TGPodcast #60: A Rennaissance in the 21st c. - by D'Arcy Dornan

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

REPOST WITH SLIDECAST: This Podcast was originaly posted in late November 2007. I recently made it into a Slidecast (with the original slides from D'Arcy Dornan), so am reposting it today.

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Today's podcast is the last of my recordings from the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, held in San Francisco, CA in April 2007. I also talk about changing the name of the Geography for Travelers Podcast to the Travel Geography Podcast.

And I talk about my new Travelography 2.0 Podcast for NaPodPoMo on Utterz.com.

Length: 36min 03sec
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| View | Upload your own

Abstract from the AAG.org website:

Tourism Geographies: a Renaissance in the 21st Centurytrave
Author: D'Arcy J. Dornan, Ph.D. - Central Connecticut State University

Geography departments are seemingly well positioned to take advantage of the growth in the popularity of tourism as a field of study. The ever-growing international reputation of the journal Tourism Geographies is a good case in point if we can use this journal's success as an indicator of this trend. This paper aims to evaluate and discuss the impacts of academic managerialism and capitalism and related processes to the development of programs, both academic and professional, relating to the geography of tourism, the geography of tourism and hospitality, and to the professional development of tourism. Concrete and recent examples of the aforementioned program types will be drawn from program development efforts in both California and Connecticut. These 'case studies' will be examined and used to illustrate their significant impacts on the growth of this field within geography. Additional comments and conclusions will be taken from one of last year's panel discussions on a different but related topic entitled: 'Tourism geography: lost realities and prospective opportunities,' which sought to assess the current situation and future trends in the academic tourism geographer community in its ability to meet the needs and challenges of the tourism and hospitality industry and of academia.
Keywords: tourism, geography, impacts, California, Connecticut

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Direct .MP3 download: G4T-TGPod-60-28Novt07-TourismGeographies-DArcyDornan.mp3

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G4T #56: A Soundseeing Trip to China's Danxiashan World Geopark

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to open the .mp3 file)

Danxiashan is a sandstone mountain region adjacent to the city of Shaoguan in northern Guangdong Province in China (north of Hong Kong). The landform is similar to the sandstone regions of northern Arizona (Sedona) and southern Utah, but in a subtropical vegetation zone.

I was at the Danxiashan World Geopark last week and recorded this week's Geography for Travelers Podcast while hiking around on the top of one of the more visited peaks.

My photos of Danxiashan and the surrounding area can be found here:
- http://flickr.com/photos/alew/tags/danxiashan/



Notes:

1. Due to time constraints we did not go to Danxiashan's two most famous rock formations -- the male rock and female rock. A search on those terms will find photos of these two less-than-family-suitable stone formations.
2. This soundseeing tour was recorded on my Zoom H4 stereo recorder. Wear earphones for the best experience.

The Geography for Travelers Podcast is found at http://travelgeography.info

G4T #55: Mike Pesses on Authentic Spaces of Bicycle Tourism

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

This is another presentation from the Association of American Geographers annual meeting in San Francisco, California, April 12-21, 2007. Here is the abstract from the AAG.org website:

Author: Michael W. Pesses - California State University, Northridge

Abstract:
In the past thirty years, bicycle touring has become a legitimate form of tourism. This paper serves as an attempt to examine bicycle touring as an "authentic" form of tourism as well as to examine how the trip affects the bicycle tourist's sense of identity. Through a qualitative analysis of the journals of bicycle tourists, this paper will look into how authentic space and authentic experiences affect the individual's concept of identity and self. The authenticity of the toured space is in constant tension with existential authenticity; one cannot exist without the other in bicycle touring. To find meaning in one's travels, and consequently in one's life, both forms of authenticity are constantly being challenged by the experience and the landscape.
Keywords: Tourism-bicycle, authenticity, landscape, produced spaces

Also mentioned in the podcast intro:

• B.E.S.T. Eduction Network Think Tank/Conference
• Photos from my Alaska cruise
• This original blog post (for sploggers)
  

G4T #53: Ecotourism Concerns in Russia's Altay - with Kathleen Braden

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation made at April's Association of American Geographers Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Braden points out the pressures to develop ecotourism for economic purposes, challenges of corruption, and concern over policies of international organizations such as WWF. Below is the abstract from her paper as posted in the conference program.

(Length: 26min 33sec)

The Impact of Nature Tourism on Biodiversity Change in the Russian Federation
scheduled on Tuesday, 4/17/07 at 16:00 PM.

Author: Kathleen E. Braden, Ph.D. Geography - Seattle Pacific University

Abstract:
With more than twelve percent of the earth's land area, the Russian Federation's situation for species conservation will inevitably impact the biodiversity of the planet. Since the devolution of the Soviet state, biodiversity has been poorly maintained in Russia, with an increasing number of species under threat of extinction. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, international environmental NGOs, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank Global Environmental Facility have all earmarked the tourism sector to provide alternative incomes and alleviate some of the stress on biological resources. These plans are examined, particularly related to nature tourism, the Russian system of zapovedniki (reserves), the ability of the Russian state to attract foreign tourists, and the role of the wealthy tourist class emerging within the Russian elite.
Keywords: tourism, Russia, biodiversity, nature reserve

FYI - I state in the podcast that it is Tuesday, May 15th, which is when I planned to post this. Life got in the way, however, and so it is actually May 17th that this is going up.

Cheers, Alan
http://TravelGeography.info

G4T #52: Geography and Tourism Road Trip, with Victor Teye & Dallen Timothy

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers podcast is a recording that I made a few days ago when I was driving back to Arizona after the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in San Francisco. My two travel companions were Prof. Victor Teye and Prof. Dallen Timothy, both of who are geographers who teach tourism classes at Arizona State University.

This is a follow-up to last month's podcast in which I summarized the 115 papers at the conference that had Tourism as a keyword. The three of us discuss how we personally perceive the relationship between Tourism and the discipline of Geography. I removed some of the background noise using Soundsoap, and while not perfect, it is listenable.

Length: 35min, 5sec

Full show notes are at http://TravelGeography.info

Released under a Creative Commons Copyright: non-commercial, no derivatives, attribution.

G4T #51: Tourism at the Geographers Big Meeting in San Francisco

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

In today's podcast I give an overview of the 115 (updated number) tourism-related presentations that will be part of the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 17-21 April 2007, in San Francisco.

• Blubbery Jam for Cystic Fibrosis - Please Donate
• Checkout the IndieTravelPodcast.com
• Email Me at: TravelGeographer @ gmail.com

(25min, 27 sec - Creative Commons Copyright: non-commercial, attribution, share-alike)

PAPER TITLES WITH THE KEYWORDS TOUR, TOURIST & TOURISM
- from the preliminary program of the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 17-21 April 2007

1. Regional Development Through Tourism in the Republic of Georgia
2. Viewing Historical Sites through the Gaze of the "Other"
3. Locating Queer Key West: Between the Closet, the Resort, and the Bridge
4. Moose head guaranteed: 'Indian' guides, white tourists, and the politics of race and nature in Temagami, Ontario
5. The Impact of Nature Tourism on Biodiversity Change in the Russian Federation
6. An Economic Analysis of Florida Beach Tourism
7. Commerce and Cruises: a comparative study of Caribbean waterfront transformations
8. Out of Globalizing Taipei: Cultural Imagination, Local Identity, and the Case of The Festival of Austronesian Cultures in Taitung
9. Just wasting away on vacation: using environmental justice theory to frame ecotourism-related waste management crises
10. Fish, Floatboats and Feds: "Directions and disparities in policy surrounding the Endangered Species Act and listed Snake River Chinook salmon on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area."
11. The Visual Landscape in British West Indies Travel Narratives, 1815-1914
12. Local effects of ecotourism: a case study of the Nono-Mindo Road in Ecuador
13. Spillover Effects of Recreation-Led Growth in Rural America
14. Are We "Natural" Enough? The Ecological Tourism and Social Development in Taroko National Park Area and San-Chan Tribe, Taiwan
15. Au Bon Endroit: surrealism, creative play and passion
16. Accommodating Green?: Overcoming Barriers to Sustainability in China's Tourism Industry.
17. Do we really need more tourism in Jamaica? Exploring the highs and lows of merging tourism with agriculture in the bid to create alternative livelihoods
18. Management of Protected Areas in Mexico
19. Seeking Shangri-La: Domestic Tourism in Yunnan, China
20. Weaving stories in Taiwan: Japanese colonialism and Atayal culture
21. Spacial Patterns of Touring Circuses Within Europe
22. Spring Mill Pioneer Village as Symbolic Landscape
23. Developing a fall foliage observation route through New England during peak season
24. The Battle of Richmond Re-enactment: An Examination of an Emerging Living History tourist destination in Madison Co., Kentucky
25. Environmentalism in Jiangxi's Tourism Development
26. Do we need them Clustered? Competition, Cooperation and Innovation between Tourist attractions
27. Landscapes of Silk Road Tourism: on the Road to Samarkand
28. Delivering urban renaissance through the revitalization of ethnic neighborhoods as places of leisure and consumption
29. The Largest Industry! Myths and Realities about the Tourist Industry
30. Tracing Irish Ancestors within Diverse Tourism Spaces: A Proactive Approach to Developing New Models of Genealogical Tourism Promotion and Management
31. Gender of Work: A regional study of employees' perceptions of ecotourism jobs
32. Developing America's Playgrounds: National Parks and the Evolving Vision of Outdoor Recreation 1916-1939
33. Many homes for tourism: engaging with embodied spaces and virtual places within second home mobilities
34. On Surfari: Surf Tourism Flows from California
35. Competing carrying capacities and sustainabilities: Setting the limits of growth in tourism
36. Spatial Analysis of Tourism versus Mining in Yunnan, China: Comparing economic and environmental impacts
37. The Shophouse Hotel: Vernacular Heritage in Creative Singapore
38. Good-bye Humboldt, welcome McKinsey - Tourism and Leisure Geography in Germany in the context of current educational policy changes and the complex challenge of globalised educational structures
39. Forging New Linkages in a Changing Global Economy? The Case of Cooperatives and their Link with the Negril Tourism Industry, Jamaica.
40. Displacing Destinations, Becoming Tourists
41. An Evaluation of the Potential and Limitations of Ecotourism as a Vehicle for Conservation and Sustainable Development in India
42. A Defense Against Tourism: The formation of a cooperative system in Smangus, Taiwan
43. Authentic Spaces of Bicycle Tourism
44. Setting the Stage: Guanajuato's Historic Center
45. Ecotourism in Protected Areas: The Case of Kakum National Park in Ghana
46. Canada's emerging wine culture and conflicts in the new countryside
47. Is domestic tourism a domestic phenomenon? Development, the state, and global connections in the mountains of Western Sichuan, China.
48. "Going Global: Ecotourism and globalization in the Niti Valley, Garhwal Himalaya, India"
49. Actor-Oriented Management of Protected Areas and Tourism in Mexico
50. Tourism in Austria - Growing Tourism Centers and Suffering Peripheries
51. Welcome to Paradise! Domestic Tourism and the Myth of the Frontier in China
52. Returning the Gaze: Exploring the Possibility for a Dialogical Tourism
53. Myths of Beirut: The Politics of History and the Seeds of Memory
54. Organics-Aesthetics: Authenticity as a Regional Development Instrument
55. Image, Advertising and Medical Tourism in India
56. Boating on the Sea of Grass: Western Development, Tourism, Resistance, and Local Empowerment
57. Eyes Wide Open: Post-Jacobean Infrastructure Projects
58. Constructing Alterity? The Walt Disney Company and urban landscapes in the Paris Basin
59. The Geography of Medical Tourism
60. Tourism in China—an industry undertaking capitalism and individualism
61. Baltoro glacier - a victim of high mountain mass-tourism?
62. Black Rocks and the Big Bend - Energy Production, Wilderness, and Development on the U.S.-Mexican Border
63. Sustainable tourism on commonages as an alternative to traditional agricultural-based land reform in Namaqualand, South Africa
64. Mountain Shepherds Inaugural Women's Trek: Evaluation of a community initiated and operated tourism project in the Uttarakhand Himalayas
65. Conserving tropical rainforest: a role for ecological education?
66. Driven to the margins: neoliberalism, taxi drivers, and tourism in the Caribbean
67. An Interactive Information System as a Tourism Marketing Tool - The Example of Two Austrian Communities
68. Cruise Ships and Regional Development in Coastal Alaska: A Political Ecology Approach
69. D-Day Tourism: Sites and Paths of Memory
70. "Gay Camp": Analysis of Outdoor Recreation in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Culture and the Economic Impacts in the Ozarks.
71. Journey to the west: tourist traps, Tibet and the independent tourist in contemporary China
72. Neighborhood Revitalization in the Historic District of San Felipe de Neri, Panama
73. Safari Tourism, Technology, and Local Resistance: The Socio-ecological Significance of CB Radios and Mini-vans in an East African Park
74. Reconstructing Disaster Areas through Development Aid: The case of Phang Nga, Thailand
75. Community-based ecotourism in Ghana
76. "Get Back to Where You Once Belonged": Okinawa's Pursuit of Increased Substate Autonomy through Return-Visit Tourism
77. Commodity Chains and the Mobility Turn in Tourism
78. Tourism and the Mormon Culture Region Periphery: Heritage Tourism and the LDS Colonies of Mexico
79. Nature based tourism - some economic linkages revisited
80. Destinations and places seen as part of an innovation system
81. The relevance or irrelevance of environmental ethics? Do they matter in tourism
82. Reviving Tourism in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India: a Challenge for the Crisis and Disaster Management Planners
83. Tourism development in the national periphery: Discourses of the Finnish-Russian border in the process of region-building
84. Isoepa: Polynesian Heritage Site in the Utah Desert
85. Integrating GIS with Database Systems to Identify and Analyze Feeder Market Places of Second-Home Based Tourism
86. The Early Development of Cover Design of Foldout-Maps
87. Consumption of Place: Exploring the Sociospatial Implications of the Coffee Trail and Agrotourism in North Central Nicaragua
88. The New Space Tourism: The Privatization of Space Travel
89. Environmental Regionalism as Discipline: The Northern Forest of New England and New York
90. Processes and tendencies of the residential tourism in the Balearic Islands (Spain): ¿ Immigrants of luxury or tourists of long stay?
91. Medical tourism in India; who benefits and who pays
92. Tourism and Recreation in the Emirate of Dubai
93. Gendered Aspects of Ecotourism
94. Representations of Waikiki: An analysis of tourism through hotel brochures
95. The Marketable Identities of Major American Cities
96. Tourism and Portering Labour in Shimshal, Northern Areas, Pakistan
97. 'Workers' paradise' or entrepreneur's dream? Communist heritage tourism in Nowa Huta, Poland
98. Where you want to go to get away from it all: Theoretical Models of Cruise Tourist Behavior
99. Economic and Ecological Factors Influencing Tourism Operations in Southern Africa's KAZA Region
100. Introducing National Park Reserves into Rural Tourism Industries: Assessing the potentials for integrated, sustainable tourism in the South Okanagan and Lower Similkameen areas, British Columbia, Canada.
101. A New Map to Promote Tourism in Virginia's Wine Region
102. Island Ecotourism - Iriomote Island Case Studies
103. WE Riders of Oakland: Urban Geography as Performance Art
104. Staying Afloat: State agencies, local communities, and international involvement in marine protected area management in Zanzibar, Tanzania
105. "Tubin and Groovin along a Texas River: Contested Spaces and Conflict over the Comal River in New Braunfels, Texas"
106. International Involvement in Tourism Development in a Peripheral Region: Lessons from Ghana
107. Web 2.0 Virtual Travel-escapes
108. Evaluating tourism geographies in the United Kingdom: will moving the goal posts make any difference?
109. Cartography, GIS, and Teaching the Geography of Wine
110. Tourism Geographies: a Renaissance in the 21st Century
111. Identity Shift in a Post-Military Society: A Case Study of Quemoy
112. Much Ado About Nothing: A Geographical Analysis of Industrial Clusters
113. Tourism, power, culture and the creative industries in the core's periphery
114. Tourism User Fees: A Tool for Protected Area Management
115. Development of Tourist Information System Based on 3-D Satellite Image Maps

G4T #46: Jewel Cave Undergound Soundseeing Tour

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Jewel Cave National Monument is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, not far from Mount Rushmore. It is currently considered the second largest cave in the world (after Mammoth Cave in Kentucky), but only a small portion of it has actually been mapped, so it may be the largest cave system in the world. (Click Here for more information.)

I did the 1.5 hour tour of Jewel Cave last July and recorded the whole thing. I have edited it down to about 11 minutes, which I hope will wet your appetite to visit the cave in person. My visit was not a true spelunking experience, which they do offer, but which I don't think I could personally do. Multi-day spelunking trips require that you crawl through 7 inch spaces and carry out all of your personal wastes!

Special thanks to the great Ranger guide who took us on our walk through Jewel Cave!

[OOPS! The original file I uploaded was saved at a rate of 24000Hz, instead of my usual 22050Hz. This probably caused problems for most listeners. sorry about that. I have uploaded a new file that is correct.]

Worldmapper: Travel and Tourism (and more) Map

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

The WorldMapper site shows a wide range of social and demographic data, including a whole series of tourism and travel related maps.

The example below the relative number of international tourists that each country received in 2003. If you click on the title above, you will go to this map. Click on next and you will go to many more tourism-related maps.



The maps are really cool. And this one also shows a particular pet peeve of mine. It is obvious that the countries of Europe receive more international tourists than any of the others. Only the US and China outside of Europe have any significant size comparisons. However, are the borders within Europe really international borders? Personally, I do not think so. Passing from one country to another in Europe is no different from passing from one state to another in the US or Australia, or from one province to another in Canada or China. As such, the international arrival numbers are considerably over-inflated in Europe, in comparison to the rest of the world.

Anyway, these are the numbers that we have to live with today thanks to the World Tourism Organization (aka UNWTO) -- a bogus United Nations affiliated organization that charges for most of the data it collects and the services it provides to developing countries -- unlike other true UN bodies.

NEW: Another great source of Thematic Maps (as well as traditional political, street and physical maps) is National Geographic's Map Machine.

Tags: maps,map making,geography,cartography,tourism,travel,statistics,data,unwto,worldmapper

Quikmaps.com - maps for the masses

(this is a blog, not a podcast)

Quikmaps.com - Maps for the Masses

This may or may not be "Travel", but I did think it was something that geographers and budding geographers should know about, given our historic love affair with maps!

Quickmaps.com allows you to "Draw pictures and label things on a google map using simple clicks and drags." This is Fun! It is still in beta, and the "draw Lines" tool did not work for me in Firefox, but the "scribble" line drawing tool did work. This is a neat way to draw the maps that you want - to your house, to the party, and to the beach!

I have not tried these other options yet, but according to the website, once you have drawn your maps you can:

"Blog it! - Post the map on your blog or website. Quikmaps hosts your map, so you don't need to sign up for a 'google maps api key', or anything like that. All you need is a blog.

Send it! - Don't have a blog? Want to email a map? No problem -- just send a link to your quik map.

Change it! - Quikmaps hosts your maps, so you can come back and edit them whenever you want. After you save your changes, your maps will update themselves.

Google Earth it! - See your quikmap in 3D with Google Earth."

NEW: Use A Map.com is another online mapping tool that you might want to check out. They describe themselves as: "A free service that provides you with a map that has a short URL, for example useamap.com/ourplace which is easy to remember and share with others."

Tags: maps,map making,google maps,quickmaps,geography,cartography

G4T #18: Space Tourism and the Geography of Brazil

This week's podcast covers Geographic Literacy, The Great Escape/Scavenger Hunt, Space Tourism, and the Geography of Brazil. Quite a mashing of topics! and I am not sure if I pull them all together as well as I had hoped.

My students are studying South America this week, and so my goal was to talk about South America -- in some way. However, in looking through my travel and tourism news sources, I found very little about tourism and travel in South America. For some reason South America does not appear as frequently in the international news travel news as does much of the rest of the world, including Cetral America/Caribbean. While I admit that I have my own personal bias toward events related to Asia, my sources are more general than that. If anyone knows a good sources for travel and tourism news about South America, please let me know.

Getting this week's podcast up was quite a challenge. I have a new condensor microphone. And even know people say it's supposed to be a very good one, I find it tended to pick up the "S" sound very prominently. This is known as "sibilance", and is supposed to be fixed by using a pop filter. Well, I have a pop filter but it does not seem to really help that much. So I went through the entire podcast and I reduced the level of the "S" sound every time it appeared in and annoying manner. This took a couple more hours of postprocessing than I would normally have done. Hopefully I can get this figured out for the next week's podcast.

Please take a few minutes to take my listener survey. The link is on the right side of this webpage.

Here are links to the items mentioned on today's this week's podcasts:

* Geography skills or the lack there of
http://aplace.blog.com/317340
* AAA travel high school challenge contest offers students more than $100,000 in scholarships and prizes
http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=319397&cp=10996
* AAA travel challenge
http://www.aaa.com/TravelChallenge
* Great escape 2005
http://www.globalscavengerhunt.com/home.htm
* Great escapes travel humor
http://www.globalscavengerhunt.com/travelyukes.htm
* Space adventures
http://www.spaceadventures.com
* Brazil gears up for commercial spaceport
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000029/002906.htm

* Brics: the changing face of global power -- a four-part series by BBC News
- New players challenge world order
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4260368.stm
- Boom times await new powers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4308382.stm
- New muscles in the marketplace
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4330520.stm
- Causes for concern for new hours
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4352696.stm

Here are a few other Space Tourism news items that may be of interest to potential space travelers:

* BBC: The Space Race: Space Tourism (audio)http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1744_spacerace/page4.shtml
* BBC: Space tourist returns to Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4329328.stm
* BBC: Firm offers $100m orbit of moon
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4139188.stm
* Virgin Galactic - space flight reservations website (f0r 2008)
http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/when.asp
* New Voyager News - source for space tourism news
http://www.newvoyagenews.com/news/

G4T #6: Geography of New Orleans

This week's podcast was somewhat of a departure from my focus on the relationship between geography and tourism. In response to the tragedy brought by Hurricane Katrina to the U.S. Gulf Coast, I have instead provided a brief background to the physical and human geography of New Orleans. Hopefully, this will bring some context to the swirling news stories that have dominated radio, television and newspapers this past week. At the same time, however, the basic geographic knowledge provided in this podcast is the kind of information that can greatly enhance the tourist experience of a place.

The following link is to my online New Orleans photo field trip that I mentioned in the podcast:

http://www.geog.nau.edu/courses/alew/ggr346/ft/south/index-new-o.html

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Podcast Homepage: http://travelgeography.libsyn.com/
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G4T #5: Geography and Tourism

My podcast for August 29 (click on title above) is on the relationship between geography and tourism, and how I came to make the connection as a college student and made it the focus of my life's work. I thought I might add here in the blog that you can access the syllabus for the class I'm teaching this semester at:

http://www.geog.nau.edu/courses/alew/ggr376/

The class itself is taught in Blackboard-Vista, and is not available for anyone who is not fully registered as a student.

NEW: I have made a major edit of the original MP3 file, which was posted on 24 Sept 2006 and replaced the old file.