World

World Rivers and Basins. Other variations of this have been around. I still always like to study them and look up unfamiliar rivers and basins. What I want is an interactive visualization like this but to be able to poke at it and identify specific rivers and basins. Could be a good Geocraic project?

Arctic Drift. This is a great NOVA show on a science mission to park an icebreaker in the Arctic Ocean for a year and let the natural drift of ice carry it across the North Pole all the while conducting detailed science measurements of the meteorology, the ice, the snow, and the ocean below. All while keeping out of the way of polar bears. Pretty great episode.

Malacca Strait: A deeper dive into one area referenced in Issue 10 in the article about Marine Chokepoints.

Using dogs to detect Xylella infected olive trees in Italy. Xylella is a bacteria that eventually kills a plant it infects and there’s a serious infestation in Puglia, Italy that has killed 10’s of thousands of trees. So, the Geographic perspective in this story is about the global spread of pests, the economic impacts of infestations, and the fact that the best olive oil on the planet is being devastated. So beyond the economic devastation it’s a gastronomic tragedy. Maybe the dogs can help.

David Rumsey Map Collection - Timelines. It is always fun for geographers to lose time wandering through the great David Rumsey Map Collection. Now you can also search for Timelines. They have 300 to examine. Note: Some represent the prejudices and racism of their times and which many unfortunately are still with us today. Which brings up a question I ponder sometimes. If the Age of Enlightenment gave us many benefits, sciences for one, another is we said fuck you to Popes and Kings, but did it not also craft institutional racism from existing prejudices? Where racism is prejudice plus power. Which was a key part of the colonial periods. I think it did and therefore the Enlightenment definitely has a mixed legacy. An orthogonal topic but something to think about when perusing these timelines.

Allan Coral Atlas maps the world’s coral reefs.

Europe

Hamburg: I regret never having visited Hamburg yet. It is definitely on the list.