Earth is top heavy

quick, answer this question....

In the Northern Hemisphere about ________ percent of the surface is land. 

A) 39    B) 13.9   C) .039   D)  91   E) 76 

If you answered A, pat yourself on the back.

Now, who says it is the top???

It is official, it is Fall

A cold front blew through the area last night bringing some rain and today, some cooler temperatures and clear blue skies.

Here is the current wx map from Weather.GOV (not the dot com one).

Pretty nice graphic and the National Weather Service doesn't have advertisements!  I wonder what next weekend will bring?

Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group Sessions

The call for papers at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers is in full swing right now. The Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty (RTS) Group Sessions are found at this link.  The latest session proposal comes from Prof. Bosak at the University of Montana and the theme is:


Re-framing Sustainable Tourism

The term sustainable tourism has been in existence since the late 1980’s and since that time, debates in the field have been challenged by varying notions of what sustainable tourism is and to what purposes does it serve. In a world that is increasingly globalized and interconnected, contentious and complex, is sustainable tourism limited to small firms located in rural environments, or does the concept have broader applicability. Technology, environmental issues and global- local interactions have changed enormously in the last 25 years thus necessitating an evaluation of the concept as an organizing tool for research and practice. As such, academics and others continue to re-define and reframe issues of sustainable tourism in interesting and innovative ways. This session proposes to highlight some of those ways in which sustainable tourism is being re-framed to include among other things:

• Its place in complex social-ecological systems
• Challenges to assumptions treated as facts
• An increasing focus on justice and governance
• The relevancy of the notion of resiliency to sustainable tourism
• The politics of sustainable tourism
• More nuanced understandings of scale and sustainable tourism
• Managing and planning sustainable tourism

We invite both empirical research and critical essays on the idea of Reframing Sustainable Tourism. Authors of abstracts chosen for this session will be asked to develop a paper for possible inclusion in a special issue of the journal Sustainability and as a chapter in an upcoming edited volume on re-framing sustainable tourism.

See the RTS website for more details.

Heading to warmer climates this winter?

I'm planning our winter trip to the Caribbean or Central America and am leaning toward Antigua.  Still working on the dates and where to stay, so for those reasons we haven't booked anything yet.

One thing we are considering is the impact of cruise ships.  This site identifies Ports of Call.

This will help us determine when to tour on the island and when to avoid certain areas.  Getting 3,000 to 5,000 people in port can really change the tourism experience.

Yikes, it is a popular port!

Atomic Rulers

I don't know about you, but I might not be able to wait until Saturday night to watch Atomic Rulers, starring my favorite hero "Starman".

Check out this embedded link to archive.org.


 and enjoy the show!

Hiking 101: Geographic Terms

I get a monthly email newsletter from the American Hiking Society and found this interesting tidbit:



Hiking 101: Geographic terms
A quick glance at any map will tell you there is an abundance of terms for the various geographic forms you will encounter outdoors. After a while the definition of these terms can become confusing and a hiker doesn't always know what to expect out on the trail.

Mountains are mountains, but you will also have to hike uphill on a knob, a hill, a bald (which usually has no trees), or a butte. Bald and butte are largely regional words, indicating that geographic terms can differ from one side of the country to the other.

You'll find water at a river, obviously, but also at a brook, stream, run, creek, branch, and ford. Typically, rivers are thought to be larger than streams and brooks. However, the amount of water you find can depend on the season and whether or not the area has been affected by a drought.

Gaps, gorges, hollows, and valleys generally refer to low areas in a region, while crests and ridges are the highest points. Neither necessarily means you'll be traveling downhill or uphill, just that you've reached the top or bottom of a specific location. You could even be hiking on mostly flat ground.

A pass is simply a low area in a series of mountains or along a ridge that allows one to travel between valleys or low-lying areas without ascending and descending the mountain. Also known as a "notch."

(Source: American Hiking Society's Paperless Trail, September 2012)

Glendi day two

Actually this is a shot of the dancers Friday night at Glendi.  After a wonderful Greek dinner, we sat outside and watched dancing and enjoyed live music.  Just a really nice evening.  It is going on this weekend in Springfield, Mass.

Friendly people, live music, great food.  What more could you ask for?

Medical Tourism, edited by C. M. Hall

Medical Tourism: The Ethics, Regulation, and Marketing of Health Mobility
 edited by C. Michael Hall

is available now from Routledge.

Part 1: Introductory Context 1. Medical and Health Tourism: The Development and Implications of Medical Mobility
Part 2: Regulation and Meta-Ethics 2. Quality, Safety and Risk in Medical Tourism 3. The Four Modes of Medical Tourism: Economic, Social and Institutional Impediments 4. Medical Tourism, Xenotourism and Client Expectations: Between Bioscience and Responsibilization 
Part 3: National and Regional Policy, Regulatory and Competitive Settings 5. Impacts of Health Policy on Medical Tourism in Germany 6. Thermal versus Surgical Medical Tourism in Hungary: Reconciling Public and Private Sector Policies 7. Health Spa Tourism in the Czech and Slovak Republic 8. Macao’s Cross-border Medical Tourism: A New Way Forward? 
Part 4: Branding, Markets & Promotion 9. Branding Medical and Health Tourism Services: An Analysis of Members of Public Health Insurers in Germany 10. An Investigation of Korean Health Tourists’ Behaviour: Benefit-sought, Brand Equity, and Intention to Visit 11. Medical Tourism in Asia: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and India 12. Claiming ‘Cultural Competence’: The Promotion of Multi-ethnic Malaysia as a Medical Tourism Destination 
Part 5: Conclusion: The Contested Spaces of Medical Tourism 13. The Contested Futures and Spaces of Medical Tourism


for more info, visit this link.

Voted today

Yep, in Massachusetts we had a primary election.  Turn out was light, but I voted.

That's what counts!

Tekoa Mountain Ramble

Across the Westfield River from campus is Tekoa Mountain.  It is a fairly decent 1000 foot climb that has some spectacular views up and down the river valley.  Often visited by 4WD, some of the more extreme trails are strictly for feet.

To see the location where this shot came from, visit this site.  That's the Mass Pike heading west toward Blandford.