Clipmarks | amgumen's 'geography' clips

Best cities for the outdoors

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:23:31 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Big cities are nice, but they rarely have the down-to-Earth quality that many smaller towns possess.

If biking and hiking are more your speed than museums and Broadway shows, check out these cities, ranked by Sperling as some of the best outdoor-oriented towns around.

1. Boulder, Colorado

2. Hood River, Oregon

3. Burlington, Vermont

4. Madison, Wisconsin

5. Boise, Idaho

6. Bend, Oregon

7. Provo, Utah

8. Durango, Colorado

9. South Lake Tahoe, California

10. Moab, Utah

Tags: geography, interesting

Trenton Falls

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:50:06 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: epod.usra.edu

Trenton Falls is actually a series of waterfalls located in Trenton Gorge on West Canada Creek, New York. In the 1800s it was the most popular attraction in the Mohawk Valley. Travelers came from around the world to visit the Falls and stay at the Trenton Falls Resort

Geologists estimate that the rocks in the Trenton gorge are approximately 450 million years old. Trenton limestone is abundant with fossils, including one spectacular trilobite fossil Isotelus gigas. In addition to trilobites, fossilized remnants found at Trenton Falls include concularia (an ancient “armored” jellyfish), echinoderms (spiny-skinned creatures including starfish and crinoids, or sea stars), cephalopods (shelled mollusks with squid-like tentacles), gastropods (snails), and bryozoans (tiny moss animals).

Tags: geography, geology, interesting, nature

The Hanging Monasteries of the World

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:54:41 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

1. Sigiriya, Sri Lanka - The Lion Mountain

Build on a "magma plug" outstanding rock, a remnant of an ancient volcano, the sacred city of Sigiriya contains the ruins of the palace and the temple, dating back to 500 AD. Even older times (about the 3rd century BC) saw this rock as a site for a mountain monastery of the devotees to the Buddhist Sangha. Their caves still pepper the vertical walls, hardly accessible in their overhanging 370m height.

2. Taktshang - Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan

3. Meteora, Greece - "Build Your House on a Rock"

4. Cave Monasteries of Cappadocia, Turkey

How far would you be willing to go to get your peace & quiet?

Some paths to sacred places require a special safety blessing. Take this bridge, for example:

This Russian sign says it straight:

"Get a blessing before crossing this bridge"

All the sheer walls and narrow winding paths behind you, once on the sacred ground, it can be truly inspiring:

Tags: nature, geography, interesting

Google Earth Cool Places

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:42:11 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.googleearthcoolplaces.com

Tags: geography, geology, interesting, nature, science

USA high resolution satellite image

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:42:37 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.windows.ucar.edu

This United States is a mosaic prepared by using 16 images from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensors on the meteorological satellites NOAA-8 and NOAA-9. The images were taken between May 24, 1984 and May 14, 1986. On false-color infrared mosaics, vegetation appears in red instead of green. The "redness" indicates vegetation density, type and whether growing on dry land or in a swamp. Grasslands appear light red, deciduous trees and croplands appear red, and coniferous forests appear dark red or maroon. Desert areas appear white and urban areas appear bluish green. Lakes, rivers and oceans appear in various shades of blue, dark blue for deep water and light blue for shallow or turbid water. (Courtesy USGS)
V. L. Sharpton, LPI

Tags: science, interesting, geography, geology, space

Where (and How) Evolution Is Taught In the US

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:56:09 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

Scientists generally accept the theory of evolution as the back-story of how animal species (including humans) came into being over a period of several billion years. Religious literalists maintain their belief in creation, as laid down in the Bible: God made the earth and all that is on it (including humans, after His own image) in one week, a couple of thousand years ago.

These are the extreme positions in a debate that has been raging for years now in the United States, and more particularly in the school system. Since each state can determine what should be in the local schools’ curriculum, the teaching of evolution and/or creation differs throughout the country. Yet contrary to what one might think, it’s not so that creation is taught in the Bible Belt states (in the South), and evolution in more liberal states (everywhere else).

Tags: interesting, geography, science, education

The Whole World In A Cloverleaf

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:47:10 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

Heinrich Bunting (1545-1606) knew the world didn’t really look like this. There are enough maps in his works (such as Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae) to indicate he knew the continents had an irregular, and not a symbolic shape.

The map shows a world divided into three parts (Europe, Asia and Africa), connected at a single central point: Jerusalem. This is essentially still the same symbolic map of the world as the one first devised by Saint Isidore in the seventh century. Isidore’s ’T and O’-shaped map, itself inspired by Scripture, influenced Christian European mapmaking up until the age of discovery.

That age would be the one Bunting grew up in. He and his contemporaries were among the first generations of Europeans to know Isidore was wrong – but it’s almost impossible to resist imagining how this centuries-old archetype of a map took a while to be erased out of the common memory of cartographers.

in the bottom left corner a piece of land is named America

Tags: geography, interesting, science

the GDR Lives on - as a Tiny Carribean Island

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:43:29 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

a small island off Cuba is the last official territory of the good old Deutsche Demokratische Republik

In a military exclusion zone in the Gulf of Cazones, not far to the south-west of the infamous Bay of Pigs, lies a small island formerly known as Cayo Blanco de Sur. The island is 15 km long, but never more than 500 metres wide (although another source claims it is 24 km long and 1 km wide). It is uninhabited but for the iguanas and birds that are indigenous there, and the occasional tourists stopping over. The area is very biodiverse, hosting several endangered species of fish and coral. The reefs make the island inaccessible to any but the smallest boats, and even then landing often involves wading ashore.

In June 1972, Fidel Castro while on a state visit to East Berlin gifted the island to East Germany

Cuba renamed it Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, after the German communist politician

Tags: geography, interesting

Bizarre border on Market Island

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:32:36 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: strangemaps.wordpress.com

So you’re a map nerd and you think you know about every cartographic anomaly in the world, from the bizarre Belgian enclave of Baarle-Hertog in the south of the Netherlands to the three little islands in the Beagle Channel that almost caused a war between Chile and Argentina.
Then you learn about Market Reef, a little island between Finland and Sweden that is shared by both countries - and is the smallest island thus divided between two nations. The bizarre border on Market Island (Märkat in Swedish) was caused by the Finnish lighthouse that was accidentally built on the Swedish side of the border. It was transferred to Finland, while an equally large piece of the Finnish half became Swedish.
The island is uninhabited, but is a favourite destination for radio enthousiasts, as it is listed as a separate country in amateur radio call numbering.

Tags: interesting, geography

Librarian Chick Wiki: hundreds of free learning resources

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:37:09 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Very cool. I haven't had a chance to dig into more than a few of the links, but looks to be a tremendous resource.

Clip Source: librarianchick.pbwiki.com

Hello, and welcome to Librarian Chick!

This a list of free resources for students and educators... and anyone else who's hip to learning. Feel free to click away! Though many of these resources could be listed under multiple categories, I've only added them once so you can CTRL+Click all links to open in tabs and never open the same page twice.

Librarian Chick's Learning Center - Search for more free educational information, sites, games and software!
Librarian Chick's Free Book Search - Quickly search for free audio books, text books and eBooks!

Tags: via:donationcoder, library, links, cool, research

Search for Homer’s Ithaca

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:40:51 GMT

clipped by: amgumen
clipper's remarks: The theory that the home of Odysseus, which has never been satisfactorily identified, was in fact a part of the modern island of Kefallinia that was once an island in its own right (Geoscientist 16, 9 p4 et seq.) has received support from the first test borehole. The theory, advanced by British businessman Robert Bittlestone (author of Odysseus Unbound - The Search for Homer’s Ithaca - Cambridge University Press), with Cambridge University classicist, Professor James Diggle and Edinburgh University geologist, Professor John Underhill, predicts that the peninsula of Paliki was once separated from the rest of Kefallinia by a narrow, probably tidal channel that subsequently became blocked by landslips. This theory solves a number of disagreements between modern geography and Homer’s text - inconsistencies not satisfied by the assumption that Bronze Age Ithaca and the modern island of Ithaki (to the east of Kefallinia) were one and the same island.

Clip Source: www.odysseus-unbound.org

FUGRO teams up with Odysseus Unbound project and Greece’s IGME in the search for Homer’s Ithaca

Clip Source: www.odysseus-unbound.org

The location of the island of Ithaca that is described in Homer’s Odyssey has been an enigma for nearly 3,000 years, but the radical new solution proposed by the authors in late 2005 is looking increasingly plausible as preliminary scientific findings appear to support the hypothesis. FUGRO’s sponsorship will now bring industry-scale geophysical techniques to the project, enabling the team to conduct a ‘full body scan’ of the 6-kilometre long isthmus on the Greek island of Kefallinia that is believed to contain a buried ancient marine connection.

Tags: geology, archaeology

Clipmarks | amgumen's 'geography' clips

Best cities for the outdoors

1. Boulder, Colorado

2. Hood River, Oregon

3. Burlington, Vermont

4. Madison, Wisconsin

5. Boise, Idaho

6. Bend, Oregon

7. Provo, Utah

8. Durango, Colorado

9. South Lake Tahoe, California

10. Moab, Utah

Trenton Falls

The Hanging Monasteries of the World

Google Earth Cool Places

Categories

Useful links

Cool links

USA high resolution satellite image

Where (and How) Evolution Is Taught In the US

The Whole World In A Cloverleaf

the GDR Lives on - as a Tiny Carribean Island

Bizarre border on Market Island

Librarian Chick Wiki: hundreds of free learning resources

Hello, and welcome to Librarian Chick!

Search for Homer’s Ithaca