Appalachian Trail Monitoring

Checked out my section of the Appalachian Trail corridor yesterday during a snow shower. Really wasn't too cold, as long as we kept moving. The secret is to find these survey markers. Generally the yellow paint on the trees will help you find them, but sometimes you need to bushwhack through the woods with a compass to find them.

See this paper to learn more about monitoring:

Bristow, Robert S. 1988. "Volunteer-based recreation land management." Parks & Recreation. Vol 33 no 8, pp 70(7)

Visual Geography

I love to show photographs when I teach. I mean, isn't it great that as geographers we can show our vacation slides in class? So depending on the class I can show pictures of places I have been to.

This is especially true with Recreation Geography.

And if you don't have the perfect picture in your file, you can always grab something off the Web. Be sure to give photo credit for it!

I have been posting shots on Panoramio (http://www.panoramio.com/user/2492564) which is especially neat since you can map it on Google Earth. The editors will select it for Google Earth and so far I have 58 of the 67 photos selected. Red Sky at Night ....

But I am not here to brag, I want to tell you about MapCrunch.Com. Check it out for some great photos around the world.

Holiday Travel

Ok, so if you are an American that decides to drive today, or anytime this week, besides being crazy, you are not alone.

Data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics show this kind of travel behavior this week.

National Opt Out Day

Wow, how'd they get my picture on http://www.optoutday.com/? Actually the phot is of a person with more hair ... on the head that is.

Travelling by air on Wednesday 24 Nov 2010? In the United States?

Good luck. Better be prepare to wait. Get to the airport 4 hours before domestic flights and the day before if you are visiting family and friends overseas.

The details from the website:

"National Opt-Out Day. You have the right to opt-out of the naked body scanner machines (AIT, or Advance Imaging Technology, as the government calls it). All you have to do is say "I opt out" when they tell you to go through one of the machines. You will then be given an "enhanced" pat down. This is a right given to you by the TSA. There is no intent or desire to delay passengers en route to friends and family over Thanksgiving. People also need to remember to stay within the confines of the law and the regulations of TSA when exercising their right to a pat down. Passengers, please note there has been at least one report of long delay for people who take the TSA up on their offer to opt out of the naked body scanners, so please keep that in mind when planning your airport arrival time."

Protesting this Holiday Season

Protesters across the country have a united concern. No it is not the Tea Baggers complaining about taxes. Nope, not the Pot advocates hoping for legalization of the green stuff.

It is the tourists travelling this week who don't want the TSA to mess with their "junk".

Has our craze with safety in the air gone too far?

See the story at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UqM56e-kRA

Tourism Geographies

Have you checked out the latest edition of Tourism Geographies? The abstracts are found at this link : http://www.geog.nau.edu/tg/contents/index.html

Although, it would be nice to see the authors with the titles, I understand the amount of effort it takes to edit a Journal.

It is always nice to review the articles online since it saves me a trip to the building with lots of books .... called a library.

Saving a Tree: DHS I-92 is Now 'Paperless'

There are 950,000 flights coming to the States every year and this I-92 form has to be filled out for each one. Not too exciting, just the courier type. number of passengers and so on. Now, if they could create an online form for the I-94!

Old and New(er) Vienna

I am fascinated by old stuff. I haven't been to the Pyramids of Egypt but have seen the Mayan Ruins in Belize, the Nuraghe Monuments in Sardinia and these Roman ruins in Vienna.

I think our town, Westfield, Massachusetts is old since it was incorporated in 1669, but that pales in comparison to these really old sites.

Take the time to learn the history of the places you visit. It will make the experience that much more interesting.

Meghann Ormond's work on Medical Tourism

Got an email today from Meghann Ormond who shared a bibliography on the subject. Seems her research is on Medical Tourism:

Abstract:

This thesis examines the shifting relationship between the state and its subjects with regard to responsibility for and entitlement to care. Using Malaysia as a case study the research engages with international medical travel (IMT) as an outcome of the neoliberal retrenchment of the welfare state. I offer a critical reading of postcolonial development strategies that negotiate the benefits and challenges of extending care to non-national subjects. Read More

Professor Ormond is also presenting at the AAG in Seattle next Spring.

Climographs and Recreation Geography

We're doing climatology in physical geography this week. I thought I'd share this great resource from the National Geographic Society on climographs, the method of graphically displaying climate data.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g912/pgafrica4.html

I will always remember my climatology class at Towson State University where we were given the data (temperature and precipitation) and we had to tell where in the world the data represented.

Boy, it was a tough class.

Get ready for Geography Awareness Week!

A bunch of great resources for students, teachers and parents of geographers can be found on this website:

http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/gaw.html

This year the theme is "Fresh Water".

We tend to take this natural resource for granted since it is relatively cheap, plentiful and usually quite tasty.

How many people around the world can say that?

BLM free on Veterans Day

We don't know much about Bureau of Land Management properties here on the East Coast, so instead of announcing the free access to NPS lands, I thought I'd plug BLM lands.

I've been to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area west of Las Vegas. It has almost 200,000 acres of beautiful rocks and get this they are red!

check out this video of this BLM site.

Go out and hike this Veterans Day!