Critiques of libertarianism

In Geography 464 and 564, we read a few pieces coming from a libertarian perspective. For those looking for critiques of libertarianism, here's a treasure trove.

Blue Marble 2012

Nice HD - Blue Marble 2012.

"Water revolution looming"?

A new semester has begun, and it's time to revive the blog.

Here's a Journal-Sentinel article about a relatively new book on water scarcity. Not the gloom and doom you might expect, but I'm not sure I'll be able to drink Evian again, thanks to the author's colorful description. Let me know if you've read it.

Meanwhile, here's one author's take on how to deal with looming water scarcity in cities: increase land use density. (Some nice colorful maps too!)

A geographer's perspective on famine in the Horn of Africa

Here's an excellent column on famine in the Horn of Africa by geographer Bill Moseley, an expert on development and environmental change in Africa. For students taking Geography 125, this is an eloquent, brief, and readable analysis that illustrates how a political ecology perspective differs from dominant, mainstream perspectives on food, hunger, and agriculture (the issues in Chapter 8 of your textbook).

The Geography of Google Street View

I don't get to take road trips as often as I'd like, so I was excited to see that, thanks to Google Maps Street View, I can travel to a lot of places via "virtual road trip." In some ways the world geography of coverage - i.e., the places that are visible via Google Maps Street View - is rather predictable: I suspect there would be a fairly strong correlation between this map and a world map of countries by GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a commonly used indicator of wealth and economic productivity) per capita. So it's no surprise that the most heavily mapped include North America, Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Singapore, and Japan. It's also not too surprising to see that South Africa is the best covered country in Africa.

But there are surprises - on the one hand, not much of Germany, Belgium, Austria, or Portugal have Street View available yet; I'd be curious to know why. (I'm also disappointed that I can't do a virtual road trip through Iceland yet...) And why so little coverage in South America (outside of the major population centers along the Brazilian coast) and almost none in India or China?

On the other hand, there is pretty good coverage in Romania and Czechia... why these two and not other Eastern European countries? I was also pleased to discover that I could use this to visit the Canary Islands and a tiny smidgen of Antarctica.

Upcoming study of food deserts in Milwaukee

Here's an upcoming study on food deserts in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit - hey, how did UW-Madison land this, and not UWM?

Segregation in Milwaukee

Is Milwaukee the most segregated city in the US? One recent study using the dissimilarity index found that it is, according to this Salon article.

But note that the dissimilarity index is not the only measure of segregation, and it has its critics. To learn a little about some of these critics - and to find many more useful links - check out this recent Politifact Wisconsin article.