Blank Map Of India

521 - Cartography's Favourite Map Monster: the Land Octopus

Over the centuries, the high seas have served as a blank canvas for cartographers’ worst nightmares. They have dotted the oceans with a whole crypto-zoo of island-sized whales, deathly seductive mermaids, giant sea serpents, and many more - a whole panoply of heraldic horrors. As varied as this marine bestiary is, mapmakers have settled on a single, favourite species for land-based beastliness: the octopus. 

Real octopi are sea creatures, of course. But the Cartographic Land Octopus - CLO for short - need not worry about being in the right ecosphere. Being fictional, it is not restricted to the sea. It can (and need) do only one thing: instill map-readers with fear and revulsion. But the CLO's pedigree does stretch back to the ocean. It is clearly descended from an older monstrosity, equally fictional but wholly sea-bound: the Kraken, a giant squid whose enormous tentacles dragged whole ships down to their watery graves.

I suspect it’s those tentacles that explain why the octopus became cartography’s favourite land monster. They turn the CLO into a perfect emblem of evil spreading across a map: its ugly head is the centre of a malevolent intelligence, which is manipulating its obscene appendages to bring death and destruction to its surroundings. This is perfect for demonstrating the geographic reach of an enemy state’s destructive potential. It can even be used on a more abstract level, showing dangerous ideologies insipidly infiltrating and/or strangling the world. 

The Cartographic Land Octopus was born two-thirds into the 19th century, when the intra-European tensions were slowly gearing up towards the First World War; it flourished until the end of the Second World War. But it still maintains its grip on the cartographic imagination today, as will be shown towards the end of this concise timeline of CLO cartoons.

But before we get biographical, some categoric disentangling. As a graphic concept, the CLO overlaps with tow similar tropes. Firstly, the non-cartographic cartoon octopus (NCCO): like the CLO, this specimen is used to demonstrate the wide-ranging grasp of a particular evil, but unlike it, there is no map involved - even though all that grasping often implies a spatial element. Case in point are the popular depictions, in the late 19th and early 20th century, of monopolising, price-fixing business trusts like Standard Oil as destructive NCCOs.

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The reality is there will not be another immigration bill this year if CIR does not make it. And calling CIR the "amnesty bill" means some of us may have started pandering to and unfortunately have fallen for the anti-immigrationists propaganda trap. That is fine if one thinks its okay to wait for another two years while a new congress settles in and for key immigration bills to come to the floor. However "cutting and running" is what we do when out of fear of association we fail to stand up and speak up and explain our motivating cause which is the plight of legal law abiding immigrants who contribute legally to this country. In my own personal opinion this is an excellent opportunity that can put IV in the spot light and distinguish IV for standing up for highly skilled immigrants. This requires good orational and communication skills so that one is not misquoted. If it takes wearing a t-shirt saying "Support Legal Immigrants" then so be it, but lets not cut and run on the basis of someone elses propaganda. If IV opts out then let it be because we could not find someone who could clearly get our unique message and goals out. Thanks to randallemery for bringing this opportunity to IV's attention and I hope the IV core will respond appropriately as this needs to be a well coordinated effort. When people fully understand the humanitarian reasons why legal immigrants need relief through CIR they tend to be more compassionate and supportive. However if we sit and twiddle our thumbs because of what Lou Dobbs says then we are doing exactly what these anti-immigrationists want us to do. The primary victory of Rep Chris Cannon (R) in Utah ought to be a shot in the arm for those fighting for CIR. Instead of cutting and running he supported CIR, the anti-immigrationist opponents attacked CIR and in the end they still lost. Rep Cannon had the opportunity of being associated with the alleged "amnesty" bill but he stood up bravely to be counted as a CIR supporter and prevailed in the end. Have a question about porting from EB3 to EB2 suing the experience I gained from my current employer. Can I fall back to my existing EB3 application if I file EB2 labor and I-140 and these get denied? Please suggest and I am also not sure if the requirement that job descriptions have to be 50% different cam be met. Software Engineer and Principal software engineer jobs have same SOC and DOT codes.

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