Urbana.org All Things New Blog - signs

Signs: Global Warming Refugees

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0600

The Maldive Islands is one of the countries whose very existence is threatened by global warming. The land mass of the entire country is at sea level, and is forecast to disappear under the waves within a few decades.

Global Warming debates in the West tend to unfold as ecological issues, with charismatic polar bears as the emblems. But in the developing world, global warming is a human issue. Entire cultures are at risk as people flee their traditional homes.

Below: Hulhumalé, a 3 meter-high artificial island being built in the Maldives to provide refuge for the country in the coming years.

Note: in the center of the picture, a golden-domed mosque.

Photo: Credit Saudi Aramco World Magazine

Signs: the fall of the Berlin Wall

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0600

The Berlin Wall was opened twenty years ago next Monday.

If you are old enough, what do you remember? What do you feel?

Signs: Find the Indian Reservation

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:01:00 -0600

If you ever wanted a visual from outer space (courtesy of Google Maps) of the consequences of politics on land usage in the US, here's one: it's the boundary between the Menominee Indian Reservation (to the right) and the neighboring communities.

The Menominee resisted, at some cost to their short-term wealth, the lumbering craze of the late 19th century, as their ancient forest got clear-cut all around their small reservation. But over time, they've gotten much greater wealth from that same forest, through selective logging. After all, the wood from a three-foot-diameter tree is much more valuable than the same board-footage from one-foot-diameter trees.

Today, they operate a tribal college with an internationally recognized sustainable forestry program; when I visited a few years ago, students from East Asia were taking classes there.

Signs: College Football

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Once upon a time, a friend and I were discussing our entertainment-saturated culture, in which people increasingly seem to view themselves through the hypothetical lens of a camara, and we came to the question of authentic experience, which neither of us really understood, at the philosophical level, at least.

To the question, do we have authentic experiences anymore, we posed the crowd-and-tribal experience of a Badger home game (we were both living in Wisconsin at the time).

Is there any truth to that (or is that a bunch of humbug)? How important is a college football game?

[photo credit uwbadgers.com]

Signs: World Trade Center, New York

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:01:00 -0600

This week's question: what is your emotional response to this picture? What memories immediately come to mind?

[photo credit: sxc.hu member mrgoose]

Signs: Freshman Move-In Day

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 02:01:00 -0600

From Marietta College's Flickr site: 2008's Freshmen arriving in the dorms.

What do you feel when you think about this moment? What questions did you have that got answered, or never got answered? How would you re-do the moment of arrival, if you could?

Signs: the Globalization of Church Art

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Alongside the unbelievable growth of the global church has come a flowering of new forms of ecclesiastical art.

He Qi is one of the best. This image, published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is entitled The Risen Lord. Check out He Qi’s online gallery. This is amazing stuff.

Signs: Lunar Landing

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:01:00 -0600

I love this picture. It’s off NASA’s photo gallery.

This summer marks 40 years since humans set foot on the moon. Presumably most readers of ATN were not around to follow the events.

So: what do you think when you see this, you who’ve always lived in a world where this is possible?

Signs: County Fair

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Late summer is the time for an American tradition, the county fair. Here's a picture from the local version in Madison, credit the Dane County Fair website.

My question: how important are county fairs for local identity? How important in your experience?

Signs: Tallgrass Prairie

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Late Summer is a special time in the prairies, with grasses gone to seed and a lazy feel to that most busy of ecosystems.

When I first moved to Wisconsin after a lifetime in close proximity to soaring mountains, I initially couldn't see prairies; they were only the absence of spectacular scenery.

It took me years to understand the awesomeness of the tallgrass prairie, because I needed to develop the eyes to see it. You can't see the prairie at distance. It's only visible in its glory up close.

Have you ever savored a prairie?

photo credit: me

Signs: the Geography of Narnia

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Narnia, along with similar fantasies, including Tolkien's Middle Earth and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, occupied a lot of my imagination when I was a teenager, and again this year, as I've been re-reading the stories.

The stories are fine, but would not have nearly the power without the maps. I remember one time in high school drawing a map of Narnia in pencil on my desk.

Signs: Supreme Court Hearings

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:01:00 -0600

In the United States, hearings are underway for a nominee for the Supreme Court. What's your opinion?

[photo: credit sxc.hu member davidlat]

Signs: Road Trips

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Are you hitting the road this summer? Where to? Why? With Whom?

Signs: July Fourth in Germany

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:01:00 -0600

From the Embassy's website, here's a US Independence Day celebration in Berlin, Germany.

Have you ever celebrated an expatriate patriotic event? That is, celebrated a national holiday in a different country?

Signs: Commuting by Bicycle

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:01:00 -0600

Last week, in preparation for a return to school after a decade in professional life, I went looking for a laptop-worthy bicycle-commuting bag. I'd never found anything adequate. But now I have. The salesperson explained to me that the last two years have seen a surging demand for professional bike-commuting materials. It's no longer students and trekkers who commute. The cost of driving to work has driven this change, rather than altruism.

Here is a bicycle parking lot in Austria. My question: have you begun commuting by bike? If so why? If not, why not?