Mark M. Miller

Professor of Geography at
the University of
Southern Mississippi

Home page

mmmgeographer@gmail.com

curriculum vitae

Geography Lounge
dedicated to the proposition
that geography should be
interesting & fun

I have never been lost,
but I will admit to being confused
for several weeks.
- Daniel Boone

Hattiesburg Neighborhood Project
[click here for neighborhood map]

USDA/RD Rural Economic Disaster Recovery Resource Center

Economic development video project

The Moss Point recovery story:

• PPT presentation, pt. 1
  
• PPT presentation, pt. 2
  
• Moss Point case study

My trip to Nunavut, Canada, August 2010: page 1

Click here for page 2: beyond Iqaluit

Click here for page 3: Baker Lake

Click here for page 4: concluding thoughts & pix

"Inuksuk" - trail marker. Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park. I'm the one on the right :-)

Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre. Retrieved August 7, 2010:
http://www.pulaarvik.ca/aboutus/images/Nunavut%20Map.pdf

Introductory video for my students

Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital city

	Legislative assembly building: sort of like Nunavut's state capitol, with front and back of monument outside, below left and right. Note that nearly everything written in Nunavut is in three languages: English, French, and the Inuit language of Inuktitut. Inuktitut is sometimes written in the Latin alphabet, but more commonly in symbols that correspond to the language's syllables.
Iqauluit Elementary, with the upscale Frobisher Inn on the hill behind	I'm staying down the hill, but not too shabby.
This still amazes me. You know you are at a high latitude (63 degrees north latitude--arctic climate, but technically not quite inside the Arctic Circle) when the TV satellite dishes are angled slightly down!	Nunavut Arctic College. Wonder if they need a geography professor?
Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park South Baffin Island, outside Iqaluit
	Flags of Nunavut Territory, Canada, and Parks Canada
	White tents are mostly locals camping along the river--sort of like summer cabins.
Sylvia Grinnell River & Frobisher Bay beyond	River--scoured out by broken ice packs every spring
Waterfall. This also still amazes me. Frobisher Bay has one of the highest tides in the world--as much as 35 feet at the head of the bay, where Iqaluit is located. This waterfall is near the bay; it's 12 feet high at low tide, and disappears at high tide.	Fishing at the waterfall
A video of the waterfall. Not exactly ready for the Academy Awards, granted, but it was darn cold and windy for a Mississippy boy.	No, I haven't seen any yet. The local newspaper, though, reports that a camper was awoken by a polar bear. He said the bear's head filled up the whole door of his tent. He punched the bear in the nose with all his strength, and the bear ran away.
Iqaluit waterfront
	Beach bar :-)
Jet skis have now replaced kayaks on Frobisher Bay :-(	Fishing/hunting/tourism outfitter
Ready for winter	Ready for winter
Tides on Frobisher Bay It took me a while to figure out how they unload container ships without a port or dock. The answer: Frobisher Bay at the Iqaluit end has one of the two highest tides in the world - 35 feet! (The Bay of Fundy is the other.) They offload the containers from the ships onto shallow barges, then push the barges up on shore at high tide. At low tide, they can drive fork lifts onto the beach and easily scoop up the high-and-dry containers. It's a slow process, though, requiring several days instead of several hours.
Tide goes in	Tide goes out
Tide goes in	Tide goes out
You get the idea
Containers on the beach	Tugs - no ships in harbor right now
	They are discussing ideas of alternative energy sources such as tidal power, wind (lots of that here, too), dams, and so on. You can imagine the challenges, though, of trying to keep any such equipment operating in the arctic winter.
More random Iqaluit pix
Raven created the world, in Inuit mythology. Outside the Arctic College Fine Arts Dept.	Navigator Inn & Bar. Friendly place, between the port and the airport. I suspect you can get in a fight here in at least three languages.
The four-way. Iqaluit's major intersection. The mayor says they hope to afford a streetlight someday.	Stoneridge Apartments, overlooking the waterfront
This is Iqaluit's new Arctic Winter Games Complex. Unfortunately, the built it on a slab, rather than on stilts like nearly every other building on town. They thought they had figured out a way to channel the heat out of the foundation and back into the building--so it didn't melt the permafrost. Didn't work so well, and the foundation is buckling. Not a good thing for a hockey rink. My, but life is complicated here.	Plane landing over the Iqaluit cemetery. I'm not sure how they dig down into the permafrost, but it seems like a pleasant and pretty permanent place to be planted.
Guest room, I suppose. Or else the kids moved back in? Overcrowded housing is a very serious problem here, as is alcoholism, suicide, murder, etc., etc.--the highest rates in Canada. Also the highest population growth rate in Canada. All too typical of a culture undergoing such a massive transition as the Inuit. Just two generations ago, the Inuit were still a nomadic society, living off the land and sea, scattered across what is now Nunavut.	Some YouTube entertainment from Nunavut: Inuit drum dancing Inuit throat singing
Click here for page 2: beyond Iqaluit Click here for page 3: Baker Lake Click here for page 4: concluding thoughts & pix