The pig of war

Ancient Romans seemed to think that the best way to fight violence was with even more violence. In response to the War Elephant the Romans responded by trying to find ways to ward off the huge beasts. Their solution was to frighten them with a squealing pig and thus the War Pig came into use. This pig of war was drenched in resin and set ablaze to ensure squealing. Hooray for progress!

In the spirit of deer

To continue the trend of deer related posts, I offer a video of the birth of a deer. Okay, you caught me in a lie - I stumbled upon it while I was working on my paper. Here is the culprit that started it all, and the website that led me to the deer video.

  (WARNING: Some of the images may lead to serious digression and procrastination. Viewer discretion is advised).

Walden Pond

While we were talking about Walden pond I was looking up a brief history and came across this

"At one point there was an amusement park built at the western end of the pond, but it burned down in 1902 and was never rebuilt.

In 1961, the Middlesex County Commissioners, then managing the land, proposed leveling a significant portion of the preserve for a parking lot and other "improvements". They had already leveled an acre of woodland for access to the public beach. The Commissioners were sued to stop the destruction of the existing environment. Judge David A. Rose, sitting in the Massachusetts Superior Court, ruled that Walden’s deed donating the property to the Commonwealth required preservation of the land and barred further development. This decision achieved national recognition and Judge Rose received hundreds of letters from school children across the country thanking him for saving the land.

In 1977, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts installed a porous pavement parking area at Walden Pond as a special Technology Transfer demonstration project, following methodology generated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1972. The porous pavement still looks good and works well decades later, despite more freeze-thaw cycling than most other parts of the world."

Just in case anyone wanted a short summary of our second lecture. 

Bambi Meets Hudson River School Artists

Bambi and I are just enjoying Albert Bietstadt's " Call of the Wild " ! We even saw his father when we took this pic ! XD

No Impact Man

After watching a documentary about a man and his family who live an entire year with as little impact on the environment as possible, I decided to look into his project more. I found a website dedicated to the project and thought it was appropriate to share here. There are a ton of helpful links here if you're looking to change your life in an eco-friendly way, or if you just want to learn more about his project!

Deer

My roommate and I heard fireworks from our dorm, so we went outside to look for them. What we found, instead, was a deer! It was just hanging around near the tennis courts by Risley Hall. It didn't run away when people walked by it on the sidewalk; it didn't even jump at all the noise from the fireworks. It had a slight limp, as well, when it walked. A person walking by told us that he had checked the deer for exterior wounds and hadn't found any, so he guessed it might be a muscle strain or something like that. Apparently it's pretty common to see deer, rabbits, squirrel, etc on campus!

Redwood trees

Professor Tantillo talked about how artists struggled to paint the redwoods because they were so large, and I was reminded of a National Geographic issue from a few years ago that had a four-page spread of a redwood tree: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/redwoods/img/redwood-portrait.jpg

Centralia Fire

Good news: Centralia is NOT in danger of blowing up. The most dangerous consequence of the 50+ year (and running) fire is poisonous gas, which can seep into residential homes.

The article on Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/centralia-pennsylvania-fire_n_1546552.html

Metropolis of Nature: Railways

Cronon's tended to focus on the railways as a key reason for the outward expansion of the United States.I enjoyed this visual guide of railways and movements.Its difficult to imagine that this was built in a 27 years and this must have created and extremely large vacuum of labor and money to be made leading up to the civil war.Why did the south constantly say that the trans continental would split the country? How do you think this rail would affect these people? These are questions that this reading raised.

John Gast's "American Progress"

After looking at durand's "progress", I was reminded of John Gast's  "American Progress" where I've interpreted an angelic figure leading technology and enlightenment ideals to the west, an area lacking technological advancement or social refinement. I think themes from our class might also be present due to the portrayal of nature on both the enlightened and "non-enlightened" sides of the picture.

Nature loving people

Enjoying nature during our lunch break!!

Geographic expansion in Nature's Metropolis: A Critique

While looking up Christaller and Von Thunen's theories (upon which Cronon relies heavily in his book Nature's Metropolis),  I came across this critique by Brian Page and Richard Walker, entitled "Nature's Metropolis: The Ghost Dance of Christaller and Von Thunen." The paper asserts that these views are outdated and limiting, and that Cronon underestimates the effects of agents such as "conquest, industrial production, agriculture and capital accumulation" in his exploration of geographic expansion.

Here is the link:
http://oldweb.geog.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/faculty/R_Walker/Walker_53.pdf

The Great Chicago Fire

http://youtu.be/a3Q3wwRAGiw I know the book doesn't mention the great Chicago fire but I thought this was interesting to watch after reading a good amount of the book so far.

The cartoon, Peace on Earth

"Thou shall not kill."
"Ye shall rebuild the old wastes."

What this cartoon tries to teach is great, but I think it is a bit absurd that animals fully adopt human cultures: they wear clothes, live in a town, have own properties, etc. The ending of the cartoon, the scene of rebuilding the "unnatural" and "competition- provoking" society, only makes this cartoon less meaningful.