This weekend’s Washington Post had an interesting article about the growing emphasis on learning “critical languages” such as Chinese and Arabic. In it, the reporter writes: “Americans have awakened to a far more global playing field and the need for specialized languages, economists say.” Read the article: “With a Changing World Comes An Urgency to Learn Chinese”. How important do you think it is that … Continue reading Are Languages Critical?
Poor Pluto. Today astronomers voted to strip it of its planet status, downsizing Pluto to a dwarf and leaving our solar system with just eight planets. The new rules say a planet must be “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and … Continue reading And Then There Were Eight
Recently, Sven Lindblad, chairman of My Wonderful World coalition member Lindblad Expeditions, included this letter in Lindblad’s Explorations trip catalog: Dear Traveler, Some wonderful things happened in the last couple of days in Washington, D.C., and fortunately I was able to be part of them. The first was the unveiling of a new public campaign entitled My Wonderful World. Launched by the National Geographic Education … Continue reading “We Are All About Geography”
In the news today: Newly arrived immigrants are spreading out across the United States like never before, new census data shows. While traditionally the majority of immigrants have settled in gateway states such as California and Florida, data collected since 2000 shows that Mexicans are “leading a wave of newly arrived immigrants” to states such as South Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska. (See news story and … Continue reading “Census: New Arrivals Fan Out”
Looking for happiness? Head to Denmark but avoid Burundi. So says a British psychologist who has created the first “world map of happiness.” (Read a news story.) Adrian White used data such as health care, wealth, and education to create his list of happy nations. The Danes came out on top, along with European neighbors Switzerland, Austria, and Iceland. Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, and … Continue reading Who Says You Can’t Plot Happiness?
