Pottersville

Pottersville is not the town of the most famous magician of contemporary literature. Pottersville is a dark village, lit only by neon lights and where looting, gambling and drinking reign everywhere. It owes its name to the owner of everything that exists in the city, Henry F. Potter, much like citizen Kane.

This is an alternative Bedford Falls without George Bailey, in the Capra’s film It’s a wonderful life! It is also the favorite example of S. J. Gould in his Wonderful Life to explain the meaning of contingency. In his book, Gould (whom some will remember as the mustache paleontologist that appears in The Simpsons) proposes a new conception of the History of life. On the one hand, he dismisses the traditional iconography and the cone scale, namely evolution as an inexorable progress of increasing complexity, in which the final and inevitable result is the human conscience. By contrast, Gould argues that life we know today is the result of the contingency. If the tape of life could be rewind and modify some variables. Then play it again, the film would be (completely) different.

Niches and Invaders

A niche is a term describing the functional position of a species in its ecosystem. In nature there are predators and preys, generalist and specialist species, key species and so on. An invasive species is an exotic species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or/and ecologically. Here you can find a good example in São Miguel Island (the Açores, Portugal).

On the other hand, on both sides of the commercial streets of most occidental cities, there are plenty of different niches. There is a niche filled by big book stores like Borders (US), Waterstones (UK) or La Casa del Libro (Spain). But it is possible as well observe McDonalds, IKEA or Zara everywhere. Because of Globalization, these sort of stores and restaurants are invading our urban ecosystems.