Crop models are useful for evaluating crop growth and yield at the field and regional scales, but their applications and accuracies are restricted by input data availability and quality. To overcome difficulties inherent to crop modeling,... more
Crop models are useful for evaluating crop growth and yield at the field and regional scales, but their applications and accuracies are restricted by input data availability and quality. To overcome difficulties inherent to crop modeling, input data can be enhanced by the incorporation of remotely sensed and field observations into crop growth models. This approach has been recognized to be an important way to monitor crop growth conditions and to predict yield at the field and regional scale. In recent years, satellite remote sensing has provided high-temporal and high-spatial-resolution data that allow for generating continuous time series of biophysical parameters such as vegetation indices, leaf area index, and phenology. The objectives of this study were to use remote sensing along with field observations as inputs to the Decision Support System for Agro-Technology (DSSAT) model to estimate soybean and maize growth and yield. The study used phenology and leaf area index (LAI) d...
The development of the Internet has allowed for many claims about the future of democracy and governance. At one extreme, there are those who see the end of the state coming in the globalized world we inhabit. Others will point to... more
The development of the Internet has allowed for many claims about the future of democracy and governance. At one extreme, there are those who see the end of the state coming in the globalized world we inhabit. Others will point to computer technology and invoke the images of 1984, George Orwell’s futuristic look at a state employing communications technology for control. In this paper, I argue that the Internet is usable by the state as well as individuals and groups to serve its purposes. These efforts will be studied from the framework of the creation of space, particularly concepts of representations of space and representational spaces. The Internet facilitates the creation of images of place that are strategically used to influence perceptions of place. In the case study, I examine Slovenia’s government websites to demonstrate that a state does have a need to control information, to project images that are aimed to induce activities like tourism, investment, diplomacy, and establish an unequivocal state identity. The government sites demonstrate that through the use of symbols, propaganda cartography, carefully worded text, and other iconography, representations of space and representational spaces are created that support the goals of the Slovenian state, which are placed in the context of the country’s position in the system of global capitalism.
Recent legislative efforts to protect credit unions against unfavorable legislation reflect the growing importance of credit unions in the U.S. financial services sector. Efforts to address new technologies, combined with deregulation in... more
Recent legislative efforts to protect credit unions against unfavorable legislation reflect the growing importance of credit unions in the U.S. financial services sector. Efforts to address new technologies, combined with deregulation in financial services, have led changes in the field of membership rules governing how credit unions are chartered and how they may grow. These regulations have clear geographic implications for defining communities and for offering financial services and education to particular segments of the population. This paper briefly reviews the history of credit unions, then examines the Credit Union Membership Access Act of 1998 (CUMAA) and the National Credit Union Administration's (NCUA) interpretation and implementation. A case study of two Florida locales is used to analyze the changes in credit union charters and their expansion in the rapidly changing market. The results point to the possibility that credit union expansion as currently legislated may be an effective way to insure access to financial services.
Keywords:credit union, financial services, community, fields of membership, regulation
The critical geopolitics literature has engaged popular culture and media in many forms, usually focused on mass media or elite-produced niche media. The issue of humor as a form of popular culture with geopolitical content has been... more
The critical geopolitics literature has engaged popular culture and media in many forms, usually focused on mass media or elite-produced niche media. The issue of humor as a form of popular culture with geopolitical content has been explored only recently by geographers. This paper utilizes disposition theory, with its emphasis on social context, to link humor and geopolitical analyses of humor. The analysis of two Jeff Dunham comedy skits centering on the character Achmed the Dead Terrorist demonstrates the utility of disposition theory as a construct to situate humor in the context of its original production and as a fluid, global phenomenon that is shared through various social networks via the Internet.
Key Words: critical geopolitics, disposition theory, humor, popular culture, popular geopolitics.
This article investigates Valley of the Wolves— Iraq as a cinematic text produced and widely consumed in domestic and international cinema markets. By placing a non-Western movie in the analysis of film studies, the authors claim to... more
This article investigates Valley of the Wolves— Iraq as a cinematic text produced and widely consumed in domestic and international cinema markets. By placing a non-Western movie in the analysis of film studies, the authors claim to situate the film in a three-part analysis that has received less attention from other disciplines. First, the film can be situated as a cinematic challenge to the American media representation of the Iraq War and to the Bush administration’s “war on terror” discourse in so-called unstable regions. In addition, Valley of the Wolves—Iraq attempts to negotiate and contest the meaning and the depiction of the war discourse in Iraq brought to bear by American popular, practical, and formal geopoliticians by reproducing the cinematic space and retelling stories of the war from the “other” vantage point. Second, the film in its own right can be located as a cultural product that attempts to consolidate the geopolitical imaginations of Turkey in the Middle East and the world. Third, this study aims to formalize audience interpretation of such political entertainment using empirical techniques. In this context, the critical question is how and to what extent this film plays a representational role within Turkish society and how it affects audiences’ geopolitical perceptions.
While there exists a sizable literature on the intersections of gender and nationalism, most of this work has focused on extant nation-states. Nascent nation-states also seek to forge explicit linkages between nationality and gender. In... more
While there exists a sizable literature on the intersections of gender and nationalism, most of this work has focused on extant nation-states. Nascent nation-states also seek to forge explicit linkages between nationality and gender. In the case study presented here, Kurdistan, we focus on the use of gendered imagery to both support and attack the idea of an independent Kurdistan and its ethnic leaders. The images and text analyzed are taken from an archive of Kurdistan-related Facebook sites that were archived during the summer of 2010. We provide a critical reading of the data to show the forms of gendered images deployed in this discursive struggle. Additionally, we demonstrate the necessity of examining social-networking sites such as Facebook to understand the gendered processes of a nation building in a world where visual symbols and electronic media are becoming ever more dominant in societies.
Keywords: gender, nation, Facebook, social networking sites, Kurdistan
The Wilsonian ideal of national self-determination has been a powerful idea driving the reconfiguration of borders and states for the past century. This paper examines one form of discourse vital to the formation of national identities... more
The Wilsonian ideal of national self-determination has been a powerful idea driving the reconfiguration of borders and states for the past century. This paper examines one form of discourse vital to the formation of national identities and the forms these identities take on the social networking platform of Facebook. As Facebook is used to articulate the activities of various interest groups, it stands to reason that national aspirations are also articulated as part of the nation-building process. The paper engages the literature of several disciplines to determine the role of electronic media and social networking sites in particular, to explore what forms of media identity are relevant to nation-building in stateless situations. Furthermore, the research will concentrate on how Facebook sites are used to create an image of states and nations, and the problems associated with such images of virtual states, including their creation and consumption. The data gathered will be used to compare and contrast stateless sites across several variables, including use of images and maps to articulate borders and homelands, the types of discourse, the date of Facebook group establishment, number of members and the various networks that the members are a part of in order to establish a location of the member. The case study focuses upon nations that actively seek a state of their own carved from the space of extant states, such as the Basques, the Kurds, the Palestinians, and the Hawaii'ans. Outlines for future work combining social networking studies and geography will be discussed.
