GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

I found this image on social media from a great geography teacher (link to his site–looking for APHG group activities?  Try this).  This picture taken at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Memphis, TN shows an intrguing linguistic combination that I had never imagined before.  This is referred to as cultural syncretism, where two or more cultures or cultural traits combine together to make something new.  Globalization and migration are making more cultural combinations than we’ve ever seen before in this human mosaic we call home.

Many hoping to stop environmental degradation of Canada’s Tar Sands and the Dakotas “Kuwait on the Prairie” have opposed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.  It’s been decades since crude oil has been shipped by rail in the United States but fracking technologies have opened up areas without oil pipelines to become major producers.  As demonstrated in this NPR podcast, the railroad industry has seized on this vacuum and since 2009 has been supplying the oil industry the means to get their product to the market.   

Tags:  transportation, industry, economic, energy, resources, environment, environment modify, ecology.

This is a floating testament that economies of scale will continue to push the limits.  Today, the largest of the massive cargo ships are simply too big to get through the Panama Canal and have to travel down around the tip of South America.  This is one reason why Nicaragua is planning to construct a canal to rival Panama’s (Maps 101 readers can read more about the geographic implications of Nicaragua’s plans in this article co-authored by myself and Julie Dixon or you can sign up for a free trial subscription to see what Maps 101 has to offer). 

Tags: transportation, Nicaragua, globalization, diffusion, industry, economic.

Some ancient mysteries capture the imagination and Stonehenge has always been that great unknown.  This might explain why the builders worked so hard to bring the stones over 150 miles to this location.  

Protests in public spaces are colliding with the Brazil’s World Cup/Olympic dreams.  The government wants to show the world the best that the country has to offer and protestors are using this moment to highlight the social ills in their country and some of the collateral damages of these major sporting events.  This may not seem like a sports issue per se, but one of social unrest that happens to be more highly publicized because of the coming international sporting events to Brazil.  Many see the money that went to constructing massive stadiums as money that bypassed those that needed it most and the poor neighborhoods (favelas) that were demolished to make way for an ‘ideal city’ that the world would see.  The world’s eye is on Brazil and both sides know it.

I recently received this question and immediately thought that this is a great geographic question, but one that geographic tools can be used to find the answer.  I downloaded all the Rhode Island toponymns (place names) listed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and filtered out all the listed Islands (108 is the answer!!).  A spreadsheet of the data didn’t help to visualize this data so I created this interactive map.  Only 1 of the locations didn’t have coordinates, some are scarcely more than rocks, and this is only according to the the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but this is the most complete map of islands in the state of Rhode Island that I could produce.  Additionally, here is an article about some sailors who sought to explore every island of the Narragansett Bay.  

The Earth itself is the great source of inspiration for art.  Enjoy the gallery.

Tags: images, art, landscape.