This post is strictly just about what we were talking about in Earth Science the last week or two. Now these are all places, I would love to go to, now a few years back I got to see the San Andreas fault and that was a cool site to see. I’ve always wanted to go see Volcanoes and the Menan Buttes in Idaho. Now the Buttes are basically extent Volcanoes and are the two largest volcanoes tuffs in the world. The other 4 at the bottom are three active volcanoes in the state of Washington, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Glacier Peak. Mt. St. Helens of course is famous for the eruption it had in 1980.
This is my new blog series and in this new series, I’ll be posting images of cities and other geographical areas across North America. This weeks version is the West!. Now as many of you may know, I’m a west coast kid, but I just love the west in General. Over time I’ll start posting various mountain ranges, faults, volcanoes, maybe even some buttes, but for today we’re looking at some of the greatest cites in the west. Now I know I’m missing a few, forgive me Seattle, Portland, Sacramento ! I’m sorry! these are the ones I love the most especially having been to all of them. ATTENTION READERS THIS IS A PSA ANNOUNCEMENT! if YOU haven’t been to either of these cities, I’m going to advise you to go to LA, Vegas(what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), The bay area and San Diego(perhaps has the best weather across the country day in and day out)
East Coast vs the West Coast, it depends on which west coast are you talking about. Since I’m from the west coast, I would ask people which California are you talking about. Now living on the east coast now ( I live in Atlantic Beach NC now) the weather is pretty tropical, and in the West Coast where I spent a little bit of my time at. Now I can say that the east coast is a little more humid, and that makes the heat seems like its suffocating. The west coast, the southern part of the west coast (Southern California) is dry, its dry heat and that makes it seem like the sun is right up on you, but its not as humid.
Now some people don’t realize that it snows in the west coast. In January of this year, in Northern California, citizens were advised to leave there homes and communities because of the storm that was coming and that storm had the chance of bringing a blizzard to the bay area. There are ski resorts in Northern California. There is Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows, and Sierra-at-Tahoe are a lot of resorts. In northern California it usually snows between October through November and sometimes as late as December.
The East Coast now is almost like the West Coast, The East coast isn’t as dry at all. The southern part of the coast is very humid, and it gets hot! like it gets HOT!!! the humidity plus it getting to 95 degrees at times in the middle of July, it can feel like 114 degrees at times. When it rains down here, it rains, and it rains a lot, we can have a bunch of hurricanes and northeasters, that’ll just bring a bunch of rain, and heat,and flooding. The Northern part of the coast, its similar to the west coast. It Rains, a lot it snows a lot, but still we have this humidity out here and in New York City and Boston, it can reach the 90’s with the humidity. But the west coast, the northern part of the west coast, it does have a bit of humidity, but like we say in the west coast….The east coast is the beast coast but the west coast is the best coast.
Geography, a lot of people don’t understand what geography is. Now when i was growing up I was one of those who thought geography was just countries, states, and like something dealing with the physical features and properties of earth. When you’re in elementary school, you learn the states and capitals, and the provinces and the capitals in Canada. Most people think that’s its just physical features of the earth.
Now geography is the study of physical features on earth, along with human interactions in our daily activities on this great earth. Now if you look at this definition, and then look at what people think geography is, then you could see a problem with the understanding of geography. Some people get geology and geography mixed up. Now geologist study rocks, and minerals, geography is like I said the study of earth’s physical features. Now some people don’t know what geographers do. Now there are so many careers within geography. You can work in GIS, Cartography, you can work in Emergency management. Its one reason why i changed my major, now there are great careers in the government field too. You can work for the CIA, AMEC, and other careers. So geography is just a great field and there is so much to do, with some great money to be made in.
Now most people don’t realize that there is geography in music, and always has been. This song by Toto is called Africa. Toto is a rock band that has been a rock band since 1977. This song came out in 1981 and was number 1 on the billboards when it was released. Now this song is about the continent of Africa, it talks about Africa. A band member in particular David Paich, said he was brought to the idea of making the song Africa, from watching a documentary about Africa. In that documentary he watched, he saw the Africa, I’m not gonna say what he said “real Africa” because real Africa isn’t poverty, and killings, because that is everywhere, the real Africa is beautiful, and it is a great continent, and a growing continent, with a growing economy. Me personally, I’ve been to Africa because I have family there so that’s why I said I wasn’t going to say what he said, but that’s neither here nor there. After he had watched that documentary, he had so much emotions running through his body that he needed to write a song about Africa, and the good of the continent. He also stated back in 2015, that the song is about a mans love for the continent and not just a personal romance to a person. When Paich was younger, he and his family went to an African Pavillion and he saw how this family was playing a beat and how they didn’t stray from the beat, and they just stayed on beat, and he had never seen that and it was just like a “religious” experience for him in which he was amazed.
Toto wanted this song to pay homage to Africa. Its hard not to burst out and sing the lyrics “I bless the rains down in africaaaa” when you here this song. This song has meant a lot for Africans since 1982 when it was released. The song starts out with the sounds of the drums at night during tribal festivities and ceremonies. At first when you see these lyrics
“
hear the drums echoing tonight But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation She’s coming in, 12:30 flight The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation I stopped an old man along the way Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies He turned to me as if to say, “Hurry boy, it’s waiting there for you” It’s gonna take a lot to take me away from you There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had The wild dogs cry out in the night As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company I know that I must do what’s right As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti I seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had Hurry boy, she’s waiting there for you It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain) I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rain) I bless the rains down in Africa I bless the rains down in Africa (Ah, gonna take the time) Gonna take some time to do the things we never had”
the lyrics sound like a guy in Africa just mesmerized by the beauty of Africa, he’s looking and analyzing every aspect of the continent. He wanted to learn old melodies after meeting an older guy. He hears the wild dogs cry at night. Now I can relate to that because in Africa, especially West Africa, where I spent some time with family, and at night you can hear animals, like lemurs, Baboons, and other animals at night. The he talks about seeing Kilimanjaro rise like Olympus over the Serengeti( in which that is impossible) but this song has meant so much to Africa, its one of the only U.S rock songs to just rule over Africa. It was played at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. So you know it has been a meaningful song.
So we’re back to food when it comes to our last map post. now as you can tell, this map is all about junk food, there’s nothing on this map that is healthy, this isn’t about a healthy eating lifestyle. As you can tell that Some of these most profound fast food restaurants here in he south are all from the south, east coast and the central part of the U.S. Bojangles is from here in NC, Chick Fil la, Checkers( which a lot of people forget about and I don’t know why), Burger king ( most people prefer McDonalds) Popeyes. There are some restaurants that I have never heard of like, bumpers,Krystals, Gilfords, Artic Circle, and these are some states I have been to due to m family traveling a lot. As a lot of people know, even here in the south, In-n-out rules California, its good too but in my opinion since I have lived there at one point and it’s not as great as some people make it to be, even though its good. I didn’t know sonics was from Oklahoma, and that Pizza Hut was from Kansas thats pretty interesting. I wish that all of these fast food spots were nationally known like some of the ones that i have already named, because I’m sure there are a lot of people who would love to try all of these.
The Five themes of geography all starts with what is geography? Now geography is the study of the physical features of earth, like the atmosphere, and human activity, and the affects of human activity on this planet. Now the five themes of geography is basically an educational tool used in elementary schools, middle, and high schools(well at the schools i went to at least). The 5 themes of geography are, Location, place, region, movement, and human environment interactions.
Location
The first out of the 5 themes is location which is the study of the locations of earth. Location deals with the absolute location like a pinpoint on a specific place. Relative location is a location of a place in retrospect to another location. For example Rancho Cucamonga California would be a absolute location, very specific in detail. The absolute value would be the economic systems of that location within the world market. Location is also latitude and longitude. The latitude and longitude of Rancho Cucamonga would be 34.1064° N, 117.5931° W .
Place
Place is the next in the five themes of geography. Place is the physical and human aspects of a location. Toponym is the associated with which is the name of a place, the site which is the descriptive features of a place, and situations which is the environmental conditions of that place. Earth is a place of unique characteristics such as, landforms, and mountains, rivers, etc.
Human environment Interactions
Humans have more knowledge than any other species on earth. Humans have adapted since man first became a species, to dominate over all other species. We as humans have modified the planet to our liking, making it easier for us to live an interact with the world. We have modified, adapted and became dependent.
Movement
Movement, which is human dominant on this planet. Movement is the translocation of humans, the migration, the immigration, and emigration of people to places. The movement also deals with the movement of goods, and ideas of from one end of the world to another. Migration, immigration and emigration has always been part of movement. People have been moving in this world ever since the first person on earth, with mitochondria eve. The Migration of people from Africa, to other parts of the world, and people adapted and modified themselves over the years. People Immigrate to different countries due to better living conditions, more opportunity. The same goes with emigration, which is the movement of people within a state, and country. That is also for the increase in opportunities, and better life.
Region
Region is the last of the 5 themes. Regions are the areas linked up together by their similar characteristics. You have two types of regions, formal and function. Formal region is regions who are uniformed and formally defined. Cities, districts, provinces. Functional region is like the central point with defined boundaries and the areas around it dealing with transportation, and communication systems. Big cities, like Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Prague, etc are examples of functional regions.
This 5th map is keeping the same theme which is sports. This map portrays the most hated MLB teams in this continent. Now as most baseball fans would know, or even just general sports fans would know, the Yankees are the most hated baseball team in the country, like literally the most hated team. They’re the most hated team mainly because, the Yankees are historically the most the successful baseball team ever. They have the most championships with 27(won the 27th one in 2009). Also as a side note they’ve had some of the most famous player such as, Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, Mikey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada. I mean you have some of the best baseball players right there. The St. Louis Cardinals have the second most because they’ve had success too in the 60’s and 2000’s with Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock, and Former Yankee Roger Maris, and they’ve had Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, Larry Walker, Mark Mulder, Yadier Molina. and in those areas in where they’re hated is because they have a lot of success in those areas, they run Missouri because they beat up on the royals, they usually beat the brewers up in Wisconsin, and they’re rivals with the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. The Boston Red Sox are hated just in New York and only by Yankee Fans, in which that is perhaps the worlds most historic rivalry, They’re hated in Florida because of them beating up on the Tampa Bay Rays. You can also see that they’re hated in Missouri and that’s because they broke the “Bambino” Curse in 2004 by coming back from a 7 game series after being down 0-3 to the New York Yankees in the ALCS and beating them. They Ended up sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 world series. You can see that the Dodgers are most hated out west, I mean they’ve been running the state of California since they came from Brooklyn. The Angels are hated in Texas because they’re in the same division as the astros and rangers. I dont really know why the Red Sox are hated in Louisana and i dont know why the Cubs are hated in Arkansas. The Nationals are hated in Georgia because of the Atlanta Braves are their rivals.
In my map thoughts this, I’m displaying a map that shows the different MLS and USL teams here in the U.S and Canada. This map shows not just the different teams, but it also shows the different regions in which the regions root for. Now as you can tell, some of the teams aren’t all Major league Soccer teams, as in they aren’t the biggest league teams. As in the comparison of the minor leagues for MLB and the NBA G league in the NBA. As you can see, Real Salt Lake has one of the bigger out pours from state to state, and so does the LA galaxy in which their fans root from the regions of southern California, southern Arizona, southern new mexico, and west Texas and southern Texas. Their rooting probably goes all the way to Mexico. Now also this map shows that most of the major league teams are in the west coast, Midwest and the central part of the U.S. There’s only a couple teams that are in the East Coast.
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A Sifaka's thought 