space
The black triggerfish of the Hawaiian Islands. Illustration by A. H. Baldwin (1905-6) (source).
Among the many conceptual tools used by traditional Micronesian navigators was the triggerfish—a powerful and flexible mnemonic for remembering marine geography.
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A cup of Tibetan tea. Cups of tea and other units of consumption were once widely used as measures of distance. Photo: 麦叶叶 (source).
Cups of tea, cigarettes, and coconuts used to serve as measures of distance. These and other consumption-based units attest to a strategy—using time to measure space—that was once pervasive. Arguably, it still is.
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