Frank Jacobs extols our "invisible obstacles":
Borders seemed to mark the edge of the known world. Or, inversely, they were the high water marks of the Great Unknown, the Eternal Other. … Tracing them across the globe, we find enclaves and exclaves, disputed and neutral zones, improbably straight and impossibly jagged borders, deadly borders born in war and old ones almost faded into irrelevance. Borders reflect humanity’s need for obstacles, for a line in the sand between Them and Us. And even if they coincide with rivers or mountain ranges, they remain entirely human constructs. They are there because we expect them to be, because the map says that they are.
(Hat tip: Matthew Zook. Image by Aaron Koblin.)
The Dish 
