May

28th 2008

Weird European Names Quiz

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Spiegel, the German magazine, has fun with some of the weirder names of locations found in Germany and other European cities:

Germany has a string of cities that take one through the entire digestive tract: Essen (eat), Darmstadt (intestine city), and Pforzheim (which is close enough to the German word for “fart” to make it a punch line). But are you familiar with the weirdest town names in Germany and Europe?

Take their quiz to find out how well you know where some of the more strangly named European locations are.

May

28th 2008

World Globes - They Still Make Geography Fun

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Once upon a time people thought the world was actually flat and if you got to the end you would fall off. Then in the Middle Ages a globe was made depicting the world as round. People marveled at the thought of our world being spherical and a passion for exploring was born. Now world globes can be seen in class rooms, office buildings and homes and they are still capturing the imagination of all those who gaze upon them. Read more

May

28th 2008

Mapping Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa

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With violence against foreigners in South Africa increasing, United for Africa has been mapping out incidents.  The site maps out using Google maps the locations of all incidents as well as a rolling table describing each event.  Visitors to the site can submit incidents either online or via SMS (all submitted claims are verified before being posted).

May

28th 2008

Geographical Superlatives

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If you want to check out your smarts on the “most” of trivia relating to geography (longest, biggest, tallest, deepest, etc) then checkout the Geographical Superlatives quiz at Infoplease.  There are other quizzes to try along with a host of other resources relating to geography.

May

27th 2008

Largest GPS Drawing Exposed as a Fraud

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An art student claimed to have prepared a self-portrait using the world as his canvas.  Erik Nordenankar explained on his website that he used a briefcase outfitted with a GPS unit on a detailed journey.  The briefcase was allgedly sent by DHL to over 62 countries over a course of 55 days in a very specific order to create the drawing.  DHL recently confirmed that the project is a hoax and intends to contact Nordenankar  to have the site clarify the project as fake.  The strange flight patterns and claims that the GPS unit would not have been able to receive a satellite signal inside the airplanes lead to the eventual debunking of the project’s claims. 

May

26th 2008

You need a map to figure out GPS, Google Maps

Filed Under Essays, GPS, Map Servers | Leave a Comment

Steve Dahl, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune opines on the beauty of simply unfolding a map over the latest GPS and online mapping technology.

May

13th 2008

Immigrant Assimilation in the US

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A new report issued by the Manhattan Institute entitled “Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States” looks at the rate at which immigrants adapt to living in the United States.  The study looked at the degree of similarity between native and foreign-born adults living in the United States using Census data.  The think tank compared statistics on economic (e.g. income and home ownership), cultural (ability to speak English) and civic (e.g. military enrollment and rates of U.S. citizenship) factors using Census data from 1890 to 2006 and found that rates of assimilation vary greatly among immigrant groups.

The study found that while immigrant groups are assimilating faster than in the past, the slowest rate of assimilation is occurring among Mexican immigrants.  The significant findings as highlighted in the executive summary are:

  • The degree of similarity between the native- and foreign-born, although low by historical standards, has held steady since 1990. Assimilation declined during the 1980s, remained stable through the 1990s, and has actually increased slightly over the past few years.
  • Newly arrived immigrants of the early 21st century have assimilation index values lower than the newly arrived immigrants of the early 20th century. Growth in the immigrant population usually lowers the assimilation index because newly arrived immigrants drag down the average for the group as a whole. This phenomenon can be seen between 1900 and 1920 and again in the 1980s. The stability of the assimilation index since 1990 is therefore remarkable in light of the rapid growth of the immigrant population, which doubled between 1990 and 2006.
  • Immigrants of the past quarter-century have assimilated more rapidly than their counterparts of a century ago, even though they are more distinct from the native population upon arrival. The increase in the rate of assimilation among recently arrived immigrants explains why the overall index has remained stable, even though the immigrant population has grown rapidly.
  • Yet the current level of assimilation remains lower than it was at any point during the early 20th century wave of immigration.

Read the report (PDF): Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States - Jacob L. Vigdor

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