World Globes - They Still Make Geography Fun

Author: Jesse Akre

Once upon a time people thought the world was actually flat and if you got to the end you would fall off. Then in the Middle Ages a globe was made depicting the world as round. People marveled at the thought of our world being spherical and a passion for exploring was born. Now world globes can be seen in class rooms, office buildings and homes and they are still capturing the imagination of all those who gaze upon them.

Spin one around and learn where exactly Iraq is or where Switzerland the country of your ancestors is located or just where exactly your South American cruise is going. No matter where you are going you'll be able to find a globe that suits your needs and your style.

Choose from world globes for the desk or the floor, globes that illuminate showing both a political and physical map of the world and many others. Sure you could go to your local discount stores or department store and buy a globe off of the shelf, but why not get one that is truly a conversation piece or a work of art? By shopping online from the comfort of your home or office you can find the largest selection of world globes at the most reasonable prices.

Maybe you want a gemstone globe that will make any room sparkle with its more than 25 different semi-precious stones that are individually hand-cut and hand-shaped to represent each country? Or maybe some globe bookends to hold your collection of antique atlases? You'll even find globe clocks, acrylic globes that can double as planters or candy dishes and globe and executive pen sets. From floor globes on stands of dark wood or metal to desk globes that show day and nighttime for any time, date, and location in the world throughout the four seasons as well as pinpointing the actual location of the sun throughout the year.

Besides being a great accent piece in any room, world globes also increase our knowledge of geography which is sadly lacking by many Americans. In fact according to a National Geographic Society survey of 18-24 year olds twenty percent think Sudan is in Asia and 37% can't find Iraq. And most of them don't think it is important to know where world events are taking place. By giving your child a globe at a young age and encouraging their wonder and exploration of the world these bad attitudes and lack of knowledge can be prevented.

So whether you choose a desk world globe or a floor world globe you'll be inspired to care about our planet and explore it with the wanderlust of the old days. There is always something new to discover when you gaze upon your globe and ponder what it is like in the locale you are pointing at. It is a small world after all and world globes encourage you to learn more about this earth and explore its exotic locales every day.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-improvement-articles/world-globes-they-still-make-geography-fun-265508.html

About the Author:
Jesse Akre offers online consumers advice when purchasing lovely world globes, earth globe, and Replogle globe.

Longest Rivers in the World

Well, here's another list - this time related to the natural environment. This is a list of the longest rivers in the world. However, you'll quickly note that rivers aren't only important to the natural environment. They may be viewed as the arteries and lifelines of continents. Rivers not only drain large areas of land, but they also allow for human use by allowing transportation and the movement of people, resources, and goods across continents. Rivers also grant shipping access to and from the world's oceans. As you can see, rivers are an important environmental feature for many reasons. In this listing, I list the River name, length in miles and kilometers, and the body of water for the river's outflow. So, here is the list of the world's longest and most important rivers.

The River Nile at Aswan, Egypt

1. Nile, 4135 mi, 6650 km, Mediterranean Sea
2. Amazon, 3980 mi, 6400 km, Atlantic Ocean
3. Yangtze (Chiang Jiang), 3917 mi, 6300 km, East China Sea
4. Mississippi/Missouri, 3902 mi, 6275 km, Gulf of Mexico
5. Yenisei/Angara/Selenga, 3445 mi, 5539 km, Kara Sea
6. Yellow (Huang He), 3398 mi, 5464 km, Bohai Sea
7. Ob/Irtysh, 3364 mi, 5410 km, Gulf of Ob
8. Congo/Chambeshi, 2922 mi, 4700 km, Atlantic Ocean
9. Amur/Argun, 2763 mi, 4444 km, Sea of Okhotsk
10. Lena, 2736 mi, 4400 km, Laptev Sea
11. Mekong, 2705 mi, 4350 km, South China Sea
12. Mackenzie/Peace/Finlay, 2637 mi, 4241 km, Beaufort Sea
13. Niger, 2611 mi, 4200 km, Gulf of Guinea
14. Parana (Rio de la Plata), 2486 mi, 3998 km, Atlantic Ocean
15. Volga, 2266 mi, 3645 km, Caspian Sea

Amazon River Landscape, South America

Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), People's Republic of China

For a much longer and more detailed listing of the longest rivers in the world, see this article:
List of Rivers by Length

The Ten Big Questions in Geography

This is from an article I previously wrote for another website - "How to Know the Big Questions in Geography" - found at:
How to Know the Big Questions in Geography

An article appearing in the August 2002 issue of the academic journal "Professional Geographer" by Cutter, Golledge, and Graf, discusses ten big questions that scholars and researchers working in the field of geography should be addressing through their research endeavors. The questions were in response to a challenge by a science correspondent for the New York Times, John Noble Wilford. Cutter, Golledge, and Graf (2002) respond to Wilford's challenge by articulating these ten big questions in geography research. The ten questions indeed carry with them important societal implications and they are broad enough so that most geographic scholarly research can fit within one of their frameworks. These questions are meant to encourage geographic research that would generate public interest, media attention, as well as the respect of policy makers. This article presents the ten big questions in geography.

Geography Big Question #1: What makes places and landscapes different from one another, and why is this important?

Geography Big Question #2: Is there a deeply held human need to organize space by creating arbitrary borders, boundaries, and districts?

Geography Big Question #3: How do we delineate space?

Geography Big Question #4: Why do people, resources, and ideas move?

Geography Big Question #5: How has the earth been transformed by human action?

Geography Big Question #6: What role will virtual systems play in learning about the world?

Geography Big Question #7: How do we measure the unmeasurable?

Geography Big Question #8: What role has geographical skill played in the evolution of human civilization, and what role can it play in predicting the future?

Geography Big Question #9: How and why do sustainability and vulnerability change from place to place and over time?

Geography Big Question #10: What is the nature of spatial thinking, reasoning, and abilities?

The ten big questions in geography originally appeared in the following academic paper: Cutter, Susan L., Reginald Golledge, and William L. Graf. 2002. "The Ten Big Questions in Geography." Professional Geographer (August 2002): pages 305-317.

Original article by Paul McDaniel may be found here:
How to Know the Big Questions in Geography

World's Busiest International Airports

Airports are a place of exciting fascination for many geographers. They are places representing many ideas of geography all in one: the wonders of aviation and air travel, international and domestic travel, globalization, global interconnectedness, transportation and tourism geography, and they are also interesting to geographers who study human impact on the landscape. Airports are somewhat like mini-cities. At any rate, here is a list of the top thirty busiest airports in the world in 2007 by passenger traffic. For each entry, I list the name of the airport, the city, state, and country, the number of passengers passing through the airport in 2007, and the airline that operates a major hub at that particular airport:

Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

1. Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, Georgia, USA - 89,379,287 - Delta Airlines, Air Tran Airways
2. O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, Illinois, USA - 76,159,324 - United Airlines, American Airlines
3. London Heathrow Airport (LHR), London, England, UK - 68,068,554 - British Airways, BMI, Virgin Atlantic
4. Tokyo-Haneda International Airport (HND), Tokyo, Japan - 66,671,435 - Japan Air Lines, All Nippon Airways
5. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, California, USA - 61,895,548 - Delta Airlines, United Airlines
6. Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG), near Paris, France - 59,919,383 - Air France
7. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, USA - 59,784,876 - American Airlines
8. Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Frankfurt am Main, Germany - 54,161,856 - Lufthansa
9. Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), Chaoyang, Beijing, People's Republic of China - 53,736,923 - Air China, China Southern Airlines
10. Madrid Barajas International Airport (MAD), Barajas, Madrid, Spain - 52,122,214 - Iberia
11. Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, Colorado, USA - 49,863,389 - United Airlines, Frontier Airlines
12. John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Queens, New York City, USA - 47,810,630 - Delta Airlines, Jet Blue Airways, American Airlines
13. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS), The Netherlands - 47,793,602 - KLM/Royal Dutch Airlines, Northwest Airlines
14. McCarran International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA - 47,595,140 - U.S. Airways, Southwest Airlines
15. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China - 46,995,000 - Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air
16. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas, USA - 42,978,617 - Continental Airlines
17. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 42,197,080 - U.S. Airways, Southwest Airlines
18. Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), Bangkok, Thailand - 41,210,081 - Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Orient Thai Airlines
19. Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), Changi, Singapore - 36,701,556 - Singapore Airlines
20. Orlando International Airport (MCO), Orlando, Florida, USA - 36,480,416 - Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines
21. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, New Jersey, USA - 36,391,911 - Continental Airlines
22. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Romulus, Michigan, USA - 36,126,555 - Northwest Airlines
23. San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Mateo County, California, USA - 35,793,117 - United Airlines
24. Tokyo-Narita International Airport (NRT), Narita, Chiba, Japan - 35,530,035 - Japan Air Lines, All Nippon Airways, Northwest Airlines
25. London Gatwick Airport (LGW), Crawley, England, UK - 35,218,399 - British Airways
26. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), Fort Snelling, Minnesota, USA - 35,160,505 - Northwest Airlines
27. Dubai International Airport (DXB), Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 34,348,110 - Emirates
28. Munich-Franz Josef Strauss Airport (MUN), Munich, Bavaria, Germany - 33,959,422 - Lufthansa
29. Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, Florida, USA - 33,740,416 - American Airlines
30. Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA - 33,383,812 - U.S. Airways

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Dallas, Texas, USA

GeoManiaWorld Updates

Check out the latest updates and modification to the GeoManiaWorld - Geography Trivia Games and Map Quizzes website:
GeoManiaWorld - Geography Trivia Games and Map Quizzes

There is a now a random geo fact that changes with each browser refresh, and there are more links to more cool sites with free online geography games! Check it out!

Also, check back in with the blog soon as I will get back to updating it more often (I've been out of town a good bit over the past couple of weeks).

Largest Cities in the World

One thing I would like to do in this blog is to occasionally post and comment on themed lists of various items related to world geography. So, to start things off in this post, the first of a series of "list" posts, I would like to list and discuss the largest cities in the world. But, when forming such a list, particularly pertaining to a geographic feature such as a city, one must ask what criteria will we take into account when classifying cities on the list. Do we just count the city itself (the city proper), the urbanized area, or the metropolitan area? Or perhaps we should form a separate list for each of those items. Various cities would most likely then appear at different points on the list. But for this post, I will list the twenty largest metropolitan areas by population (I also may come back to the post and add more lists based on different criteria as well). So, without further adieu, here we go:

Tokyo, Japan, with Mt. Fuji

Earth's twenty largest metropolitan areas by population (based on 2003 population data):
1. Tokyo, Japan - 32,450,000
2. Seoul, South Korea - 20,550,000
3. Mexico City, Mexico - 20,450,000
4. New York City, United States - 19,750,000
5. Mumbai (Bombay), India - 19,200,000
6. Jakarta, Indonesia - 18,900,000
7. Sao Paulo, Brazil - 18,850,000
8. Delhi, India - 18,600,000
9. Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Japan - 17,375,000
10. Shanghai, China - 16,650,000
11. Metro Manila, Philippines - 16,300,000
12. Hong Kong/Shenzhen, China - 15,800,000
13. Los Angeles, United States - 15,250,000
14. Kolkata (Calcutta), India - 15,100,000
15. Moscow, Russia - 15,000,000
16. Cairo, Egypt - 14,450,000
17. Buenos Aires, Argentina - 13,170,000
18. London, United Kingdom - 12,875,000
19. Beijing, China - 12,500,000
20. Karachi, Pakistan - 11,800,000

Sao Paulo, Brazil

GeoManiaWorld - Geo Games and Trivia Resources

Don't forget to check out all the cool geography trivia and map game resources located at the other GeoManiaWorld site:
GeoManiaWorld - Geography Trivia Games and Map Quizzes

Start building or strengthening your geographic literacy and geographic knowledge. And have fun all at the same time!