The U.S. is often thought of as a nation connected by roads—since the 1960s the Interstate Highway has defined American culture and led to untold economic prosperity. But a new map of the nation’s rivers tells a very different story.
See on www.digitaljournal.com
Deaths of white people outnumbered births for the very first time in US history, the Census Bureau revealed Thursday. The census predicts that significant drops in birth rates v death rates will be regular by 2025.
The United States as a whole does not have demographic numbers similar to European countries with declining populations…but ‘white’ America does. The NY Times also noted that this statistical benchmark happened, but it was quietly mentioned with many other demographic statistics without an analysis of how this will impact the United States.
Question to Ponder: how will this impact the United States in coming generations? What will the cultural, economic and political impacts be? Why explains the differents between the distinct populations in the United States?
Tags: USA, declining population, population, demographics, ethnicity.
See on rt.com
“Protests are ongoing in Brazil as people took to demonstrating against high World Cup spending.…the unrest is the worst the nation has seen in two decades.“
The origins of the protests were based on hikes in public transit fares, but a movement of general discontent began, with many voices and multiple perspectives. While the World Cup is a rallying point, many argue that it isn’t the World Cup they are angry about, but corruption and social inequality. FIFA is starting to think of contingency plans if protests continue and threaten the World Cup. The lack of clear leadership some feel is the reason why the protest have lost some steam in July as stated in this NPR podcast. This photo essay of the protest movement with a gallery of 39 photos is quite intriguing.
Tags: sport, Brazil, images, South America.
See on www.boston.com
Here’s a little more Canadian history on this Canada Day.
I’m a little late for Canada Day, but the information about the origins of the names of all the Provinces and Territories is great information any time of year.
Tags: Canada, toponyms, historical, trivia.
See on mentalfloss.com
There is a pretty ridiculous North-South split, although Maryland, northern Virginia, and southern Florida (which is pretty much the North anyways) fall into pancake territory, while Waffle House has made inroads into Ohio and Indiana.
I was unaware that Waffle House is based in Atlanta and IHOP began in California. So, given those points of origin, what does this map (and the other maps in the article) tell us about how these restaurants diffused? What does this tell us about diffusion in general?
See on deadspin.com
WeatherSpark: beautiful weather graphs and maps making in-depth weather information easily accessible.
Weather Spark is a platform with interactive maps, weather forecasting and climatological history for the last five years for many different weather stations. This is the data for the TF Green airport, and is an incredible set of information to teach physical geography.
Tags: physical, weather and climate, statistics, visualization.
See on weatherspark.com
“GIS has given us the chance to re-examine how the Civil War battle was won and lost.”
July 1-3 mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and it seems only appropriate to share these rich, interactive resources to commemorate the event (this particular interactive feature uses an ESRI storymap template). This is a fantastic example from the Smithsonian Magazine of how history teaching and research can be benefitted by using GIS with the example of Gettysburg. Many student today visit the sites of the Battle of Gettysburg and get a greater appeciation of battle by getting a sense of the lay of the land and the challenged confronting both armies. National Geographic has additionally put together resources to made out other Civil War battles. GIS is not a tool that is just for geographers; any analysis that requires spatial analysis can be mapped.
See on www.smithsonianmag.com
“For millions of refugees across Africa life is a daily struggle. Many dream of one day returning to their homeland while others have spent decades building a new life. On World Refugee Day, BBC Focus on Africa’s Anne Soy visits a Somali family in Nairobi, Kenya, who cannot imagine returning to their roots.”
See on www.bbc.co.uk
“Stamen’s toner, terrain and watercolor map styles are lovingly crafted and free for the taking.”
With all the feel of an old, hand-drawn maps, this watercolor map layer is designed to wash out rough edges and makes a map with current road layers still feel like a vintage map. Compare and constrast with the toner and terrain layouts.
Tags: mapping, cartography, art.
See on maps.stamen.com
