GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

This startling image is a powerful testament to the adaptive nature of many species to the urban environment.  Some species will adapt in beautiful ways such as this tree, while other will adapt is ways that go against our plan for that urban space (think rats, pigeons and cockroaches).  We adapt to our environment and the environment adapts to us as well; but that relationship is not always peaceful and symbiotic.  We can also destroy ecosystems that are fragile and not as resilient to change as this tree is.  See this same tree’s root network one year later. 

Tags: urban ecology, environment adapt, sustainability, biogeography.

Citizen cartographers have edited Google’s North Korea map, putting information on what was previously an absence of data concerning one of the most secretive countries in the world.  In essence, as explained in this video, Google is crowd-sourcing the map.  How might this geographic knowledge change our perception of North Korea?  How might the dissemination of this information affect North Korea?  

 Tags: North Korea, mapping, cartography.

This can work if authors and publishers walk away from a lucrative industry…(I’m not holding my breath).  As long as there is money to be made and until the highest quality textbooks in the field are free, there won’t be a major changes in the industry.  Personally though, I LOVE the idea.   

France is famous for trying to slow the linguistic diffusion of globalization’s most powerful online language (which also happens to belong to their age-old cultural and political rival).  France has a commission dedicated to removing new words that have English origins with one’s that have linguistic roots in French.  Recently then have done away with the Twitter term #hashtag to #mot-dièses.  This video criticizes this cultural practice and it is also derided in this NPR article. 

However this does not mean that France is immune to cultural pressure to change linguistic traditions.  There was been a movement to alter the term Mademoiselle from official documents with a new title that allows women the freedom to choose the form of address that they prefer (and not to force them to reveal their marital status–think Ms. vs Miss).

Questions to Ponder: Why (and how) do languages change over time?  Is it possible to keep a language ‘pure?’

Tags: language, culture, globalization, unit 3 culture, France.

Pictured above is a still image of an interactive digital globe with population density data with colored bar graphs to symbolize the data.  This is a great open-source platform for geographic data visualization. There are not many data layers currently, but possibly there will be more in the future (best viewed in Google Chrome).  

Tags:  population, demographics, unit 2 population, visualization, mapping.

“There is perhaps nothing more closely bound up with one’s national identity than food. Specific local dishes are often seen as the embodiment of various cultures and many nations promote their food as a celebration of national identity. Sometimes, however, a country’s cuisine can also be used to highlight national rivalries.” 

This opening paragraph nicely shows how cultural traditions from a similar cultural hearth may have much in common.  However, since these groups are neighbors, the geopolitical relationship may be strained despite the cultural commonalities. 

Tags: food, culture, unit 3 culture.

A nonprofit organization run by current and former favela residents called Redes da Mare has started the first mapping program to systematically chart our the favelas for municipal governments.  We take for granted what having an address on a named street means in a modern society; it is a portal to public utilities, recognition with businesses and countless other social benefits.  Being left ‘off the map’ is synonymous with being left behind.  By finding their way on the city maps they are removing some of the social stigma that sought to treat them as if they did not exist.  

Tags: Brazil, urban, squatter, mapping.