GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Why Sochi?

Why would Vladimir Putin want to host the Olympics in an underdeveloped place where terrorists lurk nearby? The answer is not as complicated as it may seem.

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

This article is an excellent explanation of the geopolitical significance of holding the Olympic Games in Sochi. Additionally, here is a link from Stratfor discussing the shifting foreign policy concerns of the United States towards and in Russia.

Tags: sport, political, conflict, devolution, Russia.

See on www.nybooks.com

February 11, 2014 0

Drain the Great Lakes

This represents less than 10% of the Terragen CGI created for “Drain the Great Lakes”, a TV documentary made for MSP, National Geographic Channel & Discovery Canada by 422 South in Bristol, UK. I created all the Terragen landscape work over a period of 7 months in 2011.”

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

What would the Great Lakes region look like if the lakes were drained? This visualization is a tremendous exploration into hypothetical geographies. This video has been added to the the interactive map, Place-Based Geography Videos.

Tags: physical, environment, water, visualization.

See on www.youtube.com

February 11, 2014 0

World Population Prospects

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs produces easy-to-use population charts and graphs (including population pyramids). This image (courtesy of Hans Rosling) shows the impending changes on Brazilian society based on changing fertility rates. How is this chart an example of population momentum and of the Demographic Transition Model?

Tags: population, demographic transition model, declining population, mod els, Brazil.

See on esa.un.org

February 10, 2014 0

Shifting post-colonial economic geographies

“Changes in relationships can be hard to take. The economic bond between Latin America and Spain, its biggest former colonial power, is shifting as the region’s economies mature. Despite some ruffled feathers, the evolution is positive. After two decades in which Spain amassed assets worth €145 billion ($200 billion) in Latin America, last year was the first in which Latin American companies spent more on acquiring their Spanish counterparts than the other way around.”

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

I am hesitant to use the term post-colonial since there are theoretical constructs that use that term to embody cultural hegemonic power structures. I’m simply using it to mean “after colonialism” because the power paradigm is shifting to the former colonies.

Tags: Latin America, South America. economic, development, Spain, historical, colonialism.

See on www.economist.com

February 10, 2014 4

Cultural Critique of the #SochiProblems Meme

” #SochiProblems is more of an embarrassment for America than it Is for Russia….So this is my plea: @SochiProblems, whining journalists and social media fiends, have just a bit more respect for Russians when ridiculing what is to you the Olympics and what is to them everyday life. Their government might have just spent $51 billion on possibly the most corrupt Olympic games ever, but most of them are just along for the ride.”

See on www.policymic.com

February 9, 2014 0

Mapping Where People Run

“Inspired by a 2011 project that mapped popular running routes in a few European cities, Nathan Yau at FlowingData has done the same for 22 major cities, including 18 in the U.S. To make these maps, Lau simply grabbed public data from the exercise-tracking app RunKeeper. While these visualizations are not representative of all runners in a city, they do offer useful information on urban spaces. For one, we see that people really do love running near water and in parks. Here’s a selection of Yau’s work. See the rest here.”

See on www.theatlanticcities.com

February 8, 2014 0

Watch the Earth Warm Since 1880

“It can be difficult to conceive of the long process that’s led the world to having its nine hottest years on record all after 2000. That’s why it’s nice that NASA has generated this nifty animation, which shows temperature abnormalities for every month of the past 13 decades. Watch reddish warm zones spread over the globe as time rolls past, like a virulent fever covering the body of a sick host.”

See on www.theatlanticcities.com

February 8, 2014 0

Infant Mortality Rates

Are All Mothers Created Equal? From the State of the World’s Mothers 2012 report see how mothers locations have an impact on the life and death of their children.

See on www.savethechildren.org

And for the United States? Well, our infant mortality rate can be considered a national embarrassment.

February 8, 2014 0

Exploring Mexico through Dynamic Web Maps

“One of the people I regard most highly here at Esri has created an online atlas of Mexico. The maps can be accessed in many different ways, such as an ArcGIS Online presentation with a description here, as an iPad iBook, but I think most importantly, as a series of story maps. Each of these separate story maps contains 1 to 6 thematically related maps on the following topics: