Geography lessons: Can you draw a map of the U.S. as well as Al Franken?

by Jamie Rhein on

Watching Minnesota senator Al Franken draw a map of the United States reminded me of 7th grade. Back then at Olympia Jr. High in Columbia, South Carolina, I had one of those social studies teachers who handed out blank pieces of paper and had us draw a map with every new unit. Perhaps you, Gadling reader, learned geography in a similar fashion.

For example, if we were going to study Europe, we would open our books to the map of Europe and replicate it as best we could. Countries were to be drawn to scale, colored a different color than the ones they bordered, and include major mountain chains and bodies of water. By the end of the year, the world had become a grand kaleidoscope that I could picture with my eyes closed.

Even though I’ve traveled to many of the places I’ve drawn, I couldn’t replicate those maps from scratch–not without looking at a picture at the same time. Can you? Al Franken can.

Senator Franken can draw the United States like nobody’s business. He showed off this talent at the Minnesota State Fair this summer. I wonder who his social studies teacher was? I’m impressed. Watch to see what I mean. . .

The most accurate world map available as a free download

by Sean McLachlan on

Finally, our tax dollars going to something cool.

The folks at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, along with NASA and the Japanese government, have come together to make the world’s most accurate topo map. And it’s available for free!

The ASTER project, which stands for Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (say that ten times fast) is a minutely detailed look at the Earth using an instrument aboard Terra, a satellite that’s part of the Earth Observing System, EOS for short. It examines the differences in elevation, heat, and reflectivity on the Earth’s surface in order to study everything from forest cover to ice floes. This helps scientists understand and predict changes in the hugely complex system that is our little ball of clay.

One byproduct is the topo map, along with an amazing gallery of images of our world from above. These can be seen on their website.

You can download the maps for free from NASA’s EOS Digital Archive, where you’ll see a list of several ASTER products. Some cost, but some are free, such as the elevation model shown here.

Africa: How big is huge ?

by Jamie Rhein on

A few years ago, I was asked to be a guest speaker at a conference geared towards teachers. Each session had to do with either Japan, Germany and Africa. So, there you have it. A vast, diverse, complicated continent with the same billing as two countries. I narrowed my topic down to comparing Nigeria and The Gambia.

To really see Africa’s impact all one needs to do is see which of the world’s countries can fit inside it.

The statistics are staggering. Africa’s square miles are hard to wrap ones mind around. The first time I went there, I thought it would be easy to country hop from The Gambia to Kenya. Yeah, right. Going back to the U.S. was easier. What other countries could you add into the 29,843,826 of the countries represented here without going over? Singapore for sure. [via A Welsh View]

The best place for Santa to live is Kyrgyzstan

by Jamie Rhein on

Last night was Tuttle Park’s annual holiday party. Every year this small recreation center of Columbus Parks and Recreation treats kids from surrounding neighborhoods to craft projects, food treats, games and Santa. Our Bolivian friends and Japanese friends were there, as were assorted other folks who I recognized from other years.

When Santa arrived about an hour into the party with not the loudest or jolliest Ho! Ho! Ho! in the world, the outfit did it’s magic and kids clamored to get in line to tell him what he or she wants. My son said seeing Santa was the best part of the party. This is only one holiday happening Santa has to attend–never mind Christmas Eve where he has a whole lot of globe-hopping to do.

If Santa really did make the rounds on Christmas Eve, heading down chimneys and through doorways around the world to deliver gifts, according to a study by a group of Swedish engineers, he should live in Kyrgyzstan to minimize a time crunch.

These engineers have calculated the distances between various places in the world where the bulk of the world’s population live and came up with the location of the best place for Santa’s workshop. Kyrgyzstan is it. That’s much harder to pronounce and spell than the North Pole is, however, so I don’t expect this will stick any time soon. What a clever study, though. It might give Kyrgyzstan a tourist boost if they figured out a Santa theme park or something. There’s a Santa Claus, Indiana that capitalizes on Santa Claus. Why can’t there be a Santa Claus, Kyrgyzstan? I can see the CD title. Caroling with Kris Kringle in Kyrgyzstan. [via Jaunted]

On the Lonely Planet Web page on Kyrgyzstan the country is described as: “No whistles and bells, just friendly faces and some mighty big mountains.” If Santa moved here that would change. There would be whistles and bells–sleigh bells and whistles each time he rounds up his reingeer to head out. Can’t you just see the building in the photo fixed up like Santa’s workshop? Slap a few giant candy canes in front, and you’ve got the beginning of a whole new look.

Beauty queen in Belgium gets a royal booing by the audience for not knowing Dutch

by Jamie Rhein on

Neil wrote a post about Miss South Carolina who hopelessly and sadly botched a geography related question in a beauty contest. Just imagine what this would have been like if she would have had to say her answer in another language spoken in the U.S.–say Spanish. That’s what happened in a beauty contest in Belgium. It wasn’t geography that created a problem, it was not knowing how to speak Dutch.

When one Miss Belgium 2008 contestant was asked a question in Dutch and couldn’t answer because she doesn’t know Dutch, the audience booed. She does know Czech, but in this case, that didn’t earn her admiration. The contestant is from the French speaking part of the country. The questioner, who seemed sorry for the audience upheavel must have gotten them to calm down since the contestant won and got the crown in the end.

The reason for the language upset is because the Belgium government hasn’t totally been pulled together after the election six months ago. The two languages mean that there are two different Belgian communities with different ideas about what should happen in the government. That’s my guess. Evidently, politics and beauty are supposed to go together. The Reuters video pf the incident with a commentary voice-over in English is on Videologist.