Category Archives: Geography

Pakistan has no Capital -or- Why GISs need to be Tweaked

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Bill Ruhsam

According to Microsoft Streets & Trips, Pakistan has no Capital. Islamabad should be right there, next to Rawalpindi, but it’s not. You have to zoom way in before it becomes visible. In defense of MS Streets & Trips, the symbol … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, gis, map | Leave a comment

Geocaching Travel Bug

Posted on May 17, 2007 by Bill Ruhsam

Once upon a time, a long long long time ago (2001) I discovered this Geocaching* thing. It sounded cool, so I bought a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and went looking for the nearest cache to me, which at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Geography | 4 Comments

Enhanced Fujita Scale

Posted on May 11, 2007 by Bill Ruhsam

Matt Rosenberg alerts us that the Fujita Scale, used to measure the intensity of Tornados (F0 through F6), has been superceded by the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

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Geology Profound

Posted on May 10, 2007 by Bill Ruhsam

Would you like to see what the continents looked like while T.Rex was eating things? How about when the explosion of lifeforms in the cambrian occurred? Maybe what the earth looked like when the dinosaurs were wiped out by the … Continue reading →

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Holy Wrong Hemisphere, Batman!

Posted on December 31, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

German tourist destined for Sydney, Australia ends up in Sidney, Montana, USA! Hey, it’s winter out there, folks! Gacked from Matt Rosenberg

Posted in Geography | 1 Comment

Gregorian Calendar

Posted on December 29, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

Here are some history and details about the Gregorian Calendar, brought to you by Matt Rosenberg, friendly neighborhood provider of weekly emails concerning geography. The most interesting thing (to me) in this article is that it took 170 years to … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, World Events | Leave a comment

Asia -> Spain: Holy Crap that's a long way!

Posted on September 15, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

I’ve been hearing a lot of press recently about the Canary Isands being the port of harbor for African illegal immigration to Europe. The geography makes good sense. The Canaries are only 150 miles (give or take) off of Morocco. … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Opinion, World Events | Leave a comment

Flag Displays in the Classroom

Posted on September 15, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

Over at About.com, the geography man Matt Rosenberg has caused a bit of a rucus in the comments of this post. Do you think the Mexican flag should be displayed with “equal promininence” to the US flag in an American … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Opinion | Leave a comment

Interactive Urbanization History

Posted on June 23, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

The BBC has published an interactive online map to demonstrate urbanization trends of the past 50 years. Rolling their cursor back and forth to watch the asian urbanized centers pop up and grow, then shrink back to nothing, is curiously … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Transportation | 1 Comment

Geographically Self-Centered America

Posted on May 5, 2006 by Bill Ruhsam

National Geographic released a survey of 18-24 year-old Americans, testing their geographic knowledge. The results, as usual, depress me. The summary of results from the website says: Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map—though U.S. troops … Continue reading →

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