Archive for November 2010

3

The 2010 NCAA Div I-A Football Playoffs (One Casual Football Fan's Dream of What Could Have Been...)

Ever wonder what we're missing without a tournament?  Yeah, me too.  So, I've developed six tournament formats, shown below, including one of 16 teams, 20 teams, 24 teams, 28 teams and 30 teams.  In each case, conference champions of EVERY Division I-A conference receives a berth to the tournament, just like in NCAA basketball.  With 11 conferences, that leaves room for five at-large berths in the 16-team grid, nine in the 20-team, 13 in the 24-team, and so on. Read more

4

Geographic Literacy: Our Job Isn't Finished

Of course, we all know that maps are not the end-all, be-all of geography; far from it, maps are only a small part of what geographers do.  At the same time, though, maps are useful tools that are crucial, especially to beginning students, in helping represent the world and provide a basis for understanding the more interesting aspects of our field.  With all of this in mind, I'm bringing forth an activity that I do on the first day of every World Regional Geography course I teach.  After we go over the syllabus, I hand each student a blank piece of Hammermill copy paper and give them the following instructions: Draw a map of the world, label what's important. Here are the results. Read more

0

The United States of Pop Music

Using album sales to approximate a "popular" act to represent each of the 50 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico. Read more

26

The Popular Feedback Remix: 50 States, 50 TV Series

After the success in driving traffic that the first "50 States, 50 TV Series" encountered, I used the feedback from commenters to create a remixed map. Read more

14

Impressionist Geography: 50 States, 50 Words

I am purposely not providing any further explanation to the words as they are chosen.  Why?  Because if you look at this map, even if you don't know me and don't know a thing about me, you're going to see these words and begin connecting the dots. You're going to have your own perception of why I chose the words I chose, and you're going to come up with other possibilities for your own map. It's inevitable, because maps draw us in, and make us think.  You're going to know me a little better than you did before, and whatever ideas you scratch from this map about me will be absolutely 100% true; "knowing" someone is only a compilation of impressions and perceptions about that person, because we can never truly be in their heads or walk in their shoes. Read more

144

50 States, 50 Television Series

As you may remember a couple days ago, there was a piece was published on the Huffington Post identifying every state of the U.S. by one movie, which of course I answered with a map of my own.  The original map from the HuffPo was featured on the fantastically entertaining Strange Maps blog, in which the author Frank Jacobs made a request for a similar map of TV shows.  Well, I couldn't pass a challenge like that. Read more

7

Sorry Folks, I'm Gonna Sit This One Out

I discuss why, for the first time in my life, I choose not to vote. Read more