USA USA

I'm in New York (again (again) ). Flew in two weeks ago, then jumped on a bus to Toronto the next day. Following that I went to Ottawa, Montreal, and Boston before going back to New York. Now I'm figuring out how I'm going to get across the other side of the country.

I took a tour to Niagara Falls while in Toronto. It was 'nice', but I've seen a lot of waterfalls before. It wasn't that special to me. Instead of 'admiring the beauty' of the falls, I was more struck by the development that has occured around it, simply because it's something people want to go and see - the number of Tourist crap around - hotels, fast food places, casinos... - all because people want to come and watch water falling over some rocks.

This also lead to another thought - do other animals stop and 'admire a view'? It would seem anti-darwinian for animals that are prey, lower in the food chain, to let themselves be distracted by scenes of 'beauty' (of course, beauty is a human standard), but perhaps large predators. It was pointed out to me that cats like to sit up high on things and look down on a place, but I reckon that's more to observe, than to admire.