I can´t stop smiling from a photo I stumbled upon on the facebook page of Nomaden (a Norwegian travel store) – I just love it! I tried to find the source of the photo, but no luck. I found it sprea…
I think this is my new litmus test for potential friends. If this picture from Mongolia doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I just don’t think that we can be friends. If anyone can find the original source (or a hi-res version), I’d love to hear about it.
Iceland is working on banning Internet pornography, calling explicit online images a threat to children.
Given the cultural values and legal traditions of Western Europe in general (and Scandinavia more specifically), Iceland stands apart on this particular issue. While most Western countries would see this as a freedom of speech issue, many in Iceland view it as child protection issue.
See on edition.cnn.com
The disastrous earthquake in Haiti taught humanitarian groups an unexpected lesson: the power of mobile devices to coordinate, inform, and guide relief efforts.
Tags: technology, disasters, Haiti, TED.
We are only beginning to see the applications of smart phones to improve peoples lives. In this TED talk, Paul Conneally explores some of the possibilities (citizen mapping, crowd-sourced disaster recovery, etc.) that is just sitting in the palm of our collective hands.
See on www.ted.com
Detailed satellite images reveal the web of connections that sustain life on Earth.
“Earth From Space is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.”
This documentary shows something interesting for the physical geographer, human geographers, and geospatial technology specialists. In other words, this touches on just about all things geographic (with cool images!). The overarching theme is that so many things in this world that we wouldn’t imagine are actually interconnected with excellent examples.
Tags: remote sensing, geospatial, unit 1 Geoprinciples, physical.
See on www.pbs.org
Check out this funny map of the most popular baby names by state, only on NickMom.com!
See on www.nickmom.com
Tea plucking machines are threatening the livelihoods of tea pickers in the Indian state of Assam, reports Mark Tully.
This is yet another example of the uneven impacts of globalization.
See on www.bbc.co.uk
Read the Transcript: http://to.pbs.org/b6sR86 The capital of the South Asian country Bangladesh, Dhaka, has a population that is booming. However, it stands …
This is a great introduction to the demographic explosion of the slums within megacities. This is applicable to many themes within geography.
Tags: Bangladesh, water, pollution, poverty, squatter, planning, density, South Asia, development, economic, megacities.
See on www.youtube.com
On three different occasions, the candidate with the most votes didn’t become President of the United States. We call this “The Electoral College Problem.” Here a solution. Simple. Mathematical. Rational.
As a disclaimer, I’m not endorsing the removal of all current state borders, but I think that this is a great thought exercise that involves some serious spatial thinking and geography knowledge to create this map (or even to critique and discuss it). This map represents an attempt to restructure the states so that each state would have equal value in the electoral college with roughly equal populations (county borders remained firm). What about the physical and human geography would make some of these “states” better (or worse) than the current configuration of the 50 states? How would this ‘redistricting’ impact your local region?
Tags: political, gerrymandering, mapping, unit 4 political.
See on www.npr.org
The current rise or durability of the economies of the Global South do not signal that economic geography does not matter, but that current investment has simply shifted.
In an era where globalization has rendered distances a minor barrier to diffusion, some have erroneously concluded that geography is no longer relevant to economic development and urban planning. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but that doesn’t mean that the ‘old rules’ of space and place aren’t be re-written. This is a nice article that discusses the continued importance of spatial thinking and geography for urban planning.
Tags: urban, planning, economic, urbanism, globalization, unit 7 cities.
