GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“Yes, globalization. For many people, that word conjures up, at best, images of container ships moving manufactured goods from far-flung factories. At worst, it harkens back to acrid debates about trade deficits, currency wars and jobs moving to China. In fact, since the Great Recession of 2008, the global flow of goods and services has flattened, and cross-border capital flows have declined sharply. But globalization overall isn’t on the wane. Like so much in our world today, it has reinvented itself by going digital.”

Tags: technology, globalization, diffusion, industry, economic.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

“By enticing thousands and thousands of people to plan commercial, industrial, and residential districts for their virtual towns, the creators of SimCity have probably done more than anyone in the history of the world to introduce basic principles of zoning to the public.  Even though it’s just a computer game, Cities: Skylines has a lot to teach us about the unstated premises of our urban-planning conversations, and demonstrates how those premises profoundly shape what our cities can look like. When we assume the necessity of a given way of regulating cities, assume away the messiness of people and their relationships, assume away politics, and ignore major costs, we miss an awful lot of what urban-planning debates should be.”

Tags: urban, transportation, planning.

Source: www.theatlantic.com

Source: www.xkcd.com

America has joined Saudi Arabia and Russia as one of the world’s leading oil producers. Forecasters predicted this would usher in a golden age. It hasn’t worked out that way.

Tags: environment, resources, economic.

Source: www.npr.org

“Follow America’s favorite vegetable from field to factory — to see how potatoes grow and how they’re turned into chips.”

Source: www.pbs.org

This 5 minute video is a good introduction to the potato, it’s hearth, diffusion, population impacts, nutritional profile and industrial production.  The geography of food goes far beyond the kitchen and there are more episodes in the “How Does it Grow?” series to show that.   

Tags: food, economic, food production, agribusiness, industry, video, agriculture.

Flyover Country uses maps and data from various geological and paleontological databases to identify and give information on the landscape passing beneath a plane. The user will see features tagged on a map corresponding to the ground below. To explain the features in depth, the app relies on cached Wikipedia articles. Since it works solely with a phone’s GPS, there’s no need for a user to purchase in-flight wifi. Sitting in your window seat, you can peer down on natural features like glaciers and man-made features, such as mines, and read articles about them at the same time.

Tags: mobility, transportation, technology, physical, geology.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

When racist towns used to lynch people, these guides helped keep black travelers safe

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

” Also see our video, Will The European Union Fall Apart? http://testu.be/1UYWZPm “

Source: www.youtube.com

Every state but two were warmer than normal and all six New England states set winter records.

Tags: physical, weather and climate, climate change.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com