GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

News reports coming out of North Korea are grim and threatening right now.  However, this Washington Post article argues that it might be all for show.  The Kaesong Industrial Complex was opened in 2002 as a gesture of peace.  Located just across the northern side of the border, it is staffed by South and North Koreans (South Korea get super cheap labor, North Korea gets an infusion of currency, both get positive PR). The Kaesong Industrial Complex continues to operate with the permission of the North Korean government.  Were that to ever change and North Korea shut down this joint venture, THEN we’ll know that they are serious.

Tags: North Korea, war, labor, industry, economic, conflict, unit 6 industry.

Get into the spirit of March Madness by challenging your knowledge on the sizes of Metropolitan Statistic Areas and state population (just think electoral college).  I got a 56 on my first stab (59 for the states)…what did you get?  

This series of spatial diagrams (dare I say, maps?) shows how the offense game of LeBron James has changed dramatically over the last few years, greatly increasing his efficiency.  Do you know of a basketball-loving student that might appreciate spatial analysis more when seen through the lens of their favorite sport? 

Tag: sport, spatial.

This gallery of 46 vintage images of the Vietnam War (primarily of U.S. GI’s) shows the humanity and the pains of war.  This photoessay is very informative and moving.

I am used to the French trying to slow the flow of English words into French, but shocked that Google would join in the fray to slow linguistic change.  Words evolve based on cultural shifts and technological changes and the computer industry has especially created new words to describe emerging, new social interactions.  I’m certain that the company Google is thrilled that “to google” is the verb of choice to describe the action of searching for online for content.  I would have guessed that Google was savvy enough to understand that this “ungoogleable” term is not an indictment on the company, but a new way to define that elusive, mysterious, indefinable quality for a generation that sometimes acts as if everything can be found of Google. 

Tags: language, culture, technology, google, diffusion.

Street art has a subtle, but powerful connection with place.  How does an art installation alter a neighborhoods sense of place?  How does a place alter the meaning(s) of an art installation?

Tags: mapping, NYC, culture, landscape, place, socioeconomic, neighborhood.