Dear students: here is your supplemental reading for the week. It is an opinion piece from the New York Times from by a structural engineer and earthquake consultant. Seattle may be a cool place, but is it ready for a mega-earthquake of the sort that just hit Chile? Apparently not.

Professor Price's YouTube Playlist

Much awaited! Now it is finally yours to enjoy. All of the music from around the world - the cool, the bizarre, the strange (and, of course Maharaja Cowboy!) - that's been entertaining us at the beginning of class.

Map Quiz Component for Exam #2

For the four regions we're studying for Exam #2, you will familiarize yourself with the locations of their most important places. Each world region has 15 study locations. Only 5 of them from each region will be on your midterm but you won't know which in advance. There is a total of 20 midterm questions that come from the map locations (5 from each region @ 4 regions = 20 place names). It's exactly like on Exam #1.

Middle & South America

South Asia

North Africa & Southwest Asia

Southeast Asia

Study guide: place names

Indian fishermen use cell phones to keep up with the location of fish, it's market price for that day, and weather forecasts. One example of the digital divide being crossed. See the Washington Post article here.

Happy reading!

Russia's Demographic Collapse

OK, so I'm sure you're all enjoying your Spring Break. Me too ... Old Prof Price has got a bucket-load of writing done this week.

But what's break without some supplementary reading, you ask? So, for your reading pleasure, here is an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on just the sort of things we've been talking about this semester. It's focused on Russia and what's happening there demographically-speaking. I mentioned Russia as a case for a country that doesn't follow the demographic transition, and here are the details. Very interesting! Enjoy, and see you all on Monday.

Lost 'n Found

A piece of jewelry was found in RDB 1100 and turned in after class on Wednesday, March 10. If you think it might be yours, please email me and provide a detailed description.

Prof Price's Grad Student in Bogota

Dear students: I'd like to share a story about my PhD student, Amy Ritterbusch. She is doing her dissertation field research in Bogota, Colombia (AKA "the Athens of South America"!), with street girls. Here is the link: FIU Magazine Winter 2010. Here is a link to her blog. This is an example of what it is, really, that academic geographers do. In terms of the categories we discussed at the beginning of the class, Amy would be considered a cultural and urban geographer who contributes to the field of children's geographies. She uses GIS as one of her techniques. Maybe this sort of thing will inspire some of you to major in Geography at FIU! Or go on to graduate school in Geography at FIU!

Venezuela's Power Woes

Yes, it's a double-entendre: "power" as in electricity, and as in who's in power. This New York Times article on Venezuela's "Resource Curse" is an illustration of how politics and economics are tightly bound to each other. It's also an illustration of Latin America's paradox: how is it that a region so rich in natural and human resources is as poor as it is? BTW, the image shows Venezuela's Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world.

More Matt

Wow, wish you guys were as enthused about the newspaper articles as you are by the Dancing Matt video! Anyway, here is a discussion from My Favorite Source Ever ... Wikipedia ... on Matt Harding's journeys, sponsors, and so forth. You can spend a lot of time checking out his appearances and videos ... after the exam.

Matt Dancing Across the Globe

Dear students: here's a wee break in your exam studying. Thanks to Jessica W. for forwarding this link. Matt must have been a Geography major ...

Exam Policies and Procedures

Here they are: please read before taking Exam 1

Extra Credit Opportunity

Dear students: on Thursday February 25, 5:00 - 6:30 PM in MARC Pavillion, there will be a Keynote Address by Michael D. Kennedy (Brown University). He will speak on Cultural Formations of the European Union. How relevant to our class! Here is the flyer. The extra credit event is for Thursday's keynote only.

I will give you one extra credit point for attending the entire session. In order to get the credit you must sign in and sign out with David Suarez (our Friday TA). He will have a sheet for that purpose. It is your responsibility to find him and do this: if you don't you won't be awarded credit. You must be present for the entire lecture to receive credit (hence sign in at the beginning, sign out at the end: no late sign-ins or early sign-outs).

What's Up (or, Rather, Down) with the Euro?

This week we will look at the Euro - the European Union's common currency - as an example of how a bloc of countries has attempted to integrate economically, politically, and militarily. However, the road to unity is rarely a smooth one, as evidenced by Greece's recent economic troubles affecting the price and stability of the Euro. Read this Wall Street Journal article as your supplemental reading for the week.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Final Exam Schedule

Dear students: the University has (finally) released the exam schedule for the final week of the semester.

Our Exam #2 is scheduled for Friday, April 23, at 9:45.

There are no early exams. Because this is a M/W/F course, the Friday exam slot is just how the chips fell in our case. Make your travel plans accordingly.

Tracking Trends in Low Fertility Countries: An Uptick in Europe? - Population Reference Bureau

A more in-depth look at what's happening in low fertility countries. Several of you asked what such countries are doing to encourage births. Here's the word from the Population Reference Bureau, which is a great and reliable source for all things population.

Tracking Trends in Low Fertility Countries: An Uptick in Europe? - Population Reference Bureau