Jul

03rd 2008

Happy Countries

Filed Under Current Events, World | Leave a Comment

Denmark is the most happy and Zimbabwe is the least happy country as determined by the latest survey from the World Values Survey.  According to MSNBC, the survey has been conducted since 1981 and asks two questions “Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?” And, “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”  The top happiest countries in order are:

Happiest Countries:

  1. Denmark
  2. Puerto Rico
  3. Colombia
  4. Northern Ireland
  5. Iceland
  6. Switzerland
  7. Ireland
  8. the Netherlands
  9. Canada
  10. Sweden

The United States ranked 16th.  The results were gathered from survey 350,000 people.

Jun

26th 2008

Shape-Shifting Highrise

Filed Under Middle East, Urban Geography | Leave a Comment

Italian architect David Fisher has announced plans to build an 80-story highrise in Dubai with 80 apartments that will spin independently of one another in order to constantly change the shape and look of the building.

 

Read more:

Jun

17th 2008

Congestion Cities

Filed Under United States, Urban Geography | Leave a Comment

INRIX, a traffic-information provider released their list of the top 100 most congested cities in the United States.  Not surprisingly, some of the most populated metropolitan areas rank at the very top of the list.   According to the press release, “The INRIX Scorecard takes a micro look at traffic problems all across the country — zooming in on the total hours spent in traffic, worst day of the week for commuting and average speeds for the top 100 cities in the U.S., along with hundreds of other details including the identification of the nation’s worst bottlenecks Americans drive through every day.”  The top four ranked cities (Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington D.C.) account for 50% of the top 1,000 bottleneck locations in the country.

The top ten worst cities for congestion are:

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. New York, NY
  3. Chicago, IL
  4. Washington D.C.
  5. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
  6. San Francisco, CA
  7. Houston, TX
  8. Boston, MA
  9. Seattle, WA
  10. Atlanta, GA

Learn more: National Traffic Scorecard - INRIX

Jun

13th 2008

Top Ten Pictures from NASA

Filed Under World | Leave a Comment

Take a peek at the top ten photos from NASA’s Crew Earth Observations Team.  The photos were selected from the International Space Station Astronaut Photography Collection and feature images not only taking of spots from around the world but also ones of the earth’s atmosphere and the moon.

Visit: Crew Earth Observations ‘Top Ten’ Photos

Top Ten

  • Eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska
  • Layers of the Earth’s Atmosphere
  • Nighttime view of Los Angeles, California
  • Aurora Borealis and lights in Finland, Russia, Estonia and Latvia
  • A glimpse of the barren moon through the Earth’s limb
  • Mt. Everest and Makalu
  • Green aurora
  • Bernese Alps, Switzerland
  • Nukuoro Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia
  • Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia

Jun

04th 2008

Geo-censorship in China

Filed Under Asia, Current Events | Leave a Comment

Some readers of National Geographic in China had trouble reading the May issue (dedicated to China) because some of the pages were glued together.  A couple of the maps (on pages 44-45) showing disputed border areas with India and Pakistan and distribution of ethinic minorities (pages 126-127) were apparently glued together by a local distributor in China. 

Beth Foster, the magazine’s director of communications, says, “It appears that someone connected with local magazine distribution in Asia glued together a few pages of the May English-language issues of National Geographic magazine that were shipped into China. We have not gotten to the bottom of the specifics of this isolated activity, but we have had no communication from or with the Chinese government about this matter.”

Read more: Glued Geographic - China Journal at the Wall Street Journal

Jun

01st 2008

Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan U.S.

Filed Under Environment, United States | Leave a Comment

In a study issued by the Brookings Instititute, the surprising conclusion was that the carbon footprint of urban dwellers was 14% smaller than the average American’s.   The top three smallest metropolitan area carbon footprints in order are: Honolulu, HI, Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR.  The top three largest metropolitan area carbon footprints in order are Tulsa, OK, Knoxville, TN, and Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA.

Read more:

Jun

01st 2008

Grand Tour of Rome

Filed Under Cartography, Europe | Leave a Comment

University of Oregon recently announced the unveiling of “Grand Tour of Rome”, an interactive mapping web site that takes the visitor back to 18th century Rome.  The project is the culmination of a two-year grant from the Getty Foundation:

“Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi’s Grand Tour of Rome” presents an innovative geographic database and Web site that brings to life the work of two 18th century masters of Rome’s urban and architectural treasures: Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756), who published the first accurate map of Rome (La Pianta Grande di Roma, 1748); and his contemporary, Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782), whose comprehensive views of the city and its monuments from 1747-1761, can be precisely located and explored by using the Nolli map as a reference.

Visit:

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