April 24, 2019 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Political Boundaries in 1812
It is not surprising for me as a person who
has worked in that illustrious institute as the University campus during my period
in 2007-08 was colossal beyond my wildest imagination sprawling out not only in
one limited campus but consisting of multiple sites separated far from each
other all over the Baltimore City.
I shall try in some future bedtime story to
describe the scale of this behemoth of University.
Just the sheer acreage occupied by the
University and the serenity of its environment was stupefying for a person
coming from a third world lawless metropolitan city that is starving of space.
You would be surprised to know that the
name of this university - one of the top in the United States – comes not from
a physician or a scientist but its benefactor and an entrepreneur.
We are talking about the period (early 19th
century which means early 1800s) when the United States went to war with United
Kingdom and an era when the United States barely had the political semblance of
today.
The political and national boundaries of
that period has almost nothing in common with those of today’s; so much so that
the rulers of that period whose Empire was spread all throughout the world are
struggling to decide today whether they should be a part of Europe or not and
if yes what sort of partnership it should be.
In fact, in 1812 much of the United States
and the eastern part of Canada was the territory of the United Kingdom and the
Royal Navy was the undisputable master of the seas.
During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815
(and the period that is the subject of our bedtime story) the Royal Navy was at
its peak and was overwhelmingly superior to the fleets of adversaries of
Britain.
Because the political geography of that
period was so different it comes as an unanticipated anomaly that even though
the war was fought between the United States and United Kingdom the theatre of
war was primarily North America and was fought in three places over the
continent with Europe being nowhere in the picture:
(1.) The Great Lakes and the Canadian Frontier
– The Great Lakes are a series of interconnected fresh water lakes in the upper
mid-eastern region of North America.
These lakes include Lake Superior, Lake
Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario of which only the Lake
Michigan lies completely within the United States.
The other four form a water boundary between
the United States and Canada (limited to the Province of Ontario which is
Canada’s most populous province).
These five lakes by volume are the second
largest group of freshwater lakes on earth after Lake Baikal located in Russia
which holds 22 to 23% of the world’s surface freshwater.
From where do you think these great lakes
of North America get their water?
Is it from the naturally occurring
precipitation?
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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