Dr. Strabo's Geog Blog

Do subclinical antibiotics in industrial pig feed breed flesh-eating disease?

2009-04-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Originally from The New York Times:

Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health

CAMDEN, Indiana

The late Tom Anderson, the family doctor in this little farm town in northwestern Indiana, at first was puzzled, then frightened.

He began seeing strange rashes on his patients, starting more than a year ago. They began as innocuous bumps — “pimples from hell,” he called them — and quickly became lesions as big as saucers, fiery red and agonizing to touch.

They could be anywhere, but were most common on the face, armpits, knees and buttocks. Dr. Anderson took cultures and sent them off to a lab, which reported that they were MRSA, or staph infections that are resistant to antibiotics.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) sometimes arouses terrifying headlines as a “superbug” or “flesh-eating bacteria.” The best-known strain is found in hospitals, where it has been seen regularly since the 1990s, but more recently different strains also have been passed among high school and college athletes. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by 2005, MRSA was killing more than 18,000 Americans a year, more than AIDS.

Dr. Anderson at first couldn’t figure out why he was seeing patient after patient with MRSA in a small Indiana town. And then he began to wonder about all the hog farms outside of town. Could the pigs be incubating and spreading the disease?

“Tom was very concerned with what he was seeing,” recalls his widow, Cindi Anderson. “Tom said he felt the MRSA was at phenomenal levels.”

By last fall, Dr. Anderson was ready to be a whistle-blower, and he agreed to welcome me on a reporting visit and go on the record with his suspicions. That was a bold move, for any insinuation that the hog industry harms public health was sure to outrage many neighbours.

So I made plans to come here and visit Dr. Anderson in his practice. And then, very abruptly, Dr. Anderson died at the age of 54.

There was no autopsy, but a blood test suggested a heart attack or aneurysm. Dr. Anderson had himself suffered at least three bouts of MRSA, and

a Dutch journal has linked swine-carried MRSA to dangerous human heart inflammation.The larger question is whether we as a nation have moved to a model of agriculture that produces cheap bacon but risks the health of all of us. And the evidence, while far from conclusive, is growing that the answer is ‘yes‘.

A few caveats: The uncertainties are huge, partly because our surveillance system is wretched (the cases here in Camden were never reported to the health authorities). The vast majority of pork is safe, and there is no proven case of transmission of MRSA from eating pork. I’ll still offer my kids B.L.T.’s — but I’ll scrub my hands carefully after handling raw pork.

Let me also be very clear that I’m not against hog farmers. I grew up on a farm outside Yamhill, Ore., and was a state officer of the Future Farmers of America; we raised pigs for a time, including a sow named Brunhilda with such a strong personality that I remember her better than some of my high school dates.

One of the first clues that pigs could infect people with MRSA came in the Netherlands in 2004, when a young woman tested positive for a new strain of MRSA, called ST398. The family lived on a farm, so public health authorities swept in — and found that three family members, three co-workers and 8 of 10 pigs tested all carried MRSA.Since then, that strain of MRSA has spread rapidly through the Netherlands — especially in swine-producing areas.

A small Dutch study found pig farmers there were 760 times more likely than the general population to carry MRSA (without necessarily showing symptoms), and Scientific American reports that this strain of MRSA has turned up in 12 percent of Dutch retail pork samples.Now this same strain of MRSA has also been found in the United States….”

How the founding fathers did it!!

2009-04-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm8y1oNdmoE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwebhost%2Ebridgew%2Eedu%2Fjhayesboh%2Ffood%2Findex%2Ehtm&feature=player_embedded

Agricultural Development

2009-04-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

http://nature.berkeley.edu/blogs/news/2008/05/addressing_global_hunger_pover.php

Food Cloning

2009-04-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Press Releases
FDA Opens "Pandora's Box" by Approving Food from Clones for Sale
Contact: Joseph Mendelson, Center for Food Safety (202) 547-9359 or (703) 244-1724; Jaydee Hanson, Center for Food Safety (202) 547-9359 or (703) 231-5956; John Bianchi, Goodman Media International: (212) 576-2700, x228

(January 15, 2008) Washington, DC - Today, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) condemned the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) irresponsible determination that milk and meat from cloned animals are safe for sale to the public. In addition, the FDA is requiring no tracking system for clones or labeling of products produced from clones or their offspring. This action comes at a time when the U.S. Senate has voted twice to delay FDA's decision on cloned animals until additional safety and economic studies can be completed by the National Academy of Sciences and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

"The FDA's bullheaded action today disregards the will of the public and the Senate - and opens a literal Pandora's Box," said Andrew Kimbrell, CFS Executive Director. "FDA based their decision on an incomplete and flawed review that relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force cloning technology on American consumers. FDA's action has placed the interests of a handful of biotech firms above those of the public they are charged with protecting."

With FDA's release of their controversial risk assessment today, CFS joins dozens of other food industry, consumer, and animal welfare groups, as well as federal lawmakers in calling for swift action on the part of Congress to pass the 2007 Farm Bill containing provisions delaying FDA's release of clones into the food supply. The Farm Bill currently contains an amendment, advanced by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD.) and co-sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), requiring a rigorous and careful review of the human health and economic impacts of allowing cloned food into America's food supply. The Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill by a vote of 79 to 14.

"The passage of this bill with the Mikulski-Specter amendment sends a strong message that the FDA has failed the public again by taking an inadequate and half-baked look at the safety of food products from cloned animals and their offspring," said Joseph Mendelson, CFS Legal Director. "The FDA's cavalier approach to cloned food and its potential impacts calls for the remedy of a truly rigorous scientific assessment, and Congress has now repeatedly called for such action."
The Farm Bill amendment addresses the gaps and inadequacies of the FDAs current risk assessment, and would go into effect before any food products from clones are marketed. The Farm Bill also directs the USDA to examine consumer acceptance of cloned foods and the likely impacts they could have on domestic and international markets.

Additionally, the FDA is today issuing a guidance document for food producers; It fails to require any special procedures for tracking or handling food products from clones. It also fails to require labeling of any kind on food products from clones or their offspring, which deprives consumers of their right to know about the origins of their food.
Recently, two cloning companies - Viagen and Trans Ova, proposed the creation of a voluntary cloning registry program. While they advanced claims that the registry would provide consumer protection and transparency without regulation, clones and their progeny will still be dispersed through the food system without any tracking or labeling.
"The cloning industry's proposal is simply another attempt to force cloned milk and meat on consumers and the dairy industry by giving the public phony assurances," said Mendelson. "The proposal neither provides new studies on the safety of clones nor protects the consumers' right to know whether their food or dairy contains products from clones. Once clones are released into America's food supply without any traceability requirements, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to recall them."

Recent opinion polls show the majority of Americans do not want milk or meat from cloned animals in their food. A December 2006 poll by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers were uncomfortable with animal cloning. A national survey conducted this year by Consumers Union found that 89 percent of Americans want to see cloned foods labeled, while 69 percent said that they have concerns about cloned meat and dairy products in the food supply. A recent Gallup Poll reported that more than 60 percent of Americans believe that it is immoral to clone animals, while the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology found that a similar percentage say that, despite FDA approval, they won't buy milk from cloned animals.
In its risk assessment of cloned food, the FDA claims to have evaluated extensive peer reviewed safety studies to support its conclusion, yet a recent report issued by CFS, Not Ready for Prime Time, shows the assessment only references three peer-reviewed food safety studies, all of which focus on the narrow issue of milk from cloned cows. What is even more disturbing is that these studies were partially funded by the same biotech firms that produce clones for profit.

Read the executive summary of the Center for Food Safety's report Not Ready for Prime Time
Read the full CFS report.
View FDA's documents released January 15th
Privacy Statement • Site Map • Contact Us
The Center for Food Safety660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302 Washington DC 20003P: (202)547-9359, F: (202)547-9429 office@centerforfoodsafety.org

A Short History of Alabama Agriculture, 1820-1945

2009-04-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

by Dr. Dwayne Cox, University Archivist

From statehood (1819) until the end of World War II, nothing influenced Alabama's economic, social, and political life more than agriculture. Before the Civil War, climate, soil, and market demand fostered cotton cultivation, which brought with it slavery and a paternalistic social order. After the war, white and black tenant farmers replaced slave labor, the price of cotton dropped, and grass-roots agrarian unrest followed. Government and business interests combined to gain control of agricultural policy during the early twentieth century, which they retained through the end of World War II. By that time, mechanization, rural to urban migration, and crop diversification had altered Alabama agriculture, but farm and forest products remained central to the state's economy and those who had an economic interest in them still had a political voice as strong as any.
Extensive white settlement of Alabama followed the War of 1812 and the defeat of the Creek Nation. Most of the settlers came from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, pushed by land exhausted through the over-cultivation of cotton and drawn by the rich soil of the Tennessee Valley and the Black Belt. They brought with them slave labor and the plantation system, which were readily transplanted in Alabama. Steady demand for cotton made this product the nation's leading export during the first half of the nineteenth century and solidified the planter elite's sense of self-importance. On the eve of the Civil War, however, Alabama was only one generation removed from the frontier and most of the state's farmers owned few, if any, slaves.
After the war, tenant farming replaced slavery as the state's primary source of agricultural labor. This system suited itself to the state and the region's lack of capital. It provided work for landless laborers who knew farming but had no other skills, no means to acquire them, and no money to invest in land and equipment. It required the landlord to provide the tenant with a share of the crop rather than wages. It allowed the landlord to assume the role of furnishing merchant, which further reduced the tenant's share of the crop and required that even less money change hands. Simultaneously, the opening of the Suez Canal lowered the demand for southern cotton and a deflationary federal money policy worked to the disadvantage of tenants and other debtors.
These problems made Alabama ripe for the grass-roots agrarian reform movements that appeared in the United States during the later nineteenth century. These included the National Grange, primarily a social and educational organization, and the Agricultural Wheel, which advocated political action. The Farmers' Alliance was most significant of all, both in the state and the nation. Its platform called for nationalization of railroads and direct federal intervention in the commodity market. In Alabama both blacks and whites joined the Alliance, though local chapters generally remained racially separate. During the 1890s, the Farmers' Alliance developed into the People's or Populist Party which won some significant but short-lived victories at the national and state levels.
In 1914 the Smith-Lever Act created a network of county farm agents based in the nation's land-grant colleges. The Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later Auburn University) administered the state's extension service, with a separate black branch based at Tuskegee Institute that reported to the white state director in Auburn. Later, county home demonstration agents were added to the extension service corps. Agricultural demands created by World Word I strengthened the extension service. So did the appearance in 1920 of a state branch of the American Farm Bureau Federation, a private organization devoted to cooperative purchasing, cooperative marketing, and promoting the political interests of agriculture. Extension agents assisted in the organization and administration of the Farm Bureau at the county level. In this endeavor, the line between government and private enterprise was blurred as the Farm Bureau and the Extension Service became powerful political allies. Critics consistently charged that the Extension Service and the Farm Bureau showed little interest in tenants, devoted their primary attention to larger landowners, and discouraged other farm organizations, particularly the more militant Farmers' Union.
Diversification, mechanization, and migration became increasingly important factors in Alabama agriculture beginning in the early twentieth century. The Extension Service vigorously promoted crop diversification. The beef, forest, and poultry products they stressed eventually surpassed cotton in market value. Diversification was aided by the boll weevil, which made total reliance upon cotton even more precarious than it had been. Furthermore, large-scale and more mechanically efficient cotton production in western states reduced the South's share of the market. Migration of blacks out of the rural South represented a major demographic shift and eventually helped push the region from labor-intensive to capital-intensive agriculture. By 1920 Alabama had approximately the same number of black and white tenant farmers, with the number of blacks dropping and the number of whites increasing.
Following a World War I high, agricultural prices began to drop during the early 1920s. Farm prices had long been depressed when the stock market crashed in 1929. The New Deal provided landowners with federal support to reduce commodities. Consequently, they lowered the acreage under cultivation by evicting tenants. At the same time, they used federal funds to mechanize, fertilize, and produce more on fewer acres. During World War II, demand for farm products encouraged diversification and provided capital for mechanization. Urban employment opportunities also lured labor from the farm to the city, making mechanization imperative to meet wartime demands for farm products. From 1925 until 1945, Alabama agriculture underwent more change than it had in the previous one hundred years.
Various contemporary publications have documented the history of agriculture in Alabama. During the 1850s, the American Cotton Planter, published in Montgomery, advocated the reform of southern agriculture. The Grange, the Agricultural Wheel, and the Farmer's Alliance all issued Alabama-based publications. During the twentieth century, the Extension Service, the Farm Bureau, and various commodity groups have relied upon pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines to carry their message to Alabama farmers, voters, and politicians. These publications consistently reflect the state's major economic interests, as well as agricultural trends in the region and the nation.
DC 1-15-95

Agricultural Biotechnology and Farm Economics

2009-04-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIQqqdDjmWE

AGRICULTURE

2009-03-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

This week's theme is agriculture. You can post something about the diffusion of a particular crop, methods of agriculture, religious rituals and agriculture, modern innovations, etc.

Reconstruction in Nigeria

2009-03-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kclmqg_tz0

Developement in New Orleans

2009-03-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Compact Communities

Respecting our land means using it efficiently.

Compact communities have a smaller per capita footprint on our land base and keep our costs of servicing down. Compact communities allow us to absorb new residents and jobs without sacrificing our quality of life, our environment, or the fiscal health of our towns and cities.

Unfortunately, conventional development patterns over the past 50 years have relied upon the following strategies:

separating homes, jobs and shopping from each other;
connecting these uses by roads and parking lots;
building housing, retail, and office parks at low densities.

This is reflected in the fact that, over the last three decades, the rate of BC’s population growth was only about half of the rate of land urbanization (87% vs 162%). This inefficient use of land has severe consequences on our economy, our environment, our farmland, our health, and our safety. Now more and more, communities are experiencing the hard realities of this low-density, single-use pattern including:

traffic congestion and pollution;
few choices (other than car) for getting around;
loss of working farmland and green spaces to sprawl;
high housing costs and low housing diversity;
unaffordable road and infrastructure maintenance costs;
increasing obesity, diabetes, asthma, and other health problems related to vehicle dependency.

Perhaps one of the most insidious results of conventional development is that every community ends up looking the same. Our heritage sites and our virbrant town centres are often the first victims of sprawling development patterns.

Fortunately, there is a smart growth alternative: building compact, complete communities. Benefits include:

improvements to our health by providing safe and attractive ways to get around on wheels (bike, rollerblades, wheelchair) or on foot;
mitigation of climate change by providing shopping, schools, and other services within easy walking distance, thereby reducing our dependency on vehicles;
protection of our farmland by keeping the town in the town and the country in the country;
reductions in the costs of servicing (and therefore taxes) by extending infrastructure over shorter distances and are shared by more people through densification;
diversification of the local economy by allowing people to work from vibrant, mixed-use neighbourhoods that attract and keep residents;
more time with family as commuting times are reduced, which in turn allow neighbours and to get to know one another better and the social fabric of the community to strengthen.

Strategies for the Creation of Compact Communities

establish and adhere to urban and rural containment boundaries;
offer housing diversity for all ages through affordable housing strategies and homes of all sizes for all stages of life;
limit service provision (no servicing above a certain elevation or outside the containment boundary). This includes roads, sewer and water lines, fire protection and policing;
allow natural places to continue to provide recreation, aesthetic, and health benefits by protecting them from urbanization.

Goverments Can

Request a Smart Growth BC workshop for staff and elected officials to familiarize yourselves with smart growth principles.
Define and adopt a containment boundary around your community as a part of the long-term community visioning process.
Use Smart Growth BC's policies when undergoing reviews of Regional Growth Strategies and Official Community Plans.
Utilize Smart Growth BC research publications for decision-making.

Citizens Can

Request a Smart Growth BC Community Assistance Program (CAP) workshop in your community.
Get involved with community groups that are concerned with community or sustainability issues – or, form a new one.
Advocate for an urban or rural containment boundary in your community's land use planning documents.
Support appropriate levels of densification and mixed-use initiatives in your neighbourhood and recognize that often the alternative to densification is sprawl on the outskirts of town.
Talk to your neighbours and friends about smart growth.
Write a letter to the local newspaper or call a local radio talk show.
Question your politicians and candidates at election time.

Human Development Trends 2007/ 2008

2009-03-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/10.html

2009-03-06T17:45:00.001-08:00

http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/profiles.jsp?ma=5160

WEEK EIGHT - Ethnicity

2009-03-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

Focus on issues related to ethnicity this week

CIA - The World Factbook

2009-03-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

The link below is a list of ethnic groups listed on the The World Factbook of the CIA. Along with each country, there is a list of ethnic groups (%), and a link at the top of the page for reference maps. When you click on a country, information about the geography, the people, the economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues, among other facts, are given.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html

Ethnic Records in the US

2009-03-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

Since ethnicity is identity with a group with cultural similarities it is often confused with religion that are or are not ethnic. This post is of a evangelical Christian group called Joshua Project who is keeping record of the ethnic groups in the US for missionary purposes. The attached page is the records of all the different ethnic groups living in the US, their population, and their primary religion.

http://www.joshuaproject.net/countries.php?rog3=US

Mandarin Chinese

2009-03-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there are two, very different types of Chinese language?
Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 官話; simplified Chinese: 官话; pinyin: Guānhuà; literally "speech of officials" or simplified Chinese: 北方话; traditional Chinese: 北方話; pinyin: Běifānghuà; literally "northern dialect(s)"), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin language has more native speakers than any other language. The "standard" in Standard Mandarin refers to the standard Beijing dialect of the Mandarin language.
Mandarin is also a general term describing any grade of nobility in the Chinese Imperial Court.
In English, Mandarin can refer to either of two distinct concepts:
In everyday use Mandarin refers to Standard Chinese or Standard Mandarin (Putonghua / Guoyu / Huayu), which is based on the particular Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing. Standard Mandarin functions as the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, the official language of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of the four official languages of Singapore. ‘Chinese’ — in practice Standard Mandarin — is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
In its broader sense, Mandarin is a diverse group of Mandarin dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China (Guanhua / Beifanghua / Beifang fangyan). This group of dialects is the focus of this article.
The latter grouping is defined and used mainly by linguists, and is not commonly used outside of academic circles as a self-description. Instead, when asked to describe the spoken form they are using, Chinese speaking a form of non-Standard Mandarin will describe the variant that they are speaking, for example Southwestern Mandarin or Northeastern Mandarin, and consider it distinct from ‘Standard Mandarin’ (putonghua); they may not recognize that it is in fact classified by linguists as a form of ‘Mandarin’ in a broader sense. Nor is there a common ‘Mandarin’ identity based on language; rather, there are strong regional identities centred on individual dialects, because of the wide geographical distribution and cultural diversity of its speakers.
Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is significant dispute as to whether Mandarin is a

2009-02-25T13:41:00.001-08:00

Catholic Cemetaries in New Orleans

2009-02-25T13:34:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3Z-fDlFsA

Because of flooding in New Orleans, tombs were built in the cemeteries to help keep the caskets from coming out of the ground when there is a big flood. In the catholic cemeteries, they would put more than one body into a tomb after a certain period of time.

Definition of Lent

2009-02-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent

Ancient Greek Religion

2009-02-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

Below is information on ancient Greek religion as well as a url from the history channel that provides a visual.

Traditional Greek religion was pagan polytheism, meaning that it included many gods and other supernatural beings. Greeks inherited many of their ideas about the gods from the Middle East. Their basic belief remained constant: People must honor the gods to thank them for blessings received and to receive blessings in return.Greeks considered the gods human-like in form and emotions. The gods did not love all human beings; rather, they protected and benefited people and states who paid them honor and avoided offending them. People pleased the gods by sacrificing animals and other foods, decorating their sanctuaries with art, offering prayers, and holding festivals. The gods became angry when people performed sacrifices improperly, violated the sanctity of a temple, or broke their sworn word. Greeks believed that angry gods inflicted punishments such as famine, earthquake, epidemics, or defeat in war.

Greeks also believed that the vast difference in power between people and gods made the divinities’ natures and purposes hard to understand, but traditional stories about the gods provided hints. Some people did not believe all the mythological tales of monsters and divine love affairs with mortals, but everyone respected the myths as lessons about the gods’ awesome might, their inscrutability, and the precariousness of human life. For more direct information people could go to oracles, temples where the gods were believed to answer questions or deliver cures by various means. The priests at an oracle relayed a god’s message, or the visitor could gain clues in a dream as to what the gods wanted. Seers at oracles told prophecies about the future. Pilgrims from beyond the Greek city-states flocked to major oracles, such as at Delphi, to ask for divine advice about marriage, children, money matters, and even foreign policy. The responses were always riddles, because gods were too complex to reply clearly to mere human beings.

As Greek religion evolved, 12 gods emerged as the most important. These gods were believed to assemble for banquets atop Mount Olympus, Greece’s highest peak. Their leader was Zeus, god of the sky. The other gods were Hera, Zeus’s wife and the goddess of marriage; Aphrodite, goddess of love; Apollo, god of the sun; Ares, god of war; Artemis, goddess of nature; Athena, goddess of wisdom and war; Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest; Dionysus, god of wine and vegetation; Hephaestus, god of fire; Hermes, messenger of the gods; and Poseidon, god of the sea.

Source: encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_1741501460_5/Ancient_Greece.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88kkXrUevBY

2009-02-24T17:39:00.000-08:00

This article by Susan K. Smith gives her perspective of how religion has hurt the role of women and has held women captive by its teaching. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_k_smith/2008/10/religion_has_duped_women.html

Hinduism

2009-02-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world. It differs from Christianity and Western religions. There is no single founder, or a central organization. Though many theories exist, the roots may be traced back to 4000 BC. Sacred texts include the Vedas, The Ramayana, and The Mahabharata. Though Hinduism is viewed in the west as a polytheistic religion it isn't exactly polytheistic, in fact, it is somewhat difficult to categorize the religion. Though some view it as monotheistic, the most accurate classifications are Trinitarian and henotheistic. Trinitarian because Brahman (God) is visualized as a triad: Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the Peserver, and Shiva - the Destroyer. Henotheistic because a single deity is recognized (Brahman/God) and other Gods and Goddesses are recognized as facets, forms, and manifestations, or aspects of the supreme God.
Hindus believe in reincarnation. It results in a continuous cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. It is called "samsara." Karma is the accumulation of a person's good and bad deeds, so basically karma determines how one will live their next life. If a person has a lot of good karma - living a life of pure acts, thoughts, and devotion, they can be reborn at a higher level. Continuing this, one can escape "samsara" and achieve enlightenment. On the contrary, if one has a lot of bad karma, this can cause them to be reborn as a lower lever. The unequal distribution of wealth, prestige, and suffering is seen as consequences of one's soul's karma.
Hindus organize their lives around 4 "goals" aka "the doctrine of the fourfold end of life."
There are three goals (pravritti} for those in this world:
Dharma - righteousness in religious life, the most important
Artha - success in their economic life
Kama - gratification of the senses.
The ultimate goal (nivritti) for those who renounce the world is:
Moksa - liberation from "samsara." This is the supreme goal.
The "red dot" is a common question of non-Hindus. It is commonly referred to as a "bindi" by Hindus. It serves various purposes. It symbolizes the "third eye," this eye is considered to be more perceptive in that it is focused inwards toward God. Both men and women wear it; though men wear generally only wear it during religious ceremonies and prayer. Women, on the other hand, may wear it to symbolize marriage (the RED dot) or they may wear any color to match their traditional clothing. Generally divorced or widowed women, especially widowed women, do not wear a dot unless it is during religious ceremonies.
One of Hinduism’s important texts is the Ramayana, which is an epic about Rama. Though there are previous events that lead up to it, an important part of the epic is when Rama and his army build a bridge to link India and Sri Lanka, to fight their enemies which resided in Sri Lanka at the time. The bridge, a chain of limestone shoals, is 30 mi long. The bridge is referred to as Rama’s Bridge in the east and Adam’s Bridge in the west. Though there has been some speculation of the existence of this bridge and its origins, ultimate proof is resulted from pictures from NASA. The curvatures and composition reveals that it is in fact man-made.

WEEk 7 - Religion

2009-02-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

Appropriately, this week's theme is religion. Some people aren't aware that Mardi Gras is a religious holiday. You could write about the cult of Joe Cain, Carnival in Brazil, Lent, or something unrelated.

Learning New Religions

2009-02-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

Chinese police studying religious practices ahead of Olympics
July 24th, 2008 - 4:35 pm

XinhuaShenyang (China), July 24 (Xinhua) Police in the Olympic football co-host city Shenyang in northeast China are being imparted knowledge of different religious practices in a bid to understand foreigners and avoid insulting their feelings during the Games. More than 5,000 police officers have learnt the origins, forms, taboos, and classic works of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism in regular classes since the municipal public security bureau launched the campaign in March.
Besides theories and China’s religious laws and policies, they are also taking lessons in etiquette and how to solve emergency situations concerning religion affairs, said Yang Tao, training teacher.
Study of various religions was a part of a comprehensive Olympic training scheme the bureau initiated since January.
“More than 10,000 policemen have received training on English and techniques to communicate with reporters, and emotion control,” said Liu Kejun, chief of the bureau’s publicity department.
“China has pledged to aid the foreign media’s coverage of the Olympics, and we must work better to create a favourable environment for reporters,” said Liu.Xinhua
yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = "Chinese police studying religious practices ahead of Olympics";

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/chinese-police-studying-religious-practices-ahead-of-olympics_10075413.html

nahuatl in mexico

2009-02-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

Many people try to preserve their culture and language by continuing their language. This video is of a southern town in mexico is teaching nahuatl, the ancient language of the aztecs to the children in the area. They use games, dances and activities to teach the children because they believe their ancestors language is any important part of how they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUSiULIJp4&feature=PlayList&p=98BE636411881FD5&playnext=1&index=2

2009-02-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Tower of Babel story
From Genesis 11:1-9
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Communication Issues

2009-02-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

The url below is an episode from I Love Lucy. Though hilarious, it demonstrates how not being able to communicate while visiting another country can be challenging as well as frightening. Let's hope any experience you have internationally turns out as positive as her's did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzguJS621w

WEEk SIX - Language

2009-02-14T19:48:00.000-08:00

The posts this week will focus on language - development, disappearance, distribution...

DEATH OF LANGUAGES

2009-02-14T17:17:00.001-08:00

About 2,000 rare languages may disappear on Earth in 100 years
29.11.2007
Source: Pravda.Ru

Pages: 1
A language dies on planet Earth every two weeks. This data was published by David Harrison, a linguist and deputy director of Living Tongues Institute, USA.
The death of a language means the death of a whole culture (flan.csusb.edu)
There are about 7,000 languages existing in the world today. Eighty percent of people living in the world today speak the widely-spread 83 languages, and only 0,2 percent interact in rare 3,500 languages.
Languages die quicker than Red Book animals. There are five disastrous areas for languages in the world: North Australia (153 languages), Central and South America (113), including Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, North Pacific Plateau (54), including British Columbia in Canada, Washington and Oregon in the USA, North American Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, Russian Eastern Siberia, China and Japan (23). To put it in a nutshell, 383 languages are in danger of disappearing for good.
A language may at time disappear immediately when the last person speaking it passes away. For example, there is only one person left speaking Siletz Dee-ni – the last language of 27 used by Indians residing in Siletz reservation. This language has practically died. As a rule, the youngest of those speaking rare languages are aged over 60. Only five elderly individuals speak Yuchi language in Oklahoma, for instance.
Rare languages mostly disappear being unable to compete with other tongues. In North and South America aboriginal dialects were ousted by European languages – Spanish, English and French. In Australia, numerous conflicts between aboriginal tribes and white settlers caused a precarious situation of many languages.
A similar situation was formed in Soviet Siberia, were authorities contributed to the extinction of a number of local languages, making local residents speak dialects of various Siberian regions.
About a half of all world languages have never been written down. When the last person speaking this language dies, the language disappears. The death of a language means the disappearance of everything else, that a nation had: their own world, their knowledge of time, biology, mathematics, etc.
Professor Sergei Arutyunov, the head of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, considers the process to be the natural aging of languages. “This is a matter of the natural aging of languages. On the other hand, if 20 languages disappear every year, then it means than 2,000 languages will vanish in a hundred years. This could be a cultural tragedy for the human civilization. In Russia, for example, one language disappears every year. About 20 languages died in the USSR during the last 20 years of its existence. I at least know two of those languages,” the professor said.
Arutyumov sees no connection between the extinction of languages and globalization. “A language dies only when a small group of elderly people speaking it is left, whereas younger people refuse to use this language. Globalization and language is a different story,” the scientist said.

http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/29-11-2007/101929-language-0

PandemicFlu.gov

2009-02-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

This Web site is maintained by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. It is a comprehensive site devoted to the history and tracking of influenza. There are interactive maps and many facts on the site as well.

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/

Animal to Human Diseases

2009-02-13T12:43:00.001-08:00

Lists and describes various zoonotic diseases and parasites common in the US.

Go here to look

Survival

2009-02-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH6WVe96AZk

The Migration of Mankind

2009-02-10T09:54:00.001-08:00

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

WEEK FIVE - Geography of disease

2009-02-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

This week, posts will focus on spatial aspects of disease. Why are some regions more prone to infectious disease? What specific diseases are making news now (bird flu, cholera..)

Your Family May Once Have Been A Different Color

2009-02-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article to listen to on NPR about how our skin colors have changed through migration over time.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100057939

Give my regards to Broadway

2009-02-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Cultural and economic factors are both pull and push factors that lure people to New York City.
Many young people are attracted to New York City because of Broadway and the theater district as well as the museums, symphony, opera and the financial district. The City provides economic opportunity that comes from the financial district and the companies with headquarters in New York for all races, colors and creeds. The garment industry provides employment for poorer people immigrating from Latin America and other countries.

The Human Migration

2009-02-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

Below is a link that will take you to a map that shows how Mankind has migrated across the earth. Most Scientists believe that it all started in Africa and the human population bloomed from there. This map from National Geographic shows that and has an interesting article to go along with it. The Link is http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/feature2/map.html

2009-02-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

During Hurricane Katrina an amount of 645,000 to 1,100,000 people migrated away from Louisiana to find shelter from this storm. Some people Migrated farther West, some people migrated farther North, and some people Migrated to the Northeast.

Whooping crane migration

2009-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGX52B9iXXU

A team of scientists are raising whooping cranes from birth then teaching them how migration works through the use of an ultra-lite plane disguised as a mother whooping crane.

Do you know any Snowbirds?

2009-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

This is an affectionate name for people who reside in the Northern parts of the United States and other harsh winter climate areas of the world. These individuals flock to the southern regions of the U.S. to enjoy a mild winter nearly every year.
http://www.floridareview.co.uk/history/florida-snowbirds.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpqBtDAo70&feature=channel

IT'S AMAZING

2009-01-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

It's amazing that there are 195 countries in this world with a population of over 6.7 billion people, and of these 195 countries one country accounts for nearly 20% of the the population, China. China contributes over 1.3 billion people to planet earth's population. This a very interesting fact that needs to known.

Bollywood video clip

2009-01-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

Population concentration and density.

2009-01-27T18:24:00.000-08:00

There are two basic properties of population--concentration and density. These are what geographers consider in studying the number of people and available resources in heavily populated areas and sparse areas. Two-thirds of the world's population is concentrated in four different regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Western Europe. The rest is in sparsely occupied areas.

The heavily populated regions mentioned are similar through their proximity to or near rivers or water. They also are similar in that they are in fertile areas and temperate climates. Sparsely populated areas are too dry, wet, cold, or mountainous for activities such as agriculture.

Population density is the number of people occupying an area of land that can be computed in several different ways--arithmetic density, physiological density and agricultural density.
The arithmetic density is the number of people divided by the land area. The physiological density is a more meaningful population measure and is computed by looking at the number of people per area of a certain type of land. Agricultural density is the ratio of the number of farmers in the amount of arable land.

Population concentration and density therefore plays a major role in the geographer's study of population.

Super Bowl

2009-01-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a way to amaze (or bore the heck out of) your friends at your Super Bowl party. The U.S. Census Bureau "has compiled a collection of facts examining the demographics of the host area (Tampa), as well as the cities represented by the contenders (Phoenix and Pittsburgh), in this year’s edition of our nation’s most celebrated sporting event."

WEEK THREE- Population

2009-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

This week's theme is fairly broad - anything related to demographic issues. That can include migration, population growth, mortality, population implosion (shrinking)...

Bollywood - India's version of Hollywood

2009-01-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Bollywood is the informal term used for the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry in India. Bollywood is not the only producer of films in the country, but it is one of the largest.
The name is derived from Hollywood and Bombay (the former name for Mumbai). Though compared to Hollywood, Bollywood is not a physical place.The films mostly consist of 3 hour long musicals. Originally, the moves were in Hindi and Urdu, but English is become more common in dialogue and songs.The first feature film made in India was in 1913 and was a silent movie. The first film with sound was in 1931. The first color film was made in 1937. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the movies were primarily romance movies with action involved, but by the mid-70s, violent, action-filled films became more prevalent. In the 1990s, "family-centric romantic musicals" were the rage. Today, films have become very advanced with technology and there are many Western influences. There are also movies being made similar to movies made in the United States. For example, "Chachi 420" is similar to "Mrs. Doubtfire," and "Partner" is similar to "Hitch."
Indian popular cinema has been influenced by the ancient Indian epics, ancient Sanskrit drama, traditional folk theater (mainly regional), Parsi theater, Hollywood (especially musicals), and Western musical television (especially MTV).
The plots tend to be rather melodramatic but are entertaining nonetheless.

Some good websites that more fully display information regarding Bollywood and entertainment news, movies, music and fashion include:
http://www.bollywood.com/
http://www.bollywoodworld.com/
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/
http://planentbollywood.com/

2009-01-25T21:24:00.000-08:00

Funga A La Feeya
Traditional Welome ChantGhana,
West Africa

Fune-gah a la fee-yuh
Ah-shay ah-shay
Foon-ga a la fee-yuh
Ah-shay ah-shay

Cow-ah ey-lah-bah
Ah-shay ah-shay
Cow-ah ey-lah-bah
Ah-shay ah-shay
I welcome you into
My heart today
I welcome you into
My heart today

Noodling in the South

2009-01-25T17:57:00.000-08:00

An interesting folk culture phenomenon in the south is Noodling. This is probably the most interesting way to fish I have ever seen. Men and women go into lakes and rivers, stick their hands into holes underwater, trying to catch catfish. I believe this is an example of folk culture because there are easier ways to fish, but they continue to use this method. This method was first recorded by trader-historian James Adair when observing southern Indian tribes in the late 18th century. Check out the Noodling video on the the link and tell me if you agree or disagree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biL-QcviQGk

2009-01-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqUiqQw33UY&eurl=http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/2693-Dentyne-Face-Time-Rain-On-Me&feature=player_embedded
(You prob. need to copy and paste to new window because I couldn't get get an actual link.)

I love this commercial because it shows how pop culture (myspace, facebook, texting, etc.) has taken away from face time by allowing us to communicate so easily with out seeing or speaking to one another. .

Korean Folk Song

2009-01-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

Arirang is a Korean folk song. Arirang is an ancient native Korean word with no direct modern meaning. 'Ari' means "beautiful" and 'Rang' can mean "dear" in Korean, so Arirang could mean "beautiful dear," but it is unlikely that it is same as the original meaning.

Many variations of the song exist, and the titles usually denote which region the song originated. In all versions of the song, each verse and the refrain are of equal length.

The original Arirang song is Jeongseon Arirang, from the Jeongseon County in the Gangwon Province, where it has been sung for over 600 years.

The most famous version of the song is Seoul, but it is usually referred to as just Arirang. It was featured as the theme song in the movie Arirang made 1926.

The standard version of Arirang has three verses, although the second and third are not as often sung as the first.

While there are many mountain passes in Korea called “Arirang Pass,” much like the "Arirang Gogae," which is outside the Small East Gate of Seoul, it is most likely that the origin of the song’s title came from the tale of The Arirang Pass, a tale where lovers meet each other in a dreamland. The original story is that a beautiful maiden of the Miryang fell in love and her unrequited lover eventually killed her. Over time, however, the story changed to that of a woman bemoaning her unfeeling lover.

This is the context in which the lyrics of the song usually take. A woman, usually, is singing out to her lover to not leave her behind or to take her with him on his journey over the mountain pass. However, since Koreans do not use often convey gender in writing and omit pronouns, the gender of the singer and one being sung to is not specified.

The US Army 7th Infantry Division’s (which is no longer activated) official march is Arirang. It is called the New Arirang March and is arranged in a typical American-style march. The South Korean government selected Arirang as the 7th Infantry Division’s official march for its service in the Korean War.

Also, after hearing a version of Arirang in Korea in the late 1950s, John Barnes Chance, an American composer, arranged his 1967 concert band composition Variations on a Korean Folk Song.

A recording of the standard version

A video

WEEK TWO - Folk and Pop Culture

2009-01-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

Please post your favorite examples of folk and/or pop culture this week

2009-01-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

Music is one element of culture, both folk and popular. Follow this link to hear a courtship song of the Miao (in China) during the Mountain Flower Festival. My favorite quote from the NPR article that accompanies the song- "Even if someone is very ugly, the main thing is if they can sing, then they might be able to show love. People who are too good-looking just love themselves." Just remember that as Valentine's Day approaches.

love song - Select "Hear Yin Xiufan sing"

And now for something completely different...

2009-01-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

Bit of celebrity trivia - who sports these tattoos of geographical coordinates? What is significant about these places?

WEEK ONE - What is geography?

2009-01-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

Beyond memorizing endless lists of countries and capitals, geographers are interested in "where" things are, and more interestingly, "why" they are there. The scale can range from global (spread of the AIDS epidemic) to micro (proxemics). I've posted a couple of pictures to illustrate cultural differences in the need for personal space.