"The United Countries of Baseball" - Blog Topic #11

This map immediately caught my eye as I was surfing the internet.  Since I play in college and inspired to be a professional baseball player as a child I love supporting my two favorite teams.  I had never imagined even trying to map where a majority of fans live for a certain team.  Maps always give you a new spatial perspective on a situation.  After studying the map I realized where some of the teams are located in the first place and that many states do not have teams  There are more teams in the East than the West by far.  This is probably due to the size of cities near the east coast.  Bigger cities means more fans, or in other words more money.  Since baseball teams do not exist in all states, it makes sense that neighboring states would accept the closest team geographically as their home team.  I am originally from Oklahoma (which has no professional baseball team) and have been a Texas Rangers fan from birth.  I moved to Colorado when I was young and also became a Rockies fan.  This map really opened my eyes to where baseball teams are located and where their fan base is.

$500 Billion and Counting - Blog Topic #10

When problems in Africa are talked about in the news, printed in magazines, or sprayed over the internet Americans are reminded that they should feel bad for people suffering and donate to help those in need.  Since 1960 foreign nations have donated over $500 billion dollars in aid to the suffering nations of Africa.  Although these intentions are good at heart, we may be actually causing other problems instead of helping fix the problems already present in Africa.  A majority of the money sent to Africa is swallowed up by corrupt leaders and governments and does not help the people actually suffering.  People have donated clothes and other items to families in need in Africa.  These goods rarely make it to the intended families and are instead sold in markets to make easy an easy profit.  All of the money and goods donated since the 1960s has caused Africa to become dependent on other nations.  We sought to help Africa get back on their feet, but have actually made them less likely to be self sufficient then when we started.
  To help build the Africa that can use its resource rich land to benefit all, we will have to help establish better trade, industry, and infrastructure.  We need to teach them to help themselves and to help rid the continent of corrupt leaders and governments.  Before anything productive can be done there needs to be a major shift in how countries are led.  Without a proper, responsible leader a country cannot move forward to come out of its recession.  Africa is a beautiful and resource rich land deserves a new face that does not include corruption and poverty.

Enough is Enough - Blog Topic #9

Recently countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa have encountered riots and demonstrations against leaders who have been in power for decades.  Countries like Egypt and Tunisia forced their repressive leaders out of power at the beginning of this year.  These actions, along with poverty, high unemployment, and high food prices, have inspired Algeria to do the same to their President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.  Riots began in January when food prices angered citizens.  The situation intensified when three people were killed while the riot occurred. 

In early February, 10,000 people marched towards the capitol to riot against the president.  A massive police force of 26,000 was put together to stop people from making to the center of the capitol for their march.  Around 1,500 citizens were able to make it passed the blockade and held signs and chanted, "Bouteflika out!".  A man named Sadi leads the Rally for Culture and Democracy or RCD and said, "We're going to continue to demonstrate and to defy the authorities until they fall,".  It is evident that countries are being inspired by others in their area to overthrow their repressive governments and leaders.  It will be interesting to see what happens in Algeria and in other countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa. 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=12899848&page=1

Would You Just Look At That? - Blog Topic #8

As a student I have not been exposed to many variations of maps throughout my education.  I have become accustomed to viewing the world as a flat space, where Asia is thought to be thousands of miles away America and the poles of the earth are long stretches of land secluded from all other places.  As I explored Google Earth from a 3D view I began to see how distorted my image of the world is.  Oceans began to expand and the poles of the earth became centric instead of spread out.  The oceans intrigued me because I never realized how large they were until I poked around the globe.  It is incredible how many remote islands have been discovered with ancient artifacts on them, revealing that human life existed on them before colonists discovered them.

This particular view caught my eye and changed how I viewed the earth.  A normal map displays Antarctica as a stretch of frozen land taking up most of the bottom of the map, while the spherical view of the earth reveals its' true form.  Antarctica's shape resembles Australia in a way and stretches out at one point towards South America.  I never realized how close the southern tip of South America is to Antarctica.  Before when I thought of South America I never thought of it in relation to Antarctica and now I realize that they may have been connected at some point.  I have a completely different perspective of the world after viewing it through Google Earth.

Drugs = Bad - Blog Topic #7

Opium has taken over the lives of many Afghans including the old and young.  Since many farms have transitioned from traditional crops to poppy fields, many Afghans have become addicted to the narcotic.  Families are starving because no eatable crops are being grown and the families spend their money on more opium. Some families know that the addiction is hurting their families and hope their children do not follow in their footsteps.  Even though some Afghans know they are doing wrong, the Taliban still has its hold on the citizens.

Afghanistan is the largest opium producer in the world and provides heroin to many parts of the world.  Afghanistan, being one of the least developed countries on earth, has turned to opium to generate money instead of traditional crops.  In the last ten years there has been a substantial rise in poppy cultivation instead of traditional crops causing many people in Afghanistan to go hungry.  Afghanistan primarily sells and trades their narcotics to Europe, Russia, and the United States.  Not long ago Russia claimed that the U.S. was in control of the opium fields in Afghanistan and blamed us for the narcotics in their country.  Opium addiction in Russia is the cause of the deaths of 30,000 people each year.  By 2009 there were two and half million heroin addicts in Russia.

The income produced from opium and heroin trade goes to the Taliban, which supports terrorist attacks on the West.  Many efforts are being put forth to destroy poppy fields causing a lot of tension between police and Taliban members.  Many Afghans have lost their lives trying to destroy poppy fields as a small war wages over these fields.  Until these fields are destroyed the Taliban will continue using profits to commit terrorist acts and families will be torn apart from drug addiction.