this is the TED worksheet.

TED Reports

Name________________

URL of talk you watched______________________

Tell your classmates why they should watch the talk you recommend. (Write at least 3 sentences. The box will increase in size if you write more!)

I recommend this talk because:

STOP reading here UNLESS you want to listen to the talk. If you want to listen to the talk, listen to it once first, then read what what is below and try to answer the questions. After that listen to the talk again, read the transcript if necessary and go to the forum about the talk, comment on the talk, and share your answers to the questions.

Tell your classmates about interesting ideas or words you learned from the talk. (Write as much as you can about at least 3 words or ideas from the talk.  The box will increase in size if you write more!)

1. 2. 3.

Hopefully some of your classmates will watch the talk you recommend. If they do, perhaps they can help you answer questions you have about the talk. (Write at least 3 questions you have about the talk.  The box will increase in size if you write more!)

1. 2. 3.

I hope we would agree that death is part of the cycle of life. Most of us choose not to think too much about it, and it is quite obvious why. Death is an inescapable part of fall, and there is a lot of beauty connected to it (red leaves). Here I have found more mystery than beauty though. These pictures are from the top of Ohira Mountain in Ishiyama, a place I often walk. It seems that grasshoppers come here to die. They seem to grab onto the grasses and branches and die there in large numbers. Maybe they know winter is coming, or maybe their food supply is depleted. I wonder. I tried to find some information about the life cycle of grasshoppers on the internet, but I didn't have any luck. If anyone knows anything about this, please let me know.

Over the last ten years I have seen MANY MANY different animals while walking in the woods. This Friday though, I saw a new animal; it was about 30cm long, had a longish nose, and had had thick white fur that would make a great hat!I think it was a possum. At least I think it was a possum. You probably shouldn't trust me because, in fact, this is the first possum I have ever seen. Still, if it wasn't a possum, what was it?

I wish I had gotten a picture!

I am convinced that this was an important place long ago. Anthropologists think that the first 'cities' among nomadic people were 'just' notable natural features, like giant rocks, giant trees, mountain passes, and the meeting of rivers where wandering people met to trade, share information, and worship their gods. I agree with the anthropologists that hold this view, and this rock is quite notable! Could the vine have been planted to direct people to the place?

Consider the above picture of the rock. See the indentation in the rock in the center of the picture. I imagine this is where the noble savages sacrificed animals to their gods and barbequed their dinner as well. Does anyone know anything about the 'prehistoric history' of this part of Japan?

And finally, a year later, the rock. It has many layers like the rings of a tree. I think it is a sedimentary rock; this means that it was formed under water. Dead sea life and other debris fell to the floor of the ocean and a long time and a lot of pressure turned it all into rock. I have never seen a rock like this anywhere in Japan, and I was surprised to see it here on Iwamayama in Ishiyama at an elevation of about 300 meters. It was either tossed here by a volcano or a glacier, or this area was under water a long time ago.

The Vine and the Rock

First the vine:
What is a vine? Maybe more importantly, where is it? Below is a picture of the bulkiest feature of a vine I often pass. Above and below ground many 'runners' extend in all directions and climb whatever they find, like the tree in the next picture.

Here is a picture of a bird's nest that I recently found on my morning walk. It interested me for two reasons: the nest was made almost completely of twigs from the same type of tree. The mother bird found her building material and she never looked back. The other reason is the 'workmanship'. The twigs are woven together with a precision that would be challenging for me and my ten fingers. The 'workman' presumably was restricted to a beak and a small number of digits. Can birds coordinate the labor of their beak and their feet? I wonder.

Getting the nest was easy. The mother was away and there were only two little eggs in the nest. After tossing them aside, the nest was mine!

JUST KIDDING! The nest was empty and had fallen to the ground. Otherwise I never would have touched it.

Attempt to embed something--
There are two things to note about this post. First is the nuts themselves. Chestnuts are wonderful, I`m sure everyone agrees. They are especially wonderful to me because I discovered them at such an advanced age. Of course I had seen them and eaten them during my life, but I had never seen a mature chestnut tree or a nut in its natural state until I came to Japan. We don`t have them in America! Why you ask? Because we have a blight, that is a disease, which kills the trees before they are old enough to produce nuts. I was surprised to see the nuts in the hull, and amazed at how well protected they are. They should be called cactus nuts I think. Or how about sea urchin nuts?! But once you get the armor off they are beautiful to look at and good to eat prepared just about any way with just about anything.

The second point to note about this post is the technological breakthrough. I was able to embed a picture with audio attached to it. I uploaded this picture and the audio on a site called voicethread.com We will be using this site during the term, and you are welcome to check it out on your own and use it for your blogs.

scattered and gathered

In the beginning...
I want to introduce my blog. I love walking, usually in the mountains. I go walking as often as I can, almost every day. I almost always find something interesting on my walks, and if it`s small I sometimes put it in my pocket and take it home. My desk is covered with the many items I have collected on my walks. In this blog I will share some of this with you.