1) Kids: Do you love maps
AND have an artistic eye? If so, the 2009 Barbara Petechenik International
Map Competition is for you! Organized by the International Cartographic
Association (ICA),
the competition is a showcase of maps created by kids around the world. Each member country of the ICA is allowed to submit five entries, from
which a handful of winners will be selected. Winners will have their maps distributed to organizations like UNICEF and
ESRI Children’s Books for use in greeting card designs, book covers, and calendars. This year’s theme: “Living in a Globalized
World.” 

2)
Geography is being written back into the cause and effect of world affairs with
help from Paul Krugman, a recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Through
his work in the “new economic geography,” an economic discipline that places
geographical analysis at the center of its study,  Krugman provides a refreshing look into how
place affects the world economy. He is
also a blogger
for the New York Times, and in his most recent post breaks down his work for ”laymen”
readers.

3)
With the election fast-approaching, our eyes and ears are overwhelmed with
images of maps and debates about place. But what happens when the “experts” on electoral mapping get it wrong? Well
Steven Colbert, a political commentator for Comedy Central, makes fun of them. Watch this funny clip
(approximately 3:30 minutes into the full episode) on The Colbert Report about how NBC’s electoral map mistakenly
identified North Carolina as Virginia…OOPS!

4) Think you’re
well-traveled? Meet the bar-tailed
godwit, a bird whose migration pattern was recently discovered to be about 7,200 miles long! This jet-setting shore bird leaves from the Yukon  Delta in Alaska
and lands on the tip of New Zealand nine days later – without stopping. Forget
the Aitkin’s diet; this bird loses 50% of its body weight in the process.

5)
It’s Friday! And Halloween! With places like Pumpkin Center, North Carolina; Tombstone, Arizona; and Skullcreek Township, Nebraska, U.S.  geography can get a little spooky. What town do many people list as the most
haunted place in the country? Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania, site of a definitive
battle in the Civil War. But who knows!
Do you agree?

Have
a great weekend!