28 April 2024

The Future of Dark Tourism: Enlightening New Horizons Pre-order ready

 The Future of Dark Tourism: Enlightening New Horizons is ready for a pre-order on Amazon.


This book offers critical scenarios of dark tourism futures and examines how our significant dead will be remembered in future visitor economies. It aims to inspire critical thinking by probing the past, disrupting the present and provoking the future. The volume outlines key features of difficult heritage and future cultural trauma and highlights the role of technology, immersive visitor experiences and the thanatological condition of future dark tourism. The book provides a collection of informed observations of how future societies might recall their memorable dead, and how the noteworthy dead might be (re)created and retained through dark tourism. The book forecasts a dark tourism future that is not only perilous but also full of possibilities. It is a helpful resource for students and researchers in tourism, heritage, futurology, sociology, human geography and cultural studies.

Contributors

Philip R. Stone and Daniel W.M. Wright: Preface: Dark Tourism Futures: Thoughts, Ideas, Scenarios

Chapter 1. Philip R. Stone: Vertopia: The Future of Dark Tourism Places and Our Digital Dead

Chapter 2. Rachael Ironside and Craig Leith: Virtual Afterlife: Dark Tourism in the Hereafter

Chapter 3. Santa Zascerinska: From 'Bucket List' to 'Afterlist': (Dark) Tourism for the Afterlife 

Chapter 4. Daniel W.M. Wright: 'Beyond Human': Dark Tourism, Robots and Futurology

Chapter 5. Özge Kılıçarslan, Mehmet Yavuz Çetinkaya and Kamil Yagci: The Future of Technology and Dark Tourism Experiences 

Chapter 6. Diāna Popova, Elizabete Grinblate and Raivis Sīmansons: Bridging Virtual Reality and Dark Heritage 

Chapter 7. Richard Fawcus: 'Virtual Monument Wars': The Digital Future of Difficult Heritage

Chapter 8. Marián Alesón-Carbonell: Language as a Mediator: Commodifying Future Dark Tourism

Chapter 9. Saffron Dale, Crispin Dale and Neil Robinson: 'McDeath': A Future of Dark Travel and End of Life Palliative Care 

Chapter 10. Alix Varnajot: Enlightening Dark Tourism Horizons in a Post-Apocalyptic Arctic: A Geopoetic Approach

Chapter 11. Max Korstanje: 'Shrines and Rites of Passage': Toward a Future of Dark Tourism Chronicles

Chapter 12. Elspeth Frew and Clare Lade: Survivor Voices and Disaster Education: Future Commemoration and Remembrance at Dark Tourism Sites 

Chapter 13. Abit Hoxha and Kenneth Andresen: Future of Dark Tourism in Kosovo: From Divisions to Digital Possibilities

Chapter 14. Ann-Kathrin McLean: Millennials, Transitional Memory and the Future of Holocaust Remembrance 

Chapter 15. Aija Van Der Steina, Maija Rozite, Inese Runce and Kaspars Strods: Between Revival of Memory and Dark Tourism: The Future of Holocaust-Related Sites in Latvia

Chapter 16. Marta Soligo: 'Mirrors of Society': Cemetery Tourism Futures 

Chapter 17. Janine Marriott: 'Not the Right Sort of Visitors': Future Challenges of Cemetery Tourism

Chapter 18. Allan Brodie: 'Into the horrors of the gloomy jail': Towards a Future of UK Prison Tourism and Penal Architecture 

Chapter 19. Brianna Wyatt: 'Finding a Light in Dark Places': Lighter Dark Tourism Futures

Chapter 20. Luisa Golz and Tony Johnston: Future of Dark Tourism Festivals: Technology and the Tourist Experience

Chapter 21. Robert S. Bristow, Alina Gross and Ian Jenkins: Future Dystopian Attractions: Benign Masochism in Dark Tourism

Chapter 22. Michael Brennan: Future Directions in Death Studies and Dark Tourism

Philip R. Stone: Afterword: Back to the Dark Tourism Future

26 April 2024

Stone Walls

 I have always been fascinated by the old stone walls you discover in the woods.  We don't have much of them in the Midwest, but that is not the case in the East.  We have other natural stone features here but that is another story.


A Stone Wall in Massachusetts

In the meantime, check out this interactive mapping site show the stone walls in New Hampshire.  And a cool thing about this one is that you ADD other layers to it so I added the Appalachian Trail to it.


Red line is AT east of Hanover, NH, Pink Lines are stone walls.


20 April 2024

Mapping the Appalachian Trail

Ever see one of these near the Appalachian Trail? 


I found this good little two part history of mapping the AT that I thought you might find interesting.

10 April 2024

A 2024 Eclipse Video

 I am limited to the size of uploads so the quality of this video is so - so.  Enjoy.


Original file in HD is 1.2 GB!

09 April 2024

Eclipse 2024

My best shot of the total eclipse and Venus from 2:02 pm CST, 8 April 2024 in Carbondale IL.




Samsung SN-G781U

F/1.8

1/9 second

ISO-320

4032 x 2268, 72 dpi

and now zoomed in.


and now increased contrast and brightness.




02 April 2024

Annual April Fools Day

 Well, as you might suspect, yesterday was a joke.

Except one thing:

Since Trump left office, he has $90,000 a day in legal fees, NONE of it paid for with his own money!

How Trump Paid $100 Million in Legal Fees - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Instead he has relied on donations!

01 April 2024

Trump Prepares for Earth Day

 Mr. Trump is planning to host several Earth Day Events around the country.  In this action he hopes to garner support of the Sierra Club, NRA and most Republicans.

He is suspected of quoting that Earth Day was his idea in the late 1960s, back in his days as a young Democrat. Trump was registered as a Democrat for more than eight years in the 2000s, according to New York City voter records made public during his 2016 campaign for president (Moody, Chris. “Donald Trump: 'I Probably Identify More as Democrat' - CNNPolitics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 July 2015).

His Earth Day Festivities include passing out free organic plants at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. samples of legal cannabis in San Francisco, California and free coupons worth $10 for electric cars charging in Texas. Since he is not sure of the legal status of his Trump Tower in NYC, he is offering a bake sale there to raised funds for his legal bills.

Trump reports "Earth Day is a big thing, and I want my American friends to know that it was my idea and that we should support big companies like me who can make a difference."

Others disagree.