"War teaches Geography"... but so do sports, genealogy, and lots of other things

I first heard the phrase "War teaches Geography" from a video of the great geographic educator Harm de Blij, who passed away this year.

We learn about the Ukraine, the Middle East, etc. through maps of the regions in the news as conflicts there go on.

But sports teaches Geography as well: the World Cup taught many people about Brazil and also about dozens of countries which played in the games.

Genealogy certainly teaches Geography as you investigate where ancestors came from.

In fact, Geography is tied to just about everything. Food and cooking, movies, dance, architecture all teach Geography.

Amazon's largest fish going extinct

The pirarucu or arapaima, the largest Amazon River fish at up to 10 feet long, is going extinct.

The Amazon’s largest fish is going extinct
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/22/the-amazons-largest-fish-is-going-extinct/?tid=hp_mm&hpid=z3

The Right to the City: Among the most neglected human rights

The idea that people in a community have a "Right to the City" was coined by Henri Lefebvre. He meant that humans have a right to shape and mold the world they live in, not to simply be sold property and have access to places and resources that others have constructed.

This Right to the City is almost undetectable in the modern suburbs: everything is pre-planned like a machine that humans inhabit, not of their own creation but created by a "developer" off in an office somewhere who does not live in the community and has no personal contact with anyone there.

Interestingly, in some of the poorest neighborhoods humans have more exercise of their ability to create their own city: building costs and barriers to opening businesses are lower, and often graffiti and public art becomes a central part of the neighborhood whereas it would have been illegal in more affluent areas.

David Harvey gave a summary:
"The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights."

It is something to think about: when you pay to live in an upscale community, how much ability to shape and create the public places you live in are you getting for your dollar? Any at all?

West Virginia: a gorgeous state

Just got back from driving through I-64 in southern West Virgina. Amazingly, I had never been to that part of WV despite living in the DC area on and off for several decades. Although there were tourists, I can't believe more people don't head out there or least talk about it: lush forest on the slopes of the Appalachian mountains with winding rivers through the valleys like the New River Gorge. On the Virginia side, Staunton is one of my favorite towns in Virginia and is a straight shot across I-64 from Lewisburg, WV to the west and also to Lexington, VA to the east. I-64 west pulls off 81 the main Shenandoah highway not far south from Staunton, one of my favorite Virginia towns, and Charlottesville.

From high up on the New River Gorge overlook at Grandview State Park (city exit off I-64) you can see thousands of feet down to the winding river, a raft slowly floating down, and at 1 pm the coal train came through, I counted roughly 100 cars, amazing. Need to look into what else you can do at Grandview and where to get rafts, the water was very easy and smooth. I later read that the New River is one of the oldest rivers on the continent.

Few moderates in the Middle East

Great article by Fareed Zakaria about how there are few moderates to be found in the Middle East. He argues that the US position favoring supporting moderates is based on fantasy and that even those groups who at times have appeared moderate, like the Iraqi Sunnis who for years received US payments, later turn extremist because they have to to survive.

"The Middle East has been trapped for decades between repressive dictatorships and illiberal opposition groups — between Hosni Mubarak and al-Qaeda — leaving little space in between."

In truth, while the idea of allowing a nation to develop on its own terms sound good it only works when there is a critical mass of peace, stability, and moderate consensus, none of which exist in Iraq.


The Fantasy of Middle East Moderatesby Fareed Zakaria
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-the-fantasy-of-middle-eastern-moderates/2014/08/14/1e8807a8-23e6-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html?hpid=z2

Reindeer milk--on the rise in the future?

The tundra and boreal forest/taiga regions around the Arctic are full of reindeer. Arctic peoples have long herded and milked reindeer in Russia, Scandinavian countries, Canada, and the US. Could peoples like the Eskimo, the Sami, and indigenous Russian tribes create an industry around reindeer milk? I sure hope so.

Reindeer milk, the next tourism industry for Arctic?http://www.adn.com/article/reindeer-milk-next-tourism-industry-arctic

I am a milk aficionado. Don't do wine or cigars. I am interested in tasting milk from animals beyond the usual source, cows. Modern cow's milk comes from mutated Holstein cows and has been linked to autism; the problem likes in the protein A1 casein.

For about 8 years now I have been drinking goat milk, which is great except it costs 4 times what even organic cow's milk costs. Goat's milk is $16 a gallon.

I have heard that donkey milk has special properties like cleansing your system, but in Bolivia and Chile I was not able to track down donkey milk despite running around a market asking for it. "There used to be a guy who came with a donkey once a day... but he stopped coming last year" they said.

People drink many types of milk in various parts of the world--water buffalo in India where cows are sacred, camel in Africa and Asia, yak, and many more.

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Up in Minnesota the "Land of lakes" the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with over 1000 miles of canoe trails. The whole area is riveted by lakes much like Finland.

Water issues in Europe

Europe faces many water issues especially in Mediterranean countries which have very low rainfall in summers. The link below has several good graphs and charts, including the one below. It shows how Greece and Spain which rely heavily on farming use the lion's share of their water for farming, while high-tech Germany and Belgium use their water mostly for industry.

Source: Table 5.1 Europe's Environment - The Dobris Assessment

The demand for water is generally increasing, particularly in Southern countries, and especially from agriculture, though industry remains the major user of water in Europe. (For Europe as a whole, 53 per cent of abstracted water is for industry, 26 per cent is for agriculture and 19 per cent for household use but with wide variations between countries - Figure 1).
	Figure 1: Total water abstraction (surface and groundwater) by economic sectors in European countries Source: Figure 5.7 Europe's Environment - The Dobris Assessment

from

Water Stress in Europe
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/92-9167-025-1/page003.html

China case illustrates that dams can cause earthquakes

As many developing countries are rushing to build dams to provide much-needed energy to large populations, many are warning that dams are a major cause of earthquakes.

Essentially, it is believed that the increased reservoir of water behind dams "lubricates" faults that already exist yet have remained in place due to high friction. The high-pressure reservoir water that gets into the fault reduces this friction, allowing the rocks to slip, which causes the earthquake.

Dr. V.P. Jauhari:
"The most widely accepted explanation of how dams cause earthquakes is related to the extra water pressure created in the micro-cracks and fissures in the ground under and near a reservoir. When the pressure of the water in the rocks increases, it acts to lubricate faults which are already under tectonic strain, but are prevented from slipping by the friction of the rock surfaces."


The 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China as well as the recent Yunnan Province quake are good examples.

Fact sheet by International Rivers
http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/attached-files/ris_final_lorez2.pdf

and cover page
http://www.internationalrivers.org/earthquakes-triggered-by-dams

China quake reignites debate on country's rush to build large dams
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-quake-reignites-debate-on-countrys-rush-to-build-large-dams/2014/08/06/9f72a087-27d3-48d5-b26f-435de700e04c_story.html

Mexico's car boom

“'The Mexican worker is a natural craftsman, and global investors are showing their confidence in Mexican labor,' said Alberto Rabago, a union official who started working for Chrysler in 1959 as a floor sweeper when the company made Mexican versions of its DeSoto and Plymouth sedans for the local market."

Mexico's car boom
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/with-mexican-auto-manufacturing-boom-new-worries/2013/07/01/10dd57e8-d7d9-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html

Midnight or Dawn in Mexico?

Midnight or Dawn in Mexico?
In 2013 author Alfredo Corchado published the book "Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through a Country's Descent into Darkness." The darkness relates to drug trade, cartels, political corruption,and violence.

But Mexico also has had many positive developments in recent decades, including economic growth. It is the 3rd largest economy in the Americas after the US and Brazil and will soon be the #1 exporter of cars to the US.

The Geography of Mexico is central to its role as a drug route.  During the "Miami Vice" era of the 1980s the US shut down most air transport of cocaine to the US, so that drugs were forced to enter overland or on makeshift boats (now narcosubs). Mexico's location is key: it lies between the US and the major cocaine growing countries Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. Futher, regions most affected by drug trade like in Mexico's north, marked by extremely vast stretches of desolate scrubland and desert like the Chihuahua and Sonora Deserts, which makes law enforcement difficult and provides many hiding and transit spots for cartels and gangs.

Mexico's Drug War - Council on Foreign Relationshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfRAVONRyZ4

Boomtowns Spur Economic Growth in Mexico
PBS Newshour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhXb_BipP18

Hindi making a comeback in India?

This article points out several things that I didn't know about Hindi in India:

-Despite Hindi and English as the two National Languages of India, only around 50% speak Hindi and around 25% speak English!

-In India those who speak English are not only a minority but a sort of elite who run government and business.

-It is difficult for those who do not speak one or both of these languages, especially English, to move up in India. India is famous for its wide variety of local languages, but this poses an obstacle for participation in a globalized world in which English is the lingua franca.

-Many Indians would like to see Hindi used more in schools and business. India's new PM Modi is a fan of using Hindi.

Is Hindi making a comeback in India after years of pursuit of English?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/is-hindi-making-a-comeback-in-india-after-years-of-pursuit-of-english/2014/08/02/d1067718-5cbb-429f-9a79-216e6b6b797a_story.html

Is the UK losing its identity?

I am a big fan of historian Norman Davies. I just like the way he writes. He is arguably Britain foremost historian, you can find his books on the shelves of Barnes and Noble here in the US such as Europe: a History and a very quirky one Vanished Kingdoms which is about small European kingdoms which came and went in history that very few people have even heard of.

Below he claims the UK has lost its identity due to multiculturalism and immigration. In the bigger picture, the same question is at the forefront of debate in France.

From another perspective, in Germany where the number of immigrants is 3rd highest in the world, the idea that multiculturalism is unsuccessful ("Multikulti ist gescheitert" -Angela Merkel) pertains more to Germany's inability to assimilate immigrants, especially muslim Turks, into its mainstream. But in having a split society, one result has been that German culture and identity has stayed more intact that in the UK or France--with the price that a large immigrant section of the population has been been left out of the mainstream.
Norman Davies: Britain has lost its identity
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/8936218/Hay-Festival-Norman-Davies-Britain-has-lost-its-identity.html