“The evolving role of cities and regions presents planning challenges as urban areas are work to achieve particular social, economic and environmental goals. This video explores a range of cities to examine how fully integrated planning, design, engineering and management capabilities can help to improve cities.”
Tags: urban, planning, urbanism, architecture.
Source: www.youtube.com
“The attacks suggest that ISIS is being forced into ‘mainstream’ terrorism long before it had planned to and a terrible meeting of the minds between Al Qaeda and ISIS.”
Source: www.thenational.ae
This is more ‘instant analysis’ so take the conclusions with a grain of salt, but the idea that the strategic aims of ISIS (a.k.a.-IS, ISIL) and Al-Qaeda are starting to align is worth investing.
Tags: political, terrorism, conflict, geopolitics.
“How did Southern Californians come to treat their highway route numbers as if they were proper names?”
Source: www.kcet.org
I can’t say how delighted this native Southern Californian was to read this (and especially to rediscover the classic SNL skit). Despite living in Rhode Island, I retain this linguistic quirk that I subconsciously learned as a kid growing up in Southern California. This is a shibboleth of mine, a distinctive pronunciation, word choice, or manner of speaking that reveals something about the speaker (such as place of origin, ethnic background, or group membership).
Questions to Ponder: What are other shibboleths that you know? Do you use any?
Tags: California, language, transportation, toponyms.
The country’s future depends on keeping the holy river alive.
Source: www.newsweek.com
This article touches on very serious religious and environmental issues connected to the Ganges River. The Ganges is the sacred river of Hinduism and in part because the river valley is the most heavily populated region of India. Simultaneously, this holy river is an incredibly polluted river as it’s the watershed for a industrial region that with significant sanitation struggles; this is a great article of the environmental and cultural issues.
Tags: religion, South Asia, culture, Hinduism, pollution, industry, economic, environment, environment modify, unit 3 culture.
The Spanish region of Catalonia adopts a resolution supporting independence from Spain, but Spain’s PM says his government will challenge it.
Tags: Catalonia, Spain, political, devolution, autonomy, Europe, culture.
Source: www.bbc.com
DEMOGRAPHICS OF HOMELESS VETERANS
12% of the homeless adult population are veterans
20% of the male homeless population are veterans
68% reside in principal cities
51% of individual homeless veterans have disabilities
50% have serious mental illness
70% have substance abuse problems
Source: nchv.org
Things to remember on Veteran’s Day…homelessness is a major problem for the urban geography of most American cities and veterans are disproportionately affected. Let’s remember them on the 364 other days of the year too.
In India, one of the most significant festivals is Diwali, or the Festival of Lights. It’s a five-day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps.
Source: video.nationalgeographic.com
This 3 minute video from National Geographic is a nice introduction to the cultural practices of Diwali, the fall festival which symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness. With some analogies to Christmas for Christians, Diwali is also perceived by some to be overly commercialized in recent years.
Tags: religion, South Asia, culture, Hinduism.
“From 1936 to 1966, the ‘Green Book’ was a travel guide that provided black motorists with peace of mind while they drove through a country where racial segregation was the norm and sundown towns — where African-Americans had to leave after dark — were not uncommon.”
Source: www.dnainfo.com
The effects of globalization and technologies are uneven; this is a very clear example of how mobility and access to other places can be limited based on various segments of the population. It is repugnant to think that such a book was ever necessary in this country, but it is heartening to see the evidence of an organized network that worked to lessen the pain of those oppressed by it.
This year’s Geography Awareness Week‘s theme is “Explore! The Power of Maps.” Geographer Derek Alderman complied these resources for teachers wanting to use the example of the Green Book in their classrooms.
Tags: mobility, transportation, race, class, culture, historical, USA, ethnicity.
“In Northeast India just north of Bangladesh is the province of Meghalaya.”
Source: www.youtube.com
The living bridges of Meghalaya are truly sights to behold; these astonishing bridges are a natural way that local people have adapted to an incredibly flood-prone environment. The organic building materials prevent erosion and keep people in contact during times of flood. Here is another video and articles (BBC, Atlas Obscura, Inhabitat, and MNN) with more ecological and cultural context on these living bridges.
Tags: environment, environment adapt, SouthAsia, water, weather climate, indigenous, biogeography.
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 