me from sharing that news with others providing I attribute the source. My CBC is a knowledge disseminator and not a bounty hunter, that is not my CBC.

Via: CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters and

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation signs up with weird American copyright bounty-hunters

My Uncle John & his work will be featured on Humania, see below.

Le monarque voyageur, Jean Lauriault,

HUMANIMA à TV5 et HDTV5

30 janvier 2010 à 19h00

31 janvier 2010 à 8h30 et 23h30

4 février 2010 à 22h00

Pour plus d’info, voir le site de Humanima.

1. La population du monarque à son plus bas niveau en 15 ans

2. Quelles sont les causes possibles du déclin de la population de monarque en 2009?

Ask other New Yorkers about Montreal smoked meat, and you get a different response. “Sounds like a porno movie,” says one patron at Katz’s as he finished a Reuben on rye.

G&M: Doughy bagels and pastrami? Fuggedaboutit

Obituary: LeBreton Flats artist Dalal Chuaqui painted the labours of the everyday

My son and I are wearing our best to go to Dalal’s memorial today. A most wonderful woman, and elder moving on. Somehow, Midnight Oil is playing. I think the link is about how Dalal painted the regular people, the forgotten and faceless ones on the bus, the kids playing in the neighbourhood. Perhaps.

I am serious!  This looks like so much friggin’ fun!  Annual No Pants Subway ride 2010 (lots of great photos and captions)!

I did not know that!

Canada’s prime ministers stand alone among their Westminster-style peers when it comes to using prorogation to shut down Parliament for pure political gain. Richard Foot reports.

The Ottawa Citizen: In a (parliamentary) league of our own