Ghost Map

The book Ghost Map is an extraordinary account on one the greatest medical mysteries in the world. The book takes a look at the summer of 1854 when one the greatest outbreaks of Cholera occurred in London. Steve Johnson, who is the author of Ghost Map, not only goes into the history and biology of the story, but he also thinks in terms of a geographer when it comes to explaining the account. Johnson talks about four concepts in the book: epidemiology, scientific reasoning, information design and urbanism (Johnson,203).
In Ghost Map there are two main characters. John Snow is a doctor who is a brilliant instigator and a mastermind in research. The other character is Henry Whitehead who was a local clergyman that examined the everyday lifestyles of the London people. Snow looked at the Cholera and analyzed its connection with people. He also made observations of urban life and everyday patterns (Johnsom,146). This led him to discover that the Broad Street Pump was affecting and killing the London people with Cholera. No one believed Snow that this plague was a waterborne disease, especially when the Broad Street Pump was one the better tasting water wells. This disbelief continued until Whitehead and Snow teamed up. Their skills together lead them to find the source. Whitehead had the knowledge and the sense of the local people and Snow had the medical instinct and research knowledge of medical geography. For example, Johnson said “John Snow may have been instrumental in first identifying the pump as the likely culprit behind the outbreak, but Whitehead ultimately supplied the crucial evidence for establishing the pump’s role” (Johnson, 201). These two men are historic figures, not just in the medical or scientific world, but also in geography sense too. Their knowledge of urban spatial layout and Their sense of place contributed many ideas in the research of geography elements.
Having a brilliant writer like Johnson write the narrative of the Broad Street Pump gave this account an edge. He explains the epidemiology and the biology of this deadly disease Cholera. He also explains the scientific reasoning and knowledge of the waterborne theory. In the end he ties it all together with the geography of the pump, the land, and the urbanism concept of London.
Overall this book was a satisfying read that took a look into a region of London from the microbial level to the macro urban-theory level as well as the most significant human level (http://www.powells.com/biblio/1594489254). You see the concept of modern urbanism coming through that period. Many of the research concepts that were displayed in this book are still used today to understand the current urban environment by city planners, doctors, geographers, and public administrators (http://www.powells.com/biblio/1594489254).

Cited
Johnson, Steve. The Ghost Map. New York City: Penguin Group, 2006.
"Powell's Books." The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World . 2008. Powells Book. 20 Apr 2008 .

Cholera in Peru

Also take a look at this website http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/warmup/cholera/cholera_f.html. This site gives you a definition of medical geograghy, it talks about Dr.John Snow and shows his maps. It also talks about the London Cholera affect and then it talks Cholera in general about the disease. The part that i thought was very informative is it talks about the recent outbreak in Cholera that is located in Peru. The maps that are above are two very informative maps that explain where and how the Cholera has spread through Peru and South America.

Definition of Medical Geography

I was very interrested about the talk of medical geography. I had known idea that geography had this big part in medical world. If is interested in this concpet down below i posted a great definition of medical geography. This definition is not too long, but it talks about all the understandings and the concepts that go into medical geography.

Definition of Medical geography
Medical geography: An important "new" area of health research that is a hybrid between geography and medicine dealing with the geographic aspects of health and healthcare. Medical geography studies the effects of locale and climate upon health. It aims to improve the understanding of the various factors which affect the health of populations and hence individuals. It is also called health geographics.
The idea that place and location may influence health is not exactly new. It is an old idea and a fertile one. Since Hippocrates (circa 3rd century BC), it has been known that certain diseases such as malaria occur in some places and not others (and for good reason). Malaria is not a disease of mountain tops. It lurks in lowlands where mosquitos breed and sting, to convey the parasitic agent of the disease -- plasmodium.
A classic piece of research in medical geography was in done in 1854 as cholera gripped London. Death tolls rang around the clock from church towers. People feared they were being infected by vapors coming from the ground. A physician by the name of John Snow thought that, if he could locate the source of the disease, it could be contained. He drew maps showing the homes of people who had died of cholera and the locations of water pumps. He found that one pump, the public pump on Broad Street, was central to most of the victims. He figured that infected water from the pump was the culprit. He instructed the authorities to remove the handle to the pump, making it unusable. The number of new cholera cases plummeted. The Broad Street pump was the source of cholera.
In the early 20th century a couple of dentists in Colorado noticed that children living in areas with high levels of naturally-occurring fluoride in groundwater had fewer dental caries. Their discovery of the value of fluoride came from the application of medical geography (which, since this is dental geography, might be better called health geography).(http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=18879)

City of Kivalina

Hi everyone, seeing how everyone term paper coming along. I thought I would share on what I was doing with my term paper idea so here so of my thoughts and ideas on my project.

City of Kivalina
The city of Kivalina is a unique region that is located in the Southwest Artic region of Alaska. The Department of Commerce of the State of Alaska specifies the City of Kivalina “Is at the tip of an 8-mile barrier reef located between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River. It lies 80 air miles northwest of Kotzebue. Kivalina is located in the Kotzebue Recording District. The area encompasses 1.9 sq. miles of land and 2.0 sq. miles of water. Kivalina lies in the transitional climate zone which is characterized by long, cold winters and cool summers” ( LHMP,13).

This area is an important issue to my family and me. My father and brother who both work for the Department of Commerce in Alaska have been studying and working on this project for a long time. This region consists of a rich Inupiat Eskimo culture and is the only village left in the region where people hunt the bowhead whale. Todays issue’s in our society like global warming has affected Kivalina Village. Due to severe erosion and wind-driven ice damage Kivalins is eroding away every day. The result of this happening would be the history of Eskimo culture washing away and also Kivalina still holds much economic value to Alaska. The state of Alaska has been working on getting grants to move this village for the past year.
In my project I want to talk about where this village has been located in the past and how this region and village has evolved to what it is today. I also want to research on how and where this city could possibly move to and the affect of the traditions, economy, and resources are affected from the new region around them. Also I would like to research on the history of the Inupiat Eskimos, climate, location, economy, transportations, and the culture of the region and how it affects land and the areas around them.

Sand Mountain

Hey everyone,

Outside Fallon there is sand dune called Sand Mountain. One of are geography class's went there last semester, everyone should check it out. Plus it has one the old historic Pony Station next to this Sand Dune. For more information check out this website :http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php?tip_AttractionNo=%3D924

Thoughts about "Coming Home to Eat"

I’m almost done reading Coming home to Eat and my thoughts about this book is that the message that the author Nabhan is getting across is very powerful. He doesn’t tend to preach that everyone should eat locally or produce there own food, but he does send this message that really impacted me about how people have forgotten to use the land, and how everything today we eat is almost toxic to us. In my thoughts I wish that I could grow a garden or eat strictly locally, but it’s hard to find time as student and working full time. I know its not a excuse , but this book made me realize that maybe I could start small by going to the local farmers market at least once of week. I wanted to know abut people thoughts about this book and if anyone takes place in slow food movement or eating locally?

Slow Food

Hey everyone, this article just came out. I think everyone should take a look at it. It’s about the slow food movement and eating locally in Nevada.


Livin' la vida local
Reno woman accepts the challenge to eat only foods from our region for a year -- bye-bye bananasJOHNATHAN L. WRIGHT RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL -->Posted: 3/5/2008 STORY
Web page: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/FOOD/803050419/1089/liv

Also I think the national slow food website is also a great thing to take a look at. It has interesting ideas, articles, and recipes and also talks the concept of the idea of the slow food movement. Web page:
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.html

Google Earth

In reading the commentary of GIScience Tens after Ground Truth was really interesting to me, but what really got my attention was the idea of how Google Earth has changed the science of geography. Google Earth was made a huge impacted in the geography world around 2005. Since then it has brought new ideas to GIS and has also made society more interested in the outlook of how the world function. On page 691 the author expresses some interesting question about Google Earth and I wanted to repeat then and see what people thoughts were about Google Earth. The author questioned – What determines the variability in Google Earth from high resolution in some areas to much lower resolution in others- whose agenda is being served here? 2. What features are visible in Google Earth coverage, and what does it make invisible? 3. Who does it empower, and who does it marginalize? 4. What applications are being built on Google Earth, and by whom and for what purpose? (Goodchild, 691).

Axioms and McPhee

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it through the book Coming into the Country but I did read the John McPhee book In Suspect Terrain. I loved this book it was all about challenging the theories of how are Earth came together. The article that I talk about this week The Axiom’s by Peirce Lewis made me really think about this book. There were so many connections in this article that related to John McPhee’s book that I read. The book displayed many of Lewis’s axioms of observing the landscape. In Suspect Terrain John McPhee and his partner go on a drive for the East coast of the Appalachian Mountains to the tip of the Great Lakes. On this drive they observe the unique landscape to the ordinary landscape. They research each landscape along the way and using their techniques and knowledge of land. They talked about how the history has affected the land, they displayed an axiom of cultural unity, and also looked how a landscape reflect people’s behavior and even there society. It was really interesting in seeing how McPhee truly master at the concept of a viewing a landscape and all the elements around the landscape. McPhee gets the big point and overview of how landscape should be observed.

Another View of San Joaquin Valley

San Joaquin Valley

I have already read James Parson’s piece on the San Joaquin Valley and let me tell you every time I read this article it still gets better every time I read it. I love how Parsons tells a story of the history of this valley. I almost feel like he is telling me a story and not just reporting an article, and I think this is one reason why this piece is so good. Parsons tells the history and even adds some of J.B Jackson methods on viewing a landscape, and then he goes into the patterns of agriculture, development with the land, the many ethnic groups like Chinese or the Dust Bowl immigration who took influence on the San Joaquin Valley. Then he talks about the land and how in this general over view how humans have changed it over time to being of a ranching area to now an petroleum area for the oil industry. Parson also goes into discussion about how urbanization has pressure the Valley to become less land for the farmers that are still left. This article talks about these different aspects that have affected the land over a time period to now in such rich detail. One of my favorite lines is at the end of the article and he talking about the how San Joaquin Valley is just a small piece of land but in reality it has affected us greatly. He states, “The San Joaquin Valley is only one small piece of the gigantic tapestry that is the American land, but it is lavishly rich in scale and promise for exploration and discovery, for landscape and for the study of changing human imprints on the earth as a form of culture history”(Parsons, 389). That is a great line.

"Mr. Sauer"

Also for readings this week I really enjoyed Mr. Sauer and the Writers by James Parsons. I have really become to enjoy Mr. Parsons work. It seems every piece I read that he writes is really great work that you can tell he knows the general concept of the history, the cultural, and the physical elements that geography contributes to. In the piece Mr. Sauer and the Writers, Parsons relates how Carl Sauer had taken a big affect on the geography world especially you can see the affect it has one group that Parsons takes about is Charles Olson and the poets of the Black Mountain College. Charles Olsen was so amazed with Carl Sauer large view of cultural landscape and the relations it had to the world, that Olsen had almost become obsessed with Sauer views. He taught Sauer ideas and thoughts on the values of cultural landscape to his poets of the Black Mountain College. So they were amazed and really affected by Carl Sauer that they began to study and write about his ideas. This article really showed how Carl Sauer has affected not just geography students but the whole world. His ideas and thoughts have created a positive impact on society and viewing what is a true landscape and the geography of it. You can truly say Carl Sauer is the godfather of geography.

John McPhee

I was just wondering what John McPhee book everyone is reading? I’m reading Coming into the Country. So far I have really enjoyed the book. McPhee explains through his eyes the cultural and physical geography aspects of the great state of Alaska. McPhee’s friends and him explore the Central part of Alaska, and so far the story is taking place around a river called Salmon River. So far McPhee has really amazed me with his knowledge of the land and even the issues that concern Alaskans today. I choose this book because I was born and raised in a little town in Alaska so I was very familiar with the regions that McPhee talked about. Also reading a topic that is very close and personal to someone makes it enjoyable to read.

Jean de Florette

I have been meaning to write a blog about this movie because it truly displays the concept of using all your sense in examining a geographic landscape. This movie bases all these ideas from urban to rural concepts in farming. It also takes a good look at ordinary landscapes and how they can hold value and beauty by just using all you r senses to observe the landscape. It also shows examples of land stats, regional geography, rural land, isolated, communication and a sense of place. Overall this movie was great to watch and used many themes of perceiving landscapes in a geographic sense.

Great Books to Read

Route 66

I really enjoyed Arthur Krim book “Route 66”. He did such remarkable job in explaining the cultural, physical, historical, political, and also the geographical view of this great highway. He explained every aspect of this highway from early explorers, to the railroad system, and then how it becomes a highway. He also talked about the features that Route 66 represented from books like the “Grapes of Wrath” which is one my favorite books and movies, to also the art that the highway displays, to also the music that Route 66 influenced and many more aspects. I really admired Krim’s maps and photographs in the book. I think this is what made the book go by so fast because his maps really help painted a picture of how Route 66 changed overtime. Also for me, I have never driven on Highway 66 so without these maps I would have been lost on where some this features were located on Highway 66. Reading this book really made me want to go on a big road trip. Right now I’m actually reading Jack Kerouac book “On the Road” and I can already see the connection that the book has with Highway 66. If any one has not read “The Grapes of Wrath” or “On the Road” I really advise people to read it. These are great books that have really influence America’s culture.

J.B Jackson

“Learning from Looking”, by Peirce Lewis was a great essay on learning the concepts of observing cultural landscape. Lewis took many great geographers and there work and he showed us what each of those geographers had to offer in observing a landscape. My favorite part of this essay was when Lewis talks about J.B Jackson. The first time I really learned about Jackson was two years ago in are geography class 106. I have come to really admire J.B Jackson and his ideas of observing a landscape and thinking outside of the box. My favorite line by J.B Jackson is “Before rushing to judge a landscape ugly or beautiful, pause and try to understand how it came to be, and what it says about the people who create it. There is intellectual stimulation everywhere for one who keeps eyes and mind open. There is beauty too” (Lewis, 248). I Believe everyone should live and learn by this quote.

Small Towns

Picture of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.(www.familyoldphotos.com)

I really enjoyed Peirce Lewis piece on Small Town in Pennsylvania. I can really relate to this article because I have grown up in a small town my whole life in Alaska. Where I lived we also depend on the resources that the area gave us. Without fishing or oil my town would disappear. We truly survive on tourist for the fishing and oil for jobs, even though our resources haven’t ran out yet, it is only a matter of time we soon hit an economic crisis like Bellefonte did. I really understand Lewis’s view on small towns. Growing up in a small town makes you appreciate how a region or society needs to work together to make it. Also I think Peirce Lewis is right about the precipitation of small towns, which is that they have played a crucial role in making America the way it is today with economics, the physical environment, history, and technology. My favorite part of this piece was when Lewis was talking about when small towns usually have no plan what so even in planning a city out. He says “There were no geographic rule-books to tell the planners where to place their town or lay out their street; then as now they simply used the conventional wisdom of the day” (Lewis, 334). The issue that bothered me about this article was that I was surprise Lewis wrote about this because even though he lived near the town for fifteen years, he wasn’t born there.

CA Oil Tanks Picture

Here are some oil storage tanks in Elk Hills,CA.(www.oxyenergy.com)

Here is a picture of the oil fields in Buena Vista Hills in California.(content.cdlib.org)

Sweetwater County Pictures

Here is an old photo of how Sweetwater County use to be.(3dparks.wr.usgs.gov)


Here is some sheep in Sweetwater County(http://www.westernfolklife.org/)

Here is a map of Sweetwater County in Wyoming.

Thoughts on Third Weeks Readings

Reading the article “50 people Who Could Save the Planet” was probably my favorite article to read this week. It is nice to hear that people are setting goals and actually trying to make a difference in our society and world. I was also glad to see that not just famous people like actors and musicians were in this but this article really focused on people like the activists, scientists, economists, the lawyer, geneticists, the farmers , the writers and even the school boy were getting recognizes. These citizens that I mention are making outstanding discovers and achievements in helping the fight to save are planet from chaos. My favorite part about this article was when they mention the part about the schoolboy named Madhav Subrmanian, who is only twelve years old and is probably “the next generation’s face of conservation”( The Guardian,8). This boy goes around Mumbai collecting money for tiger conservation. The amazing part about this is that Subrmanian has already collected Rs500, 000 in two years. That is amazing that one boy can make that big of a difference in helping our planet. This article was very inspiring and made me think how I can maybe help do something to save our society.

I also enjoyed reading “The Highest Form of the Geographer’s Art” by John Fraser Hart. I really think that that this article is almost like the geographers guide to understanding truly how and what classifies a real geographer. I think very geographer should read this article. It was also very inspiring too. Hart helps us understand why people don’t understand geographers and how we just get overlooked as scientist s or geologists. One of my favorite lines in this reading is when Hart says, “Our goal as geographers should be high quality scholarship and we should not fret about whether our good scholarly work happens to fit some particular definition of science” (Hart, 5). Hart goes on to explore this concept of regional geography and how geographers look at every aspect what goes on in a region and its physical environment. He also talks about the value of how field, research and communication methods is probably the most effective issue that makes a geographer great at what they do. Reading through most of these articles I began to realize how important these readings are, in helping our projects for this semester. Hart’s article helps realize the importances of what and how a geographer is classified and how regional geography should be study and research about.

Thoughts About The Second Week Readings

The readings for this week were very different and appealing. Some like John Agnew and James Parson essay’s left me with a little confusion about what they were trying to say. I actually ended up looking up more words and researching some of the themes then actually enjoying the readings. In the Professional Geographer, James Parson who I really enjoy a lot of his work, had written a piece about “Bioregionalism” and “Watershed Consciousness”. I really had known idea what the true meaning of bioregionalism meant. What I got of what bioregionalism it is a rapidly developing new movement in the geography world. Peter Berg defined bioregion in the article as a, “geographical province of marked ecological and often cultural unity, its subdivisions, at least ideally, often delimited by watersheds (water divides) of major streams”. I’m not sure what to think about bioregionalism. The whole article really set no true answer about what this concept means to the geography world. I really enjoyed Parson’s last paragraph when he states, “Bioregionalism clearly does not mean one thing. It is not so much a fixed ideology as a diverse set of notions informed above all by sense of place. Most often it seems to fall somewhere between the reformist “shallow ecology” of the conventional environmentalists and the long-range “deep ecology” movement represented by the new breed of eco-philosophers….”(Parson, 5). I’m really interested in seeing what other people’s thoughts and ideas about bioregionalism or if anyone agrees with James Parson. If anyone is interested in this notion or idea let me know what you think.
I also really enjoyed the article “Where the South Begins: The Northern Limit of The CIS-Appalachian South in Terms of Settlement Landscape” by Wilbur Zelinsky. I thought Zelinsky was very helpful in terms of getting a thought process started for our project in this class. I couldn’t relate to him on what he was saying or classifying in what makes the South because I have never been there, but he did do a good job of explaining the Southern traits. He gave me a lot of ideas of how we can start are project in looking at house traits or identifying certain ideas and traditions that characterized on are location we choose. Also the maps were very interesting in terms of where the south starts like the mule and horse ratio map seemed to over the border where the South line starts.