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March 26, 2012—In a state-of-the-art submersible, National Geographic explorer-in-residence and filmmaker James Cameron reached the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, breaking a world record for the deepest solo dive. For those who haven't been following National Geographic news, James Cameron (director of "Titanic" and "The Abyss") entered a submarine named DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, and dove to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. Enjoy this video describing this "lunar-like" environment that is so deep it is lightless and near lifeless with extreme pressure. For more on the expedition, read: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120326-james-cameron-mariana-trench-challenger-deepest-lunar-sub-science/
Via Seth Dixon
Divers on Australia's Great Barrier Reef recently snapped rare pictures of a wobbegong, or carpet shark, swallowing a bamboo shark whole. The diversity of life on this planet and the ecosystems which such creatures live in is something that continually leaves me in awe at the wonders of the natural world.
Via Seth Dixon
Jakarta's traffic is legendary and locals have now become experts at finding ways to get around the jams, with some even making money out of them. The population of Indonesia is heavily concentrated on the island of Java, and the capital city of Jakarta faces a tremendous strain on it's transportation network. This video show that resourceful people will find inventive ways to make an unworkable situation manageable.
Via Seth Dixon
The Mekong River was once a wild and primitive backwater. Today, growing demands for electricity and rapid economic growth are changing the character of what is the world's 12th-longest river. Economic progress for some often entails job loss and environmental degradation for others. The once isolated and remote Mekong is experiences some impacts of globalization with residents having mixed feelings about the prospects.
Via Seth Dixon
On my last afternoon in Bagan, I went in search of a meal that would serve as both lunch and dinner, before boarding my flight... As a notoriously closed society, glimpses into Burma become all the more important as Burma shows signs of (possibly) opening up politically for the first time in decades.
Via Seth Dixon
I'm pleased to announce that for GIS Day, I created a map that has hyperlinks to regionally specific posts that I put on 'Geography Education.' This map was created using ArcGIS Online (here's a free tutorial on how to to use ArcGIS Online tailored for K-12 educators). This is just another way to search for materials on this site. Feel free to embed this map on your webpage or share the link. I'll add more tags in the future as well (just click on the icon to get a pop-up, then click on the image to see the posts). Happy GIS Day!
Via Seth Dixon
"In 1979, the National Population and Family Planning Commission in China enacted an ambitious program that called for strict population control. Families in various urban districts are urged to have only one child—preferably a son—in order to solve the problems related to overpopulation. What has happened since then and what are its implications for the future of China?" This is an excellent infographic for understanding population dynamics in the world's most populous country.
Via Seth Dixon
Globalization has hit...hard and fast.
Via Seth Dixon
The story of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan is a heartbreaking and inspiring tale of youth caught in cultural and geopolitical conflicts and fored to leave their homes. The film God Grew Tired of Us " tells a moving story of young people overcoming incredible challenges and struggling to improve their own lives and those of family and friends left behind." Linked here is a lsson plan from National Geographic "to teach students about concepts of migration, cultural mosaics, sense of place, and forces of cooperation and conflict among communities" using this 90 minute documentary. The film can be viewed online on HULU as well as other media outlets. Tags: culture, Africa, political, conflict, war, migration, development, APHG.
Via Seth Dixon
A five-part, multimedia series on the coming dystopia that is urbanization. This is a great introduction to the explosion of the slums within megacities. This video as a part of the article is especially useful. Click on the title to read the accompanying article.
Via Seth Dixon
"The name of the country Pakistan has a fascinating history - it is essentially an acronym! Prior to 1947, the country now known as Pakistan was a British colony. In 1947 the United Kingdom granted independence to the region under a new name, Pakistan. The name had been developed by a group of students at Cambridge University who issued a pamphlet in 1933 called Now or Never." In a country with such great ethnic divisions, a common religion is a powerful nationalizing force. As the capital city of Islamabad's toponym powerfully states (the house or abode of Islam), religion remains an important element of national identity for Pakistanis.
Via Seth Dixon
Celia Dugger reports from the Kwamfundo School near Cape Town on South Africa's struggling public education system. This poignant clip shows that South Africa may be in a post-apartheid era, but most certainly not a post-racial era as schools are as deeply divided as ever.
Via Seth Dixon
A Cameroonian boy shows the recycled parts used to construct a toy RC car. I originally found this video on Afrigadget. The website seeks to show people "solving everyday problems with African ingenuity." While the developed world lives in a commercial, disposable society, Africans often need to maximize the useablity of all objects. The solutions they come up with can show students that it is not all doom and gloom in Africa, an represent a triumph of the human spirit.
Via Seth Dixon
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The insect is so large — as big as a human hand — it's been dubbed a "tree lobster." It was thought to be extinct, but some enterprising entomologists scoured a barren hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean and found surviving Lord Howe Island... Island Biogeography is endlessly fascinating and provides some of the most striking species we have on Earth. The physical habitat is fragmented and the genetic diversity is limited. Within this context, species evolve to fill ecological niches within their particular locale. This NPR article demonstrates the story of but one of these incredible species that never could have evolved on the continents. In modern society, more extinctions are happening on islands than anywhere else as 'specialist' species are in greater competition with 'generalists.'
Via Seth Dixon
TODALSIGS is an acronym for remembering the most basic elements of a good map. This interactive briefly explains what each of the letters represents and how it is connected to map-making. If this particular introduction is either too advanced or too basic for your students, simply run an internet search for the term TODALSIGS to find many other lesson plans and resources that might be more applicable to your institution (including this example-rich slideshow).
Via Seth Dixon
Young men in the Philippines, inspired by the light welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, are training to escape poverty, boxing for a few dollars more than they make as subsistence farmers.
Via Seth Dixon
Thailand... Feel free to mute the commentary...this video demonstrates the truly 'back-breaking' work that is a part of paddy rice farming.
Via Seth Dixon
TED Talks Economist Yasheng Huang compares China to India, and asks how China's authoritarian rule contributed to its astonishing economic growth -- leading to a big question: Is democracy actually holding India back? This compelling TedTalk explores the links between economic development and governmental style, oversight and influence. While the speaker mainly discusses politics and economics in the context of China and India, Pakistan, Russia, North and South Korea are all mentioned.
Via Seth Dixon
360° panoramic photography by Harbert F. Austin Jr.. Visit us to see more amazing panoramas from Japan and thousands of other places in the world. The interactive panorama is eerily compelling...this is a haunting image.
Via Seth Dixon
China's reputation as a low-cost manufacturer hasn't translated into low-cost prices. Many goods, particularly luxury items, have higher price tags in China than abroad. One economist blames the transportation system and corruption. Industrial geography in today's climate shows that China has clear economic advantages over most of the world to manufacture good cheaply. Why would this not necessarily translate to cheap consumer goods for China's domestic market? High taxes, steep internal shipping costs and a market flooded with knock-offs all contribute to this paradox.
Via Seth Dixon
By 2025, the developing world will be home to 29 megacities. Through this interactive mapping feature will rich call-out boxes, the reader can explore the latest UN estimates and forecasts on the growth of megacities (urban areas with over 10 million residents). These 'cities on steroids' have been growing tremendously since the 1950s and present a unique set of geographic challenges and opportunities for their residents. Tags: urban, megacities.
Via Seth Dixon
Documented by an aid worker, millions of spiders took to the trees to spin their webs after heavy floods inundated Pakistan in 2010. Besides being an aesthetic wonder, this image is a great way to start a discussion about so many distinct issues. The floods of 2010 devastated the human population, killing over 2,000. These same floods also altered the ecosystem as spiders have needed to adapt to their new inundated landscape as well. For the human population, this has had the shocking benefit of lowering the incidents of malaria since the spiders have more effectively limited the mosquito population. Interconnections...geographic information are a spider web of interconnections between nature and humanity.
Via Seth Dixon
The Golden Temple is the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion. It is also home to one of the largest free eateries in the world. This two-minute video clip is an effective portal to alternative religious traditions on the South Asian subcontinent. While students might not at first relate to the theologies of diverse religious traditions, they connect with the underlying ethics of many world religions. This video is an effective tool to help them gain greater cultural understanding and demystify unfamiliar cultural practices.
Via Seth Dixon
What do Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Derartu Tulu and Fatuma Roba have in common, apart from being Olympic gold medallists? What is it about this place that has produced so many world- class runners? This is a great profile of the "Town of Runners."
Via Seth Dixon
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