December 2008 Archives

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A notice to all of our blog readers:

The My Wonderful World blog will be moving to a new site within the next few weeks!  We’re keeping the same familiar writers and geographic perspective, but adopting a snazzier look with a more sophisticated, user-friendly interface. Not only will the new platform incorporate more Web 2.0 sharing functionality, it will also be available as a direct email subscription.  All of our existing posts and your comments will be maintained in the migration, along with existing RSS subscriber names and passwords.  We’ll be announcing the new web address (URL) within the week, so keep checking back!

We felt this was a great way to kick off 2009 - Hope you enjoy!

-the My Wonderful World Team

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The Asia Society, a member of our My Wonderful World Coalition, just released a new policy statement on international education, along with recommendations for the incoming Obama administration.

In their recent newsletter announcing the release, Asia Society framed the issue this way:

“Even as the United States tackles the immediate economic crisis, our long-term economic competitiveness and ability to deal with global challenges is being undermined because America is not sufficiently preparing its next generation for the interconnected world of the 21st Century."

The statement's authors then offered up the following suggestions:

“The United States must benchmark its educational system against international standards and practices; redesign high schools to prepare graduates who are college-ready and globally competent; invest in teacher training in international subject matter; expand national capacity for learning world languages, particularly Chinese and Arabic; and expand international teacher and student exchange programs.”

Read the full report and recommendations.
Listen to the Asia Society podcast on this topic.

Tell Us: What do you think of the report? Is anything missing? What challenges might the new administration face in implementing the prescriptions outlined?

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This week's Five for Friday is getting festive, bringing you five geographic thoughts for the holidays.  Think you're the only one traveling during this holiday season? Think again. There's a lot of "behind the scenes" geo-work that goes into making your holiday a great one.  Consider these points...

*This year try to "buy local" when picking your Christmas tree and select a species of tree that's native to your area.  You can use this Christmas Tree locator map to help you find the perfect tree and vendor. Whether you're in Arizona buying an Arizona Cypress, or in Colorado buying a Colorado Blue Spruce, you can give the Earth a gift this holiday season by helping to reduce your carbon footprint (and remember that most fake trees come from China, so you're not saving anything when you buy fake!).

*Commodity chains are a great way to learn geography, since it takes a world of resources to make one product.  Let's take the geography of a popular Hanukah recipe; the potato latke.  Assuming that all of your ingredients come from top producers, your potatoes and onions have traveled from Idaho, the wheat in your matzo meal from Kansas, and the salt from Louisiana. It's almost impossible to tell where the vegetables were grown to create the oil you fry your latke in, making the geography of a simple potato latke extremely complicated -- and this is before you douse this baby with sour cream or applesauce! 

*Wednesday, CNN Money reported that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is predicting a billion fewer pieces to be sent through the system because of the economic downturn. Yet with an overall forecast of 19 billion pieces nationwide, USPS still has their hands full, and with 144,000 troops stationed in Iraq as of late summer, a portion of this number is likely to be internationally bound. When you stop to think about your gift's overall journey (the locations of its raw materials, to the place where it was produced, to the store where you bought it, to your relatives who receive it) your gift ends up being more traveled than you are!

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“Poll: 37% of Americans Unable to Locate America on a map of America,” reads the headline of a recent Huffington Post article. Outrage followed on the article’s comment board with reactions that the statistic was, “simply unbelievable” and, “as big a problem to our national security as Iraq.” 

While the Editor’s Note at the top clearly states that the article was a satire (proving that reading comprehension is another issue our schools need to tackle), America’s lack of geo-education isn’t breaking news!  The Gallup Poll, which was referenced in the article, actually performed a study of geographic literary in 1988 and found that as many as 16% of Americans 18 and older were unable to locate the U.S. on a map.  While this metric had improved to only 6% in a 2006 Roper Poll survey, 37% was actually the statistic for the number of American adults who COULD find Iraq on a map, meaning that a full 63% of adults COULD NOT locate the Middle Eastern nation--even though troops had been stationed there since 2003.

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As President-elect Obama continues with the pre-Inauguration transition process, selecting secretaries for every cabinet office under the sun, a few appointments stand out as particularly significant to those of us in the geography education community.

One is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; we’ll have more on him in coming weeks. Another of these executives, the one who will have particular influence on sun-related matters, is Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Geographers know that aggressive action is needed NOW to address the climate crisis; as readers of our blog will be aware from our continuing coverage of the topic. Unfortunately for the planet it seems that tangible progress is unlikely--at least until the new leadership arrives in Washington--as demonstrated by proceedings of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland last week. Once again the nations of the world failed to agree to a resolution that would hold parties accountable and represent real, progressive action toward reducing our collective global carbon footprint.

New York Times environment columnist Andy Revkin covered both the Poznań conference and Chu’s appointment on his Dot Earth Blog last week; check it out for more on energy issues and to see how droves of impassioned readers weighed in.

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Our friend at Geographic Travels with Catholicgauze brought this Washington Post article to our attention in a recent post.

It appears perpetrators in the recent Mumbai attacks used geographic tools including GPS and satellite imagery to plot and execute their scheme. GPS devices were employed to navigate through ocean waters from Pakistan to the East Coast of India, enabling the attackers to stay on course despite limited prior sailing experience, while digital maps of Mumbai and detailed satellite imagery allowed them to devise a plan of operation, despite never having set foot in the city.

The leaders of the attacks also allegedly used voice-recognition software to obscure their accents and distinct dialectical spellings in order to prevent investigators from identifying their geographic region of origin.

Catholicgauze concluded his post on the topic by commenting:

“This continues the trend of geographic technology being used for the wrong reasons.”
The wrong reasons?

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1. After a 16-year study, German astronomers have reported a black hole in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy. At four million times the size of the sun, it's a wonder why hundreds of international observatories haven't noticed it before; especially those in Peru that have been around for 4200 years!  Don't worry about the entire galaxy being sucked into this massive abyss though because it's a good 27,000 light years away.  Plus, tonight you should watch out for the moon's collision with the Earth! Not really, but tonight's moon will be its closest distance in 15 years.

2. How is Google Earth costing the government 600,000 dollars?  After this photo of the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base surfaced last year, observant onlookers noted the building looked quite similar to a Swastika from above.  To correct this architectural controversy, the government is spending 600K to make renovations to the four separate buildings.  Makes you wonder what your house is saying from above! 

3. The world's population is increasing at an astronomical rate according to this population ticker, but have you ever wanted to put a name to a number?  Babynamemap.com can help you to find the most popular names in the U.S. and selected countries like Australia, Sweden, Denmark or England. Interestingly, many of the trendy names in America, such as Emily, Isabella, Jacob, and Christopher are also favorites around the world!  

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This recent About.com post on the renaissance of historic Indian city names got me thinking about the importance of place names.

With no background information displayed on political maps, place names are our only clues to the stories behind cities and countries. We can guess that a place like Los Angeles was settled by Spanish speakers, but does that really convey the whole story? The name “Los Angeles" erases any evidence of a past Native American population that might have lived there.  This is proof that the common maxim "the victors are the writers of history" can actually be realized through maps.  Another great example is the term "Middle East," which arose in conjunction with Near and Far East to illustrate relative locations to England.  As the world’s cartographic powerhouse through the Ages of Exploration and Imperialism, England called the shots when it came to the naming of places.

While countries like India have decided to abandon English place names created during Imperialistic rule, the legacy of Anglo-Saxon naming lives on with the ‘official’ use of English-translated maps for diplomacy and negotiation by today's superpowers. What’s even more interesting is the game of semantics that’s played when a territory is disputed.  A clever way that governments, the media, and cartographers avoid taking political stances on disputed territories (either intentionally or unintentionally) is by adopting a politically-ambiguous name for a place-- think of the West Bank, Kashmir, or the Gaza Strip whose names are regionally, not politically inspired.  

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Looking for ideas to bring geography fun to your holiday celebrations, but feeling a little strapped for cash this year?

In Decembers past My Wonderful World has offered suggestions on a wide range of geography-related gifts, including some of the latest technological innovations in GIS, GPS, and travel.

Following in our tradition of providing geographic information you can use, this season we’re dishing out three ideas for gifts and activities—on a budget. Because, as MWW intern Bethany pointed out, geographic learning can be cheap!

Suggestion #1: Use your 20% discount at the National Geographic Store.

Are you a member of the My Wonderful World Campaign? If so, you’ll receive a 20% discount to the National Geographic store in this month’s e-newsletter.

If you’re not yet a member, join the campaign today to get your discount. Then, forward the newsletter to a friend and pass along the savings!

The next two holiday ideas from come from My Wonderful World Public Engagement Coordinator (PEC) Marilyn Weiser of North Dakota. When we asked PECs to share stories about local Geography Awareness Week events, Marilyn described the efforts of teachers in her elementary school:

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You might remember the map of Presidential campaign speech keywords we highlighted on the blog a couple months back. Well, a new tool lends more credence to the claim that where you live affects the vocabulary of what you talk, think, and care most about.

A website called StateStats combines results from Google’s Insights for Search tool with data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Now keyword searches tracked by Google are tied to location or “georeferenced” and compared with information from the Census.
 
An example is the search-term “mittens.”  States with high activity for “mitten” searches are those at high northern latitudes that experience frost and chilly temperatures like Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, and Alaska. It’s a bit obvious that where there is cold, there will be mittens, but what if we try another popular winter-weather search? 

The keyword “skiing” is frequently searched in the states of Vermont, Montana, New Hampshire, and Maine; again states in high latitudes with a lot of frost.  But StateStats also shows that these states all have similar incomes, average ages, percent of high school graduates and political leanings.  On the other hand, obesity, infant mortality and violent crime seem to have a negative correlation, or opposite relationship, to the search-term “skiing.”

So can we conclude that anyone who searches for “skiing” is a skinny, wealthy, high school graduate from a northern latitude?

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1. Have you ever imagined what your Facebook interactions might look like—in 3-D geographic space?  Project Palantir takes actions from Facebook (friend requests, profile views, wall posts, etc) and visualizes them in real time.  When you request to add your long-lost friend from California to your social network, a line is drawn from you to California on a virtual globe. Because hundreds of these interactions are happening at once, the results look similar to a busy flight map. This is a great way to see how technology is connecting the world!

2. Need to find pictures of places around the world, but tired of using a simple Google Image search? Try EarthAlbum.com which allows you to search for pictures geographically. 

Click on the interactive map to upload and view photos!

3. Today, government officials meet again with the chief executives of the Big 3 Auto Makers to discuss a multimillion bailout plan to keep the companies from going under.  There has been considerable backlash from the American public, citing the need for a “dying industry” to go in new, environmentally friendly directions. While the CEO’s appear to be obliging through actions both dramatic and symbolic--from acceptance of a $25 billion federal loan to develop fuel-efficient vehicles to a decision to travel from Detroit to Washington in hybrid cars rather than private corporate jets-- most would agree that the American automakers’ efforts lag well behind their competitors’ in Europe and Asia. In places like England  and Poland, news headlines have already shifted to highlight how those countries are embracing electric and hybrid cars.  This past September, Japan celebrated its first electric car made from bamboo – très chic.

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Since our last update, we’ve continued to collect information---news articles, stories, videos, photos, and more—from Geography Awareness Week celebrations occurring across the country November 16-22.

Here are some recent examples from our My Wonderful World public engagement coordinators (PECs) and other members of National Geographic’s networks of state-based geographic alliances*; these are our geography education activists and practitioners “in the field.”

New Hampshire Chronicle: Mast Way School Geocaching
This heartwarming ten minute video showcases the work of 4^th grade New Hampshire teacher David McCormick.  David spearheaded a year-long, school-wide geography theme at Mast Way Elementary School, infusing geography across the curriculum along with technology, physical education, language arts, mathematics, and history. Hear from David, who is a recipient of the National Council for Geographic Education’s Distinguished Teaching award, as well as the school principal and NH Geographic Alliance Coordinator Kristi Alvarez. Watch as students navigate their way through the woods with GPS and move like animals on a giant map of Asia. Great stuff!
Submitted by Joseph Kerski, ESRI Education

Former National Geographic Education intern Ashley Pipkin, who is currently pursuing a graduate degree in geography at Texas A&M, helps disseminate geographic knowledge from a booth at the Advancing Geospatial Skills in Science and Social Science (AGSSS) Worldfest event in Bryan, Texas.
Submitted by Sandra Metoyer, Texas A&M Department of Geography

 
Right:Eager students hone their map skills at the Worldfest event.

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We all know that Thanksgiving is actually just an excuse for Black Friday shoppers to carbo-load before a grueling day. While market analysts and retail executives spent Thanksgiving worrying about customer turnout, shoppers inhaled their turkey and cranberries at lightning speeds to go “bust down” some doors at 5 am, proving that enough carbs and caffeine can boost a nation’s energy and its economy, but only briefly. Even though Black Friday 2008 drew more shoppers to stores than in previous years, the caffeine high of the weekend wore-off by Cyber Monday, which returned rather dismal results.  Cyber Monday normally sees a huge spike in online shopping from people *hopefully* on their lunch breaks at work, however this year sales were down 4%.

While Black Friday celebrates the monotony of chain retail stores, it also encourages unique traditions that vary from family to family and place to place--something that the world of cyber shopping just can’t provide. Aspen, Colorado for example, disregards extended store hours in order to accommodate the relaxed shopping habits of its local clientele. Instead, local stores offer deeper discounts during their normal business hours. The state of South Carolina takes it a step further and caters the day to specific items in demand.  This past weekend, the state offered tax breaks to consumers buying guns during what is affectionately referred to as “Second Amendment Weekend.”