This block filled map can be found on Map Muse, http://find.mapmuse.com/interest/amusement-parks, which is a website that list all of amusement parks in North America and the islands as well as rides that can be found at each theme park.The map is just a basic map of North America that be seen on Google Earth and other basic GPS/mapping services, each amusement park is identified by red boxes; a few overlap so its difficult to count the number of parks but the total number of parks is 1,040. There are a few points I find interesting about this map. First, America is a powerhouse for amusement parks having at least 80% of the total theme parks. This illustrates that entertainment and theme parks are a large aspect of American social life and can be enjoyed in almost every state. Another point that's interesting is how the smaller northeastern states are cluttered with amusement parks but larger states in the mid west have few or no theme parks for miles. I would assume larger mid-western states--with the thousands of acres of free land--would utilize their space to build a theme park which could lead to another source of income for the state other than farming. Notice how the states and regions dense with amusement parks are wealthy states such as California. Lastly, I think it is shocking that so many poor countries such as the Atlantic islands as well as Mexico have amusement parks but they are infamous for poverty and harsh living conditions. My question is who are these amusement parks really for ? Possibly, the wealthy tourist that come from a country (America) that already has a plethora of theme parks from coast to coast. This speaks volumes of how America's standards and wealth has such a potent influence over North America and neighboring countries.
Here is another map of the United States but this one is about cities for college students. This map can be found on Any College, http://www.anycollege.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/12/1/Top-75-Cities-for-College-Students, the website is a blog website that discusses colleges. The map was originally created by AIER, American Institute for Economic Research. As previously stated, the map is the United States of America and is split into its four regions as labeled on the map. The map includes smaller regions in certain states that convey college cities from major metropolitan cities to small college towns. This is map is very interesting for a few reasons and raises a few questions about our country. As you may have expected the best college cities happen to be in either California or the North Eastern coast. In addition, the location of great college cities correlates where there is an abundance of affluent individuals. Although, the map doesn't label every college city in America the majority of colleges that rings bells such as UCLA and Harvard, their cities are included; which makes one wonder if one institution can influence an entire area. What I mean by this is there are multiple colleges in the Los Angeles area however, UCLA and USC are the reasons why LA is considered one of the best college cities. Furthermore, one must ask how do smaller colleges thrive if people see maps such as this one that makes them biases toward one area and ultimately a handful of schools. Also, there are other institutions in America that are in regions that aren't labeled, I wonder if this affects enrollment and makes future college students biased toward certain areas of America? Lastly, why doesn't states such as Montana never have anything going for them?
The is a map about last names I found on Crossing Borders, http://cbbg.brooklynhistory.org/blog/map-surnames-us.This is a very interesting map that portrays the common surnames in America based in a certain region and what names can be found in which area. From just a quick scan you see that the surname Smith is the most common across our nation and can be found in almost every state.
One interesting point is you can correlate ethnicity to region in our country for example, Southern California which is dense with Hispanic nationalities is represented as Garcia and Martinez are very common. Also, this map is intriguing, especially if you are a college student, because if you needed to get a fake id and needed a believable surname or alias then you can use Smith and most likely get away with whatever you are using a fake name for--you never know when you need to give a cop or a creep at a bar a fake name (I am not endorsing doing so it's just an idea). Another interesting point about this map is that although people try to evade biases and stereotypes of southern names, Johnson and Williams is very common surnames in the southern states; assuming someone from the south's surname is Williams isn't too far off the bulls eye.
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