Follow Your Tweeps

    One of the persons I chose to follow on Twitter and add to my Tweeps list is Cody Lundin. Cody Lundin is very well known in the survival world as being one of the top survivalist and survival school instructors in the free world. Cody has been acknowledged and featured in many different national and international media sources to include The Today Show, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Dateline NBC, CBS News, USA Today, The New York Times and many others. Fit Magazine wrote the following about Cody Lundin, “Cody Lundin is one of the foremost authorities on primitive and modern survival skills.” http://www.codylundin.com/bio.html

    Cody Lundin also is one of two stars on the Discovery Channel hit show, Dual Survival, where he and fellow survivalist Dave Canterbury head out into some of the most extreme environments on Earth and demonstrate to viewers what skills are necessary to survive in the wilderness for an extended period of time with limited survival tools.

    

    On top of being a cast member of Dual Survival, Cody Lundin also runs and teaches at his own survival school here in Prescott, Arizona where he instructs course students on how to survive in desert environments using Aboriginal survival skills. When not staring on the Discovery Channel or teaching at his own school, Cody Lundin is an adjunct faculty member at Yavapai College and a faculty member at Ecosa Institute.

    I also chose to follow professional American free climber, alpinist, BASE Jumper, BASEliner, and highliner Dean Potter. Like survivalist Cody Lundin, Climber Dean Potter has been featured in several well-known outdoor and rock climbing magazines and also has appearances on several television networks to include Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel.

    Outside Magazine did an article on the talents of Dean Potter in December of 2002 where they titled the column Climbing at the speed of soul. In the article, the following was written about Dean Potter, "With his supreme skills on rock, hypercompetitive intensity, and new-age bag of tricks, Dean Potter scrambles up big walls faster than any man alive." http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/rock-climbing/Climbing-at-the-Speed-of-Soul.html?page=all

    Dean Potter has made several notable ascents on very well-known mountains throughout the world, to include but not limited to being. The first person to ascend Cerro Fitz Roy in the Andes Mountains of Patagonia at the far Southern tip of South America. He is also well noted for making the very first ascent of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park where he has lived for the past 18 years. Glacier Point is a Granite rock face which rises 3,200 vertical feet above the Yosemite Valley.

    National Geographic Channel recently aired a program on February 12, 2012 about Dean Potter which followed him in his pursuit to break his previously held world record for longest free-fall flight time during a BASE jump. In the summer of 2009, Dean ascended the 13,025 ft. Eiger of the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, where he conducted a BASE jump from its peak and flew for a total of 2 minutes and 50 seconds setting a world record where he freefell for 9,000 vertical feet and flew for nearly six kilometers before deploying his parachute to float safely to the ground below. 

     Below is a video link produced by National Geographic about Dean Potter's world record BASE jump in August of 2009.  

My loyalty to a well known "Love Mark" aka brand

                One of our assignments in the 3d Game lab for my Humanities 101 course is to evaluate the so called lovemarks in advertising and to choose a lovemark which is a part of our own personal lives and to decide what “emotional branding” that lovemark has played in our life.

                According to the 3d Game lab, a lovemark is defined as a brand that is sold as much by its emotional connection with consumers as it is for any practical reason. Uniquely enough, the lovemark which I have chosen to focus on and that probably has the largest impact in my life out of all brands which I am routinely exposed to, happened to be one of the companies which were mentioned in a PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) video documentary which we had to watch in order to complete this assignment.

                

              The lovemark which is probably dearest to me is the, Starbucks Coffee Company. I was first introduced to this internationally acclaimed coffee company and coffee house chain in the year 2002 at one of its locations in the downtown business district of the beautiful and fast paced city where it was founded in March of 1971, Seattle, Washington.

                

               Prior to experiencing my first delightful cup of what many people around the world consider to be one of the best coffee and tea products available to the general public, I had heard many people both praise and criticize what is today according to http://www.USAtoday.com to be the largest coffee company in the world.  So during the spring of 2002, when on leave from the military between two of my deployments, I decided to visit this world class city which is probably almost as well known around the world as the famous coffee company which was founded there some 31 years prior to my first visit at one of its locations.

                

              While walking the downtown streets of this metropolis, I spotted a Starbucks Coffee retail location on a busy street corner near the Pike Place Market. I don’t know if it was the strong and sweet odor of the coffee, the cool drizzle in the crisp morning air or just my curiosity of what all of the hype was about when it came to company; but I was somehow drawn to enter the store almost as if being magically dragged by an invisible force.

                

              Well, it turned out that ever since my first taste of one of the many flavors of drinks which one can purchase from this company, I have been hooked on both the company image and its products. I have never really put much thought into why I am so devoted to the Starbucks Coffee Company almost to the point where I will not even consider trying other coffee shops although I am without a doubt sure that many of them are also delicious and unique in their own ways.

               I do not know if it is the quality of the products, the friendliness of most of its employees, the aroma of the coffee beans as they are being roasted, the new age music which is played over the store audio speakers, the environment inside of the store or if it’s the fond memory which I have of being in such a wonderful and beautiful city for my first personal experience with this company that keeps me devoted to it so greatly. Maybe it is a combination of all of these principles that makes me crave my favorite “Vanilla Chai” or “Pumpkin Chai” drinks and makes me return to visit a Starbucks Coffee location several times a week.

               

               According to the Starbucks Coffee Company website, the company’s Mission Value is: To Inspire and nurture the human spirit-one person, one cup and on neighborhood at a time.http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement  I routinely joke with my family and close friends that an "Iced Vanilla Chai" tea from Starbucks Coffee is like my rock cocaine, in the meaning that I would almost consider myself to be addicted to it. I don't believe that this "magical drink from my favorite coffee house truely cures a physical craving of my as much as it does an emotional need that I have grown to have over the past 10 years. 

               It is almost as if stepping into a Starbucks Coffee shop and consuming my favorite beverage from there, removes me from reality and the stresses of life, much like the feeling which I get when stepping into the wilderness to climb the shear rock face of a mountain or to hike the beautiful and peaceful trail through the forest.

         

Unpopular Culture Quest for HUM 101

There is a big hype and demand these days for the so-called “Reality Television”. I personally do not understand what the big demand is for what I consider to be non-entertainment television. I do agree that not all “Reality Television” shows are negative or misleading to the general audience, but so many of them portray sexually aggressive and violent behaviors to be the norm in society.

                It is these explicit and controversial reality television shows which I am going to focus on in this assignment for my Humanities 101 class assignment. First off, I feel that television is used too much in day to day life as is, then when you add in shows of large groups of immature strangers living together in one house, a dozen or two of women or men competing with each other to be with that so called “Perfect Person”, or shows about girls striving and going to extremes to be “The Next Top Model”; the negative effects of television on viewers today grows more as each of these shows is released to be viewed by us Americans.

                What is it that shows like these are teaching the viewers who tune in on a weekly and sometimes daily basis to watch their favorite “Instant Celebrities” fight through their own personal issues of life? I believe that these shows have more of an effect on the youth population than the adult population who watches them. Studies over the past couple of decades have shown the negative effects of television in general to its young viewers. Even if the television show isn’t directed towards the younger viewers, many of them appear to be directed towards the female population from their late teens to mid-30s, which also is when a majority of the American population of women become mothers and have young children roaming around their homes, possibly being exposed to these television shows more than what the mothers may know.

                According to the article http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html produced by Kidshealth.com, The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development. So if one of the parents or siblings is sitting around the house with a young child who is present, what is it that the young child is learning from these television shows even if they don’t completely understand the concept and meaning of the show?

                Studies and real life tragedy events have shown that many of these television shows have also played negative roles in the lives of older viewers. An example of this is: On October 15, 2009 near the town of Fort Collins, Colorado when a homemade weather balloon was released into the sky from a family’s personal residence, initial reports from the two adult family members of the household reported that their six year old son was believed to be playing inside of the homemade balloon prior to it lifting off of the ground and traveling more than 50 miles across three Colorado counties at elevations of 7,000 feet above ground level.

                The above incident drew worldwide attention by being broadcasted live by media networks around the globe. Once the balloon finally fell to the ground, it was quickly searched by emergency response personnel who had responded to the distress call about the possibility of the young boy being inside of the balloon. The search results turned up to be negative for finding the young boy inside of the balloon. At this time, horrifying speculations began to emerge about the possibility of the young child falling out of the balloon some time during its flight thousands of feet above the Colorado countryside. It was later discovered that the young boy had been hiding inside of the attic at his family’s house where the balloon had originally departed from. The child later stated to his father on a live television interview regarding why the boy was hiding in the attic of their house, "You guys said that, um, we did this for the show." http://articles.cnn.com/2009-10-18/us/colorado.balloon.investigation_1_richard-heene-mayumi-heene-hoax?_s=PM:US

                It was at this time that previous suspicious of a hoax, that the event became proven to be a publicity stunt engineered by the boy's parents. The boy’s father later admitted that he thought of the hoax in hopes of being offered a role on a “Reality Television” show to become popular. 

                According to the article http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/10/17/11/mean-girls-us-study-casts-light-reality-tvs-impact released in October of 2011, a nationwide survey by the research wing of the Girl Scouts of the United States found that girls who regularly watch reality television expect -- and accept -- more bullying and drama in their lives. These are just two of the countless examples I have found online of evidence on the negative effects of “Reality Television” its viewers.

Become a Wikipedian Course Assignment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Peaks


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One of the quests in the 3d Game Lab which we are using in my Humanities 101 course is titled “Become a Wikipedian.” As you can probably guess by the title of the quest, the goal of this quest is to choose an article on the world wide famous http://www.wikipedia.org website which many of us have come to know well and have used extensively over the past few years. To complete this quest, we have to study and conduct research on a Wikipedia article which we choose and must edit the article and update it using credible outside sources.

                
      For my assignment, I chose to conduct research on the 12,633 foot San Francisco Peaks which are located approximately 7 miles to the North of Flagstaff, Arizona. The San Francisco Peaks are the remnants of an ancient Stratovolcano which some experts believe may have stood as high as 15,000 to 16,000 feet above sea-level prior to its eruption less than 1,000 years ago.

              
      The San Francisco Peaks are the youngest volcano and the only Stratovolcano located in the San Francisco Volcanic Field which has over 600 volcanic vents and covers an area of approximately 1,800 square miles. In their current state, the San Francisco Peaks consist of 8 named mountain peaks. Of these 8 peaks, 7 rise to more than 10,000 feet above sea-level. At 12,633 feet above sea-level, Humphrey’s Peak, the highest of the named peaks rises more than 5,700 feet above downtown Flagstaff.  

               
        The San Francisco Peaks rise through 4 named biotic communities and life zones (Transition-Open Woodlands, Canadian-Fir Forest, Hudsonian-Spruce Forest and Alpine-Tundra) as they rise from the Ponderosa Pine forests surrounding Flagstaff at their base to the Alpine-Tundra zone on the upper most reaches of Mount Agassiz and Mount Humphreys.  It is these life zones which I have chosen to emphasize on by updating and adding additional information to the Wikipedia article regarding the San Francisco Peaks.

                
         According to a study conducted by Thomas D. Sisk, Professor of Ecology at the Northern Arizona University and John D. Graham, Dean at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at a Latitude of approximately 35 degrees North, the San Francisco Peaks are the southernmost climatic alpine area on the North American continent north of the high volcanoes of central Mexico. This meaning that there is no other Alpine-Tundra environment in the United States which lies further south than the Alpine-Tundra zone of the San Francisco Peaks.

              
           The La Sal and Tushar Mountains of Utah and the Southern San Juan Mountains of Colorado contain the nearest true Alpine-Tundra communities to the San Francisco Peaks of Northern Arizona. Because of this vast distance and isolation from other Alpine-Tundra communities, many of the 80 species found in the Alpine-Tundra of the San Francisco Peaks are rare and unique to the area due to being unable to migrate to and from the nearest Alpine-Tundra communities in Southeastern Utah and Southern Colorado.   

One of these species is the well-known and endemic San Francisco Peaks Groundsel (Senecio franciscanus), which is found nowhere else in the world other than near the top of the San Francisco Peaks. Senecio franciscanus is a dwarf perennial alpine plant that grows low to the rocky ground where it is found, to a height of only 3 to 10 cm (1.25-4 inches).

The first update which I made to the Wikipedia article about the San Francisco Peaks is found under the Geography section of the article, located directly under the section which lists the top 4 highest named peaks of the San Francisco Peaks. I added the details of the paragraph which tell how many acres of Alpine-Tundra area is found on the San Francisco Peaks and also the section which tells that this small area of Arizona is also the only location in the state which lies on United States Forest Service (USFS) land that supports a Bristlecone Pine forest.  As credible outside sources for my research I used two articles and studies which I located online. The first source came from the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the second came from faculty members at Northern Arizona University who conducted detailed research of the San Francisco Peaks Alpine-Tundra ecosystem. I also used a Coconino National Forest Plan Revision which was completed by the USFS as a source for the indicating that this Alpine-Tundra zone is the only area of Arizona which lies on USFS lands that supports a Bristlecone Pine forest.

I also edited and updated the History section of the San Francisco Peaks Wikipedia page, where the article discusses the Life Zones found on and near the San Francisco Peaks. In the year 1889, Dr. Clinton Hurt Merriam who was an American zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist and ethnographer studied these mountains greatly and developed the concept of Life Zones based on the Ecology of the San Francisco Peaks and their surrounding areas down to the depths of the Grand Canyon.

The Wikipedia article on the San Francisco Peaks already provide fairly good detail pertaining to the Life Zones which occur in the area. What I did to this section of the article was added more detailed information to it to include the elevation ranges, most common plant species which occur in each Life Zone and the average annual precipitation of each Life Zone.

For credible outside sources for this part of my research, I studied about and used articles which I found pertaining to studies conducted by Susan L. Woodward, Instructor for the Geology Department at Radford University. Instructor Woodward’s research was published in July, 1996 and provided detailed information regarding Dr. Merriam’s Life Zone concept which he based off of the San Francisco Peaks. I also used research conducted by Dr. Roger Y. Anderson who is a professor with the University of New Mexico’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Dr. Anderson’s research and findings were published by the New Mexico Geological Society in their Nine Field Conference. The article pertaining to Dr. Anderson’s research pertained to the life zones of Northeastern Arizona. 

I believe that all of the outside sources which I have used in my research and to update the Wikipedia article on the San Francisco Peaks are credible because all sources come from either College Professors who specialize in Geology, Ecology or some other form of Environmental Studies, or from state government agencies which also focus on the environment and ecosystems of Arizona.

The reason that I made the changes which I made to the article was because I felt that the article did not provide enough detailed information pertaining to the Alpine-Tundra and other life zone regions which are found on and around the San Francisco Peaks. Other than the original postings, I was unable to locate any edits which were made to the sections of the article which I made changes to.

When it comes to using my thoughts on a Wikipedia being used as an academic research source for students and professional clients, I think that it depends solely on the credibility of the sources which were used in the chosen Wikipedia article for information pertaining to the topic. I would feel comfortable using Wikipedia as an academic research source as long as all sources were credible and reliable and as long as I could show in my research assignment the credibility of all sources