The Geographer of the Second Half of the 20th Century, Harm de Blij, is Dead

Geography@About.com has posted the sad news of the passing of Harm de Blij.  de Blij was one of the last voices arguing for a politics-free geography focused on the traditional ways of examining the world.  Today the field is stuck in a fever swamp which lacks direction and focuses on non-geographical subjects.

We interviewed Harm for the blog and greatly admired his work.  A 2005 speech he gave at National Geographic in fact was responsible for a series of guest post which later spun off to form this very blog.  He will be missed.

Geographic Travels strongly recommends Harm's autobiography Wartime Encounter with Geography in which he describes how his experiences growing up in Nazi-occupied Netherlands fostered a love of geography.

Rest in Peace.

But let me give the last word to Harm himself talking about geography and the future.

Denmark Needs Babies so Danish Businesses Take on Population Decline

The great European social welfare state experiment has failed on a fundamental level the Catholic European politicians did not foresee: the complete destruction of the traditional family.  People feel they no longer need children as a social safety net so they instead rely on the state and live a life of comfort.  However, without new children becoming tax payers the system will and is collapsing.

The Danish government has been unable to address the decline and is struggling with decline like Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.  The situation is so noticeable that a Danish travel company is encouraging Danes to "do it" for Denmark.

Warning:  Mildly Not Safe for Work/Children



Demographic decline in the West, including the United States, will become more of an issue as native groups decline in size and governments/economies suffer because of lack of workers.  Do not laugh at these efforts, they will become more common and needed. 

The Moon's Size Compared to the United States

From NASA and Arizona State University

Yandex Gives Crimea to Russia, OpenStreetMap Plays Both Sides, American Online Map Services Side with Ukraine

Russian search engine giant has given the Crimean peninsula to Russia.

However the English-language version of Yandex still has the peninsula under Ukrainian control.

OpenStreetMap has the label "Autonomous Republic of Crimea" in Ukrainian and "Republic of Crimea" in Russia thus acknowledging both sides.

Click to enlarge to see both labels.

Meanwhile the American online mapping giants Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo all have the Crimea under Ukrainian control.

First Ukrainian Solider Killed Was a Geographer

Rest in Peace.

The first Ukrainian solider killed by Russian solider was a cartographer/geographer.  His death was either a war crime, as the Ukrainian prime minister stated, or, if there is no war as Russia claims, he was murdered.

Crimea Declares Independence, Set to Join Russia

The authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have declared independence as the Republic of Crimea and seek admittance into the Russian Federation.  So far Russia only recognizes this independence and this is likely a mere formality in the process to annex the Crimea (which is likely to include the Republic of Crimea and small towns already occupied by Russian-aligned on the peninsula in Kherson oblast, Ukraine). It is unlikely any other country will recognize the Republic of Crimea unless Putin's efforts to annex it are stalled.

So far the big three of online mapping: Google, Bing, and OpenStreetMap have not recognized the change.  None of the Russian map services I know of show the change yet, either. Like South Sudan this blog will monitor for any changes.

Changing European borders also give the excuse to show the Last Express closing credits.  If you have not played the game on PC ($5.99 on GOG) it is now available for iOS and Android.  I strongly recommend it.

Follow-up to the Crowd Sourced Effort to Find Malaysia Flight MH370

Last week we posted about the call for people to be imagery interpretation geographers to help find Malaysia Flight MH370.  Now iRevolution's Patrick Meier, one of the world's leader concerning crowdsourced geospatial data, has an update video on the effort.



Meanwhile the effort has expanded to the Indian Ocean and possible islands where the plan could have landed.