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Belgians divided by language barrier

Failure by Belgium’s political parties to form a government since elections in June have prompted fears of a split in the tiny European country. Al Jazeera’s…

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This 2007 video is dated, but many of the same issues are still seen today. This video briefly lays out the cultural context for the political divisions between the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish populations of Belgium. For a longer video on the topic, see this first portion of this video (the second half is on hertiage tourism at Catholic holy sites).

Tags: language, culture, Belgium, unit 4 political, Europe, devolution, unit 3 culture.

See on www.youtube.com

February 12, 2013 0

China’s New Bachelor Class

Gender imbalances in China have created a generation of men for whom finding love is no easy task

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

Cultural preferences for boys in China has led to a gender imbalance which has some unintended consequences, especially for the those seeking to have families with limited financial resources.

Tags: gender, China, population.

See on www.theatlantic.com

February 12, 2013 0

Azerbaijan Is Rich. Now It Wants to Be Famous.

Oil-rich, velvet-rope-poor Azerbaijan, a country about the size of South Carolina on the Caspian Sea, would very much like to be the world’s next party capital.

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

Azerbaijan has limited cultural prestige and international recognition, but it has great quantities of oil, and they are parlaying that wealth into an important geopolitical player in Central Asia. It appears that Baku has ambitions to become the next Dubai.

Tags: Azerbaijan, political, development, Central Asia, unit 4 political.

See on www.nytimes.com

February 11, 2013 0

Replanning Downtown LA

Melani Smith is Director of Planning and Urban Design at downtown Los Angeles based Meléndrez, a landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design firm. Melani’s…

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

Changes are afoot to make Downtown LA (the center of a metropolitan area that is notoriously tied to freeways and the private automobile) more walkable and reshape the look and feel to make it more of a neighborhood.

Tags: Los Angeles, transportation, AAG, urban, planning.

See on vimeo.com

February 11, 2013 0

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

Readers Nick and Riela have both written to ask how and when English colonists in America lost their British accents and how American accents came

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This is a great question about cultural divergence and the answer has it’s roots in understanding class and place.

Tags: language, culture, unit 3 culture, USA, UK, historical.

See on mentalfloss.com

February 11, 2013 0

Third Rock Fire Pit

Rick Wittrig designs each Fire Pit from one quarter inch (6.35 mm) thick carbon steel. They have an iron oxide finish/patina on the outside. The interior is coated with a high temperature resistant paint and has an 1-1/2″ rain drain in the bottom.

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This would be just about the coolest thing ever.

See on shop.firepitart.com

February 11, 2013 0

Downtown LA: Always Changing

“The Los Angeles of America’s imagination is rarely downtown Los Angeles. When we envision L.A., we think of the beach, 15 miles away, or the starred sidewalk of Hollywood, or the sprawling suburbs of the San Fernando Valley. While not the center of our Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles is nonetheless visible —it is a backdrop to films and television shows set in L.A., and, just as frequently, serves as Any City, U.S.A., easily transformed into New York City, Washington, D.C., and the generic cities of car, cell phone, or drug store commercials.”

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This AAG annual meeting will be in Los Angeles this year, and geographer Jennifer Mapes gives readers a virtual walking tour of downtown LA before thousands of geographers converge on the city.

Tags: Los Angeles, AAG, urban, landscape.

See on www.aag.org

February 11, 2013 0

Boundary conditions

PULL a spring, let it go, and it will snap back into shape. Pull it further and yet further and it will go on springing back until, quite suddenly, it won’t….

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This is an interesting article discussing the limits that the Earth’s physical systems have and the importance not exceeding any tipping point that could destabilize the planet.

See on www.economist.com

February 11, 2013 0

The Southern Ocean

Did you know that in 2000 the IHO created a new ocean called the Southern Ocean? Here, learn about where and what the Southern Ocean is.

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

Maybe if more of the global population lived in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps our educational systems would emphasize more information about the Southern Ocean (not to mention acknowledge that it even exists). This body of water isn’t just the southernmost part of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans; the biology, temperature, chemistry and ocean currents all make it a distinct body of water that circles Antarctica. This is just one of over twenty videos in the “geography” tab from the great folks at about.com.

Tags: Antarctica, water, physical.

See on video.about.com

February 10, 2013 0