One of my best friends died on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013. Jake Farrell was 12 years old, when he passed away from a heart attack in my backyard. Jake was doing what he liked, living life, running around. I didn’t know Jake very long. We met only in December 2011. In the short time we…
Whether you approve of drones or not is mostly irrelevant, drones are here to stay. Perhaps drone make you nervous. However, drones are invaluable technology which used in appropriate ways can be both fun, educational, and contribute towards understanding our Earth. I have four drones. Specifically, I have four hobby helicopters. I have plan on…
Students are fickle. They want an online course experience, the ability to work at their own pace, in their own environment, wherever that environment is, home, work, school, beach house, neighbor’s house, or Starbuck’s. In all course evaluations, online students report how they want more contact with faculty, how they don’t get email replies back…
The Old Testament is the Jewish collection of holy writings. The New Testament is the Christian collection of holy writings. The Qu’ran is the Islamic collection of holy writings. All three faiths stem from one person, Abraham, and are classed as “Abramic religions.” Abraham is the Father of the Jews; perhaps grandfather might be more…
One of the best ways to teach, I have discovered, is to be wrong. Say something wrong, show something wrong, do something wrong – such as have some errors in a hand-out, and savvy students will call you out. “Hey, I’m confused. This map is wrong, I think.” Years ago I made some maps with…
The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Grand Central Publishing. 2002. Paperback. 626pgs. $6. I read as often as I can, as much as I can. In my younger years of the 1970s and 80s, in middle school and high school, I would push my dirty clothes against the bottom of my…
College basketball, both men’s and women’s, is my favorite sport. My Seasonal Affective Disorder becomes a mere annoyance closer to March Madness and NCAA Tournament time. The utterance of “bracketology” affects me the way “Christmas” and “Spring Break affects normal people. From December through March my moods follow the play of my favorite teams, teams…
My teaching career spans only twenty-years. I have not “heard it all” nor have I “seen it all.” Judging by writing samples which continue to cross my desk I will never achieve either. Interestingly enough, my mentors, with perhaps a decade or so more teaching experience than I, have also not exhausted anecdotes on the…
I’ve been meaning to get this essay out for weeks as part of my contribution to Black History Month. I may make my self-imposed deadline of February 28th, but only by a few hours. During the month I ran across two comments which bothered me. One comment was from a white person. One comment was…
A Universe From Nothing. Lawrence M. Krauss. Simon and Schuster. Atria paperback. 202pgs. $15. Cosmology isn’t much different from geography. In fact, cosmologists are the universe’s geographers. Cosmologists study the traits, characteristics, and behaviors of our universe. To conduct such studies cosmologists must map the objects of our universe. Every galactic and intergalactic object has…
Constant Geography 
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