lost threads

I have a scribbled post-it note here for blogging that says "eco-ridicule" but alas I have no idea what I meant when I wrote that two days ago.

There is a week available to "cover" political geography in my online class. I am thinking about working through some basic concepts, sketching various historical conceptions of geopolitical reality (the empire, colonization, the nation-state) and then spending some time on the geographical dimensions of current conflicts. One student is interested in North Korea; another is in the Army so has definite opinions about Iraq and Afghanistan.

I, of course, am still lost in a Cold War fog. I read recently that Mackinder's 'heartland' concept was making a comeback, about 100 years after its birth.