GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities — that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can be deduced from a single number: the city’s population. In this mind-bending talk from TEDGlobal he shows how it works and how similar laws hold for organisms and corporations.”

Source: www.youtube.com

While corporations rise and fall, it is quite rare for a city to entirely fail as an economic system.  Huge cities have some negative consequences, but the networks that operate in the city function more efficiently on economies of scale in a way that offsets the negatives.  Increasing a city’s population will continue to improve the economies of scale (larger cities have higher wages per capita, more creative employment per capita, etc.).  However, this growth requires major technological innovations to sustain long-term growth.  

Tags: urban, planning, megacities, industry, economic, scale, TED, video.

“Please join us in voting for DigitalGlobe’s fourth annual Top Image contest. From the trillions of pixels captured by our satellites this year, we need your help to decide which image showcases DigitalGlobe’s unique ability to solve important problems from space. Just follow these three easy steps:
Step 1: To vote, simply go to DigitalGlobe’s Facebook page to see the Top Image 2014 album.
Step 2: Click through the images to learn about the different applications and industries we serve, and ‘like’ the images that you think best showcase the value of satellite imagery.”

Source: www.digitalglobeblog.com

The stark contrast between the haves and have-nots is apparent from above, so too is the city’s rebound.

Source: www.nytimes.com

In the 1950s, Detroit was the 4th largest city in the U.S. with a booming population around 2 million as seen in some vintage footage of Detroit.  As the de-industrialization process restructured the US economy, globalization restructured the world’s economy, and Detroit’s local economic strategy crumbled.  Detroit was $18-20 million in debt with a population around 700,000 and is unable to pull out of this nosedive. The tax base shrunk, city services were spread thin and in 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy.  Today, some parts of Detroit are rebounding well while others are in absolute disarray.  These differences can, in part, be understood by using aerial photography and a spatial perspective.  

Tags: urban, economic, industry, Detroit. 

Source: www.youtube.com

While this Minute Earth video might make geomorphology experts cringe at some of the vocabulary in this, it still is a good introduction to the absolute basics of fluvial geomorphology, or how and why rivers reshape the Earth. 

Tags:  physical, fluvial, geomorphology, erosion, landscape.

Conflict Kitchen is an art project based in the centre of Pittsburgh which serves food from countries with which the US is ‘in conflict’.  The founders get to define what conflict means – it can range from outright war to economic sanctions – and since opening in 2010 they have prepared food from Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.  But the restaurant’s latest choice of cuisine, Palestinian food, has caused controversy in the city and even led to a death threat which temporarily closed the venue.  Critics pointed out that the US is not in conflict with the Palestinian people. They claimed that the pamphlets served with the dishes included ‘anti-Israel’ propaganda. But Conflict Kitchen’s founders said the project was designed to encourage debate among Americans.”

Source: www.bbc.com

Source: www.youtube.com

While this Minute Earth video might make geomorphology experts cringe at some of the vocabulary in this, it still is a good introduction to the absolute basics of fluvial geomorphology, or how and why rivers reshape the Earth. 

Tags:  physical, fluvial, geomorphology, erosion, landscape.