CUltural Geography and Shaping the American Landscape

"The villages and towns have indeed ebbed, and the city-cum-suburb continues to eat up the countryside." -Pierce Lewis. When digesting this weeks readings i was very moved by what all of these articles had to say. All of these men were and still are working on mapping these rural towns and areas that most people just drive by and do not think twice about. What most people do not think about is that the American landscape is shaped by small little towns that are spewed across this nation. Another thing that most people do not recognize is the history of the towns and how that has shaped the landscape as well. Lewis goes into how small towns luster for a while then are torn apart by bigger cities taking jobs and people. This doesn't mean that the small towns are dying , even though some of them have, it means that we need to record what is there and try and preserve what is left by documenting these places.

The Highest Art Form

"There are many things that need to be changed in geography. If we are going to survive as an academic disapline, we should focus more on trying those changes for the better that will consolidate our position in universities rather than assist in our destruction." I think that this quote really sums up what a majority of these articles were talking about. I had no idea that geography was such a disputed subject. In taking geography classes at UNR, one does not see this problem that seems to plague geography. The UNR geography department seems very well rooted and defined. This article tells of how and why geography has such a broad array of topics that can be studied. The President also stresses the whole time about regional geography and how important it is. i liked how this ties in with last weeks articles and elaborates more on regionalism. This idea is still kind of new to me and i still do not really know exactly what it means? i have read many definitions but it still is not clear? how would you define regionalism?

Monmoniers Air Apparent

I thought that this book was a good read. i really liked how he got into exactly how the science of weather has evolved over the last century and a half. It does get a little slow with all of the weather talk but over all i thought this guide to reading weather was awsome.