On Latin America

Latin America is a really beautiful region.

 

First, it spans a continent and a third. That is, it includes somewhat the entirety of South America, and about a third of North America. The southern part of North America is called Central America. Are there two Americas or three? There are hundreds. There are hundreds and hundreds of little Americas just hanging out and chilling all over the place.

 

First, you have governments. Of those, I estimate that there are roughly between twenty and forty of those in there. In attempted order from north to south, you have Canada, the United States of America, the United States of Mexico, the double-ocean region of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Belize. Guess which one is not a Spanish-speaking country. Then there's Costa Rica and Panama, as well as Nicaragua and Honduras, and then you have Colombia, Equador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil, ... and theeen there's Venezuela, the Guianas, and numerous indigenous groups, many of which have remained successfully uncontacted and temporarily protected in heavily forested areas, speaking of which, you also have the Amazon, the Andes, the huge deserts which kind of do an S along the downside of the continent through to Patagonia and out  on the East Coast, and also Patagonia, the Pampas, the Guiana Shield, the Amazon River, the Rocky Mountains, the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific coasts of California, Mexico, Central and South America, the Mississippi River, Second- and Third-Level Adimistrative divisons, cities, towns, villages, counties, partidos, parishes, departamentos, municipalidades, provincias, estados do brasil, and numerous other political groups around the continents. Getting back to the countries, there is the Caribbiean, which includes numerous dependencies, independencies, and governments which are sitting in those regions. You also have large, semienclosed and navigable bodies of water which include the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of California, the Straights of Magellan, the Antarctic Sea, the Gulf of Argentina, the Rio de la Plata, the River of January, [note to self: translate to Portuguese], the Amazon Basin, the Lesser and Greater Antillies, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominica, Makhtinique, the Netherlands, England, France, the Grand Cayman Island, the Virgin Islands, the Yucatan Peninsula, and then who else? There are also languages: Lakota, Spanish, English, French, and Yanomami come to mind, though there could be hundreds of others, also Inuit, Athabascan, Hodenasaunee Confederation, various political groups including governments and their various relationships among each other, which include governenments, indigenous peoples, overseas territories, business owners of varying degrees of accountability including corporations and traffickers, also you have educational groups such as universities and governmental groups which may or may not be recognized by anyone else at all and also lots of great habitats, including mainly the Neotropic and Nearctic Biozones, as well as the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Alaska, Vancouver Island, San Francisco, and many others to be explored further shortly. There are also continental plates and lots of human, animal, and plant migration over the millennia. This sounds like a lot, but in the coming paragraphs, we are going to learn about the histories, geologies, hydrologies, groups, migrations, animals, plants, wetlands, ecozones, politics, governments, educational institutions, local perspectives, languages, currencies, wind currents, businesses, neighborhoods, barrios, quarters, and all the other subsequent and supersequent categories. Let's take a Spanish Break.

 

Latin America is a really beautiful region.

 

Latinoamérica es una región muy rica. Muy hermosa.

 

Primero, se España una continente y una tercera. Se incluye en súm-huática la totalidad de América del Súr, y alrededor de

 

 

First, it spans a continent and a third. In includes somewhat the entirety of South America, and about a third of North America. The southern part of North America is called Central America. Are there two Americas or three? There are hundreds. There are hundreds and hundreds of little Americas just hanging out and chilling all over the place.

 

First, you have governments. Of those, I estimate that there are roughly between twenty and forty of those in there. In attempted order from north to south, you have Canada, the United States of America, the United States of Mexico, the double-ocean region of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Belize. Guess which one is not a Spanish-speaking country. Then there's Costa Rica and Panama, as well as Nicaragua and Honduras, and then you have Colombia, Equador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil, ... and theeen there's Venezuela, the Guianas, and numerous indigenous groups, many of which have remained successfully uncontacted and temporarily protected in heavily forested areas, speaking of which, you also have the Amazon, the Andes, the huge deserts which kind of do an S along the downside of the continent through to Patagonia and out  on the East Coast, and also Patagonia, the Pampas, the Guiana Shield, the Amazon River, the Rocky Mountains, the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific coasts of California, Mexico, Central and South America, the Mississippi River, Second- and Third-Level Adimistrative divisons, cities, towns, villages, counties, partidos, parishes, departamentos, municipalidades, provincias, estados do brasil, and numerous other political groups around the continents. Getting back to the countries, there is the Caribbiean, which includes numerous dependencies, independencies, and governments which are sitting in those regions. You also have large, semienclosed and navigable bodies of water which include the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of California, the Straights of Magellan, the Antarctic Sea, the Gulf of Argentina, the Rio de la Plata, the River of January, [note to self: translate to Portuguese], the Amazon Basin, the Lesser and Greater Antillies, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominica, Makhtinique, the Netherlands, England, France, the Grand Cayman Island, the Virgin Islands, the Yucatan Peninsula, and then who else? There are also languages: Lakota, Spanish, English, French, and Yanomami come to mind, though there could be hundreds of others, also Inuit, Athabascan, Hodenasaunee Confederation, various political groups including governments and their various relationships among each other, which include governenments, indigenous peoples, overseas territories, business owners of varying degrees of accountability including corporations and traffickers, also you have educational groups such as universities and governmental groups which may or may not be recognized by anyone else at all and also lots of great habitats, including mainly the Neotropic and Nearctic Biozones, as well as the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Alaska, Vancouver Island, San Francisco, and many others to be explored further shortly. There are also continental plates and lots of human, animal, and plant migration over the millennia. This sounds like a lot, but in the coming paragraphs, we are going to learn about the histories, geologies, hydrologies, groups, migrations, animals, plants, wetlands, ecozones, politics, governments, educational institutions, local perspectives, languages, currencies, wind currents, businesses, neighborhoods, barrios, quarters, and all the other subsequent and supersequent categories. Let's take a Spanish Break.

 

Sea Level Change Adaptation Strategy

I've been sitting on this idea for years.

 

Growing up in South Florida, I've always been aware of sea level change. Due to a combination of human activity and natural processes, the sea level today is not going to be the same as it will be in the coming decades.

 

For people in coastal areas all over the world, this means migration.

 

Humans have lived in Florida for at least 20,000 years. During that time, the sea level has risen considerably. What are now the Florida Keys were once part of the mainland, just as parts of the mainland will soon be new Florida Keys.

 

The native peoples all over the Americas had a habit of building mounds. Archaeologists today are not entirely sure what these mounds were used for, but they have some things in common. For one, many of them were built on floodplains. There are mounds to the south of Lake Okeechobee, at the "floodgates" of the Everglades headwaters. There are mounds along the Mississippi River in areas which are prone to flooding, where today, towns get washed away every few years or so. Mounds were often (but not always) built from local materials, and sometimes took the form of pyramids. Ancient pyramids today, long since abandoned, resemble green hills all over the Yucatan peninsula.

 

One great application for mounds is that, during times of flooding, it gives you a piece of dry ground to stand on.

 

By building large mounds around South Florida and applying principles of permaculture and hydrology, we can create an archipelago network of islands for future generations to enjoy. If we are smart, instead of allowing places like Miami to disappear beneath the waves, we can make them look like this:

 

A rough sketch of the trains to the north of Buenos Aires

In the center of the city, you have Retiro. Retiro is a neighborhood, and a big deal. The Retiro train station is reminiscent of Grand Central Station in New York. Yes, I went there.

En el centro de la ciudad, tenés Retiro. Retiro es un barrio y un gran honcho. El estación de Retiro, es reminizente del Gran Estación Central en New York. Sí, fuí par allá.

El trén que va a Retiro se llama La Urquiza o algo así. Las Urquizas generalmente van a Tigre. Tigre es una partido y un pueblo. El pueblo de Tigre está en la rambla del Río Paraná. Norte del río, la ciudad es como una Venicia rural. Puedes ir por la ciudad en botes grandes y poquitos.

The train which goes to Retiro is called The Urquiza or something like that. The Urquizas generally go to Tigre. Tigre is a partido and a town. The town of Tigre, also the capital of the partido, is on the shore of the Paraná River. North of the river, the city is like a rural Venice. You can go through the city on boats large and small, from canoes and rowboats to motorboats and sailboats.

Tigre is a cool place with a lot of potential. They could grow all their own food out there if they wanted to. Basically any rural town near a river can be made like Tigre. Many roads in the provinces are unpaved and flood easily. Someone should start digging canals before anyone else can pave the roads. Connect the canals to a nearby river, keep inflow and outflow, and boom, you've got another Venice, anywhere in the country. This will especially work in Pampas, plains, or flat areas on any continent. If I am not mistaken, I believe indigenous peoples in Mexico had been using systems like that.

Tigre es un lugar cúl con mucho potencial. Pueden crecer todo su propio comida. Tambien, la gente que viven en la delta del Río Paraná tienen una oportunidad única para participar en una ecosystema Sudaméricana. Primero, pueden crecer árboles nativos que son adaptados al medio ambiente del río. Estos árboles pueden incluír mangroves o cualquier árboles que son nativos, es fácil de enchequear. Fundamentalmente, cualquier pueblo rural cerca de un río puede ser hecho como Venecia. Muchos de las calles en las provincias son sin pavimentar y se inundan fácilmente. Alquien debe empezar de excavar canales antes de alguiennybody se lo ponga pavimenta. Conéctalos a un río alrededor, con influencia y salida, y bueno, tenés una Nueva Venecia, alguiennywhere en el continente. Esto especialmente va a funcionar en las Pampas, llanuras, o cualquier áreas planas en cualquier continente. Si no estoy equivocado, yo creo que las gentes indigenas de Mexico corrían una sistema así.

I wonder how to start a business.

The South Atlantic is a cool región. It's basically the opposite of Alaska.

 

El Atlántico Sur es cúl. Es como el opuesto de Alaska. (This will be the thesis.)

 

Primero, tenés tres continentes. Tenés África, América del Sur, y Antártica. Después, tenés platos, montañas subterréneas (submarínas?), islas, vida salva muy divertido, y cónflictos internacionales. Además, tenés deportes, educación, ciencias, permacultura en dos continentes, países, ciudades, gentes, idiomas; historia geológica, paleontología, y con el hielo; con la clima, el continente submergiüdo de Nueva Zealandia, la archipelgago enfroziendo de Antártida, y muco mas. Qué bueno.

 

First, you have three continents. You have Africa, South America, and Antarctica. Then, you have plates, mountains, subterranean [sic] (submarine?) mountains, island, crazy wildlife, and international conflicts. Furthermore, you have sports, education, sciences, permaculture on two continents, countries, cities, peoples, languages; navies, militaries, shipping companies, and armadas; you have history of geology, palaeontology, and with glaciacions; the history of the climate, the submerged continent of New Zealandia, and the frozen archipelago of Antarctica. This is excellent.

 

El Atlántico del Sur es una región que atrae mucha gente de todo el mundo. ¿A quién está en el Atlántico del Sur? Primero, los Chinos. Sin Googlear, yo puedo creer que los Chinos están en el Atlántico del Sur. Es una cagancha si los Chinos no tienen empresas de shipping, industrias minerías, y cualquier otra megacosa que está en el Atlántico del Sur. Por seguro. ¿Quién otro están acá? Los Porteños y los Montevideanos. Los Européos, y la gente de el sur de África. Los Estadounidenses. Las grúpas religiosas de este región. Algo de Latinoamérica. Los Brasileírus. Scientistas. "Sea Gypsies." Gobiernos. Ensailadores. Sin embargo, ¿Qué hacen toda esta gente en el Atlántico del Sur?

 

The South Atlantic is a region which attracts lots of people from all over the world. Who else is in the South Atlantic? You can bet your bottom dollar you will find the Chinese there. I would call bs if you tell me that the Chinese are not all over the South Atlantic right now, running industries like shipping, mining, and whatever other operation you can imagine that goes on in the South Atlantic. For sure. Who else is there? The Porteños and the Montevidéans. The Europeans, and people South Africa. The Americans. Religious groups from that region. "Sea Gypsies." Some of Latin America. The Brazileiroos. Scientists. Governments. Sailors. Now: What are all of these people doing in the South Atlantic?

 

First, let's do a quick overview of the states, countries, provinces, departments, partidos, and other political groups in the region. Next, an overview of the islands - how many there are, who claims which ones and why, and the animals, plants, mosses, wind currents, storms, and other cool elements who visit and criss-cross this region. The next thing we are going to list is how this region has changed from the present-day to the furthest back relevant time period, maybe all the way to the formation of the Earth. We will document the peoples, animals, plants, continents, mountain ranges, plates, and oceans which have passed through the South Atlantic. We will start century by century, covering the 2000s, 1900s, 1800s, and so on until that's no longer relevant, and go from there to the Holocene, the Pleistocene, and so on. This may take a while but this will definitely be the most interesting part.

 

Primero, vamos a hacer un rápido overview de los estados, países, provincias, departamentos, partidos, y otros grúpos politicales en el región. Segundo, un overview de las islas - cuántos son, ¿a quién enclaíma cuáles y por qué?, y las animales, plantas, mosses (¿brúgas o algo así?), corriéntes del viento, tormentas, y otros elementos cúles quien visita y encruczan el región. La próxima cosa vamos a listar es cómo este región he cambiado del presente-día a la más atrás podemos ir sin dejar relevancia, possiblemente toda la camina al formación de la Tierra. Documentarámos las gentes, animales, plantas, continentes, sierras montañosas, platos, y océanos cuál he pasado por el Atlántico del Sur. Empezarámos siglo por siglo, cubiertiendo los años XXs, XIXs, XIIX, y cuánga, hasta cuándo no hay más relevancía, y de allá entonces mover al Holoceno, Pleistoceno, y además. Este puede tomar una garcha de tiempo pero definitivamente va a ser el parte más interesante.

 

Después, este papel va a tener cualquieras suficientes y voy a ensmackear un conclusión. Chao.

 

After that, this will surely be long enough, and I'm going to smack a conclusion on it and send it off through the press. Boom, I just wrote a paper in two languages.

 

I'm going to add some fucking badass pictures of dinosaurs on that shit. Maybe I'll even draw them myself.

 

Voy a agregar unos fotos badáss de dinosaurios en ese mierda. Puede ser voy a dibujarlos pormigo.

 

 

Solanum sisymbriifolium, a nightshade

 

This plant was growing in a public space in Retiro, in the City of Buenos Aires.

 

This is an excellent plant. It's good for the soil, and it produces a nice flower and cool spikes, and according to Wikipedia the fruit is edible. I've seen this plant around other places in the area. It's also native to South America, but present on other continents.

 

As a nightshade, it's related to potato, tomato, eggplant, and tobacco. This is a great plant to have growing around. A lot of nightshades can be toxic, so never assume anything is edible just because you read it on the internet. Always ask an expert.

 

This plant is part of early succession. It helps turn pavement back into forests.

Benches

Benches are awesome. If there is one simple object every city should install everywhere, it's benches. Benches allow for people to chill together outside. A good abundance of benches can mean the difference between a country where people go outside and meet one another, and a country where everybody stays indoors playing video games and watching television forever.

 

I think every block should have at least one or two benches. There are several logistical issues which come with benches. In no particular order, they can include:

 

Who will build these benches? What materials will be used? Where will they be placed? Will there be enough shade? What will they be looking at?

 

I propose a few things.

 

First, we should have public workshops in the middle of town where people are welcome to come and participate in carpentry projects. The city will sponsor them. In these workshops, teachers, students, and regular townspeople will come together to build:

 

- Canoes and kayaks

 

- Playground equipment

 

- Musical instruments

 

- Printing presses and more complex tools like pantographs

 

- Sustainable vehicles for enhanced mobility, such as wagons and chariots, and maybe even bamboo train tracks

 

- Furniture: Desks, cabinets, dressers, even design work spaces for the townspeople

 

- Pots, for plants, compost containers, and short barriers, such as around paths and gardens

 

- And, of course, benches

 

​

The second big deal is what materials will be used. Wood and bamboo are big ones, and they should be harvested both locally and sustainably. There is a thing called silviculture, which is a fairly ancient method of sustainably harvesting trees. It is related to permaculture, which is a thing everybody should at least know exists.

 

In silviculture, trees are planted and harvested in cycles, ensuring continuous forest growth, and attention is paid to local ecology. Hardwood and native species can be grown on lots within two or three blocks from the workshop. They should be grown on multiple lots, of course - the more the better. Aside from wood, this will produce many benefits to the city, including cleaner air, higher quality of life, shade, fruits, leafy groundcover, better soils, and wildlife habitat. The tree-growing lots can also function as parks, full of paths and benches. Using deciduous trees in colder climates will ensure that people will be able to sit in the sun in winter, and in the shade in summer. The Earth is quite the engineer, when you think about it.

 

Many cities are beginning to plant trees around the streets, which is excellent, but some problems arise. One problem is that sometimes cities will plant trees without paying attention to whether or not they are invasive. Another problem is monoculture - sometimes the city will plant exactly the same tree way too many times when others can be used. Another, specifically for fruit trees - which should be planted in absolute abundance everywhere possible - is that fruits can fall down and splatter all over the street. Eventually, with some good design, we can progress to the point where cities are entirely pedestrian and have no need for cars, but until then, it is not that easy to plant as many fruit trees as we should. Planting them in parks should eliminate this problem. If the fruits are heavy maybe the trees should have nets or something to catch the fruits.

 

As I mentioned in another article, some cities (Buenos Aires in particular, but maybe some North American cities, too) have an abundance of Fraxinus pennsylvanica, a very short-lived tree with a thirty to fifty-year lifespan. This creates an opportunity to harvest these trees every now and then.

 

As we begin to harvest our own wood and produce our own benches, we can start to improve the city. More benches will bring more people outside and encourage human interaction. Strangers will meet. Neighbors will get to know one another. It'll be great.

 

 

This image is from the Public Bench Project, a project in San Francisco which is making benches. Good job guys.
 

Who cares about Alaska?

Everyone cares about Alaska!

First of all, Alaska is awesome. It's this enormous territory almost free of humans, except for a few cities and villages, and a lot of mining activity.

Okay second, it's cold. I am from a subtropical climate, and I adore the cold. It reminds me of leaving home, and getting away from the heat.

Third. It's mythical. Alaska man, you know? Actually, I have been there twice. It is quite a place.

Fourth. Have I already included mountains? Plus, its proximity to Asia. And the wildlife. Wildlife is a veritable fifth (actually first) but I'll let it slide. The wildlife in Alaska is absolutely awesome. There are foxes, moose, there are rivers, I bet they have beavers, wolves, bears, insects, permafrost... and the plants! Alaska is full of awesome plants. The ecosystem there tends to be boreal, I guess, and into tundra, which is a breathtaking landscape. It is important not to walk around on tundra too much because the plants there are very sensitive so it is best to form a line, or a path, and keep using the same one for centuries. There are also several groups of indigenous peoples in the region. These peoples have amazing art, histories, and understandings about the region, in some cases. There are also "Europeans" there, or "Euro-Americans." There are probably many different groups - maybe even black people - and one can probably go on the first Wikipedia page and it will give you all those statistics. In fact, "Alaska" is a topic I may read about this week.

Alaska also carries a unique global position at the top of the Pacific Ocean. To its south is Antarctica, the South Pacific, Easter Island, Poleynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Hawai'i; to its east, Canada; to its west, Russia; to its southeast, Japan, to the southwest, Cascadia; and further along, Australia, Chile, Mexico, the Koreas, Peru, New Zealand, coral reefs, volcanoes, the Submerged Continent of Zealandia (actually exists, Google it), whales, dolphins, and a huge plate - from the perspective of Alaska, the entire Pacific Ocean is a pond.

Alaska's strategic location is further strengthened by its relative obscurity. Nobody suspects Alaska. People who want to conquer the world routinely forget that Alaska exists. Russia didn't even want it. Alaska's reputation - or lack thereof - protects it from the huge crowds of people which have ravaged similar places, like Charleston.
 

Alaska also has very unique sports. One unique Alaskan sport is dogsled racing. Dogs generally enjoy running, and as long as all animals are treated with respect, dogsled racing is a fun and exciting pastime, as well as a great strategy for advanced mobility. Down in the "Lower 48," dogsleds have been retrofitted with bicycle tires, to create an obscure sport known as dryland dogsled racing (Attachment 1). The dogs in the photo look similar to pit bulls. Could you imagine riding around with a bunch of pit bulls? Nobody would fuck with you. You would be gooning.

 

Alaska also hosts the highest mountain in North America, Mount Denali. Named by an indigenous group, Denali is white and creates its own weather. There is a higher mountain in Argentina, which is the highest mountain in the Americas. Both mountains are part of a long mountain chain which more or less circumnavigates the Pacific Ocean. In North America it is the Rockies. It travels down through Central America, into Colombia where it becomes the Andes. Then it circles back up around through Antarctica, underneath the ocean as the South Pacific. Then it travels up China, Japan, maybe the Philippines, and back into Alaska through Kamchatka. Mountains are a lot of fun. Being from a flat place, I've come to really admire mountains. One day I want to climb mountains, especially forested ones. Down in the Andes, the mountains are forested on one side and dry on the other side (Attachment 2).

 

Alaska also, of course, plays a major role in climate change. Being at such a high latitude, Alaskans will be the among the first to see major fluctuations in weather.

 

Alaska is also a big deal in the mining industry, which ultimately creates major problems for everybody. Industries of all kinds are eyeing Alaska's fragile ecosystem and open plains, wanting a piece of that action. Alaskans are under increasing pressure to fight back against these interests with their false promises of long-term wealth. Hopefully the people of Alaska will be able to preserve much of its biodiversity and cleanliness into the post-industrial age.

 

Alaska also has great potential for permaculture. Sustainable horticulture and applied ecology have a lot of potential in Alaska's landscape. Alaska also provides great options for mobility across long distances, by land and by sea. Also, lots of people who live in Alaska don't even own cars. They just own small propeller airplanes to get to and from work. That sounds made-up, but it's true. Google it.

 

At Alaska's northern coast is the Arctic Ocean. This ocean is home to awesome dudes such as polar bears, walruses, and narwhals. Here you can see different animals who have traveled through Alaska at various times, back and forth from Asia to the Americas. And here you can read about the Great American Biological Interchange, which occurred when Central America formed and joined the two continents, opening fifty million years of isolated evolution in South America.to the world.

 

So that is a short list of people who care about Alaska.

 

The City Government has planted many specimens of Fraximus pennsylvanica around on the sidewalks.

These trees have a thirty to fifty-year lifespan, according to Wikipedia. They appear to be between ten and thirty years old, in general. They have beautiful "helicopter" seeds which actually twirl around on their way down. These trees have a lifespan of maybe forty to ten years left.

 

The City will have to deal with two issues, as these trees begin to die out. Actually, three. So far. First, what to do with the dead trees? I recommend: Harvest them. Harvest the wood, and make a lot of benches. One or two trees could probably make hundreds of sheets of paper. Do they make inks? Fruits? Let's find out! The trees are native to North America.

 

Second: There will be hundreds of spaces opening up as the trees are harvested. What to put in these new spaces? Okay, this leads us to the third issue.

 

Third, either (a) re-establishing the populations of Fraximus pennsylvanica, or, (b) planting new, additional species. The new species should be limited to (in order of general importance): (1) being native or non-invasive to the region, (2) ability to survive in the region (a given for natives, but climate change will require experimenting with other climates), (3) useful in some way: providing tools, fruits, foods, shelters, wood, firewood, wood products, inks, dyes, playgrounds, and so on.

 

I have attached a photograph of Fraximus pennsylvanica from Google images.

A cool landscape

This is in Telluride, Colorado. It would be cool to fly through there, or to live there and explore the place, or to plant some apples or whatever grows there. Native plants, too, if there are any missing.