David Nemeth
The University of Toledo, Geography and Planning, Faculty Member
- Avid academic researcher and writer on the topics of ethnogeographic landscape, extreme [human] geography, and enlightened underdevelopment.edit
What might be the outcome of bending the traditional rules of cartography in favor of chance? Our answer is "something Dada:· What does chance have to do with cartography and Dada? Taking the last first, Dada is a recent expression of the... more
What might be the outcome of bending the traditional rules of cartography in favor of chance? Our answer is "something Dada:· What does chance have to do with cartography and Dada? Taking the last first, Dada is a recent expression of the ancient absurdist spirit of relativism which, as an antidote to rationalism, is as old as Alley Oop and Protagoras. As a protest movement against the excesses of a rational society, Dada mushroomed briefly in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. It arose among French and German intellectuals out of their sheer moral exhaustion and nausea over that War.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Friedrich Nietzsche, Metafiction, Turing Test, Fabulation, and 15 moreDadaism & Surrealism, Protagoras, Internet of Things (IoT), Critique of Capitalism, Cleverbot, Ex Machina, War!, What is it good for?, Absolutely Nothin'!, Listen to me! , Nastya Rybka, AI sexbot, Time's Up, Me Too!, and mapping the Internet
While wild pigs in the early Holocene (begins 8000 BCE) were nimble, fierce combatants for agrarian humans, pigs-as-pork in the present Anthropocene (begins 1700 AD) have been reduced by humans to unhealthy indolents, awaiting slaughter... more
While wild pigs in the early Holocene (begins 8000 BCE) were nimble, fierce combatants for agrarian humans, pigs-as-pork in the present Anthropocene (begins 1700 AD) have been reduced by humans to unhealthy indolents, awaiting slaughter in industrial factory farms. This article argues 1) by first drawing on personal observations of Sus scrofa on Cheju (Jeju) Island in South Korea, and 2) by deploying models of a) East Asian Neo-Confucian cosmology and b) the Western experience of changing pig-human relations in agro-ecosystems ranging from the Neolithic to the present Anthropocene, that pigs were perceived, valued and even respected “as-pigs” throughout the historic Holocene (begins 6000 BPE) and thus long prior to the Anthropocene. In contrast, pigs have been perceived exclusively “as-pork” beginning with the onset of the Anthropocene. Pigs perceived and managed “as-pigs” in relational space time of pre-Anthropocene agro-ecosystems abruptly became pigs perceived and managed “as-pork” in the era of absolute-space-time that coincided with the onset of Anthropocene agro-ecosystems. No living space has been allocated for pigs-as-pork in cost-efficient Industrial Age mass pork-producing factory farms. The welfare state of pigs-as-pork awaiting slaughter in factory farm is stressful and unhealthy according to harsh critiques by animal welfare activists. However, a new era of postmodern, post-industrial relative space may offer pigs-as-pork in the future lives worth living. Perhaps Sus scrofa in this new era will again be valued “as-pigs?”
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Human-Animal Relations, Korean Studies, Animal Rights/Liberation, Ecological biogeography, and 14 morePostmodernism and Consumption, Relational Space, PETA, Gaia, Factory Farms, Absolute Space, Cafo, Enlightened Underdevelopment, Jeju (Cheju) Island, pigs, domestic and wild,, pigs as pigs, pigs as pork, conservation and resources , and alienation from Nature
Republished in: David Nemeth. 2002. The Gypsy-American, Chapter 3: 39-48.
Research Interests: Korean Studies, Cultural Landscapes, East Asian Studies, Geomancy, East Asian Philosophy, and 11 moreNeo-Confucianism, Feng Shui, Enlightened Underdevelopment, geopsychology, p'ungsu, , cultural geogaphy, architecture of ideology, Jeju (Cheju) Island, Hallasan, celestial archetypes, and Blissful Devolution
Abstract~ Some unexpected attributes of modem automotive culture may carry over into the new millennium to have adaptive significance along postmodem pathways of uncertainty. Americans at the end of the twentieth century are increasingly... more
Abstract~
Some unexpected attributes of modem automotive culture may carry over into the new millennium to have adaptive significance along postmodem pathways of uncertainty. Americans at the end of the twentieth century are increasingly a risk-oriented mobile culture that still loves a road trip.
Risk taking is one of the keys to understanding the contemporary youth crisis. Exploring the new dimensions of cyberspace expands the opportunity for expanding cognitive and moral explorations. Even those who remain Children of Descartes in cognitive and moral realms would probably choose to follow the reckless and extreme Children of Diogenes out of the City of Modernity rather than remain behind to die This is their dilemma: abandon the City or assume the risks of an abandoned lifestyle.
Altruism as a "hubcap morality" in this chapter is represented by optimistic members of the Modern Boomer Generation (in contrast to cynical Postmodern Millennials) who once -- at the risk of inconvenience and their own health and safety -- attempted to retrieve lost hubcaps from the city streets and highways and then lean these lost objects against fireplugs in the unlikely event that their owners might retrieve them. Hubcap morality proactively restores order to a disrupted, disintegrating universe.
Some unexpected attributes of modem automotive culture may carry over into the new millennium to have adaptive significance along postmodem pathways of uncertainty. Americans at the end of the twentieth century are increasingly a risk-oriented mobile culture that still loves a road trip.
Risk taking is one of the keys to understanding the contemporary youth crisis. Exploring the new dimensions of cyberspace expands the opportunity for expanding cognitive and moral explorations. Even those who remain Children of Descartes in cognitive and moral realms would probably choose to follow the reckless and extreme Children of Diogenes out of the City of Modernity rather than remain behind to die This is their dilemma: abandon the City or assume the risks of an abandoned lifestyle.
Altruism as a "hubcap morality" in this chapter is represented by optimistic members of the Modern Boomer Generation (in contrast to cynical Postmodern Millennials) who once -- at the risk of inconvenience and their own health and safety -- attempted to retrieve lost hubcaps from the city streets and highways and then lean these lost objects against fireplugs in the unlikely event that their owners might retrieve them. Hubcap morality proactively restores order to a disrupted, disintegrating universe.
Research Interests:
No doubt it is due to his relentless and uncompromising advocacy for Roma peoples over the past four decades that Dr. Hancock has become by now such a polarizing figure in Romani Studies. For example, the Gypsy Lore Society (founded... more
No doubt it is due to his relentless and uncompromising advocacy for Roma peoples over the past four decades that Dr. Hancock has become by now such a polarizing figure in Romani Studies. For example, the Gypsy Lore Society (founded 1888) is a prominent academic hub that links some of Dr. Hancock’s staunchest supporters with some of his most scathing critics. Some members claim him as a public intellectual. Others dismiss him as a temerarious pamphleteer. His omnipresence in the Romani Studies arena certainly keeps the conversation lively. Students in my "Geography of Gypsies (Romanies) and Travelers" classes reveal their admiration for Dr. Hancock and his textbook We Are the Romani People (2002) in this book chapter.
Research Interests:
“A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” – Or so observed the witty Oscar Wilde. My presentation uses several Wildean witticisms as springboards for discussing selected aspects of continuing abysmal relations between Dr.... more
“A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” – Or so observed the witty Oscar Wilde. My presentation uses several Wildean witticisms as springboards for discussing selected aspects of continuing abysmal relations between Dr. Richard Symanski (a.k.a. “Korski”) and all of academic Geography. I draw attention to lessons to be learned from Korski’s public feuding with a slew of its more prominent practitioners, past and present. Graduate students interested in geographer biographies, the history of geographic thought and current trends in the discipline can benefit from studying these lessons, especially where they offer insight into academic politics. For an academic geographer “to be Korski’d” means that she or he has been wounded in the line of duty by a published Korski attack. Few notables in the present pantheon of heroes in academic geography have escaped Korski’s critique. As the epigraph implies, Korski chooses his enemies carefully. If still alive, he tests their continuing commitment to their geographical practices and he challenges their resolve to stand by them. Some of the walking wounded profess there is no importance or significance at all to being Korski, much less to being Korski’d. I argue instead that to be chosen by Korski for attack can be a good thing -- and perhaps career-enhancing. The geography of Symanski-Korski may be in the direct (and prurient?) tradition of Sir Richard Francis Burton. His bunburying and shape-shifting recall the academic antics of Carlos Castaneda.
Research Interests: Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Social Sciences, Academic Writing, Ethnographic fieldwork, and 13 moreAcademic Publishing, Collegiality in academia, Ethnogeography, Academic Politics, History of Geographical Thought, History of Academic Geography, Geography of Prostitution, Geography's worst 'Bad Boy' in exile, key thinkers in space and place, scientific geography, geographer autobiographry, bunburying, and Why Geography Matters [sic]
In November of 2017 a graduate student from Oklahoma State wrote our "Bunge Project" team, led by David B. Kaplan, "I have been tasked with ascertaining the validity of a certain 'geographer's urban legend' and I was told through some... more
In November of 2017 a graduate student from Oklahoma State wrote our "Bunge Project" team, led by David B. Kaplan, "I have been tasked with ascertaining the validity of a certain 'geographer's urban legend' and I was told through some investigation that you might be the person to ask. I am trying to figure out the real story of Dr. Bill Bunge, or more specifically, did he throw an unruly student from a window?"
William Bunge wrote in "Perspective on Theoretical Geography" (AAG Annals, March, 1979, p. 172) that there is "a constant attempt to discredit my work by discussion of my personality, which, contrary to my detractors, is innately cheerful and outgoing as evidenced by my popularity with most of my fares driving taxi cab. At best, discussion of personality arises in a context of ethics and at worst in a buzzing, poisonous gossip. For instance, a right-wing student upset about class warfare threw me through a small window in class and this turned around in conversation into the canard that I had thrown the student through a large window. Blame the victim!"
Bill Bunge (1979: 172) therefore asserted in this major academic journal that he did not throw an unruly student from a window. However, world renowned philosopher of science Mario Bunge (2016) has reported that his relative, Bill Bunge, was not of sound mind and body at the time Bill made this assertion. This is allegedly so because Bill's health and sanity were permanently impaired during CIA-funded MK-Ultra's mind-control experiments conducted on Bill when he was under treatment at the Allan Memorial Institute of Mental Health at McGill University.
This poster is a work in progress. In addition to David B. Kaplan, our creative team is comprised of Kimberly Panozzo (principle author), Dr. Michael Chohaney and Dr. David J. Nemeth
William Bunge wrote in "Perspective on Theoretical Geography" (AAG Annals, March, 1979, p. 172) that there is "a constant attempt to discredit my work by discussion of my personality, which, contrary to my detractors, is innately cheerful and outgoing as evidenced by my popularity with most of my fares driving taxi cab. At best, discussion of personality arises in a context of ethics and at worst in a buzzing, poisonous gossip. For instance, a right-wing student upset about class warfare threw me through a small window in class and this turned around in conversation into the canard that I had thrown the student through a large window. Blame the victim!"
Bill Bunge (1979: 172) therefore asserted in this major academic journal that he did not throw an unruly student from a window. However, world renowned philosopher of science Mario Bunge (2016) has reported that his relative, Bill Bunge, was not of sound mind and body at the time Bill made this assertion. This is allegedly so because Bill's health and sanity were permanently impaired during CIA-funded MK-Ultra's mind-control experiments conducted on Bill when he was under treatment at the Allan Memorial Institute of Mental Health at McGill University.
This poster is a work in progress. In addition to David B. Kaplan, our creative team is comprised of Kimberly Panozzo (principle author), Dr. Michael Chohaney and Dr. David J. Nemeth
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Storytelling, Dada, History of Geographic Thought, Nietzsche, and 15 moreMetafiction, Iran, Academic Politics, Deconstruction and postmodernism, Mind Control (MKULTRA), CIA History, Extreme (Human) Geography, Bill Bunge, Geography pantheon of heroes, legends of Geography, space cadets, Nixon's hit list , Detroit Expedition, Cold War shinanigans, and Speculative Fabulation
Abstract Machine: Humanities GIS seems a most unusual academic publication. It is remarkably innovative; an interdisciplinary hybrid rarely encountered these days when academic presses narrowly target their prospective readerships Into... more
Abstract Machine: Humanities GIS seems a most unusual academic publication. It is remarkably innovative; an interdisciplinary hybrid rarely encountered these days when academic presses narrowly target their prospective readerships Into sequestered categories denoting traditional named colleges, disciplines, and subject matters: pharmacy, paleontology, peccaries, and so on. The publication is bold and experimental, yet appears at a time when university research libraries are notoriously shedding dusty, old books at a rapid rate. Meanwhile academic presses once tasked with producing new books are fading and folding right and left. As a book reviewer reporting my findings during these turbulent runes, it is impossible to predict this particular book's success (however much I find it worthy of a high recommendation). I do wish it wide popularity in an unpredmtable and volatile marketplace. Should it flop with Its targeted academic audience, it would not be because Its contents are boring, predictable, or poorly articulated.
This is a book review of the paperback edition (2018) of Celestial Mechanics: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night, authored by William Least Heat-Moon. It is a darkly ethereal psychgeographical thriller, and a deceptive, delicious page-turning... more
This is a book review of the paperback edition (2018) of Celestial Mechanics: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night, authored by William Least Heat-Moon. It is a darkly ethereal psychgeographical thriller, and a deceptive, delicious page-turning treat. I most highly recommend it to old-school U.S. cultural landscape geographers who might also be Stephen King fans.
Research Interests: Psychogeography, Dark Tourism, Ghosts, Altruism, Metafiction, and 15 moreMarcus Aurelius, Cultural Landscape, Supernatural in Literature, Philosophical Fiction, Wicca, Geographic Mental Maps, Love Marriage and Infidelity, Haunted landscapes, William Least Heat-Moon canon, Cosmoterianism, American road story genre, Dark, Satirical Fiction, Area 51, Superstition Mountains, AZ, and "No bad landscape"
What might be the outcome of bending the traditional rules of cartography in favor of chance? Our answer is "something Dada:· What does chance have to do with cartography and Dada? Taking the last first, Dada is a recent expression of the... more
What might be the outcome of bending the traditional rules of cartography in favor of chance? Our answer is "something Dada:· What does chance have to do with cartography and Dada? Taking the last first, Dada is a recent expression of the ancient absurdist spirit of relativism which, as an antidote to rationalism, is as old as Alley Oop and Protagoras. As a protest movement against the excesses of a rational society, Dada mushroomed briefly in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. It arose among French and German intellectuals out of their sheer moral exhaustion and nausea over that War.
In October 2008, while attending an academic conference on the busy campus of Seoul National University in the ROK, we serendipitously discovered and photographed a dead zone; a sort of "Secret Garden of Failed Anthropomorphic Sculpture."... more
In October 2008, while attending an academic conference on the busy campus of Seoul National University in the ROK, we serendipitously discovered and photographed a dead zone; a sort of "Secret Garden of Failed Anthropomorphic Sculpture." At the time this garden of dashed and discarded dreams provided us with a profound example of neglected worth. Click. Click. Click. It was a somber landscape of uninhibited ghosts rising up in writhing erotica for some ghastly muted rebellion. They performed in an uninhabited "no place" located at the very heart of the vibrant SNU institute of higher education. File this under landscapes of failure, synchronicity, visual ethnochaos and dark tourism.
(Archived in the University of Southern California Digital Library, Peace Corps Korea [1966-1981] Collection)
(Archived in the University of Southern California Digital Library, Peace Corps Korea [1966-1981] Collection)
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Critical Thinking, Dark Tourism, Cultural Landscapes, Sense of Place, and 15 moreMetafiction, Erotica, Seoul National University, Extreme (Human) Geography, odd juxtaposition, landscapes of failure, a graveyard for failed anthropomorphic sculpture, serendipity and space, visual ethnochaos, ethnochaos, Korerotica , neglected worth, Dada rising, zombiefied noctambuation, and sadly, undead
A case study in counterfactual thinking. Humboldt, of course, never botanized in North Africa (though he aspired to do so early in his adventurous, scientific career). Published by ACTAS (Junio/June 18-22, 2001), Arcata/Oaxaca .
Research Interests:
In P'ungsu, Yoon and his collaborators describe through two parts and sixteen mindfully coordinated chapters the following: 1. A traditional (and inscrutable) East Asian geomancy that was a unique and highly systematized ancient art of... more
In P'ungsu, Yoon and his collaborators describe through two parts and sixteen mindfully coordinated chapters the following:
1. A traditional (and inscrutable) East Asian geomancy that was a unique and highly systematized ancient art of selecting auspicious sites and arranging harmonious structures such as graves, houses, and cities on them by evaluating the surrounding landscape and cosmological directions.
2. A unique and comprehensive system of conceptualizing the physical environment that regulated human ecology in traditional Korea by influencing Koreans to select auspicious environments and to build harmonious structures such as graves, houses, and cities on them.
1. A traditional (and inscrutable) East Asian geomancy that was a unique and highly systematized ancient art of selecting auspicious sites and arranging harmonious structures such as graves, houses, and cities on them by evaluating the surrounding landscape and cosmological directions.
2. A unique and comprehensive system of conceptualizing the physical environment that regulated human ecology in traditional Korea by influencing Koreans to select auspicious environments and to build harmonious structures such as graves, houses, and cities on them.
Research Interests:
2017. “Book review.” Celestial Mechanics: a tale for a mid-winter night. By William Least Heat-Moon (a.k.a. William Trogdon), New York: Three Room Press, 2017. University of Toledo Carlson Library Digital Archives; Department of Geography... more
2017. “Book review.” Celestial Mechanics: a tale for a mid-winter night. By William Least Heat-Moon (a.k.a. William Trogdon), New York: Three Room Press, 2017. University of Toledo Carlson Library Digital Archives; Department of Geography and Planning. 7. http://utdr.utoledo.edu/geography/7
Research Interests: Rural Geography, Altruism, Self-Reference, Reflexivity, Reflection, Cultural Historical Geography, Marcus Aurelius, and 17 moreWalden, Philosophical Fiction, Wicca, Historical and Cultural Geography, Landscape and Memory, Toponymy, Literature and Landscape, Psychogeography, landscape history, Transcendentalist Movement /Emerson, Thoreau, Modernism and Postmodernism As Literary Styles, Deep Mapping, Book Review Essay, Spiritual Journey, William Least Heat-Moon canon, Celestial Mechanics (novel), Blue Highways (travel narrative), Cosmoterianism, Otherosophy, and a Blue Highways (of the mind)
Leicester Hemingway’s dream of an artificial island paradise came in 1961, just after he successful published his biography My Brother, Ernest Hemingway. The publication earned him significant financial rewards. While perhaps not yet a... more
Leicester Hemingway’s dream of an artificial island paradise came
in 1961, just after he successful published his biography
My Brother, Ernest Hemingway. The publication earned him significant financial rewards. While perhaps not yet a tycoon, “Duke” Hemingway energetically invested his new wealth in a dream: a sovereign micro-nation called “
New Atlantis,”which he built on a raft in the Caribbean. He claimed that its purpose was to serve as a marine research headquarters. A hurricane supposedly swept it away a few years after it was built. There is also a rumor that “Duke”
built two islands in succession: The first was crude and anchored to the seabed with a Ford engine block. Apparently it was not permanently occupied and scavenging fishermen in search of lumber dismantled New Atlantis in the absence
of any caretaker. The second attempt, circa 1964, was christened with a new name and was more successful. A colony of eight “citizens” occupied the
rebuilt island. Thence came the hurricane ... .
in 1961, just after he successful published his biography
My Brother, Ernest Hemingway. The publication earned him significant financial rewards. While perhaps not yet a tycoon, “Duke” Hemingway energetically invested his new wealth in a dream: a sovereign micro-nation called “
New Atlantis,”which he built on a raft in the Caribbean. He claimed that its purpose was to serve as a marine research headquarters. A hurricane supposedly swept it away a few years after it was built. There is also a rumor that “Duke”
built two islands in succession: The first was crude and anchored to the seabed with a Ford engine block. Apparently it was not permanently occupied and scavenging fishermen in search of lumber dismantled New Atlantis in the absence
of any caretaker. The second attempt, circa 1964, was christened with a new name and was more successful. A colony of eight “citizens” occupied the
rebuilt island. Thence came the hurricane ... .
Research Interests: Island Studies, Utopian Studies, Hemingway, Design Innovation, Built Environment, and 13 moreOffshore Structures, Small islands, Seasteading, Artificial Islands, Escapism and creativity, Extreme Geography, Madness and Leisure, Jeju (Cheju) Island Studies, tycoon fantasies, floating islands and architectures, overpopulation engineering solutions, futurism adrift, and old men and the sea
Recommended rare and unpublished manuscript related to Nemeth (1988): "The Walking Tractor: Trojan Horse in the Cheju Island Landscape." 1988. Korean Studies 12 (1988), pp 14-38. Republished in Tamla Munhwa, 10 (1990):1-28. Professor... more
Recommended rare and unpublished manuscript related to Nemeth (1988):
"The Walking Tractor: Trojan Horse in the Cheju Island Landscape." 1988. Korean Studies 12 (1988), pp 14-38. Republished in Tamla Munhwa, 10 (1990):1-28. Professor Pitts (now deceased) is known in South Korea as "the father of the hand tractor."
"The Walking Tractor: Trojan Horse in the Cheju Island Landscape." 1988. Korean Studies 12 (1988), pp 14-38. Republished in Tamla Munhwa, 10 (1990):1-28. Professor Pitts (now deceased) is known in South Korea as "the father of the hand tractor."
Briefly describes and discusses unique Cheju (Jeju) Island traditional tomb wall constructions featuring "ghost gates." Photograph included. (The newspaper article is on order from the Jeju National University archives, but I have... more
Briefly describes and discusses unique Cheju (Jeju) Island traditional tomb wall constructions featuring "ghost gates." Photograph included.
(The newspaper article is on order from the Jeju National University archives, but I have temporarily attached a sketch from my field notebook from October of1980 indicating the location of a "ghost gate" in one of several, remote, historic tomb walls located at a geomantic site identified on a tomb stone as "Landscape of a Swallow's Nest").
Thanks to Dr. Kim Ji-hong and Mr. Pak Dong-hwan for their generous assistance and expert advice in the field during my dissertation fieldwork.
(The newspaper article is on order from the Jeju National University archives, but I have temporarily attached a sketch from my field notebook from October of1980 indicating the location of a "ghost gate" in one of several, remote, historic tomb walls located at a geomantic site identified on a tomb stone as "Landscape of a Swallow's Nest").
Thanks to Dr. Kim Ji-hong and Mr. Pak Dong-hwan for their generous assistance and expert advice in the field during my dissertation fieldwork.
Research Interests:
2017. Rides of Passage (Along the Road to Poona). 442 pages. Carlson Library Digital Archives; Department of Geography and Planning # 6.
http://utdr.utoledo.edu/geography/6
http://utdr.utoledo.edu/geography/6
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Cultural Geography, Popular Culture, Identity (Culture), Autoethnography, and 14 moreMetafiction, Astral Projection, Consumption of nostalgia and retro items, Nostalgia and Memory, San Fernando Valley, 1950s / Fifties Culture, Enlightened Underdevelopment, high school car clubs (1950s), street rod , hot rod, Speculative Fabulation, Blissful Devolution, self-hypnosis, and "Detroit generation"
Preface: I am a Lucky guy. How I got this way is no longer a mystery to me. Based on my personal experience I can highly advise this path to others in search of Luck: Strive to always in the right place at the right time, facing the... more
Preface:
I am a Lucky guy. How I got this way is no longer a mystery to me. Based on my personal experience I can highly advise this path to others in search of Luck: Strive to always in the right place at the right time, facing the right direction, and doing the right thing, and the Luck Wagon will come around.
Early January, 2013, was a time when the Luck Wagon swung by to pick me up. On that memorable occasion Jeju World Wide Managing Editor Todd Thacker published an essay I wrote about arriving by airplane to Cheju (Jeju) Island, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in February of 1973. Todd asked to see more short manuscripts from me mining the same nostalgic vein. His request and encouragement propelled me into a productive writing mood. Once I pried open that old crate of Peace Corps memories, so much direct and tangential material spewed forth there was no shutting the lid on it. For the entire year of 2013 I submitted an essay a week to total 52 essays.
Around June or July of 2013 I began to imagine that my online weekly essays might be easily eventually converted into chapters for a book project. At the end of 2013 Todd committed to republishing the 2013 essays, again weekly, during 2014. He also kindly consolidated the 52 digital essay files as edited and published for JWW readers to one digital file, and sent that file to me. It is this file I have massaged into this book project and have titled Jeju Island Rambling: Self-exile in Peace Corps, 1973-1974.
Luck begets Luck. It was certainly another Lucky Day for me back in 1971 when I decided to apply for the opportunity to become a United States Peace Corps Volunteer. This book describes some of the outcome of that fortuitous decision. After reading my book you may agree that I am a Lucky guy.
I am a Lucky guy. How I got this way is no longer a mystery to me. Based on my personal experience I can highly advise this path to others in search of Luck: Strive to always in the right place at the right time, facing the right direction, and doing the right thing, and the Luck Wagon will come around.
Early January, 2013, was a time when the Luck Wagon swung by to pick me up. On that memorable occasion Jeju World Wide Managing Editor Todd Thacker published an essay I wrote about arriving by airplane to Cheju (Jeju) Island, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in February of 1973. Todd asked to see more short manuscripts from me mining the same nostalgic vein. His request and encouragement propelled me into a productive writing mood. Once I pried open that old crate of Peace Corps memories, so much direct and tangential material spewed forth there was no shutting the lid on it. For the entire year of 2013 I submitted an essay a week to total 52 essays.
Around June or July of 2013 I began to imagine that my online weekly essays might be easily eventually converted into chapters for a book project. At the end of 2013 Todd committed to republishing the 2013 essays, again weekly, during 2014. He also kindly consolidated the 52 digital essay files as edited and published for JWW readers to one digital file, and sent that file to me. It is this file I have massaged into this book project and have titled Jeju Island Rambling: Self-exile in Peace Corps, 1973-1974.
Luck begets Luck. It was certainly another Lucky Day for me back in 1971 when I decided to apply for the opportunity to become a United States Peace Corps Volunteer. This book describes some of the outcome of that fortuitous decision. After reading my book you may agree that I am a Lucky guy.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Island Studies, Korean Studies, Autoethnography, Humanistic Geography, and 15 moreSpirituality & Mysticism, Magical Realism, Existential Anthropology, Exile Literature, Sacred mountains, Escapism, Ethnographic & autoethnographic research, Sacred Space, Peace Corps, Small islands, Enlightened Underdevelopment, Jeju Island Studies, Extreme (Human) Geography, Blissful Devolution, and spirit of exploration
Let me sketch out here my vision of the cloistered cornucopia of AD 2100: Management of Planet Earth is entirely rationalized. Nature still nurtures. Artificial intelligence is history. The Machine has met its Master. The rich are... more
Let me sketch out here my vision of the cloistered cornucopia of AD 2100: Management of Planet Earth is entirely rationalized. Nature still nurtures. Artificial intelligence is history. The Machine has met its Master. The rich are enraptured. The poor are happy. The ducks of demography are all in a row. Never more is heard the discouraging word. Welcome to my sanguine vision of our future totalitarian utopia.
~
Climatologist Kent M. McGregor reviewed the entire book favorably in: AAG Review of Books. 2 (2) 2016, pps 84-86. He writes of my chapter: "David Nemeth's chapter is an incredibly idiosyncratic personal monologue in which the future becomes a kind of totalitarian dystopia. Using several parables, he elucidates an unusually positive view of a future wherein increasing happiness abounds and human desires and needs are satisfied. An elitist oligarchy uses a carefully designed code of best practices to manage the earth's resources. The result is a productive socioeconomic society in which the lower class has been dumbed down and now live happily in a kind of fool's paradise. He included a frank discussion and comparison to the social situation in North Korea, where citizens are required to appear to be happy."
Dr. McGregor's synopsis is accurate, but the futuristic society I describe is not a "totalitarian dystopia." It is instead -- and significantly -- a "totalitarian utopia."
~
Climatologist Kent M. McGregor reviewed the entire book favorably in: AAG Review of Books. 2 (2) 2016, pps 84-86. He writes of my chapter: "David Nemeth's chapter is an incredibly idiosyncratic personal monologue in which the future becomes a kind of totalitarian dystopia. Using several parables, he elucidates an unusually positive view of a future wherein increasing happiness abounds and human desires and needs are satisfied. An elitist oligarchy uses a carefully designed code of best practices to manage the earth's resources. The result is a productive socioeconomic society in which the lower class has been dumbed down and now live happily in a kind of fool's paradise. He included a frank discussion and comparison to the social situation in North Korea, where citizens are required to appear to be happy."
Dr. McGregor's synopsis is accurate, but the futuristic society I describe is not a "totalitarian dystopia." It is instead -- and significantly -- a "totalitarian utopia."
Research Interests: Future Studies, Climate Change, Human-Robot Interaction, Metafiction, Satire & Irony, and 15 moreSocial Engineering, Singularity, Eugenics, Utopian, Dystopian, and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, Blade Runner, The Terminator, North Korean Studies, Enlightened Underdevelopment, totalitarian utopia, international oligarchy , robots and AI, Speculative Fabulation, elite culture , machine in the garden, and S. Butler & J.D. Bernal
Extreme human geography is a critique that celebrates odd juxtapositions; it is not to be confused with extreme physical geography, which has its own distinct cabinet of remarkable curiosities. Extreme geography as a recurring subversive... more
Extreme human geography is a critique that celebrates odd juxtapositions; it is not to be confused with extreme physical geography, which has its own distinct cabinet of remarkable curiosities. Extreme geography as a recurring subversive idea in the history of geographic thought manifests as fantasy mapping, counterfactual geographies, science fiction spaces/places, and other imaginative social critiques. As an identifiable critical “tradition” in modern Western geographic thought, its convoluted heritage is cross-disciplinary and can be traced in fits and spurts from Homer, through Diogenes of Sinope, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Athanasias Kircher, to Guy Debord, Ursula K. Le Guin, and recently a conspiratorial core of radical cartographers at Pennsylvania State University, the founders of Globehead! Journal of Extreme Geography.
Note: WorldCat online reports that only three university libraries in the world own and lend copies of Globehead! and that Penn State is the only university with the complete run of Globehead! (Volume 1, Things One and Two).
Note: WorldCat online reports that only three university libraries in the world own and lend copies of Globehead! and that Penn State is the only university with the complete run of Globehead! (Volume 1, Things One and Two).
Research Interests: Human Geography, Cultural Geography, History of Geographic Thought, Ursula K. Le Guin, Satire & Irony, and 15 moreGeographical Method and Theory, Dadaism & Surrealism, Postmodern Geography, History of Geographical Thought, Radical Relativism, Diogenes of Sinope, Publish and Perish, Extreme (Human) Geography, Globehead! a journal of extreme geography, Athanasias Kircher, fantasy mappng, counterfactual geographies, science fiction spaces/places, ethnochaos, and graduate student angst
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A persistent idea in the history of Korean and Chinese Confucian thought is that everything terrestrial has its prototype, its primordial cause, and its ruling agency in heaven. During Yi dynasty times (AD 13921910), when Confucianism... more
A persistent idea in the history of Korean and Chinese Confucian thought is that everything terrestrial has its prototype, its primordial cause, and its ruling agency in heaven. During Yi dynasty times (AD 13921910), when Confucianism supplanted Buddhism as the state cult, the highly centrahzed Korean government adopted and refined this idea as part of the Neo-Confucian cosmography it promoted throughout the realm. The result was the creation of an orthodox Korean Confucian society dedicated to the manufacture of terrestrial forms based on celestial prototypes. This man-made cosmic landscape remains almost everywhere apparent in twentieth-century rural Korea. It perhaps is nowhere better preserved than m the vast storehouse of Korean tradition on Cheju Island.
Research Interests: Korean Studies, Environmental Planning and Design, Cultural Landscapes, East Asian Studies, Island archaeology, and 11 moreSpirituality & Mysticism, Sacred Space, Feng Shui, Axis Mundi, Neoconfucianism, Cultural Lanscapes, Enlightened Underdevelopment, Ecumene, p'ungsu, Blissful Devolution, and Jeju (Cheju) Island Studies
This is a book review by David J. Nemeth
Research Interests:
Present day economic development planning on Jeju Island has many tools in its kit bag strives to promote sustainability but it lacks the traditional pungsu tool of habitat alchemy-the geomancy compass. New generations of development... more
Present day economic development planning on Jeju Island has many tools in its kit bag strives to promote sustainability but it lacks the traditional pungsu tool of habitat alchemy-the geomancy compass. New generations of development planners and Jeju citizens have neglected to study the wisdom and the use of the geomancy compass. Meanwhile, the productive habitat ecology of the past has been replaced by an onerous and dangerous complicatedness in the contemporary habitat sustainability on the island that is the outcome of reckless economic growth ideology. My paper introduces Professor P. B. Singh's conceptualizations of " habitat alchemy " and " heritage ecology " in relation to the importance to geomancy in the sustainable development planning for a " Living Earth. " In addition I introduce the opportunity for development planners to adopt " reverential best practices " by observing and learning from Nature's Own Principles of Self-organization in Physical Space. Organized Jeju Island studies can spearhead the discovery and dissemination of pungsu planning achievements in the past that might prove to be viable alternatives to present-day development theory and planning on the island. I next turn to complicatedness in the Jeju Island habitat generated by the current promotion of shortsighted stratagems of mass tourism on the island. I offer as an alternative to mass tourism and its accompanying complications the possibility of promoting " phantasmal niche destination tourism " on Jeju Island; for example, by branding The Blessed Isle as an authentic, mystical experience for tourists. This choice could provide a novel path to restoring and preserving complexity and a sustainable habitat ecology on the island. This proposal falls under the umbrella of an " enlightenment underdevelopment " mode of thinking; one that mindfully moderates the excesses of an overzealous economic growth ideology that prevails worldwide and one Jeju Island in the mass tourism development sector.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Island Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Korean Studies, Dark Tourism, and 10 moreEast Asian Studies, Adventure Tourism, Spirituality & Mysticism, Sustainable Tourism, Cultural Planning, Destiny, Sense of Place, Spirit of Place, Genius Loci, Cultural Mapping, Placemaking, Local Distinctiveness, Place Identity, Cultural Tourism, Literary Tourism, Gestalt, Culture-Led Regeneration, History of Travel and Tourism, Jeju Island, Enlightened Underdevelopment, History of geographical explorations, and Ancient Chinese explorations
Research Interests:
The research applies a geographic perspective to the interface of biotic, atmospheric and socio-economic factors. Wind as a factor in biotic distributions helps explain the existence and quality of life on many isolated islands. In the... more
The research applies a geographic perspective to the interface of biotic, atmospheric and socio-economic factors. Wind as a factor in biotic distributions helps explain the existence and quality of life on many isolated islands. In the late summer of 1988, there were reports of African desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) invasion of the Windward Islands. The event was historically unprecedented, and agricultural experts in the eastern Caribbean were alarmed. A tentative hypothesis was that Hurricane Joan provided the transport mechanism. An alternative hypothesis is suggested here. The discussion helps explain why transatlantic African Desert Locust migrations are so unusual. Analysis is based on primary and secondary data sources that include synoptic weather maps, formal and informal scientific reports, written correspondence with agricultural experts in the impact area, and newspaper coverage of the invasion.
Research Interests:
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16533495W/Architecture_of_Ideology_(in_Korean-language_Translation)
Ko Young-ja, Translator
Jeju Woodong Public Library, Jeju City, South Korea
Ko Young-ja, Translator
Jeju Woodong Public Library, Jeju City, South Korea
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Our paper reconciles dark tourism with phantasmal destination tourism in order to promote the potential for successfully marketing roadways numbered “666" as an economic development strategy appropriate to distressed localities in the... more
Our paper reconciles dark tourism with phantasmal destination tourism in order to promote the potential for successfully marketing roadways numbered “666" as an economic development strategy appropriate to distressed localities in the USA. We focus our attention on the David Zeisberger Highway in rural Pennsylvania as a case study. We propose a routes 666 phantasmal tourism promotion that
socially constructs a “magical reality” with niche tourism potential by tapping into what we identify as the already latent power of “The Beast” widespread in the public imagination as inspired by the Book of Revelation 13:18 (“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six"). We combine the premises
and conceptualizations set forth in dark tourism, phantasmal destination, applied tourism and rural geography, and rural tourism research with scientific insights provided by “the fallacy of selective thinking” to argue that 666 roadways can offer a marketable “looking for the Beast”experience. Our case study of Pennsylvania Route 666 envisions the potential of this roadway as a prototype “Route 666 looking for The Beast experience.” We find a synergy and new economic potential in the combination of dark tourism and phantasmal destination tourism concepts that inspire explorations of new frontiers in tourism for economic development. Our study is innovative in its conception and proposes a rational and specific plan for rural economic development involving niche tourism promotion.
socially constructs a “magical reality” with niche tourism potential by tapping into what we identify as the already latent power of “The Beast” widespread in the public imagination as inspired by the Book of Revelation 13:18 (“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six"). We combine the premises
and conceptualizations set forth in dark tourism, phantasmal destination, applied tourism and rural geography, and rural tourism research with scientific insights provided by “the fallacy of selective thinking” to argue that 666 roadways can offer a marketable “looking for the Beast”experience. Our case study of Pennsylvania Route 666 envisions the potential of this roadway as a prototype “Route 666 looking for The Beast experience.” We find a synergy and new economic potential in the combination of dark tourism and phantasmal destination tourism concepts that inspire explorations of new frontiers in tourism for economic development. Our study is innovative in its conception and proposes a rational and specific plan for rural economic development involving niche tourism promotion.
Research Interests: Tourism economics, Dark Tourism, Rural Tourism, Place Names (Cultural Geography), Phenomenology of Space and Place, and 15 moreTourism Destination Marketing, China's Economic & Rural Developmenr, Place Marketing, Applied Geography, Current academic researchers on Satanism, Tourism and rural communities, The Mark of the Beast, Numéro 666, Speculative Fabulation, distressed rural economies, searching for the Beast, Where Evil dwells, storytelling and enterprise, The Beast 666, and confirmation bias/fallacy of selective thinking
Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context of its own cosmology and symbolism. In... more
Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context of its own cosmology and symbolism. In this article, I muse on the provenance of 'Berkeley School' genius at the UC Berkeley site in relation to its 'power of place,'using a simplified feng-shui model. My examples introduce and elaborate on the propitious synchronicities found at the site perhaps responsible for the flowering of three prestigious 'Berkeley Schools' of creative endeavor following WWI: Carl Sauer's Berkeley School of Cultural Geography; Alfred Kroeber's Berkeley School of Cultural Anthropology; and John Haley's Berkeley School of American Scene Landscape Painting. I muse over some auspicious peculiarities in the common ground at the UC Berkeley site from which these three landscape schools emerge. A general feng-shui cosmological model describes how creative arrays of primal natural forces might converge at the campus site, creating a cosmic force field that generates and shapes the successful thoughts, visions, and creative output of certain of the site's inhabitants. The founding fathers of these three Berkeley Schools, although unbeknownst to them, are perhaps beneficiaries of UC Berkeley's excellent feng-shui site. The model provides a provocative alternative understanding of forces responsible for the longevity and continuing vitality of the 'Berkeley School' tradition of cultural geography.
Research Interests: Environmental Philosophy, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Geomancy, Sacred Space, Environmental Determinism, and 15 moreFeng Shui, Power of Place, UC Berkeley, Berkeley School genius, p'ungsu, Grandmaster Yun Lin, John Haley (1905-1991), Carl Sauer (1899-1975), Alfred Kroeber (1876-1960), Strawberry Creek, Grizzy Peak, Mount Diablo, propitious places, Mount Tamalpais, and Speculative Fabulation
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Large-scale spatial expressions of ideology are likely to occur when an ideology becomes invested with authority. Authority is a legal or rightful power to command and act. Authority invests in ideology as a tool to justify its... more
Large-scale spatial expressions of ideology are likely to occur when an ideology becomes invested with authority. Authority is a legal or rightful power to command and act. Authority invests in ideology as a tool to justify its inalienable right to exercise power. Justification resides in doctrines and theories that claim confidence in their certainty of knowledge; as for example, in these famous words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, …” written by Thomas Jefferson, founder of an ideology called Jeffersonian Liberalism.
Ideology on close examination is just rhetoric making truth claims. Thus, ideology and critical thinking--as critique--have a close, but adversarial, relationship. Critical thinking from the time of Socrates has been a “critique of domination” by an authority. Critical thinkers are able to advance arguments that successfully undermine ideological knowledge claims that authority makes in order to justify its right to rule.
Ideology on close examination is just rhetoric making truth claims. Thus, ideology and critical thinking--as critique--have a close, but adversarial, relationship. Critical thinking from the time of Socrates has been a “critique of domination” by an authority. Critical thinkers are able to advance arguments that successfully undermine ideological knowledge claims that authority makes in order to justify its right to rule.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Mass Communication, Built Environment, and 15 moreArchitecture and ideology, History of Geographic Thought, Political Ideology, Authoritarianism, Iran, North Korea (politics and society), Monumental art and architecture, Mind Control, Mount Rushmore, Decision Science, Juche Ideology, geopsychology, Do Artifacts Have Politics?, Jeffersonian Liberalism, and patrotism, monuments and memorials
Geography graduate students intent on achieving tenure-track positions in academia might also consider diverse teaching opportunities, both full-time and part-time, beyond their expectations and even those outside their comfort zones.... more
Geography graduate students intent on achieving tenure-track positions in academia might also consider diverse teaching opportunities, both full-time and part-time, beyond their expectations and even those outside their comfort zones. Biographies in geographic teaching reveal that not a few geography teachers willingly or reluctantly have joined the contingent workforce at one time or another, and yet have succeeded to achieve satisfying and ever-prosperous lifetime careers. Geographers do what they have to do in order to survive: they learn from their experiences, and their lessons learned help them to become better teachers. This paper is a memorate of my own unexpected part-time geography teaching experience during 1986 in a California Youth Authority (CYA) facility. My students were all wards of the State of California, incarcerated at the secured rural educational facility I introduce here as “Verdanta School.” I adopt a “memorate” style of self-narrative as appropriate to capturing the unusual essence of a semester-long paranormal experience. I have reduced that experience to “Ten Lessons Learned,” all of which later contributed to my career success in academia, and to my satisfaction with life.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Autoethnography, Sense of Place, Metafiction, Memoir and Autobiography, and 15 moreSociology of prison life, Punishment and Prisons, Geography Teacher Education, Satire, Irony, Parody, Gang Activity in Prison, Prison Geography, prisoner mental maps, professional geographers in a gig economy , prisoners as teachers , Elephant Beer, adjunct teaching in higher education, careers, jobs, gigs, casualization of the professoriate, gangbangers as students, and mental maps by prisoners
Research Interests:
In Grumet, Joanne (ed.), Papers From the Sixth and Seventh Annual Meetings, Gypsy Lore Society North American Chapter, pp. 114-122. GLSNAC Publication No. 3, 1986.
Research Interests:
In Tamla Munhwa 7 (1988):153-180. Tamla Culture Research Institute of Cheju National University].
Research Interests:
Arthur A. Costantino, co-author. In Journal of College Student Development, 34 (July, 1993):310-311
Research Interests: Multiculturalism, Peace and Conflict Studies, History and Memory, Ideology, Innovation In Built Environment, and 11 moreMulticultural Education, Architecture and ideology, Anthropology of the built environment, Campus design (Architecture), Microaggressions, Statues, Campus Climate, Monuments & Memorials, Architecture and the Built Environment, Critical Race Theory (CRT & LatCrit) Educational Access & Equity Campus Racial and Gender Climate Critical Media Literacy Racial and Gender Microaggressions, and Diversity, Diversity Management
In Newsletter of the Gypsy Lore Society, 26,4(November 2003):5-6.
Research Interests:
In Barney Warf, Don Janelle, and Kathy Hanson (eds.), Worldminds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems. Pps. 610-666, Netherlands, Klewer
Research Interests:
In Romani Studies, Series 5, 5,15(2005):200-204. Two books by different publishers, both 2005, are reviewed.
Research Interests:
In Romani Studies, Series 5, 18,1(June, 2008):96-99
Research Interests:
In Romani Studies, Series 5, 19,2(2009):185-190
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Self and Identity, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Gypsy Anthropology, Race and Ethnicity, and 17 moreAutoethnography, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Romani Studies, Informal Economy, Infidelity, Magic and the Occult (Anthropology Of Religion), Qualitative Research Methodology, California ethnography, Moral Luck, Gypsy and Travellers, 'Going Native', Gypsy Studies, Participant Observation, Luck, Methodology of Participant Obsevation, Gypsy taskmasters, gentile slaves , and people studying people
Where California's Route 166 takes leave of the busy coastal lowlands above Santa Maria, it immedlately entwines the Cuyama River rising to its source in the east, beyond the Sierra Madres. It becomes a strikingly desolate drive that... more
Where California's Route 166 takes leave of the busy coastal lowlands above Santa Maria, it immedlately entwines the Cuyama River rising to its source in the east, beyond the Sierra Madres. It becomes a strikingly desolate drive that eventually penetrates the mountains and arrives at the dry Isolation and soda lakes of the Carrizo Plain. The town of Taft hes ahead, just beyond Grocer Grade, at the toe of the Temblor Range. Here, on the threshold of the fertile San Joaquin Valley, urban civilization resumes and petroleum is king.
Between Santa Maria and Taft there Is little to attract the scattered remnants of America's once ubiquitous floating industnaI populations, which include Gypsy itinerants, but the litte there is yet sufficient to interest Thomas Nicholas, a Rom Gypsy wipe-tinner.
"Ame hano saros le boIi ka le bakarni, hotaliya, hospitalya. .... I tin mixing bowls for bakeries, hotels, hospitals" Thomas responded in Romani and in English when asked to describe hls occupation.
Between Santa Maria and Taft there Is little to attract the scattered remnants of America's once ubiquitous floating industnaI populations, which include Gypsy itinerants, but the litte there is yet sufficient to interest Thomas Nicholas, a Rom Gypsy wipe-tinner.
"Ame hano saros le boIi ka le bakarni, hotaliya, hospitalya. .... I tin mixing bowls for bakeries, hotels, hospitals" Thomas responded in Romani and in English when asked to describe hls occupation.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Ethnography, Material Culture Studies, Qualitative methodology, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), and 14 moreEthnography (Research Methodology), Romani Studies, Informal Economy, Ethnogeography, Gypsy Studies, Applied Geography, Taskscape, Service Nomads, Peripatetics niche, Gypsies-Americans, wipe-tinning, floating industrial populations , peripatetic peoples, and Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society
Place and Culture: The Newsletter of the Cultural Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers, Winter/Spring (January, 2012):3,18-19.
Research Interests:
Professional Geographer 59,4(November, 2007):558-559
Research Interests:
Co-authored by Carlo Gianferro.
Published as a “Proceedings” on CD by the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers Conference organizers, ©2009
Published as a “Proceedings” on CD by the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers Conference organizers, ©2009
Research Interests:
2008 [2012] Conference Guidebook, compiled for "The 2008 Islands of the World X: Globalizing Islands; Sustainable Culture, Peace, and Resources Conference." Jeju Island, South Korea.
Research Interests:
Papers from the Fourth and Fifth Annual Meetings of the Gypsy Lore Society, Joanne Grumet (ed.), New York: Gypsy Lore Society, North American Chapter, 1985:28-37.
Research Interests:
Toledo City Paper, December 26, 2007:8
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Place and Identity, Postmodernism, Sense of Place, Metafiction, and 6 moreUrban And Regional Planning, Geomancy, Cultural Planning, Destiny, Sense of Place, Spirit of Place, Genius Loci, Cultural Mapping, Placemaking, Local Distinctiveness, Place Identity, Cultural Tourism, Literary Tourism, Gestalt, Culture-Led Regeneration, Feng Shui, Toledo, and Chinese Geomancy
Research Interests:
This is a limited circulation report I wrote in 1975 in support of citizen-organized grassroots opposition to a Padre Juan Canyon Class 1 Sanitary Landfill proposed by Ventura County, California. The "Draft Environmental Impact Report for... more
This is a limited circulation report I wrote in 1975 in support of citizen-organized grassroots opposition to a Padre Juan Canyon Class 1 Sanitary Landfill proposed by Ventura County, California. The "Draft Environmental Impact Report for Ventura Area Sanitary Landfill" prepared in support of the project in 1973 was a stinker, and recommended the Padre Juan Canyon site as "the cheapest way to go" even though the Canyon was within the Coastal Zone and overlooked the beautiful Pitas Point ["Whistles" to watermen] residential beach homes and public campsite. The Environmental Protection Agency based in Washington, D.C. wanted this site very badly, and was miffed to have been outfoxed by a ragtag group of local citizens. This report was instrumental in the citizen victory. The two cartoons are original art work by Robert Joseph Murar.
Research Interests: Environmental Education, Coastal Management, Coastal Geography, Municipal Solid Waste Management, Environmental Management, and 7 moreEnvironmental Politics, Environmental Sustainability, Solid Waste Management, Environmental Activism, Citizen participation, Activismo, and Democracy and Citizenship Education
A slightly revised and updated conference presentation from 2011 that elaborates on "Extreme [Human] Geography" and its abysmal opportunities both as adventurous mental and physical exploration.