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Learn Constitutional law by playing the iCivics game "Do I Have a Right?" "In Do I Have a Right? you can run your own firm of lawyers who specialize in constitutional law. Decide if potential clients have a right, match them with the best lawyer, and win their case. The more clients you serve and the more cases you win, the faster your law firm grows!" www.icivics.org/games/do-i-have-right
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With so much going on in the world, it might be useful to know where to turn for more in-depth information. Now that "Intelligence Matters" has stopped creating new shows, podcasts I particularly like for world affairs: "The Foreign Affairs Interview" www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview (from Foreign Affairs magazine), "FP Live" foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/foreign-policy-live/ (from Foreign Policy magazine), "Pod Save the World" crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-world/ (from Tommy Vietor and Ben Rhodes, who worked on national security issues during the Obama administration), and, for an economic lens on world affairs, "Ones and Tooze" foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/ones-and-tooze/ (also from Foreign Policy magazine).
If you want to follow the brown bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park during Fat Bear Week -- or check out other nature/wildlife vistas around the world -- Explore.com has dozens of live cams that allow you to partake virtually: explore.org/livecams
National Geographic's Explorer Classroom has returned for 2023-24, with free webinars designed to allow students to hear directly from a wide range of National Geographic explorers. For upcoming events or to register, see www.nationalgeographic.org/tickets/explorer-classroom/
The state of Massachusetts has an interactive site that maps all bear sightings in the state (not counting Boston Bruins) from 2019 to the present: massbears.wordpress.amherst.edu/sightings-map/
This series of maps and images compares current vistas around the world with images predicting how those same vistas might change based on a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures and a 3°C increase in global temperatures: picturing.climatecentral.org/
Novelist and UC Riverside professor of creative writing Susan Straight has created a literary map of America, collaborating with ESRI to locate and label the settings of 1,001 novels that celebrate America, from small towns and city neighborhoods to ranches, bayous, deserts, and frozen tundra. To see the selections and their associated places, see storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/997b82273a12417798362d431897e1dc?item=13
If you are going camping with kids this summer, the National Park Service has a special Junior Ranger program on space technology, which includes a "space tech in your campsite" module: www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/junior_ranger_space_tech_explorer_tagged.pdf
The hot new idea in hydropower is not damming rivers to turn turbines; it is pumped storage or closed-loop hydropower: moving the same water repeatedly between an upper and lower reservoir, depending on electricity demand. Pumped storage does not depend on access to a major river. This website from the International Hydropower Association explains the process and includes an interactive map showing the status of hydropower projects around the world: www.hydropower.org/hydropower-pumped-storage-tool
Looking for a new verbal game? Merriam-Webster offers a variety of free vocabulary-based games, from a four-at-a-time wordle puzzle to farm idioms and famous last lines of literature: www.merriam-webster.com/games
Candida auris is a fungus first discovered in Japan 15 years ago with a human mortality rate of up to 60%. Despite its murky origins -- the only nonhuman reservoir of the fungus has been found in India's remote Andaman Islands -- C. auris has become a global pathogen. This interactive map from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control tracks cases of C. auris: www.cdc.gov/fungal/candida-auris/tracking-c-auris.html  Visit a marshmallow Peeps factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: www.justborn.com/who-we-are/how-our-candy-is-made/
Scientists associated with China's Institute of Oceanology have deployed a long-term ocean observation platform to study cold seeps in the South China Sea. What are cold seeps, you might ask? This useful pair of videos from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains what a cold seep (also known as a methane seep) is, what a hydrothermal vent is, and how they are different: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/seeps-vents.html
Over the next few days and weeks, the number of migrating birds will rise sharply in the U.S. BirdCast is a project of Colorado State and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that produces daily bird migration forecast maps based on 23 years of weather radar data. (Radar picks up bird -- and butterfly! -- migration, which is particularly useful given that many bird species migrate at night.) To check out today's forecast and the forecast for the next two days, see birdcast.info/migration-tools/migration-forecast-maps/
Understanding a place requires so much more than being able to find it on a map. The makers of Worldle and Statele have a new daily game, WhereTaken, that promotes a different kind of geographic literacy by challenging users to identify images associated with various countries: wheretaken.teuteuf.fr/
Practice your logical deduction skills with the old-fashioned code-breaking game Bulls and Cows. The game is like Mastermind except there can be no duplicates: www.mathsisfun.com/games/bulls-and-cows.html
The latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index shows country-by-country data on trends in perceived government corruption: www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022
Not all global issues or leadership choices are political. Many are economic. This podcast from Foreign Policy's economics columnist highlights global economic issues to keep an eye on in 2023: foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/ones-and-tooze/three-economic-stories-to-watch-in-2023/
This interactive map from the Census Bureau shows which U.S. states have the largest proportions of senior citizens (the greener the state, the larger the proportion of the population age 65 or older): www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/population-65-and-older-2021.html
Have a fledgling engineer? Or curious yourself? The EngineerGuy website has loads of free videos explaining the engineering behind everyday items: engineerguy.com/videos.htm
Try this devilishly difficult U.S. geography quiz! On a blank U.S. map, click on where you think the state named is. If you're right, the game continues. If you're wrong, the game ends and you need to start over. (Hint: if you're able to get past about 35%, the going gets easier.) www.sporcle.com/games/mhershfield/us-states-no-outlines-minefield
PhET is a cool site that offers dozens of free online simulations to help students better visualize STEM concepts, courtesy of the University of Colorado Boulder: phet.colorado.edu/
The final Jurassic Park movie may have been disappointing, but venture capital money continues to pour into scientific ventures related to de-extinction and other use of genetic material from extinct creatures. This recording of a webinar sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences provides an excellent look at the complex scientific and philosophical issues surrounding de-extinction: scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/blog/back-from-the-dead-the-difficulties-and-dilemmas-of-de-extinction/
If you're looking for a bit of summer learning fun, Google Earth's Carmen Sandiego game takes students around the world, using clues to solve a crime while seeing some of the world's most iconic landforms and structures in 3D:
earth.google.com/web/data=CiQSIhIgYmU3N2ZmYzU0MTc1MTFlOGFlOGZkMzdkYTU5MmE0MmE I was cleaning out some old papers in my office and came across this rather stunning map I had saved from 2014 showing that, as of 2013, median household income in the U.S. had peaked at least 15 years earlier in 81 percent of U.S. counties. The interactive map at The Washington Post website allows users to mouse over counties for specific data: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/business/income/index.html
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Blog sharing news about geography, philosophy, world affairs, and outside-the-box learning
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