APHumanGeography

Why are there so many ethanol plants in the Midwest?

How might wealth transfer data help us determine where to place a factory or manufacturing facility in PA?

How would the railway system impact your decision on where to build a factory?

Thank you, Matt J., for sharing this interesting video.

Great review of the IR time period.

Interesting seminar on Food History.  Excited to begin CH10.

More than a dozen Republicans and a handful of Democrats have announced they are running for their party's 2016 presidential nomination. Page lists all the Democratic and Republican candidates. The page has links to mini articles describing what each person must do to win and why they won't succeed.

This is a useful resource. Which theme(s) of geography might be demonstrated by these candidates attempting to persuade citizens to vote for them?

Mobility- The campaigns demonstrate how ideas are moved to different areas as well as techniques to persuade people to accept the ideas. In this case the idea being spread is to vote for a certain candidate over another for various reasons.

In March of 2014, Malaysia Airlines' flight 370 disappeared without a trace on route from Malaysia to China. Just recently, debris was found on the French territory, Reunion Island, located off of the eastern coast of Africa. Despite searching for over a year, this discovery was the first clue of this airplane mystery. Many countries have collaborated in the search for the missing jet including France, Malaysia, Australia, and the United States. This relates to the globalization theme of geography because many countries are combining their resources and ideas towards the common goal of finding the plane and providing peace to the families affected. Due to modern technology and the ability to communicate almost instantly, countries that are thousands of miles apart are each able to offer something different to benefit the search and rescue effort. For example, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau led the actual search while the French conducted tests to confirm that the debris was in fact from the missing plane. What makes a country's government decide to help another country with a natural disaster or tragedy? How has technology improved connections between countries in times of crisis?

Thank you for sharing this article and providing an insightful post. Great questions, too. I do believe that countries (most) have a major duty to help humanity and struggling peoples. Citizens are for the most part supportive of their government spending money for these disaster relief. Some see the government as wasteful with taxpayer money. Flight safety and reliability is extremely important, too. Does anyone think that this event concerns any of the major world economic powers? How might it impact them?

How does this information support what you learned in US history class?

The Haitian government and international organizations have identified at least three tent cities that have sprung up in drought-stricken southern Haiti, near the border. Here, the newly returned -- or newly deported -- Haitians are clearing land and living in makeshift camps with no amenities.

Thank you for the article summary, Abby.

There has recently been a huge outcry over the brutal death of Cecil the lion. Cecil and his pride were the big attraction at a local Zimbabwe national park, with Cecil being the dominant male and local celebrity. Recently, Cecil was lured out of the park with food and shot by an arrow by a Minnesota dentist, who had funded almost $50,000 for the hunt. Sadly, that's not the end of it, as Cecil was then hunted down, shot in the head, skinned, and decapitated. Why would someone do this? Well, it's all for a trophy. Trophy killing is a very common sport, especially in these African countries. So much so that African lion populations have dropped 60% in the last 3 decades. This is a prime example of the theme of nature-culture, as Cecil's death damages his pride and possibly our whole ecosystem. Without their dominant male, Cecil's pride is put at risk to rogue lions and other dangerous threats. Sadly, we have ourselves to blame, as the majority of lions killed for sport are shipped to America to be turned to trophies, and these aren't the only animals we're losing because of this. How has hunting for sport damaged our ecosystem? How much have human beings destroyed nature? Are we doing more harm to the planet than good?

Thank you for your post, Eric. Great questions as well. I'm curious about what's being done to stop people from illegally killing animals in parts of the world. Many people exploit the world's fishing reserves in the ocean or at least in areas that are seen as international waters. Check out this interesting article about how a bunch of illegal fishing vessels were hunted down. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/world/a-renegade-trawler-hunted-for-10000-miles-by-vigilantes.html?_r=0

Answer the questions to see how your beliefs match this coming year's presidential candidates.  How does your results compare with the county, state, region, and country?  How does geography help explain your political views? 

Just recently, Istanbul has released a bomb warning in crowded areas. Some of the areas most at risk are Taksim, Osmanbey, Yenikapi, and Haciosman. The Istanbul Police Department has sent out in pen and paper the threats. But why are they threatening these bombs? On July 20th a bomb went off in Suruç, Turkey that killed 32 and injured hundreds. More are suspected to come. These bombs and bomb warnings relate to the region theme of geography. In Istanbul, a culture has been created of violence. The hub, or government of Istanbul is trying in many ways to keep the land safe and secure. So, will another deadly bomb explode? How will the government protect their citizens?

Thank you for the debriefing, Blaire. Good example for the region theme as well. When we hear about the Middle East region, these are the types of events we unfortunately associate with that place. It is interesting how societies are shaped due to external and internal terrorist threats. Perhaps many of you notice the presence of security as you travel around this summer. Security checkpoints at airports or landmarks reminds me of the cultural landscape theme.

The film industry is trying to bring the dangers of advancing terror groups into light. Groups like ISIS are spreading fear and influence across regions like the Middle East, but they are also spreading their influence to places all around the world. Social media outlets have made this spread of ideas possible and able to thrive. Globalization or the interconnection between all of us in this day and age has given us the ability to spread and receive ideas like these with ease. Anyway, important people that run the film industry may realize the importance of this danger and decide that they should spread it to get the audience to realize it as well. It's a case of hierarchical diffusion and I believe that their goal is eventually expansion diffusion. It's all about spreading ideas to where they're not necessarily regarded as widely. I know for a fact that the war on terror isn't as prevalent in our minds as it is in the people that are collateral damage from it. Filmmakers are trying to change that with themes that act like metaphors to the situations going on right now in war-torn areas. These producers and creators of films take advantage of the popularity of the medium to display their ideas and spread them. However, will these messages make their way through to the public? Will they see that the war on terror is sometimes as bad as the films' problems? Will the medium have any effect on the progress we make with ridding the world of these groups of terror?

You got it. The film industry has certainly been a vehicle for globalization. We tend to trust ideas from those we admire and respect or from mediums such as Youtube that are easily accessible. Invisible Children came out with a Youtube video a few years ago about the African war lord, Joseph Kony. https://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc How might something similar be created about ISIS?

Yes, I remember this video. I had watched it when it had caught so much traction. I think a huge difference between Kony and ISIS is that I feel like not many people really knew about Kony while the news has basically insured that everybody knows about ISIS. When it's a new topic, people may be more interested in finding out more about it, like with Kony. But I feel like if a Youtube video like that was created for ISIS, it might not gain the same traction because it has been covered heavily for the past year. That's why I'm so intrigued with the hidden themes in movies because I feel that subtlety is the best way to bring forth new ideas without being overbearing.