US border security has vastly increased just in the past five years with more
manpower, ATV patrols, drones (probably the least effective tool of the bunch), and helipcopters. Just a decade ago crossing
illegally over the US-Mexico border via the Rio Grande was pretty easy; now it
is much harder.
One unintended consequence of increased border security
is that more illegals are dying after crossing the border as they try to avoid
checkpoints.
Grim Death Toll Near US-Mexico Border
http://live.wsj.com/video/grim-death-toll-near-us-mexico-border/29E57E77-19E6-45A7-AF3A-EB85C265BAF7.html#!29E57E77-19E6-45A7-AF3A-EB85C265BAF7
Here's a video about how US Border Agents patrol the Rio Grande, the river which
makes up 1,255 miles of the 1,969-mile US - Mexico border -- the most
frequently-crossed border in the world.
When I show it to my face-to-face
classes, at the end I ask "who would want to do that job?" and hands usually
shoot up.
CBP Video: Patrols of the Rio Grande
Riverhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylqyCmn_DR0
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Mexico and Brazil - "Pivotal States" and Giants of Latin America
Mexico and Brazil are highly dynamic countries and also the giants of Latin America.
These countries were named among the "Pivotal States" in the world in a book that came out in 2000 (The Pivotal States: A New Framework for US Policy in the Developing World" by Chase et al.) Those authors gave the term "Pivotal States" to countries which are "poised at critical turning points, and whose fate will strongly affect regional and even global security." In other words, Mexico and Brazil could "go either way" so to speak--they could succeed or fail in the nearfuture and the repurcussions would be great.
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. It is swirling with a whole range of issues:
-It's economy is enormous -- Ford and Volkswagen plants, computers assembly, massive agriculture. As part of NAFTA, Mexico's trade with the US only exploded even larger--Mexico is the US' 3rd highest trading partner after Canada and China.
-Drug trafficking and violence is tearing up whole swathes of Mexico -- notably the areas nearest to the US. Mexico's north has a vast, difficult scrub-desert terrain with many places for cartels to hide.
-Mexico's population resides largely far away from the US, down in the latitudes around Mexico City/Guadalajara/Puebla. Many Americans have a skewed impression of Mexican culture because they only have seen Mexican border culture (Tijuana, etc.)
-Be sure to read about Maquiladoras -- US-owned factories that have exploded in Mexico since NAFTA, mostly just across the border.
-Mexico has sent the most emigrants of any country around the world in the past several decades, chiefly to the US.
-Remittances i.e. money sent back to Mexico from Mexicans workign in the US form a giant source of income
Brazil makes up roughly half of South America's land and people.
-Brazil will be in the news a lot in the next few years, hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016
-Brazil has extreme inequality. Read about the favelas that make up 25% of Brazil’s housing in the textbook.
-Brazil’s economy is even bigger than Mexico’, it is the 7th largest economy in the world. They are a world leader in many tropical exports like oranges,
-Brazil is the only other country besides the US which uses ethanol heavily in cars, but they make it from sugar which is much more efficient. All new Brazilian cars by law must run on ethanol—regular gas is becoming a thing of the past there.
-Brazil has the largest black population outside Africa. Brazil is not a chiefly “mestizo” country like much of Latin America. Instead, the racial mixing in Brazil is mostly black and white, not white and Amerindian.
Brazil on the Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed
by Larry Rohter
The Pivotal States: A New Framework for US Policy in the Developing World
by Chase et al
The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security
by Tony Payan
These countries were named among the "Pivotal States" in the world in a book that came out in 2000 (The Pivotal States: A New Framework for US Policy in the Developing World" by Chase et al.) Those authors gave the term "Pivotal States" to countries which are "poised at critical turning points, and whose fate will strongly affect regional and even global security." In other words, Mexico and Brazil could "go either way" so to speak--they could succeed or fail in the nearfuture and the repurcussions would be great.
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. It is swirling with a whole range of issues:
-It's economy is enormous -- Ford and Volkswagen plants, computers assembly, massive agriculture. As part of NAFTA, Mexico's trade with the US only exploded even larger--Mexico is the US' 3rd highest trading partner after Canada and China.
-Drug trafficking and violence is tearing up whole swathes of Mexico -- notably the areas nearest to the US. Mexico's north has a vast, difficult scrub-desert terrain with many places for cartels to hide.
-Mexico's population resides largely far away from the US, down in the latitudes around Mexico City/Guadalajara/Puebla. Many Americans have a skewed impression of Mexican culture because they only have seen Mexican border culture (Tijuana, etc.)
-Be sure to read about Maquiladoras -- US-owned factories that have exploded in Mexico since NAFTA, mostly just across the border.
-Mexico has sent the most emigrants of any country around the world in the past several decades, chiefly to the US.
-Remittances i.e. money sent back to Mexico from Mexicans workign in the US form a giant source of income
Brazil makes up roughly half of South America's land and people.
-Brazil will be in the news a lot in the next few years, hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016
-Brazil has extreme inequality. Read about the favelas that make up 25% of Brazil’s housing in the textbook.
-Brazil’s economy is even bigger than Mexico’, it is the 7th largest economy in the world. They are a world leader in many tropical exports like oranges,
-Brazil is the only other country besides the US which uses ethanol heavily in cars, but they make it from sugar which is much more efficient. All new Brazilian cars by law must run on ethanol—regular gas is becoming a thing of the past there.
-Brazil has the largest black population outside Africa. Brazil is not a chiefly “mestizo” country like much of Latin America. Instead, the racial mixing in Brazil is mostly black and white, not white and Amerindian.
Brazil on the Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed
by Larry Rohter
The Pivotal States: A New Framework for US Policy in the Developing World
by Chase et al
The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security
by Tony Payan
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Where you live affects your health -- common sense, often forgotten
Where you live affects your health -- common sense, often forgotten.
Do you live in an area with pollution, tainted water, traffic, and hazards? Where it is difficult to walk anywhere so you spend all day in a car or at home?
Or in an area with fresh air, clean water, and moderate temperatures where you can walk around and spend lots of time outside?
Bill Davenhall suggests that where you haved lived should be part of your medical file given to you and your physician. He calls it "Geo-medicine."
Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_davenhall_your_health_depends_on_where_you_live.html
Do you live in an area with pollution, tainted water, traffic, and hazards? Where it is difficult to walk anywhere so you spend all day in a car or at home?
Or in an area with fresh air, clean water, and moderate temperatures where you can walk around and spend lots of time outside?
Bill Davenhall suggests that where you haved lived should be part of your medical file given to you and your physician. He calls it "Geo-medicine."
Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_davenhall_your_health_depends_on_where_you_live.html
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Sochi, Russia: an odd choice for the Winter Olympics, but with modern technology, who knows
It reflects the modern impulse to trust heavily in man's ability to overcome nature that Sochi, Russia was chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia is known for it's cold, northern climate, but Sochi defies the norm: it actually lies at the southernmost end in a subtropical climate where winter temperatures aveage 52°F (6°C) -- roughly the same as Moscow's average spring temperature. Last February Sochi hit a high of 63F.
Sochi also lies in one of the least-snowy regions of Russia. To ensure they will have enough snow, the Sochi organizers have both a) stored last year's snow under insulated blankets and b) created the world's largest snowmaking operation. In fact, the Games master snow man Mikko Martikainen, who is Finnish, says the only question is whether they will have too much snow.
You can see the insulated snow blankets here.
Snow in Sochi? Olympic organizers have it under wraps
In fact, Sochi has never been a winter sports town at all. It has been a resort, but a beach resort on the Black Sea. Much of the reason the upcoming Olympics will cost over $50 billion, by far the most expensive ever, is because Russia had to completely construct and overhaul the landscape. $8.7 billion of that went for a single 30-minute rail and highway link between ski sites.
Hence the UK Mail asks "Is Sochi the most insane Winter Olympics ever?"
Geographically, terrorism is a real threatSochi is located on the coast of the Black Sea where many beach resorts are found. But it is also located within a few hundred miles of the Caucasus Mountains, a dicey geopolitical region which includes Christian Georgia, Islamic Azerbaijan, and Russia's Islamic republics including Chechyna and Dagestan in which Islamic insurgencies are ongoing. Russia lost roughly 250 soliders and civilians in the Caucasus region last year, roughly the same as US losses in Afghanistan.
This month's National Geographic describes the scene.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/sochi-russia/forrest-text
Allegations of corruptionMany Russians have made allegations that there has been vast corruption in the distribution of contracts for the Sochi games. Corruption is a central part of life in Russia, but this is a world event in which Russia is trying to re-stake its reputation as a world power in the wake of the Cold War.
But in reality, multinational corporations are handling much of the logistics. Microsoft, for example, has a monopoly on handling all of the software.
The "coolest" headline of all: the Jamaican bobsled team has made it to another Olympics. Problem is they don't have any money to cover travel expenses. Maybe they can get a signing bonus up front for "Cool Runnings 2"?
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/organizers-jamaica-qualified-sochi-games-220740973--spt.html
Sochi also lies in one of the least-snowy regions of Russia. To ensure they will have enough snow, the Sochi organizers have both a) stored last year's snow under insulated blankets and b) created the world's largest snowmaking operation. In fact, the Games master snow man Mikko Martikainen, who is Finnish, says the only question is whether they will have too much snow.
You can see the insulated snow blankets here.
Snow in Sochi? Olympic organizers have it under wraps
In fact, Sochi has never been a winter sports town at all. It has been a resort, but a beach resort on the Black Sea. Much of the reason the upcoming Olympics will cost over $50 billion, by far the most expensive ever, is because Russia had to completely construct and overhaul the landscape. $8.7 billion of that went for a single 30-minute rail and highway link between ski sites.
Hence the UK Mail asks "Is Sochi the most insane Winter Olympics ever?"
Geographically, terrorism is a real threatSochi is located on the coast of the Black Sea where many beach resorts are found. But it is also located within a few hundred miles of the Caucasus Mountains, a dicey geopolitical region which includes Christian Georgia, Islamic Azerbaijan, and Russia's Islamic republics including Chechyna and Dagestan in which Islamic insurgencies are ongoing. Russia lost roughly 250 soliders and civilians in the Caucasus region last year, roughly the same as US losses in Afghanistan.
This month's National Geographic describes the scene.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/sochi-russia/forrest-text
Allegations of corruptionMany Russians have made allegations that there has been vast corruption in the distribution of contracts for the Sochi games. Corruption is a central part of life in Russia, but this is a world event in which Russia is trying to re-stake its reputation as a world power in the wake of the Cold War.
But in reality, multinational corporations are handling much of the logistics. Microsoft, for example, has a monopoly on handling all of the software.
The "coolest" headline of all: the Jamaican bobsled team has made it to another Olympics. Problem is they don't have any money to cover travel expenses. Maybe they can get a signing bonus up front for "Cool Runnings 2"?
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/organizers-jamaica-qualified-sochi-games-220740973--spt.html
Two Americas?
This article is about "Two Americas":
-Coastal America where jobs revolve around information
-Middle America (aka "Flyover states") where jobs revolve around farming, manufacturing, and natural resources like oil & gas.
In one sense, these two Americas rely on each other economically but in another they are at war with each other as Kotkin points out.
-Coastal America where jobs revolve around information
-Middle America (aka "Flyover states") where jobs revolve around farming, manufacturing, and natural resources like oil & gas.
In one sense, these two Americas rely on each other economically but in another they are at war with each other as Kotkin points out.
In Keystone XL Rejection, We See Two Americas At War With Each Other
http://www.joelkotkin.com/content/00522-keystone-xl-rejection-we-see-two-americas-war-each-other
Major cities have a tendency to forget how reliant they are on farming and natural resource regions; in fact cities would be impossible without the regions that produce raw materials.
Joel Kotkin is the author of several great books on the geography of the US including:
The New Geography
The Next 100 million
Major cities have a tendency to forget how reliant they are on farming and natural resource regions; in fact cities would be impossible without the regions that produce raw materials.
Joel Kotkin is the author of several great books on the geography of the US including:
The New Geography
The Next 100 million
As jobs are "re-shored" back to the US in the next decades, they say the Middle America will see a resurgence in jobs.
Joel Kotkin writes on NewGeography.com and his personal website is worth exploring to see what the future of America holds.
http://www.newgeography.com/
http://www.joelkotkin.com/
Joel Kotkin writes on NewGeography.com and his personal website is worth exploring to see what the future of America holds.
http://www.newgeography.com/
http://www.joelkotkin.com/
New theory on the cause of the bend in the Hawaiian hotspot trail
Hotspots: the theory until now
Up to now it has been believed (and taught by textbooks) that hotspots stay fixed in one place just underneath the earth's crust. These hotspots are huge blobs of super-hot magma which often poke through the crust to form a volcano. Meanwhile, as the hotspot sits there stationary, a tectonic plate moves over them, forming a "conveyor belt" of volcano creation, one volcano after the next in a chain.
This chain of volcanoes, however, can take a turn if and when the tectonic plate a) rotates/turns/spins or b) changes the overall direction of its plate movement/drift.
Case in point: the bend/turn where the Emperor Ridge volcanoes (now extinct seamounts) become the Hawaiian ridge, a roughly 45° turn. From the above, we would assume that long ago when this turn came about the Pacific Plate either rotates or changed direction.
This is confirmed by this Univ. of Hawaii scientist http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/plate-tectonics2.html who says
a) Pacific Plate is moving overall NW direction
b) Pacific Plate is also rotating around a point south of Australia.
A new theory
However--it turns out that scientists recently changed the theory. They now believe that it was the hotspot itself that moved. According to the article below, the hotspot itself moved southward under the lithosphere until 45 million years ago, creating the Emperor Ridge trail of volcanoes, then it stopped moving and became fixed in one spot. From that point onward, the overall plate moved NW creating the Hawaiian Ridge.
"A sharp bend in the chain about 2,200 miles northwest of the Island of Hawai'i was previously interpreted as a major change in the direction of plate motion around 43-45 million years ago (Ma), as suggested by the ages of the volcanoes bracketing the bend.
However, recent studies suggest that the northern segment (Emperor Chain) formed as the hot spot moved southward until about 45 Ma, when it became fixed. Thereafter, northwesterly plate movement prevailed, resulting in the formation of the Hawaiian Ridge "downstream" from the hotspot."
from
http://geology.com/usgs/hawaiian-hot-spot/
Up to now it has been believed (and taught by textbooks) that hotspots stay fixed in one place just underneath the earth's crust. These hotspots are huge blobs of super-hot magma which often poke through the crust to form a volcano. Meanwhile, as the hotspot sits there stationary, a tectonic plate moves over them, forming a "conveyor belt" of volcano creation, one volcano after the next in a chain.
This chain of volcanoes, however, can take a turn if and when the tectonic plate a) rotates/turns/spins or b) changes the overall direction of its plate movement/drift.
Case in point: the bend/turn where the Emperor Ridge volcanoes (now extinct seamounts) become the Hawaiian ridge, a roughly 45° turn. From the above, we would assume that long ago when this turn came about the Pacific Plate either rotates or changed direction.
This is confirmed by this Univ. of Hawaii scientist http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/plate-tectonics2.html who says
a) Pacific Plate is moving overall NW direction
b) Pacific Plate is also rotating around a point south of Australia.
A new theory
However--it turns out that scientists recently changed the theory. They now believe that it was the hotspot itself that moved. According to the article below, the hotspot itself moved southward under the lithosphere until 45 million years ago, creating the Emperor Ridge trail of volcanoes, then it stopped moving and became fixed in one spot. From that point onward, the overall plate moved NW creating the Hawaiian Ridge.
"A sharp bend in the chain about 2,200 miles northwest of the Island of Hawai'i was previously interpreted as a major change in the direction of plate motion around 43-45 million years ago (Ma), as suggested by the ages of the volcanoes bracketing the bend.
However, recent studies suggest that the northern segment (Emperor Chain) formed as the hot spot moved southward until about 45 Ma, when it became fixed. Thereafter, northwesterly plate movement prevailed, resulting in the formation of the Hawaiian Ridge "downstream" from the hotspot."
from
http://geology.com/usgs/hawaiian-hot-spot/
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Category killers: The Home Depot and Toys R Us problem
One of the biggest geographic phenomena across the US in the past 30
years is the disappearance of small specialized stores, including family-owned "mom and pop" stores and unique craft/trade stores.
These individually owned stores which specialize in one or two categories of goods like belts, model cars, radios, etc. have been replaced by "big box" stores known as "category killers" such as Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Best Buy.
What is a category killer?
A category killer is a store sells pretty much everything i..e all categories in a given market. Toys R Us sells just about everything in terms of toys, so categories like "doll store" and "model train store" go out the window.
The good side is that Toys R Us and Wal Mart sell a lot of things for cheap prices. But there are several downsides:
1. Local ownership declines and profits go to big companies far away not to local owners
2. Local know-how and custom-made, specialized good/trades disappear. For example, let's say there was a very specialized doll store in a town where a very artistic store owner crafted custom-made high-end dolls based on decades of experience and also sold cheaper dolls to keep the business going. Toys R Us comes in and just sells plain vanilla mass-produced dolls but a little cheaper than the small local store, which puts him out of business. As a result, we lose a unique, fine craftsman in exchange for saving a dollar on regular dolls. Meanwhile, that craftsman is less likely to be able to pass on his trade to others, because he no longer can make a living at it. This sort of example has occured all over America -- loss of individual specialized trade shps as stores selling mass-produced good move in.
This is just one example of the idea of "creative destruction" that is inherent to capitalism, coined by Joel Schumpeter. New ideas and technologies are great but we have to remember they destroy established businesses, often too fast for people to adapt.
These individually owned stores which specialize in one or two categories of goods like belts, model cars, radios, etc. have been replaced by "big box" stores known as "category killers" such as Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Best Buy.
What is a category killer?
A category killer is a store sells pretty much everything i..e all categories in a given market. Toys R Us sells just about everything in terms of toys, so categories like "doll store" and "model train store" go out the window.
The good side is that Toys R Us and Wal Mart sell a lot of things for cheap prices. But there are several downsides:
1. Local ownership declines and profits go to big companies far away not to local owners
2. Local know-how and custom-made, specialized good/trades disappear. For example, let's say there was a very specialized doll store in a town where a very artistic store owner crafted custom-made high-end dolls based on decades of experience and also sold cheaper dolls to keep the business going. Toys R Us comes in and just sells plain vanilla mass-produced dolls but a little cheaper than the small local store, which puts him out of business. As a result, we lose a unique, fine craftsman in exchange for saving a dollar on regular dolls. Meanwhile, that craftsman is less likely to be able to pass on his trade to others, because he no longer can make a living at it. This sort of example has occured all over America -- loss of individual specialized trade shps as stores selling mass-produced good move in.
This is just one example of the idea of "creative destruction" that is inherent to capitalism, coined by Joel Schumpeter. New ideas and technologies are great but we have to remember they destroy established businesses, often too fast for people to adapt.
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