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from the but-you-still-can't-get-there-from-here dept.
Geographers from Dartmouth College and the University of Sheffield provide new insight into the economic geography of commuter megaregions in the U.S., by using an empirical approach that combines visual interpretation with statistical analysis. The findings appear in PLOS One and shed light on an old geographic problem: how to divide space into coherent unit areas.
These emerging "megaregions" reflect the economic links woven by millions of commuters traveling to and from work each day. They map out complex networks in which economic systems, natural resources and infrastructure are linked. Understanding the way functional geographic connections cross over the existing borderlines of states and regions is vital for developing institutional forms that match the patterns of the contemporary world.
"We know just how interconnected people are across vast distances in the modern economy—that's one of the basic principles of globalization," says co-author Garrett Dash Nelson, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Geography and the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College. "But we still need bounded areal units for things like regional administration and transportation planning. Our paper offers a new way of thinking about how these economic flows and megaregional boundaries are related."
They also have an AMA (Ask Me Anything) about their research on reddit.
An Economic Geography of the United States: From Commutes to Megaregions, PLOS ONE (2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166083
Also at National Geographic and The Daily Mail, among others.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 13 2017, @01:42PM
I've been reading a lot of archaeological works lately about pre-contact cultures in America. Before the introduction of maize from Mesoamerica people did quite fine with permaculture/food forests, and even supported complex societies (Hopewell & Adena cultures). I looked through the list of commonly eaten plants and was amazed how many I recognized. Cattails and sumac I knew about but pretty much every other variety grows wild, as weeds, in Prospect Park up the hill from me: knotweed, sumpweed, milkweed, arrowhead/sagittaria/duck potatoes, pokeweed, butternut, hickory nuts, hawthorne, elderberry, chenopodium/lamb's quarters, beach plums, jerusalem artichoke, pond lily, ground nut, maygrass, amaranth, fiddlehead fern, queen anne's lace, walnut, wild grape, salmonberries, wild garlic/onion, white oak, ragweed (yes, people ate the seeds), burdock, and many more.
Ironically if people who've fallen on hard times knew about those edibles they'd be better nourished than the ones laying down big bucks for organic items at the local grocery store. I haven't tried most of the entries on the list above but if sumac and cattails are any indication they probably taste better than the bland, over-bioengineered commercial produce, too.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @01:53PM
mod parent up as both informative and insightful!!!