Browsing a Trail of Thought

For about an hour, I kept track of every link I clicked on and where it send me while I was browsing. The result is a picture of not only the path that I took on the internet, but also is reflective of my thoughts while I was browsing. What had started as a simple visit to wikipedia, caused me to delve into a archive of essays and opinion pieces about the Korean War, and Soviet influences and reactions before and during the conflict. These readings sparked my political/historical interests and lead to related articles about modern Russia by opinion author Maxim Trudolyubov of the New York Times. After reading the first of his articles I found (and saving several others in Diigo), I clicked a related link about the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran. When I finished the article on a subject I was already greatly familiar with, something I was less familiar with caught my eye in the related articles section. The article was about the establishment of three new national parks. I clicked the link out of curiosity for the unknown, rather than familiar interest. Reading the article, I discovered that Mammoth park in Waco had become a recognized national park. I went to their website, and saw their banner proudly announcing and celebrating their new status. I continued following the topic of national parks until I was at the National parks Service website looking at volunteer positions. One listed position was for the national geological survey, they need volunteers for their open map project. I followed the link to their website, where I discovered a large, interactive map of the United States. After creating an account, anyone can place a pin on the map to mark a location. They can leave their pin’s open so any user can edit or move their location to make the map more accurate. This little trail lead me from the diplomacy and intrigue of the Korean War, to modern Russia, to Iran, to wooly mammoths, to exploring a crowd sourced map of the United States. In looking at these steps I can see a little reflection of my own browsing habits. My primary focus while browsing the web is finding things that are familiar to me that I know I will enjoy reading about. Yet occasionally, something catches my eye that I know little to nothing about, and because I know nothing about it, I will follow it to learn more. These diversions from the familiar are almost always the most fun and rewarding on the internet. Because of what is familiar, and the means provided by the web, it is possible to learn something entirely new that you were never expecting to find. Follow my full journey! wikipedia wikipedia history wikipedia korean war http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/north-korea-international-documentation-project http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/kim-gu-reunification-and-war-1948 http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/should-we-fear-stalin-and-the-danger-war-america http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFAEF.pdf http://www.wilsoncenter.org/opportunity/internships-the-cold-war-international-history-project-1 http://www.wilsoncenter.org/issue/cold-war http://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/russias-virtual-universe http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/opinion/russias-virtual-universe.html?_r=2 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/maxim_trudolyubov/index.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/opinion/maxim-trudolyubov-russias-lost-time.html?ref=topics http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shleifer/files/normal_countries_draft_sept_12_annotated.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/opinion/aleksei-navalny-and-russias-protesters-face-a-tough-battle.html?    action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/world/europe/aleksei-navalny-convicted.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-    region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/world/middleeast/congress-iran-nuclear-deal.html?    rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/business/international/iran-nuclear-deal-oil-prices.html?    rref=homepage&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Home%20Page&pgtype=article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/us/3-new-national-monuments-to-be-established-by-obama.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-5&action=click&contentCollection=Energy%20%26%20Environment        % 20&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=false&pgtype=article http://www.waco-texas.com/cms-waco-mammoth/ http://www.nps.gov/waco/index.htm http://www.nps.gov/history/places.htm http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm http://www.nps.gov/getinvolved/volunteer.htm http://volunteer.gov/ http://volunteer.gov/results.cfm?states=TX https://my.usgs.gov/confluence/display/nationalmapcorps/Home https://navigator.er.usgs.gov/