Scientists Continue to Discover Negative Side Effects of Human Consumption of Drugs in Wildlife

A year ago I was privileged enough to go on a private group tour of a waste water treatment plant for a significant American city.  After being showed facility after facility of filters I asked what the biggest problem was that still remained in the processed water.  I got a surprisingly intense answer: "Pills!  People dump their medicine down the toilet not knowing that it hurts the fish!  Even the pills people take hurts the fish!  Birth control medicine comes out of people's pee and no filter can take care of that.  Goes straight back into the water and into fish.  Now alot of poor fish are all screwed up and can't have kids of their own!"  The person was not joking.  He was very concerned for the fish and the environment he loved.  I felt the person pain as well because of my similar appreciation of the aquatic life and my stance as a fisherman/fish conservationist.

Now a new study shows a new disturbing side effect of human consumption of drugs in wildlife.  A new study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that male fathead minnows became altered behaviorally after exposure to Zoloft and Prozac.  In some cases the minnows became super aggressive and killed female minnows.

Studying human-environment interaction is incredibly difficult.  There are just so many interrelationships we have no clue about.  In the case of medicine and negative side effects in wildlife we need to reevaluate the types of drugs and the amount consumption of said drugs at societal and individual levels if we desire to be better stewards of the environment.

International Date Line's Move Across Samoa Plays Havoc with Seventh-Day Adventists

Two years ago I wrote about the Independent State of Samoa's decision to move the international date line in order to be on the same day as Australia and New Zealand.   Samoa decided to skip a day for this change to be accomplished.  Little did I see that the move would cause local Seventh-Day Adventists, a brand of Christianity that rejects celebrating the Lord's Day and still observes a Saturday sabbath, to worship on Sunday since now that is the seventh-day in Samoa.  This move has caused some controversy among Adventists though the official church is trying to calm the situation down.

When I first read about the decision from Geography@About.com I was startled.  One of the cornerstones of Seventh-Day Adventist theology is that the corrupt Church wrongly changed the day of Christian worship from Saturday to Sunday (ignoring the mentions of celebrating on the Lord's Day in the Bible).  The logic of the Seventh-day decision not only undercuts its arguments but is unique in the church.  Hispanic countries' calendars have Monday as the first day and Sunday as the seventh day.  However, Hispanic Seventh-Day Adventist churches still have Saturday as the sabbath (This is because the overriding American cultural traits which dominate Adventism).  The date line move controversy could cause a split in Samoan Adventism if church leaders cannot reconcile the move.

Calendars can be a very tricky religious-political problem for Churches.  The Date of Easter controversy plagued early Christianity.  The Gregorian Calendar was adopted in Protestant countries bit-by-bit and the adoption of a slightly altered version of the Gregorian Calendar by some Orthodox Churches lead to a split between the mainstream and Old Calendarists.  Even Islam currently has calendar issues.  Ramadan's start date can be determined by at least three different means and it has become a political issue in the growing Sunni-Shia civil war.

Map of the Invasion of Vichy Syria Shows a Different War

Real Time World War II 1941 is covering the 1941 invasion of French State (Vichy France)-administered Syria.  The invasion was done by British, British Commonwealth, and Free France forces who attacked Syria because the pro-Vichy regime was allowing the Germans to set up operations in the Levant as a precursor for invasion of British-administered Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq.

Looking at contemporary invasion map I can only think that this invasion plan could not be replicated today.

The invasion of Lebanon by forces in Palestine, today's Israel, look remarkably similar to the 1980s Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon.  This could only end in out right war between Hezbollah and Iran against Israel across the globe.  Note how the British base in Haifa was the targets of raids.  Today that city would be pounded by Hezbollah missiles.

Any invasion from Jordan would go through Dara and not the Druze territory of al Suawida.  The Druze lands have been largely untouched by the war due to their hilly terrain and Druze neutrality.  Dara meanwhile is a major node on the road between the border and Damascus.  A large battle is currently on-going between rebel and regime forces there.  Any southern campaign would have to confront the Syrian Arab Army in Dara before moving north.

Neither Baghdad-administered Iraq nor the Kurdistan Regional Government would allow a major anti-Assad operation from their borders.  The KRG wants to promote a Kurdish agenda while the Arab regime and Arab opposition destroy each other and Baghdad is openly pro-Assad.

Turkey was neutral in World War II so there were no forces invading Syria from it.  Now, however, any anti-Assad invasion would need to help rebels in the north, especially with the major city of Aleppo.

French Exploration Accounts of the Interior United States: Great Plains and Great Lakes Regions

The Native American Nations Map post has caused a bit of a comment flame war as the cartographer, Aaron Carpella, believes that one of the reasons I am criticizing the map's historical inaccuracy is my racial profile.  He also denies historical records because they are White histories and instead picks certain tribe legends over others to mark his map.

The debate between myself and Carpella has given me the opportunity to re-read some excellent first person accounts of American Indians along the Great Lakes and in the Great Plains.  These accounts show the richness of American Indian culture, politics, and international relations between themselves and Europeans.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents is a collection of detailed reports from 1610 to 1791 by French Jesuits.  These were missionary priests who spent years of their lives living with the Indians.  Some had great successes converting Indians to Christianity while others failed (especially with the Sioux).  The area covered by the reports covers the Great Lakes region from New York to Minnesota and into the Canadian Great Lakes region as well.

Journal of the Expedition of the Chevalier de La Vérendrye and One of His Brothers to Reach the Western Sea, Addressed to M. the Marquis de Beauharnois, 1742-43 documents a journey from present-day Canda through the present-day Dakotas in search of a quick route to the Pacific Ocean.  Eventually the La Verendrye brothers saw mountains (whether they were the Black Hills or Rocky Mountains is still up to debate) and turned back knowing that America continued well beyond a length they were ready to travel.  Reading the journal one feels the brothers feeling they are truly in an unknown land.  They frequently mention the presence of Indians on the Plains.

New Free Online Course: Mapping with Google

A new online course, Mapping with Google, is available from Google. Completion of the course results in a certificate for mapping with Google Maps and one for Google Earth as well.

From the excellent Google Maps Mania

Mapping with Google starts today and continues until June 24th. Complete the course and not only will you learn all about Google Maps and Google Earth you will also earn yourself a Google Maps Project certificate and / or a Google Earth Project certificate.  

The Google Map part of the course involves completing three units, each unit consisting of a number of activities. Unit 1 is really just a short introduction to the course. Unit 2 is a general introduction to some of the useful features of Google Maps. The unit involves searching and sharing links to Google Maps and learning all about directions on Google Maps. Unit 3 actually involves making your own maps using Google Maps Engine Lite.  

If you have never used Maps Engine Lite the unit is a great introduction into how to import data into Google Maps Engine and how to create well designed and nicely styled maps.

I personally recommend takes these courses.  Online cartography is not the height of the art but it is none the less easy and usable (and appropriate) in multiple fields. 

Rand McNallyitis: The Mental Disease Which Prevents Geographers and the World from Accepting Global Change

Rand McNallyitis: (n) 1. The mental disease which prevents geographers and the general public from accepting global change in one's mental map or understanding of the world. 2. The thought which believes if something is on a map it must be real and permanent.

Z Geography is back and has a great post musing on the fact all maps have the Aral Sea when the Aral Sea is no more.

There is no Aral Sea, so why do our maps say there is?  From EOSnap.com (2013)

Whether it is the now mostly gone Lake Chad, the now gone Aral Sea, or some historical geopolitical boundary that continues to pass down from SHP file to SHP, people have difficulty imagining that the world is different than what a map shows.  I believe this thinking has prevented policy solutions in places where breaking up the country or reorganizing borders might be better than trying to keep artificial countries together (hint hint Pakistan/Afghanistan, almost all of Africa, Syria, etc).  It also leads to people to hold on to out of date world views which ignore environmental changes, massive demographic shifts (religion in Latin America or the rise of non-Arabs in Arabia, the impact of immigration on First World countries), and much more.  All this is a form of what I call Rand McNallyitis.

Geography:  The World is Changing, Are You Adapting?

Maps and Charts about the #Occupygezi Protests in Turkey

Environmentalists began protesting a week ago against the Turkish government's decision to replace Gezi Park, a significant but not major park inside Istanbul, with a shopping mall.  It was one in a series of moves which the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) has taken in an effort to grow the Turkish economy.    Besides a few environmentalist no one in Turkey really cared.

From the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade. Click to enlarge.

However, the Turkish government ordered a fierce police crackdown against the protesters.  In response the  AKP's diverse enemies (secularists, environmentalists, alcohol drinkers, Communists, socialists  nationalists, Kurdish groups, and college students left of center politically) began protesting in mass against the capitalistic, somewhat moderate Islamist government (think of the AKP as a Calvinist political party from 1880).

Map of Protests throughout Turkey. Click to enlarge.  From Visual.ly

Protest barricades in red, police barricades in blue.  From Twitter.

This is not the "Turkish Spring", not yet at least.  The AKP is not the Muslim Brotherhood.  It is very popular inside Turkey.  It also has been very successful in growing the economy and its political-religious leanings reflect a changing Turkish demographic where the religious interior is growing much faster from the more urban and secular elite which has adopted European style "growth" rates.

Finally, AKP supporters will point out the most visible parts of the protest are just urban elite thugs much like what the rest of the Occupy movement devolved into.

Click to enlarge.  From Twitter