Owls Dancing!

Hey, Hoot a thought, owls dancing. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lNuNI7uQM&feature=PlayList&p=B44063F5B3ED3EE9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=10

Bet the spotted owl can't dance . . .

For Those Simpsons Fans

When trying to describe EarthFirst! to a friend of mine after class today, he said it sounded like something from The Simpsons. Considering the group started in '79, I knew it existed way before the TV series came into existence, but I figured there may see some connection so looking it up was worth a shot.

Turns out that he wasn't that far off. The Simpsons had taken a swing at the environmentalists. In an episode from November, 2000, titled "Lisa the Tree Hugger", Lisa meets a guy from a radical environmental group called "Dirt First", and ends up joining to help them protect a historic redwood tree. On of the jokes of the EarthFirst! spin-off is that the leader of the group named Jesse Grass claims to be a "Level 5" Vegan, refusing to eat anything that casts a shadow.

The writer behind the episode, Matt Selman, is a Simpsons veteran with multiple awards, including a handful of Emmy's, to his name. He was even one of the writers personally courted by Matt Groening to help write the 2007 Simpsons movie. In his own personal blog, Selman uses some interesting techniques, including some made up super villains to make some environmental statements.

He's not quite "Dirt First" material, but he's got a green side to him.

More on EarthFirst!

The following excerpt is from the EarthFirst! website:

Are you tired of namby-pamby environmental groups? Are you tired of overpaid corporate environmentalists who suck up to bureaucrats and industry? Have you become disempowered by the reductionist approach of environmental professionals and scientists?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Earth First! is for you. Earth First! is effective. Our front-line, direct action approach to protecting wilderness gets results. We have succeeded in cases where other environmental groups had given up, and have drawn public attention to the crises facing the natural world. . . .

Earth First! is different from other environmental groups. Here are some things to keep in mind about Earth First! and some suggestions for being an active and effective Earth First!er: First of all, Earth First! is not an organization, but a movement. There are no "members" of Earth First!, only Earth First!ers. It is a belief in biocentrism, that life of the Earth comes first, and a practice of putting our beliefs into action.

Very interesting group to study if you're interested in environmental organizations.

Mickey's evolution

Wow!

It's incredible to see just how much Mickey Mouse evolved in a time span of less than 10 years. The character transformed from a rather bawdy rat to a refined mouse with with humanlike physical characteristics. Mickey even took on humanlike proportions so that it would be an animated character that people would relate to and thereby be more drawn to.

-Robin Simpson

The evolution of Mickey Mouse

Here is a link to Stephen Jay Gould's classic essay, "A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse." Enjoy.

Just trying to see if posting from here goes to the blog.

Great first class!

1st class

I get the feeling I'll enjoy this course, and think I may already have a term paper idea. I don't want to get too ahead of myself though, so I'm keeping my mind open!

Sponge Bob and philosophy

Hi everyone,
welcome to another action-packed semester of "Nature and Culture."

Ran across the following brief analysis of Sponge Bob cartoons, "The Tao of Sponge Bob."

Never too early to start thinking of paper topics. ;-)

"National Parks: America's Best Idea."

Ken Burns, who lives near my home in Vermont, is due to release his new movie this fall, called, “National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” This is a timely movie for this class!  Ken Burns has created so many beautiful films that I love and he is a great story teller; however, I imagine looking more critically at the romanticized tendencies when talking about what National Parks mean to people and will be very interested to see how he discusses the Native American people…As we read about in Uncommon Ground, the establishment of Yosemite National Park, through the eyes of the indigenous people, couldn’t have been America’s best idea.  I hope he addresses the controversy.

http://www.pbs.org/engage/live-chats/07-10-2009/ken-burns 

Good Luck!

Tomorrow is our final exam so i just wanted to wish everyone GOOD LUCK!

I know we have all been working really hard and we will all do well on the final tomorrow.

I hope everyone remembers to get to sleep early and eat a good hearty breakfast!

I will see everyone tomorrow at 9:30 =]

and again, GOOD LUCK

(I thought this cartoon/picture was funny)

(I wonder if they would be the same railroad spikes from any of the Hudson River School paintings?)

Organic Food Movie

Here’s a link to the new movie, Food Inc., that promises to have interesting connections between our culture and the environment, industrial farms and government; as discussed in discussion, why eat organic food? 

http://www.foodincmovie.com/spread-the-word.php 

?

Existence is then
identified as that which is expressed by the existential quantifier of the predicate
calculus, as for example in Quine's famous `criterion of ontological commitment',
according to which to be is to be the value of a bound variable in a true first-order
formalization of a natural scientific theory (Quine, 1953).

I think this might be the most complicated sentence I've read in my life. Does anyone know what it means?

Using Bambi to Warn about Forest Fires

Hey guys, I just saw this add on a website and thought it was pretty interesting how it uses the screenshot from "Bambi." Looks like the movie is still being used to influence people today.

Hey everyone, I found a website pertaining to the cheap car from india, also know as the nano, we were talking about in discussion today. The stating price for the Nano is $2,200 and it is made by India's Tata Motors. Here a website explaining all of the information about it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17984516

Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited does a lot to help the environment, and is more powerful than the WWF, the NWF, and the Audubon Society. The Nature Conservancy, however, trumps it with a billion dollar budget.(Total Revenue of NC =1,017,114,358;Total Revenue of Ducks Unlimited =$210,825,782 ). However, Ducks Unlimited has been around longer, and it has 40,000 volunteers and is supported my hundreds of thousands of loyal sportsmen. As well, its aim has been more targeted--saving ducks--and it has obviously been very successful. But, overall, sportsmen aren't alone in paying for land protection--the Nature Conservancy has protected 119 million acres of land since its founding.

Actuality Films

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wide_angle/v018/18.3cahn.html

Here is a link to an interesting article that follows up on what Prof. Tantillo was talking about today concerning the loss of interest in these landscape films as opposed to the Hudson River School paintings. Apparently, the new technology imposing on these landscapes were impossible to ignore in these films and even with the framing elements similar to the ones that the painters used, the sublime effect that viewers enjoyed was impossible to recreate using film.

Origin Saunter

Hello again. Another random thought that came while I was trying to go over my essay. Remember when we read "Walking" by Thoreau and he made up the history of the word saunter? We never figured out where it actually came from. According to Merriam-Webster, saunter may have came from the Middle English word santren, which means to muse. No origin has been proven true, though. Thoreau= a goof.

Conquering Niagara Falls

I was looking at a website which focused on some of the people that tried to get over Niagara Falls. I thought that these stories were the most interesting. Bobby Leach made it over the Niagara Falls in a steel barrel, but died while touring because he slipped on an orange peel. Jean Lussier survived the trip over the Falls in a rubber ball. Robert Overtracker went over the Falls in a jet ski to promote awareness for the homeless (?), planning to survive with a parachute. However, his parachute did not open and his body was never found. Kirk Jones was able to survive the fall without any protection, but ended up being fined over $2,000 and banned from ever entering Canada. Here's the website; it has a perfectly timed picture of the guy going over the falls in a jet ski.
http://www.niagarafallslive.com/daredevils_of_niagara_falls.htm

Dr. Seuss Book

Hey everyone, today I was in a book store and randomly I started reading a Dr. Seuss book called Horton hatches an egg and half way through the book it shows characteristics about humans interfering with the animals and hunters take Horton the elephant from his natural habitat and they exploit him and make him endure a terrible sea voyage. The hunters sell him to a circus and Horton has to go through horrific events all because of the hunters thought they could do whatever they want to innocent animals haha. I just thought that was really interesting and I think people should find it. Read it and just experience that weirdness!