Lab 1; Due 10/5/10

This map was uploaded from http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/images/maps/CURRENT_RANGE.jpg, which is a US Fish and Wildlife Service site. It portrays current gray wolf populations in the United States; the blue areas are where Alaskan gray wolf roams, and the tan areas are where the Mexican gray wolf roams. This map is interesting for a number of reasons, one being that it allows us to see how successful wolf recovery has been in the US since the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone in  the early 1990's. (Prior to this reintroduction, wolves were almost extinct in America due to over-hunting and habitat destruction.) Now wolf populations are large enough in some states to sustain legal wolf hunts. This map chronicles one of the most successful wildlife reintroduction stories to date.

This map was uploaded from http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~nazang/HIV_AIDS_image004.jpg, which is a Cameroon sponsored site for "living and learning". It shows the distribution of AIDS throughout the world, with progressively darkening colors measuring progressively larger percentages of the AIDS virus in each country. This map is interesting because it displays (one of) the largest health issues we face today--one that kills millions of people annually. What's interesting is that Africa, which is classically the place we think of when we think of the AIDS epidemic, is only one color level above the United States. It's easy for us to place our focus on Africa, easy for us to forget that we have a very pertinent AIDS crisis here in the United States. This map shows us that the epidemic is everywhere, and that it often transcends poverty stricken or less-educated populations. It's everyone's problem.

This map was uploaded from http://www.zook.info/Wal-Mart/Figure2-2-US-distribution-by-store-type.jpg, a website which holds selected maps created by geography professors from the University of Kentucky. It shows the distribution of Wal-Marts (and Wal-Mart Supercenters) across the United States. It also includes neighborhood markets and Sam's Clubs, which allows for the contrasting of such shopping institutions to Wal-Mart. What's obvious is that Wal-Mart is taking over, which in turn tells us that many small mom-and-pop type operations are going out of business. Also, the concentration of Wal-Marts can tell us something about the social structure of a place, such as it's income level and/or population density.