Use a printable outline map that depicts Central America.
This is my favorite map to use in classroom activities for Central America.
See on www.teachervision.fen.com
Executives have recently focused attention on Silicon Valley’s workplace culture. While companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo operate by their own set of rules, what happens there may influence how many Americans work.
Mike Busarello‘s insight:
How does the spatial layout of a workplace impact productivity and corporate culture? “Google has spent a lot of time studying what makes workplaces innovative and casual interactions are important. Sullivan lists three factors to make that set companies apart: learning by interaction, collaborations and fun.” Spaces that encourage interaction and collaboration increase productivity. Spaces that are ‘fun’ help facilitate a vibrant community and deepens worker loyalty.
Tags: spatial, architecture, labor, podcast.
See on www.npr.org
Urbanization has led to what are known as mega-cities, cities with a population of over 10 million people. These mega-cities have become so large that they often lead to terrible pollution, traffic, and extreme poverty.
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
Over half the global population lives in cities, and the problems confronting these megacities will loom large for future sustainability issues–both at local and global scales. This list ranks the cities by city limits and governance jurisdiction (not by the expanded Metropolitan Statistical Area).
Tags: urban, megacities, unit 7 cities.
See on www.top10zen.com
Infographics showing the distribution of the Roman Catholic population in the world, where it has risen and fallen in recent years.
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
As mentioned earlier, a South American pope was a symbolic recognition of the demographic shift in the Church’s population away from Europe.
Tags: culture, religion, Christianity.
See on www.bbc.co.uk
(3rd UPDATE) The new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics is expected to deliver a speech in an hour
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
The juxtaposition of the hypermodern coverage of the election of a new pope (with telecasts, social media, instantaneous global network coverage, etc.) with the archaic medieval rituals of the conclave (locked doors, smoke signals, etc.) is endlessly fascinating to me. Even in the 21st century, there is a place for the traditional. So who is Pope Francis? As the first South American pope, some feel this reflects the southern demographic shift within the Catholic Church. Also, click here for the science behind the white vs. black smoke.
Tags: culture, religion, Christianity.
See on www.rappler.com
Our bordering countries quiz contains a selection of trivia based on countries throughout the continents and their geographical relationship with one another.
See on www.quizfortune.com
International Women’s Day: political rights around the world mapped
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
This is late for International Women’s Day, but it is never a wrong time to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of the expansion of women’s political rights. This interactive map is excellent for seeing these few metrics, but a more expanded dataset with maps concerning gender (in)equality in the world and the status of women is WomanStats.
Tags: gender, mapping, statistics, political.
See on www.guardian.co.uk
Two Yale architects pose the question in an ambitious research project.
“Hsiang and Mendis have increasingly come to believe that the only way to study and plan for our urban planet is to conceptualize its entire population in one seamless landscape – to picture 7 billion of us as if we all lived in a single, massive city.”
See on www.theatlanticcities.com
