Kerala trip May 2007

 

 

 

 

Matt Rosenberg

Goodbye Dear Atlas

By Matt Rosenberg, About.com

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Jul 21 2008

When I stated operating this site in 1997, the most common question I received was related to locating a place on the planet. I would receive questions about how to find a map of a place or how to simply find where a place was located. Occasionally I was asked to clarify the spelling of a place name or to provide its latitude and longitude.

Back then, the best international maps on the Internet were from the Perry-Castaneda Library; they scanned in public domain CIA maps and made them available online. It was a wonderful collection - it was an online atlas of fairly detailed maps for every country on earth.

Other sites tried to provide geographic data, too. Remember Terraserver? That was cutting-edge technology, providing satellite images for some places in the United States! (You might enjoy a blast to the past by looking at my Best of the Net Awards for 1998)

Back in 1997 I utilized my Times Atlas of the World and my well-worn Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary on a daily basis to help people find places or information about places. I received at least one inquiry a day.

Today, site like Google Maps and software like Google Earth have changed the way we find geographic information online. I can't remember the last time someone emailed me asking for help finding a place. I expect that these people today simply search for the place name themselves. Maybe they start with Google and if the place name was spelled incorrectly, Google provides them with the correct spelling. The search results provide them with a map, images, and an extensive Wikipedia article about the place in question.

If they need more information about a place, they can launch the free Google Earth software and look at the terrain and buildings of the place they're looking for and view a plethora of user-submitted content.

Today, I only use my atlas or my geographical dictionary when I'm writing a Geography Quiz. I fully admit that I also use Google, Google Maps, and sometimes Google Earth to find out about a place.

I remember that when I traveled to Eastern Europe in the late 1990s, my best source for information was still the printed guidebook published (but ordered, of course, via Amazon.com). However, When I was getting ready for my trip to Ghana last January, I browsed an incredible number of photos of Google Earth. I never even needed to so a search for the towns I was visiting because the Wikipedia article and other content I wanted to read about Ghana was hyperlinked directly from Google Earth.

But, through my online travels of Ghana before I left, I had such a good sense as to what I would be seeing when I arrived that nothing was really much of a surprise. My trip in the 90s to Eastern Europe was all new and exciting. But, when I went to Ghana and even to the village of 250 people, it was exactly what I expected from photos someone had posted online. In some respects it took some of the adventure out of my trip, knowing that others had been there before me with their digital cameras, capturing the same things I was seeing. Has the fun and novelty of travel to distant points evaporated or do I need to refrain from searching online about the place I am going to visit? Should I simply stick to the travel guide with its handful of color photos of the key tourist sites? Maybe too much information is a bad thing. I'd love to read your thoughts!

I miss using my atlas and geographical dictionary on a daily basis but I love being able to access such rich and detailed geographic information online.

Suggested Reading

Waterproof Shoes in L.A.You Can't Send Soap to ParaguayGeography 101

History of Geography

• Ferdinand Magellan
• Alexander von Humboldt
• Amerigo Vespucci
• Captain James Cook
• Carl Ritter

Guide since 1997

Matt Rosenberg
Geography Guide

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Rajdeep Sardesai’s blog and Google services

Saw a blog maintained by Rajdeep Sardesai - he started it in 2005 after launching CNN-IBN his new channel. He has regularly contributed since then - two or three articles a month. All articles have received 400 plus comments. This indicates that the series is well read by the public. I got a clearcut idea of maintaining a blog.

 

Google has many facilities on their site. Once you open an account you get an email address, start a blog at the blogger, commence a group or participate in an existing group, maintain a schedule with the help of a calendar, save and edit documents, others can be invited to edit simultaneously, have the picasa software to process your images, uploading and downloading images in various pixels and formats has become easy, one can also post photos online. The pack has some cool gadgets to use on your desktop. The reader (RSS reader) provides you with news updates besides the separate Google news service. Recently I discovered that they also provide you with a web site building facility that too without any advertisement. I had earlier tried Geocities by Yahoo and Tripod. They provide free web hosting service but the space is less as compared to Google's 100 mb and the site or page is always cluttered by advertisings. On the contrary Google's website building facility is superb, you ie the owner can easily attach files to be downloaded by other collaborators or viewers. Pages can be added and a database can be maintained - all this is free and working and that too in the capitalist world of fierce competition.

Some interesting quotes

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable - Martin Luther King 

You can analyse the past but you have to design the future - If you do not design the future someone or something else will design it for you - Edward de Bono

Definition of Politics and Basic features of Indian constitution

1/7/2008

FYBA

The study of politics:

Definitions and nature

What is politics?

• process of decision making
  
• limited means and unlimited wants
  
• conflict is inevitable
  
• Violence is the only option
  
• Civilised societies – man is a social animal
  
• Groups – tribes – families – marriage – social – economic- political institutions- democratic politics-monarchies-dictators-military rule etc.
  
• Study of state
  

What is a state?

• Four essential elements – Territory, Population, Government, Sovereignty
  
• State has the ultimate powers – State is most powerful
  

What is a government?

• Government – to govern – three organs – legislature executive judiciary
  
• Functional division – to make, implement and interprete law
  
• Different types and forms of government
  

The input-output-feedback model

 

Scope

All inclusive

1. State
   
2. Political parties
   
3. Government
   
4. Pressure groups
   
5. Institutions
   
6. International relations
   
7. Political thought
   
8. Theory
   
9. Comparative governments
   
10. Political economy
    
11. Political Sociology
    
12. Political Geography
    

Approaches – Normative and Empirical

What is a social science?

• Study of society – human beings and their interrelationship – History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology etc.
  

What is a society?

• A web of relationship between individuals, groups, institutions
  

Normative approach

• Before 1950
  
• Eurocentric
  
• Influenced by Philosophy, History
  
• Influenced by values, ideals
  
• Formal
  

Empirical approach

1. After 1950 – dominated by US political scientists – behavioural - वर्तनवाद
   
2. World wide studies – particularly third world studies
   
3. Interdisciplinary approach – Statistics (psephology), Economics, Sociology
   
4. Emphasis on research methodology, data collection
   
5. Value free
   
6. Informal – emphasis on process rather than structure
   

SYBA

INDIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

Indian Constitution

Basic features

1. Longest written constitution in the world
   
2. Borrowed constitution
   
3. Parliamentary system
   
4. Federalism – quasi federal system
   
5. Secularism
   
6. Independent judiciary
   
7. Fundamental rights and duties
   
8. Directive principles
   
9. Amendment procedure
   
10. Preamble
    

 

    
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major issues in contemporary politics – first lecture

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Historical Background

1. The Nation state system
   
   1. The cold war
      
      1. The Afghan conflict – Invasion of USSR – Rise of Taliban – Withdrawal of USSR- End of cold war and the end of Soviet regime. War against USA – The Taliban regime – The Afghan war
         
      2. Defence goods produced in private sector in USA
         
   2. Bipolar-Unipolar and Multipolar world
      
      1. The Communist Vs the Capitalist World
         
      2. The strength of USA – What's USA
         
      3. Multipolar world – Rising powers – India, China, Brazil, European Union, Russia
         
   3. Meaning of nation and state
      
2. Greek city state
   
3. Roman empire
   
4. Feudal state
   
5. The role of the Church
   
6. Renaissance
   
7. National Monarchies
   
8. Liberal Democratic state
   

Chile

South American country

Andes to the east

Pacific to the west

Capital – Santiago

Currency – Peso

Official language – Spanish

Independence – 1810 from Spain

Now a democratic republic

Atacama desert in the northern region

Fertile region in the middle

Volcanoes and lakes in the South

Peru to north, Argentina to west

One of the two countries in south America which do not have a border with Brazil.

Population centered in middle part of the country