#Geography knowledge

[superstrijder00]

For @seraphimnoted's information, this is why you want to know some basic facts about these places:

It is often relevant to know at least kind of how wealthy a place is because this affects what resources they have to devote to a crisis, vs. how much help they will need from other countries, especially in the case of natural disasters.

It is often relevant to know vaguely what size and population a country has, these often correlate but a shorthand of "roughly the size of this state/country I know well, and a high/mid/low population density" is usually enough. Again gives you info on what size a situation we're dealing with.

In case of more small stories focused on diplomacy and leadership, it can be relevant to know vaguely what kind of things it could be into politically. It can be relevant to know a country is in the Middle East, for example, because that implies things about political tensions, or implies there are lots of Muslims. It would also be useful to know where it is on the scale of "full democracy" to "full dictatorship"

If someone says "I'm from [country]" you can at least think of the right continent

Now lets see if I can answer those questions for Ohio, Nebraska and Montana:

Ohio is a medium sized state in the US. IIRC it is in the midwest, which means it is of medium density and thus probably similar to say austria in terms of size and population. Though I've heard it has lots of corn so probably less population. Things influencing all of Ohio are big, but not huge. If it is currently corn growing season that may be an issue for the wider region? Ohio is part of the USA, the richest country on the planet, and so will not be asking money from anywhere on my continent for any natural disaster. They are likely to get into issues over the leadership of the USA, and their region is a mostly free democracy, though many states nearby are sliding backwards at the moment.

Nebraska is IIRC larger but further southwest and less populated. Issues facing all of Nebraska are pretty big probably? Nebraska is part of the USA, the richest country on the planet, and so will not be asking money from anywhere on my continent for any natural disaster. They are likely to get into issues over the leadership of the USA, and their region is a mostly free democracy, though many states nearby are sliding backwards at the moment.

Montana is a state whose size I don't know, but it is absolutely empty of people. I'm going to guess size of France, population of less than Luxembourg. Issues facing everyone in Montana are big in area, but small in impact on the amount of people. Montana is part of the USA, the richest country on the planet, and so will not be asking money from anywhere on my continent for any natural disaster. They are likely to get into issues over the leadership of the USA, and their region is a mostly free democracy, though many states nearby are sliding backwards at the moment.

How did I do?

Ohio is a midwestern state with 11 million people to Austria's 9 million, and 116k km2 vs 84k km2. "Ohio Corn" results in a bunch of search results about what things Ohio Corn is used for, though it influences population less than I estimated.

Nebraska is indeed larger and emptier. It is less of a desert that I thought but apart from that I was on the money.

Montana has 1 million people, Luxembourg has 600k, so I quite underestimated it there, but with 3 times the size of Ohio my estimate of "it's large and empty" is probably accurate.

The fact the USA dominates online discourse and a lot of my local media means I know a lot about the general region all these states are in. I also happen to know all states that aren't Alaska or Hawai'i are on the same area in North America so I have "which continent do you come from" down too! Yay!

i think that, if youre usamerican and any time someone calls out your lack of knowledge on global geography you start talking about how bad the usa education is and how its actually not your fault that you dont know what continent nigeria is on because you cant look at the google maps bc donald trump will personally shoot you, youre very annoying

[pien-art]

sorry cant draw im obsessively playing geography games

[downtroddendeity]

@garaged0g sorry to put you on blast, I just wanted to spare my dash any more pain, but: they're not mutually exclusive! Pennsylvania is classic Rust Belt, and a good chunk of it is Appalachia. Appalachian coal fed the Pittsburgh steel industry, and some of that came up the Monongahela and Cheat rivers from WV, but there were plenty of mines in Pennsylvania shipping up the Youghiogheny too. In my opinion there's a pretty good argument to be made for including at least a good bit of northern WV in the Rust Belt; as far as I know almost every mine in the northern half of the state has closed down by now, in part because of the collapse of those industries.

(The dynamics are a little different in other parts of the state, though NitW is definitely still very relevant to them, just like it's relevant to the Midwestern parts of the Rust Belt. Southern WV still has a coal industry, but machinery and a shift to mountaintop-removal have both massively reduced the manpower needed to do it, resulting in job loss. The Green Bank area is actually much more of a tourist economy, because it's near Snowshoe Resort and any number of camping areas in the Monongahela State Forest- they've got a little museum and a cafe at the observatory, even. I went there once as a kid, it was pretty cool.)

Possum Springs is pretty easy to place in the greater Pittsburgh area because all the football guys are rooting for the "Smelters," which is a pun on the Steelers. A lot of northern WV is unlikely because WVU is in Morgantown and is a pretty big school; Bea wouldn't have to drive for an hour and a half to get to a good party if she lived in, like, Grafton. As I mentioned in a couple of places, I'd personally guess Possum Springs is somewhere around here:

I don't think Possum Springs is entirely any one town, but the details of the labor history are probably inspired by the Mammoth Mine disaster (109 miners killed by a firedamp explosion in 1891, many of them actually dying of suffocation rather than the explosion itself) and the Morewood Massacre (mine owners called in the National Guard against striking UMWA miners 3 months after the explosion, who fired into the crowd and killed 9 people), which happened in the Mt. Pleasant area. It's also notable that a lot of those miners were Eastern European immigrants- Mae's surname is Polish, she talks about "the old country," and one of the Possum Springs local institutions is a pierogi stand. Those mines were also owned by Frick and Carnegie, and as I was joking about in the post, it was kind of Carnegie's thing that late in life he started spending a lot of his robber-baron blood money on funding libraries, colleges, and museums, which I guess isn't THE worst thing to do with blood money even if it is still blood money.

Mt. Pleasant isn't on a river, but Connellsville and some of the smaller nearby towns are on the Youghiogheny, which loves to flood every few years even after the Army Corps of Engineers dammed it. There's a railroad line that goes through Mt. Pleasant to a junction at Connellsville, and there are several state forests and areas reserved for game hunting nearby.

So yeah, that's my guess! Possum Springs is probably around Westmoreland and Fayette Counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

[st-just]

People shit-talk the public education system for numerous reasons of often extreme validity, but imo more people could do with getting handed a blank map of some region and an atlas and being told to label everything and note all the capitals every month of middle school.

[siratonin]

Soooo... i just found out that New York isn't a city....

[lelouch]

its so crazy ppl from other countries On Line have to learn english and american terminology and geography and politics but some americans will get sooo pissed off when you tell them it would be better if they learned from other countries too? insane

[stone-cold-groove]

Neither here nor there.

[countingstars-17]

Max placed correctly all the landmarks in 30 seconds (out of 90 available). My geography king!

[fishparasite]

friend groups are so funny i feel like the stupidest person in the world in one and in another i'm considered smart for knowing the phrase al dente

[jackklinemybeloved]

I feel like Lumon has very strange priorities when it comes to separating the innie/outie’s knowledge. I don’t know if it’s intentional or just for plot convenience, but it would be very funny if it’s an intentional commentary on what a dystopian U.S. (maybe white nationalist?) company would prioritize.

like yes you know what a U.S. state is and can name one. you know how to drive a car and can use a camcorder. you can know what a continent is because the U.S. is in one of those, but why the fuck would you need to know what the Equator is.

[reality-detective]

Iceland was named Iceland so people would travel to Greenland which is actually ice land. But what do I know? 🤔

[juniedahmed]

Continental Shields

A continental shield is a stable, ancient, and large area of the Earth's crust made up of Precambrian crystalline rocks. These shields are found in the cores of continents and are part of the stable portions of continents called cratons. They are known for their low relief and extensive exposure of basement rocks at the surface.

Key characteristics of continental shields:

Age:

Continental shields are among the oldest rocks preserved in the Earth's crust, dating back to the Precambrian Era (540 million years ago or older). Some shields are as old as 2 to 3 billion years.

Stability:

They are very stable areas, meaning they have experienced little tectonic deformation.

Location:

They are found in the cores of continents and are often covered by younger sedimentary rocks.

Composition:

They are typically composed of crystalline rocks, including granite, gneiss, and other metamorphic and igneous rocks.

Surface:

The surface of continental shields is generally low-lying and relatively flat, with erosion having shaped the landforms.

Examples of Continental Shields:

Canadian Shield: Extends from Lake Superior to the Arctic Islands and across much of eastern Canada.

Amazonian Shield: Found in the eastern bulge of South America.

Indian Shield: Located in the Indian subcontinent.

West African Shield: Found in West Africa.

Formation:

Shields are formed through processes associated with the accretion of continental crust, which involved the merging of smaller crustal blocks (tectonic plates) over geological time. Plate tectonics, erosion, and glaciations also play a role in shaping the shields over time.

#Earth #science #physics #geography #geology #everyoneシ゚ #spacescience #academy #education #knowledge #learning #sea #university #college #school #information #ocean #mountains #earth #earthquake #Info #Informative #books #knowledgeispower #like #news #BreakingNews #earthscience #un #world #usa #uk #russia #canada #wildlife #wild #astrology

[bioluminescencia]

Pantheon and the moon

Rome, Italy

January, 2023

@bioluminescencia

[hold-fast-and-rise]

[tuttle-did-it]

Is Crabapple Cove, Maine next to Cabot Cove, Maine?

[lbhslefttiddie]

my teacher for weather and climate gave us a main textbook which is the one we reference and need to read throughout the course and then three EXTRA optional textbooks for supplemental learning, with varying levels of technicality for those interested, and in the links she provided every single one was available online for free (in the creative commons sense, not the piracy sense, since obv that could get a teacher in trouble) and i could kiss her on the mouth