February 2011 Archives

Recently Dereck and Beverly Joubert, renowned wildlife filmmakers and National Geographic explorers from Botswana, started a program called "Letters to Lions" asking children to write letters explaining what lions mean to them.  The letters will be delivered to African leaders in charge of policy decisions about conservation. Out of the letters posted online at the Big Cats Initiative website, I chose the top five reasons that the children gave to save the lions.

This past weekend I got to visit my uncle in Pittsburgh who just so happens to be an amateur astronomer.  Naturally, during the course of my visit the topic of stargazing came up and, as is my custom, I invited him to the annual Star Party held not far from where my parents live in Nebraska.  And, as always, he expressed his jealousy of our dark, starry nights.  To be frank, I rarely considered the skies over Nebraska to be anything special--until I got a glimpse of the night sky in Pittsburgh.  It was seriously like the difference between night and day.  In Nebraska, one can see millions, if not trillions, of stars on a clear night. In Pittsburgh, it was difficult to make out many of the stars that are easily visible to the naked eye in Nebraska.  Why is there so much difference you ask?  It is an interesting phenomenon for certain--better known as light pollution.

I have a challenge for all of you young people out there:  I challenge you to take a good close look at your community and find some way to make an impact, either locally, globally, or both!

It could be as simple and local as planting a flower garden in old Mrs. Smith's backyard or as large and global as organizing a bake sale at a local church to raise funds for the victims of the New Zealand earthquake. I guarantee whatever helpful idea you come up with will be much appreciated and it will give you that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from the completion of a good deed.

Tricorders--The Next Tool for Geographic Learning?

"Geo Learning"
by Daniel C. Edelson

Vice President for Education
National Geographic Society

If you're of a certain age, you probably find yourself looking around and remarking on how much today's world looks like the world that Gene Roddenberry imagined in the original Star Trek series. OK, we don't have transporters or warp drives. But we do have computers you can talk to, two-way video communications, and devices that work like communicators and tricorders.

There is a lot of discussion these days about what impact these Star Trek technologies might have on education. In just the last couple months, I attended a one-day summit on the promise of wireless technologies for education and a two-day workshop on the use of mobile devices for citizen science.

For geoliteracy, I think these devices offer amazing opportunities to move learning outside the school building, and we've been designing software at National Geographic that students will be able to take into the world on handhelds that will enable them to record observations, combine them with observations of others, and analyze them for geospatial patterns. However, an inescapable challenge of learning in the real world is that the real world is complex and unpredictable. Sometimes it is too complex and unpredictable to enable you to be sure that you can teach specific relationships or skills through real-world experiences.

The Great Backyard Bird Count (or GBBC) has begun!  The GBBC is an annual four-day event when bird watchers of all ages across North America count birds.  The 2011 GBBC begins today, Friday, February 18, and lasts until Monday, February 21.  
This bird "census" will allow scientists to see where birds are located across the continent and can help answer questions such as: Are birds migrating earlier or later than they did in previous years?  How is this winter's cold temperatures and snow affecting bird populations?  The Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society in the U.S., along with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada, lead the event each year with additional sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited.  

Many of you probably watched the Grammy [music] awards on Sunday night. As I was watching I thought: Wouldn't it be interesting to analyze the winning songs from a geographic perspective and see which one comes out on top? 
Before I get started, let me specify the parameters I used in my geographical test of musical supremacy.  You may or may not realize that there are over 100 award categories at the Grammies.  If you are like me, you simply turn on the TV and watch the presentations of the twenty or so most well-known awards, such as "Song of the Year" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance." To make my task simpler, I focused my analysis on these major categories and did not consider categories such as Best Gospel Song or Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. 

Once again it is that time of year when hearts, flowers, poetry, red, and cozy romantic atmospheres are sought by individuals and couples alike in an effort to express and impress.  Have you ever wondered if there was a better--or at least different--way to go about this whole celebration of love idea?  I have to admit that I had that thought cross my mind a time or five, so in order to put my curiosity to rest and, hopefully, give you a few new ideas on how to celebrate, here are five ways from across the globe to partake in the holiday known as St. Valentine's Day...

Australia

In Australia, instead of giving chocolate, a card, or even a gold necklace to your sweetheart on February 14, satin cushions, sometimes embellished with flowers, colored shells, a stuffed  hummingbird or bird of paradise, are given.  This tradition of elaborate gift-giving began during the gold rush period in Australia, the profits of which allowed people to buy their loved ones more extravagant gifts on Valentine's Day.  I would not go so far as to say that this practice is common today, but if you are looking for a fashionable and somewhat expensive way to show how you feel, by all means look for a satin cushion!

Well it may not be America's favorite pastime, but, seriously, who does not watch the Superbowl?  Sunday night I gathered with a crowd of fellow football-watchers to consume large amounts of food, laugh at the commercials, and cheer loudly for our team choices.  In our particular group we had a three-way split between die-hard Steelers fans, Cheese-head enthusiasts, and the indifferent viewers who mostly came to enjoy halftime entertainment, mock incoherent attempts to promote various products and services, and socialize.  For those of you who are wondering what is up with these strange names, the term Packers is derived from the business that originally sponsored the Green Bay team, the Indian Packing Company.  Later the company was renamed the Acme Packing Company, but the name Packers has stuck since the team's formation in 1919.  The name Steelers, of course, refers to Pittsburgh's historical reliance on the steel industry.  Sadly, for all of my Terrible Towel waving, the men of steel were no match for the men in green and gold from "America's Dairyland".

Read below for information about an exciting event for middle and high school students celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides. National Geographic is supporting this initiative along with our partners in the Thinkfinity Consortium.



From May until November 1961, more than 400 diverse and committed Americans rode south together on buses and trains, putting their bodies and freedom on the line to challenge the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial injustice and inequality in public transportation. The Freedom Rides changed the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrated the power of individual action to change the nation.



On Wednesday, February 9, 2011 (less than a week from today!), middle and high school students across the country will join together electronically for a National Youth Summit on the Freedom Rides and activism. Freedom Rides veterans Congressman John Lewis, D-GA, Diane Nash, Jim Zwerg, and Reverend James Lawson will share how they became involved in the Freedom Rides and how their lives were affected by them. They will join filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders) and scholar Raymond Arsenault to discuss the meaning of the Freedom Rides and the role of young people in shaping America's past and future. 

Heat--it comes in many forms and quite honestly I am perpetually cold so I am always pleased when I find some.  Well, not all the time now that I think about it.  At this very moment the people in Egypt are in a completely different form of heat--not the Sahara Desert kind, but the heat that comes from being fighting mad. You know the feeling: Some guy slams you into a locker and steals your lunch money.  Your face gets red, you can hear your heartbeat pounding in your ears, and the blood starts boiling.  What you wouldn't give to put that fellow in his place. Now imagine that guy was an even bigger bully, like say, a repressive authoritarian leader.  And imagine that it was not just you demanding your lunch money be returned, but an entire country wanting its taxes back and saying "NO MORE, LET'S RUMBLE".  Welcome to Egypt since January 25, 2011.

Background information

Egypt is known for having some very well-known tourist attractions, so I bet you are picturing something along the lines of the Pyramids at Giza and the Great Sphinx. But let's dig a bit deeper into the geography: Modern Egypt is a nation located in Northeast Africa along the Mediterranean Sea, where it shares borders with Libya, Sudan and Israel.  Most of the country is desert except the Nile Valley and Delta.  Within this country that is about three times the size of the state of New Mexico, there are about 80 million people--primarily ethnic Egyptians, with Nubian and Bedouin Arab ethnic minorities. 

The country has several natural resources including petroleum, natural gas, and iron ore, but the cold-hard fact is that Egypt's economy is struggling.  Most economic activity occurs in the Nile Valley, where over half of the work force is employed in service occupations, and about 30% is involved in agricultural pursuits.  The country's unemployment rate is about 10%, with higher rates for some key segments of the population, including young people under the age of 30. Dependence on the Nile, coupled with a rapidly expanding population, has contributed to a stressed and overtaxed economic system.  Reforms put in place by current President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak have lessened the burden a little, but the global economic crisis has slowed what progress was made previously, and the country's GDP growth is still below its pre-recession levels.

For more background information click here.