GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

 Mark Twain declared that the Indian city of Varanasi was older than history, tradition and legend. He was, of course, wrong. So which exactly is the world’s most ancient continuously inhabited city?

Source: www.theguardian.com

This is a nice article that, on the surface, discusses which is the oldest city among competing claims.  However, it also serves as an entry point to explore the history of urbanization in the ancient world and the requirements for the earliest permanent settlements.

Tags: historical, urban, urbanism, unit 7 cities.

Austin’s Mueller neighborhood is a new-urbanist dream, designed to be convivial, walkable and energy-efficient. Every house has a porch or stoop, and all the cars are hidden away.

After moving here, respondents said, they spend an average of 90 fewer minutes a week in the car, and most reported higher levels of physical activity.  The poll results seem to validate new-urbanist gospel: good design, like sidewalks, street lighting, extensive trails and parkland, can improve social and physical health.  Part II: A Texas Community Takes on Racial Tensions Once Hidden Under The Surface.

Tags: housing, urban, planning, urbanism, unit 7 cities, neighborhood, podcast.

Source: www.npr.org

New figures show the lowest total number of births since the formation of the modern Italian state

Fewer babies were born in Italy in 2014 than in any other year since the modern Italian state was formed in 1861, new data show, highlighting the demographic challenge faced by the country’s chronically sluggish economy.  National statistics office ISTAT said on Thursday the number of live births last year was 509,000, or 5,000 fewer than in 2013, rounding off half a century of decline.  The number of babies born to both natives and foreigners living in Italy dropped as immigration, which used to support the overall birth rate, tumbled to its lowest level for five years.

Tag: Italy, Europe, declining populations, population, demographic transition model.

Source: www.theguardian.com

“This animated documentary tells the story of polar explorer Alfred Wegener, the unlikely scientist behind continental drift theory.”

Source: www.youtube.com

While plate tectonics is now universally accepted, when Alfred Wegener first proposed continental drift it was it was greeted with a great deal of skepticism from the academic community.  This video nicely shows how scientific advancement requires exploration and imagination, and whole lot of heart.   

Tags: tectonics, physical, geomorphology, K12, STEM, video.

Source: vimeo.com

This video is geared for photographers, demonstrating the technical abilities of camera, but the images of the varied housing types and skylines of Rio de Janeiro are stunning.  To appreciate the favelas and Sugarloaf Mountains more fully, maximize the display and watch on the largest screen possible.   

Tags: Brazil, urban, squatter, neighborhood, landscape, time lapse, video.

“Now you can see what gas prices are around the U.S. at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline. Click here for the Canada National Gas Price Heat Map.”

Source: www.gasbuddy.com

In 2012, this visualization of gas prices by county in the United States was because high gas prices were hitting Americans hard in the pocketbooks and became a major political hot-button topic.  Today, this map still shows the regional variations in prices (so sorry to my California friends), but the recent drop in prices makes most consumers give a sigh of relief..  Supply and demand works beautifully on a two-axis graph, but supply and demand happen somewhere, giving a simple chart added complexity since it’s spatially contingent and we must make the assumption and caveat explicit.   

Questions to Ponder: Why are the prices for a certain commodity higher in one region than another?  What factors lead to the spatial differences in the relative economic value in one region over another? 

Tags: energy, resources, unit 6 industry.

Just for fun, this was the map in 2012.

The stylized geography of urban transit.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The Jewish population in Europe has dropped significantly over the last several decades – most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the countries that make up the former Soviet Union.

It’s been seven decades since the end of the Holocaust, an event that decimated the Jewish population in Europe. In the years since then, the number of European Jews has continued to decline for a variety of reasons. And now, concerns over renewed anti-Semitism on the continent have prompted Jewish leaders to talk of a new “exodus” from the region.

There are still more than a million Jews living in Europe, according to 2010 Pew Research Center estimates. But that number has dropped significantly over the last several decades – most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the countries that make up the former Soviet Union, according to historical research by Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Tags: Judaism, religion, Europe.

Source: www.pewresearch.org