Some cool maps

Well, things are depressing here in Ukraine. Here's a fascinating collection of maps to take your mind of things.

Updated: I found this collection of 40 maps by Washington Post blogger Max Fisher, looks like this is the original "40 maps..." compilation. He also compiled another one "40 more maps that explain the world," all worth a look!

Reading Journal: The Kite Runner

One of my goals this year is to read at least one book per month. So far, so good. In Decemeber I wrapped up Khaled Hosseini'sThe Kite Runner, and Kurt Vonngut's Slaughterhouse 5.

I had a hard time getting started with The Kite Runner, but by halfway in I was pretty absorbed in the story. It's a tough book, emotionally. Nonetheless I was fascinated by Hosseini's account of life in Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion, and his experience in the Afghan diaspora, which to me was quite poignant - even more so given it's universality. 

I can imagine Chechens, Ukrainians, Congolese, Iraqis, Somalis, and many more peoples having the same experiences as exiles abroad. The main character's identity crisis is really universal, I think, for all children of immigrants and refugees that have come to the US. This reminded me of my students at the International Institute of New Hampshire and their hardships as refugees forced to flee their homelands, disjointed from family and friends - not knowing where they are, or if they are alive or dead. 

I found the story itself heartbreaking, but ultimately redeeming. The Kite Runner follows a fairly standard "coming of age" or "hero's journey" story arc, and sometimes plot twists were fairly predictable. I'd attribute this to Hosseini's heavy use of foreshadowing, so the predictability of certain plot details is likely intentional. Whether you like that, or not, is up to you.

Ultimately it's a great book, and definitely worth reading. It's very topical to current events over the last decade or so, and I'd reccomend it for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of Afghan culture, history, and national experience. It effectively highlights pressing issues of human rights, refugees, and immigration. The Kite Runner is also moving on a personal moral and religious level. While it gives insight into the everyday lives of the Afghan people, the book truly shines as a parable for love and redemption.

NY Times dialect quiz

The New York Times put up an interesting dialect questionaire. It consists of 25 questions, and is pretty quick and interesting to take. At the end you'll get a map showing where people with similar answers to yours are from. Here's mine:

Both my parents are from the Pacific Northwest, but I grew up (mostly) in New England, and I've never been to Louisana or Missippi.

Earth Wind Map

This is a really neat mapping project I ran into on Facebook. It's a visualization of worldwide weather patterns using data from NOAA, NCEP, and USNWS updated automatically every three hours. Pretty cool, have a look:

Earth Wind Map

Hear are some similar projects for other regions of the world:

Wind Map (USA)

Tokyo Wind Map

Looking at these maps you can really see how air moves from areas of high pressure, to low pressure - swirling low pressure cells, fronts, and stable high pressure systems can all be spotted looking at the direction and intensity of wind flow.

Measure of America: human development index by state

I first became acquainted with the vaunted human development index (HDI) in my junior year of high school in AP Human Geography. I continued  running into it fairly frequently as a university student, but always in discussions about developing countries.  We sometimes compared HDIs for developed countries, but we mostly just noticed the vast gulf between rich and poor around the world. 

Looking at things this way it's easy to lose sight of geographic differences within countries and generalize in ways that might not necessarily be entirely true. While It's common knowledge that economic conditions, demographics, living standards, and quality of government services all vary widely from place to place within any country - even rich ones - but seeing HDI illustrated on this interactive map of the US is eye opening. 

It would be great to see an interactive map like the one I've linked here for GINI coefficient. 

Press round up

As a PCV in Ukraine I've of course been watching the situation pretty carefully. There's not a whole lot in the western press about the situation, but there is analysis out there worth reading:

• Another great piece of analysis from the NY Times.  
• A 2010 article from Stratfor. I'd say it's a bit poorly written, and fairly soft from a scholarly standpoint, but it does provide a hardcore-realist perspictive of Central European geopolitics that is fairly honest. I'm just not sure things are quite so cut-and-dry as presented here.
• Here's a good article from the BBC on the perspective of eastern Ukrainians.
• The Atlantic Council gives a short summary of what the protesters out there on the Maidan are standing for.

United States political geography over time

Here's an incredibly absorbing and detailed map, I love this kind of stuff: 

You can take a look at the ful size image here, enjoy!

Suburbia, health, and walking

Why cul de sacs are bad for you health

Having moved out of southern New Hampshire's sprawling ex-urbs, I see a lot of truth in the article. I became accutely aware of the fact that there is no choice but to drive if you live in a cul de sac neighborhood when I spent a month home from Ukraine last winter.

I'd gotten used to stepping out of the house and strolling down to the corner store, or taking a ten minute walk to the market. Having to drive everywhere, while I knew to expect it, was still a shock. Say I wanted to by some chips and a beer, in Ukraine's walkable cities this would be a simple 5 minute errand - out the door and back (not withstanding whether or not beer and vodka really should be sold in every little store). In NH, you have to roll the car out of the garage, shut the garage door, drive 15 minutes, and navigate your way through a Shaws supermarket - then repeat the process to get home. I really felt hemmed in.

That might be hard to imagine given the symbolism of cars, the open road, and freedom in American culture. But once you get out and live in a walkable city, you'll see that that koda-chrome picture isn't all it's made out to be. Geography really does make a difference in people's lives and health.

Press round-up

Here are some links worth reading from the International press on Ukraine's ongoing political crisis:

The Washington Post
 
The Guardian

The New York Times

Forbes

The Economist

Overall it's a worrying time here in Ukraine, no one really knows what to expect. So far, after a violent crackdown backfired, the administration's strategy has been to do nothing and hope crisis solves itself. Meanwhile, the opposition doesn't seem united behind any one leader or any immediately, and practically, attainable goals. Whatever the case, it's plain that Ukrainians are fed up with politics as usual.

The Wild Fields

I've kept other blogs before and always enjoyed the experience, but I've never kept one up for long. Tenkara Advendturer was a really fun project, but my personal interests and my aims in blogging have expanded; nowadays I don't see the sense in limiting myself to one topic.

Over the last three years I've become a compulsive note taker, mostly as a practical strategy to overcome my absentmindness. Despite mixed results (I still manage to forget things), note-taking has been a great way to clarify and order my thoughts, and once I got in the habit I found the act of writing itself to be a bit addictive. It's also fascinating to look back at old thoughts, ideas, or snippets of information that made an impression on me.

I'd like this blog to be a place where I can compose my thoughts and ideas, and share links and other interesting info that catch my attention without any thematic boundaries. This might not be the best strategy to gain an audience, but that's not my goal. 

I chose the name The Wild Fields from dyky poly, a term used frequently in Ukrainian literature to describe the free and open steppe of central Ukraine where the persecuted sought escape and refuge. My title The Wild Fields is meant to evoke that sense of freedom and possibility.