Brian McClendon (the creator of Google Earth) demonstrates how people have used Google Earth to visualize data. In this case, he's showing how one researcher has plotted the spread of the h5n1 flu virus the past few years.

He was part of a panel discussion entitled "World Hot Spots: What Google Earth and Geography Tell Us About War, Peace, and Politics" that took place at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. It was an informative and illuminating discussion.

The gist is that we've had some alarmingly ignorant leaders over the past 50 years who do not know much about the geography and geopolitics of the areas they've gotten us involved in and there has been a serious decline (due to the elimination in many schools of the subject) in geography education in the US over the years.

doleinstitute.org
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