“Windows on Earth is an educational project that features photographs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station. Astronauts take hundreds of photos each day, for science research, education and public outreach. The photos are often dramatic, and help us all appreciate home planet Earth. These images help astronauts share their experience, and help you see Earth from a global perspective.”
Tags: images, art, space, remote sensing, geospatial.
Source: www.windowsonearth.org
As a British expat who has lived and worked in the U.S. for over five years, I remain very much in favor of embracing the various wonderful nuances this country has to offer. However, there was one aspect of my move that—during the initial settling-in period—I secretly feared: the gradual Americanization of my vocabulary.
Source: www.bbcamerica.com
While this list was created for English speakers in the UK, I will invert the list to show some terms that Americans rarely use, even if we understand their meaning: rubbish, mobile, motorway, petrol, car park, you lot, maths, pavement, football and fizzy drink. If this interests you so will this list of 10 British insults that American don’t understand.
“The ships, railroads, and trucks that transport containers worldwide form the backbone of the global economy. The pace of globalization over the last sixty years has accelerated due to containers; just like canals and railroads defined earlier phases in the development of a global economy. While distance used to be the largest obstacle to regional integration, these successive waves of transportation improvements have functionally made the world a smaller place. Geographers refer to this as the Space-Time Convergence.”
Source: blog.education.nationalgeographic.com
I’ve posted here several resources about the global economy and the crucial role that containers play in enabling globalization. In this article for National Geographic Education, I draw on many of these to to put it all in one nice container.
Tags: transportation, globalization, diffusion, industry, economic.
Geographers or anyone with a history of geography education or practice have special skills that can enhance their resumes across nearly all career options. From GIS skills to graphic design to multiculturalism, here are eight ways to market your geography experience as viable job skills.
Source: www.geolounge.com
Source: maps101blog.com
Last year, Julie and I wrote this article for Maps 101 (which was also created into a podcast) about the historical and geographic significance of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King fought racial segregation, which, if you think about it, is a geographic system of oppression that uses space and place to control populations. Derek Alderman and Jerry Mitchell, excellent educators and researchers, produced lesson plans to help students investigate the politics behind place naming, specifically using the case study of the many streets named after Martin Luther King.
Questions to Ponder: Why are streets named after Martin Luther King found in certain places and not in others? What forces and decisions likely drive these patterns? What is the historical legacy of Martin Luther King and how is it a part of certain cultural landscapes?
Tags: seasonal, race, historical, the South, political, toponyms, landscape.
“A short film about Peter Bellerby, artisan globemaker and founder of Bellerby and Co. Globemakers. Directed by Charles Arran Busk & Jamie McGregor Smith.”
Source: vimeo.com
Yes, these globes are precise archives filled with geospatial data and locational information–however, that pales in comparison to the artistic brilliance of the globes. These hand-crafted globes are truly works of art. Marvel at the merger of mathematical precision and artistic design that makes a globe such as these a cartographic gem. If anybody want to get me a Christmas present, you know that I love cartographic gifts.
Tags: cartography, visualization, mapping, art, geo-inspiration.
Spain’s monarchy decimated the Jewish population by expelling, killing or forcibly converting Jews in 1492. Now the country may offer their descendants Spanish citizenship.
Tags: Europe, migration, Israel, Spain.
Source: www.npr.org
Hundreds of churches around Europe have closed or are threatened by plunging membership, posing a question for communities: What to do with the once-holy, now-empty buildings?
Source: www.wsj.com
Europe, the most developed region in the world, is also the most secular region today. During colonial times, Europeans were spreading Christianity across the globe, but now Christianity is becoming more a part of Europe’s historical landscape. Secularization can be seen as either the cause or the effect of several other European trends such as declining fertility rates. Today Europe is filled with historic cathedrals, but there is no one to fill them.
Questions to Ponder: What are other signs of secularization on the cultural landscape? What would you do with a former sacred site (and an architectural treasure) that is can’t be maintained?
Tags: culture, religion, Christianity, regions, landscape, Europe.
