Macau, China

Macau is a world of its own embedded in a Chinese universe, yet strangely disconnected from it.  Perhaps that is what this armillary sphere symbolizes.  The armillary sphere was invented by a geographer named Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek.  But, of course, the thing had been invented in China a century earlier!  [2011]

Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

Irish art, language, music, and dance are all here on one mural: along with the Irish muralist.  In fact, 'the mural is the message.'  Perhaps no other culture in the world (save Mexico) has been so associated with mural art than the 'republican' culture of Belfast.  [2009]

Mexico City, Mexico

What have we here?  A display of pop culture or a revival of indigenous tradition?  In Mexico City, the answer is both.  Tongue piercing makes you look you and mod, but it also connects you with Aztec rituals that extend back a thousand years.  What else is pierced beside the tongue?  [2008]

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Adelaide Festival Center entertains with restored architectural facades, shiny mega-hedra, and a slice of the colorful life that is all tangled up with theaters, playhouses, and galleries.  What it really needs, though, is a farmers' market with lots of fruits and vegetables that rival the rainbow.   [2011]

Nicosia, Cyprus

If you were a farmer in Cyprus, in jars like this you would store your wine, oil, water, and flour.  Pithari have been used since ancient times, but there is only one village, Kornos, in Cyprus where they are still made (and now largely used for decoration).  One more thousand-year-old craft may soon disappear from the civilization it helped shape.  [2004]

Rio San Juan, Dominican Republic

She's a geographer in the making:  so young, but perfectly comfortable holding the whole world in her lap.  That is what studying geography does for you.  It makes you feel at home:  whether on your own back porch or on your own planet earth.  [1992]

York, Pennsylvania, USA

Thousands of American flags spill down the hillside at Prospect Hill Cemetery.  They honor those who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Along the street, the story is given a human face.  Those Killed in Action from York County are honored with a Fallen Hero banner.  Among them are Nathaniel Nyren and Jeffrey Blanton.  [2010]