NOT the analysis but the actual book, thank you!!
From the book, Children of the Sun (though I first heard it on Crash Course World History)
I am looking into how Alfred Crosby's model of Ecological Imperialism can be applied to the history of coffee, chocolate and tobacco.
I see ecological imperialism as the successful exporting (intentional and unintentionally) of Old World flora, fauna and pathogens into 'Neo-Europes' (locations with similar climates to Europe) because Old World plants and animals are more aggressive and adaptable compared to New World plants, animals and pathogens.
When applying this to the history of coffee, chocolate and tobacco, there can be similarities drawn between the ecological imperialism model of Neo- Europes (replace Neo-Europes with Neo-tropics as these plants can thrive within 40degrees north and south of the equator) which can help explain how these colonial goods were successfully transplanted and cultivated away from their locations of origin. Coffee originating in East Africa, now is primarily grown in South America, and chocolate and tobacco both originated in South America and are now primarily grown in Africa.
I am looking at the spread of Leaf Rust in coffee to link it into Crosby's model of pathogens being a key facilitator of his model of ecological imperialism.
One large difference I see is that within Crosby's model, the changes primarily occur as an indirect consequence of human action, whereas with regards to coffee chocolate and tobacco these changes happened as a consequence of direct human action.
If anyone could offer some thoughts about my ideas they would be much appreciated!
Who gets first ballot and who gets snubbed? Keep in mind they usually save a spot for a “Builder of the game” or something else etc. so let’s say 3 or 4 get in.
I got the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection on blu-ray a few months ago and spent my time going through the fifteen movies in it over the course of a month and a half or so. I had seen only two films on the set before but hadn't seem them in years. Here is my ranking and some brief notes about each. These will be light on plot details/spoilers (?) for the most part since I assume a lot of these have not been seen by many people lol
-
The Birds (1963) - I did not like this one at all really. I thought the movie was a boring mess with unlikeable characters. Characters make many dumb decisions that make it very hard to care about them (like when Tippi Hedren tries to get the children to safety... by having them leave the school where they were currently sheltering from the birds). This one just wasn't for me. I know this is usually ranked pretty highly among Hitchcock fans so my apologies haha
-
The Trouble with Harry (1955) - Wasn't a fan of this one either. It felt dull and unengaging for the most part. The humor just didn't land for me and the characters were all pretty grating. Very forgettable movie
-
Torn Curtain (1966) - Pretty solid. A cold-war spy thriller with two great actors playing the leads. Felt like Hitchcock on autopilot for the most part though.
-
Topaz (1969) - Very long and bloated but a decent spy thriller. There are some cool moments throughout, but it also drags a lot with some poor pacing. The main character is pretty interesting and well acted though
-
Saboteur (1942) - Feels like a precursor to North by Northwest as it follows a lot of the same story beats but with a much less interesting protagonist. Priscilla Lane is actually quite good in this as the female lead of the film and is a much more interesting character than Barry Kane
-
Family Plot (1976) - Hitchcock's last movie that is pretty good! The plot and main mystery are pretty intriguing but are held back by one of the main leads being very irritating (Madam Blanche). I love the final shot of the film. It feels like an extremely fitting end to Hitchcock's film career in a meta sense to have the main character literally wink at the camera
-
Marnie (1964) - Very engaging almost immediately. Tippi Hedren is very good in the title role and Sean Connery is fantastic in this! They play off each other well and keep you interested throughout most of the movie
-
Vertigo (1958) - I liked this for the most part, but something
No. 33. Gilbert Perreault - 1326
No. 34. Alex Ovechkin - 1305
No. 35. Jarome Iginla/Sidney Crosby - 1300
My cousin and I have discussed this a lot recently. Does anyone get a retired jersey besides Crosby? Does anyone else deserve it? Malkin, Letang, Fleury and Jagr are the only names that come up in these conversations. I really don’t think anyone but Crosby gets in the rafters. What does everyone else think?
Since 2005/06, regular season and playoffs included, Crosby has taken the most faceoffs in the league at 25,440, and Bergeron is #2 with 24,360. The only other players over 20,000 faceoffs taken since 2005/06 are:
Toews: 21,619
Kopitar 21,545
Koivu: 20,634
Bergeron and Crosby have played against each other since the 2005/06 season, but not being in the same division (not to mention only having one short playoff series against one another) and with each dealing with lengthy injuries, they've only played each other in 41 of the 58 games between Boston and Pittsburgh in that time.
Despite that, with their individual line-matching and heavy faceoff usage, they've taken 440 faceoffs against one another. Assuming their numbers from their first two games this year keep up, they'll take another 75 faceoffs against one another in their 6 remaining games to bring their total over 500.
As a comparison for players that have played against each other a lot more, and in prototypical 1C roles, Getzlaf and Kopitar have been in the same division their entire careers and faced off against one another 428 times since 2006/07, playing each other in 70 of the 83 available games between Anaheim and LA.
James Duthie was a guest on the show and talked about his new book. One of the chapters was on Jonathan Pitre, known from the TSN documentary The Butterfly Child. Duthie told the story on the show that lots of Senators players befriended Jonathan and would call him every day and so on, but one of the coolest things that happened was Sidney Crosby had his tailor make a suit for Jonathan so he could wear it whenever he went to hockey games or to the TSN studio, because Jonathan loved how the players looked on the broadcast when they walked into the arena in their suits. Nobody knew Sid did that but Duthie uses the same tailor so he found out.
Just another amazing story about Sid and sort of captures how hockey players are in general.
