Question What makes each American state unique from others?
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werdna
Astroarchitect
Look at the world from space and there are no states, no countries- nothing but the geography of the planet.
Diversity is everywhere. All the states are very large and home to many different customs, cultures, and opinions. The same can be said for anywhere else on Earth.
The desire to identify, classify, and generalize the world around us is in our nature as thinking beings. This works well for academics and sciences, maybe even for art, but not for people and places.
As the world grows smaller from advances in transportation and communication, we continually grow less isolated. The kinds of boundaries and distinctions between large groups of people begin to disappear. Everything begins to mix- we certainly retain our individual traits, thoughts, and opinions, but no longer can they be associated with a geographical location.
If things go smoothly, living in Siberia would mean as much as living in Hawaii, Brazil, New York, or Austria. Or anywhere.
Diversity is everywhere. All the states are very large and home to many different customs, cultures, and opinions. The same can be said for anywhere else on Earth.
The desire to identify, classify, and generalize the world around us is in our nature as thinking beings. This works well for academics and sciences, maybe even for art, but not for people and places.
As the world grows smaller from advances in transportation and communication, we continually grow less isolated. The kinds of boundaries and distinctions between large groups of people begin to disappear. Everything begins to mix- we certainly retain our individual traits, thoughts, and opinions, but no longer can they be associated with a geographical location.
If things go smoothly, living in Siberia would mean as much as living in Hawaii, Brazil, New York, or Austria. Or anywhere.
ED_4
Whovian/Star Trekker/Pinoy
Hawaii is a great example of the differences in some of the states. The culture there is like going to a different country entirely. Since the local Hawaiians have their own. And the weather there is unlike any of the rest of the 49 states, since it sits at a tropical latitude.
Ghostrider
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One wish.
However, reality paints a different picture: you don't live in the Hawaii unless you have a good job there, and you can support living there (unless you fancy commuting from the Gobi desert to Oahu and back every day). And since our wise PTB have seen it fit to play with money they didn't have, lose it and bill us for their foolishness, I don't see many people having the means to move around much for a long time. We'll also become more insulated (rather than less) and resentful towards the countries where jobs are being exported.
When seem from far away yes, everything looks pretty much the same. But down here where we live there's a freaking lot of differences between the Azure Coast and the Ivory Coast...
Urwumpe
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Just look at the regional differences in Germany or France, and both countries are way smaller than the USA.
It is like going to the USA as German: Most US citizens know only the southern part of Germany, because US soldiers had been stationed there. Thus, the US citizens mostly think of Germany as if it was like Bavaria all the time.
The UK soldiers had been stationed in the North, and thus had a different culture to see and developed a different view of Germany.
In the USA you are Bavarian, in the UK rather Prussian. I don't want to imagine what the French think.
It is like going to the USA as German: Most US citizens know only the southern part of Germany, because US soldiers had been stationed there. Thus, the US citizens mostly think of Germany as if it was like Bavaria all the time.
The UK soldiers had been stationed in the North, and thus had a different culture to see and developed a different view of Germany.
In the USA you are Bavarian, in the UK rather Prussian. I don't want to imagine what the French think.
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There are more popular songs about california than any other state
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk&feature=related"]California Dreamin - Mamas & The Papas - YouTube[/ame]
(very fitting song, as it's only 37 degrees F (3 C) here at the moment)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk&feature=related"]California Dreamin - Mamas & The Papas - YouTube[/ame]
(very fitting song, as it's only 37 degrees F (3 C) here at the moment)
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80mileshigh
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I was in Atlanta last summer and though I saw very little (due to work) I liked it a lot. I was a bit wary as south-east Australia is more like north-east or westcoast USA, but I was shown very genuine friendliness everywhere I went. And the lightning storms were cool
I think this fact accounts for the relatively low numbers of USA citizens holding passports, you really have a world within the world.
The view from orbit is a view of the future.
Andy44
owner: Oil Creek Astronautix
Back on topic: Somebody mentioned the Philly area of Pennsylvania, but let me cover the state in general. I grew up near Philadelphia but part of my family lives in the western half of the state, which is actually a pretty big state.
If you travel about an hour west of Philly you find yourself in an area populated by a lot of German-speaking Amish and Mennonite people. Pennsylvania is by no means the only state with an Amish population, but it probably has the biggest. The center of this population is Lancaster County. These folks are religious pacifists who, as much as possible, live a simple, low-tech lifestyle, with reduced dependence on electricity, motor vehicles, and so on. They work farms using human and animal muscle, they are known to be very hard workers and shrewd at handling their monetary affairs. Many local Philly-area contracters hire them to do carpentry and construction, and people travel from far away to buy Amish-made furniture. They speak a wierd dialect of German; I don't even speak German but listening to them speak I can tell they are not from Germany. It sounds like, well, "rural".
Outside of the urban areas, Pennsylvania is a "bible belt" state, the rural population is very religious.
Pennsylvania is also a "rust belt" state, meaning it was once an industrial giant and now has lots of shrinking former industrial towns, unemployment, and closed factories, refineries, and steel plants. Steel was once a major industry in Pennsylvania, especially in Pittsburgh. That industry all but disappeared in the 1970s. The site of the world's first commercial oil well is also in the mountains of Pennsylvania at Titusville. For over a century Pennzoil, Quaker State, and other oil companies were mainstays in Pennsylvania. Most of that is gone, too, and the huge refinery complexes along the Delaware River are also in danger of closing. Coal mining was once huge, too, as was railroading.
Skiing is popular in the Pocono mountains for New Yorkers and Philadelphians, but to the west the mountains become very rural. The state has lots of state forests, state parks, and state game lands, so there are vast areas of wilderness. One of my favorite things to do is to hike the back woods looking for artifacts of old railroad grades, closed mines, and even the sites of former oil boom towns that are now ghost towns. In some places only a few stone foundations remain of once vibrant towns, now totally grown over by vegetation. Ancient rusted piplines and oil storage tanks can be found in the deep woods, along with the occasional operating oil pump jack, usually owned and run by a local oil driller whose family has been in the business for decades.
Pittsburgh has gone a long way to reinventing itself and emerge from the decayed rust belt image, but the surrounding area has not. If you are a photographer, the industrial ruins are great subjects. Other, smaller rust belt towns like Johnstown are rather depressing with the economic decay. Erie, on the other hand, still has some heavy industry, including the General Electric rail locomotive factory and a port for Great Lakes shipping.
It's a very big state, and you can live your whole life there and not have time to explore it all. And that's just one state!
If you travel about an hour west of Philly you find yourself in an area populated by a lot of German-speaking Amish and Mennonite people. Pennsylvania is by no means the only state with an Amish population, but it probably has the biggest. The center of this population is Lancaster County. These folks are religious pacifists who, as much as possible, live a simple, low-tech lifestyle, with reduced dependence on electricity, motor vehicles, and so on. They work farms using human and animal muscle, they are known to be very hard workers and shrewd at handling their monetary affairs. Many local Philly-area contracters hire them to do carpentry and construction, and people travel from far away to buy Amish-made furniture. They speak a wierd dialect of German; I don't even speak German but listening to them speak I can tell they are not from Germany. It sounds like, well, "rural".
Outside of the urban areas, Pennsylvania is a "bible belt" state, the rural population is very religious.
Pennsylvania is also a "rust belt" state, meaning it was once an industrial giant and now has lots of shrinking former industrial towns, unemployment, and closed factories, refineries, and steel plants. Steel was once a major industry in Pennsylvania, especially in Pittsburgh. That industry all but disappeared in the 1970s. The site of the world's first commercial oil well is also in the mountains of Pennsylvania at Titusville. For over a century Pennzoil, Quaker State, and other oil companies were mainstays in Pennsylvania. Most of that is gone, too, and the huge refinery complexes along the Delaware River are also in danger of closing. Coal mining was once huge, too, as was railroading.
Skiing is popular in the Pocono mountains for New Yorkers and Philadelphians, but to the west the mountains become very rural. The state has lots of state forests, state parks, and state game lands, so there are vast areas of wilderness. One of my favorite things to do is to hike the back woods looking for artifacts of old railroad grades, closed mines, and even the sites of former oil boom towns that are now ghost towns. In some places only a few stone foundations remain of once vibrant towns, now totally grown over by vegetation. Ancient rusted piplines and oil storage tanks can be found in the deep woods, along with the occasional operating oil pump jack, usually owned and run by a local oil driller whose family has been in the business for decades.
Pittsburgh has gone a long way to reinventing itself and emerge from the decayed rust belt image, but the surrounding area has not. If you are a photographer, the industrial ruins are great subjects. Other, smaller rust belt towns like Johnstown are rather depressing with the economic decay. Erie, on the other hand, still has some heavy industry, including the General Electric rail locomotive factory and a port for Great Lakes shipping.
It's a very big state, and you can live your whole life there and not have time to explore it all. And that's just one state!
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Pablo49
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It's only because Ohio is terrible and we either want to escape, or have the power to destroy it.
And someone played a Beach Boys song
On the jukebox
It was "California Dreamin'"
So we started screamin'
"On such a winter's day"
toddhisattva
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Perception
The picture our media paints is cartoonish. Just take the astonishing ignorance backed by arrogance that our media displays in space flight coverage (NBC's Jay Barbree *arguing* with Buzz Aldrin about the meaning of "staging"), and understand that they are just as clueless about everything else.
The picture our media paints is cartoonish. Just take the astonishing ignorance backed by arrogance that our media displays in space flight coverage (NBC's Jay Barbree *arguing* with Buzz Aldrin about the meaning of "staging"), and understand that they are just as clueless about everything else.
boogabooga
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It's only because Ohio is terrible and we either want to escape, or have the power to destroy it.
:thumbsdown:
I think Ohio is interesting because it is a regional transition in every direction. It's like the "Silicon" of America. While it's not definitively Eastern, Midwestern, Southern, or Appalachian, it has characteristics of all of those. The eastern central part of the state (Youngstown, etc.) is classic "rust belt" former industrial with a shared steel history with Pittsburgh. However, it never managed to reinvent itself the way Pittsburgh has. Cleveland has some "rust belt" syndrome as well, but it's also a Great Lakes city. I would say both cities would classify themselves as being in America's Northeast.
If you go south a little to say Steubenville, you still have the shared steel history. However, I would argue that that part of the state, in high beautiful wooded hills, has more of an affinity for West Virginia and an Appalachia feel. (O.k. It's hillfolk country. But the people still tend be very down to earth and friendly. Despite Jerry Springer stereotypes, I've always though this area was very beautiful and pleasent.)
In the western half of the state, the land is flatter and agriculture is playing more of a role. Columbus, Cincinnati, and definitely Dayton are more mid-western. I've never really stopped in Toledo, so I don't know anything about it. Columbus has an agricultural history but also has banking and is the State capitol. When I went to college, I felt my friends from Columbus... how do I put this...dressed a little nicer than us from northeast Ohio. In Columbus you would probably wear Khaki pants and a polo shirt to the same restaurant that a Cleveland-er or Akron resident could pull off in blue jeans and a clean t-shirt. Cincinnati has a twist in that it boarders on Kentucky and has been seen historically as an interface between the "north" and the "south." It's famous for being a major "underground railroad" destination of escaped slaves in the 1800s. Also, it's famous for it's riverboat history/pork product transportation, which are kind of "southern things", even though it isn't in the true south.
Dayton is the birthplace of the Wright brothers and the home of the National Museum of the United States Air Force (see my forum pic). This is an awesome place for aerospace enthusiasts. It has to be the #2 aerospace museum in the United States and probably the world just behind the Smithsonian. In some ways it rivals the Smithsonian. (BTW, they are in the process of building a new space hanger around an unused Titan IV booster, and a handful of recently declassified spy sats.) Oh, yeah, and admission is free. Sometimes, I feel bad because I think it's under-appreciated because of it's location. Dayton isn't as sexy as New York, Washington D.C., or even Seattle. But the museum itself is world class.
Food for thought: Both John Boehner (pretty right house majority leader) and Dennis Kucinich (as far left as any American politician can be) are representatives from Ohio.
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Izack
Non sequitur
Interesting! All I've seen of the States is New England and Florida. Going down into Maine and New Hampshire it seems an awful lot like Canada, but with much lower speed limits P). Florida on the other hand is a very different place to be, in climate, geography, flora, fauna, accents, etc. Made me feel like a real foreigner. Neat to know this diversity applies to the US as a whole. I'd love to take a road trip across her someday (after my own country, of course. :lol
P). Florida on the other hand is a very different place to be, in climate, geography, flora, fauna, accents, etc. Made me feel like a real foreigner. Neat to know this diversity applies to the US as a whole. I'd love to take a road trip across her someday (after my own country, of course. :lol
Pablo49
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Northeast Ohio, huh? Then we live in the same area. Then you know what problems our region has had. Mentor, Chardon, etc. D:
Cleveland being a large city suffers the same flaws as most others. (HBO's "The Wire" anyone?) Though, as you mention later, at least we have Kucinich. Well, had Kucinich. Gerrymandering ftl.
(Btw, some Cleveland truthiness in lulzy format if you have not seen:#1 and #2 )
Youngstown is definitely a wreck, too. I was originally going to go to school at YSU, and I've spent some time over there. Glad I didn't end up going there.
Plenty of friends in Toledo, and from what I've heard it's not much different than Youngstown or Cleveland. So it's terrible.
Mixed reviews from friends from Columbus.
I'll give you Dayton. I've been to that museum a few times over and it's awesome. I haven't been there in years, but even as a child I was amazed. Just not a good location for it.
Anyways, Ohio has one of the lowest life expectancies in the country. Cleveland is tied for 10th highest crime rate city in the country. It was recently ranked 5th worst state to live in. The Ohio Supreme Court found the public school funding system unconstitutional, but it's been 15 years and nothing has been done about it as school after school fails to pass levies and have to lay off more and more teachers, especially in areas that need a good school system the most. And I'll keep my political opinions short, but Boehner is a disgrace to Ohio, and overall Ohio is too republican for it's own good. So sure, geographically it might be a bit interesting, but as a state, it's no good.
Eli13
Fish Dreamer
Well, it is where the Wright Brothers were born.
I love that museum though. I really wish I got to visit it more than once though. Eleven years in and Ohio,only got to see it once. Dang.
I do have to say, I did really like the Ohio quarter tail.
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Codz
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In Georgia we have the second largest USAF museum in the US. Pretty nice place.
fsci123
Future Dubstar and Rocketkid
Well there is lots of culture in NY...
There are lots of factories and nasty beaches in NJ...
There are lots of degrading infrastructure down in philly.
Chicago has lots of culture and gangs and has an awesome particle accelerator and a great train network.
Colorado makes me have altitude sickness.
Florida has nice beaches many latinas and disneyland/world
DC isnt a state but it is the place i get to see my main man obama:thumbup:...
Maryland is filled with places that remind me of south africa...
Indiana is filled with farms.
Virginia is one of the few places in the eastern seaboard where people are scared of the people in my little town of Elizabeth NJ.
West Virginia is a mountainous state that used to be part of Virginia.
South Carolina always wants to secede.
Utah is the Mormon state.
The unrecognized state of Canadia is largely underpopulated.
Then you have the state of Franklin...
The future state of Puerto Rico is where 1/3 of my friends come from.
-rant
Well unlike many nations we truly hold the title as being the greatest if not the first multi-cultural society on this earth. You have Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Indiginos all coexisting with each other(not nescesarily peacefully). I for a fact have friends from every region of the earth. I was actually spawned from two people who came from opposite ends of the earth(USSR and Kenya) who for the most part would have never met in any other country besides the US.
There are lots of factories and nasty beaches in NJ...
There are lots of degrading infrastructure down in philly.
Chicago has lots of culture and gangs and has an awesome particle accelerator and a great train network.
Colorado makes me have altitude sickness.
Florida has nice beaches many latinas and disneyland/world
DC isnt a state but it is the place i get to see my main man obama:thumbup:...
Maryland is filled with places that remind me of south africa...
Indiana is filled with farms.
Virginia is one of the few places in the eastern seaboard where people are scared of the people in my little town of Elizabeth NJ.
West Virginia is a mountainous state that used to be part of Virginia.
South Carolina always wants to secede.
Utah is the Mormon state.
The unrecognized state of Canadia is largely underpopulated.
Then you have the state of Franklin...
The future state of Puerto Rico is where 1/3 of my friends come from.
-rant
Well unlike many nations we truly hold the title as being the greatest if not the first multi-cultural society on this earth. You have Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Indiginos all coexisting with each other(not nescesarily peacefully). I for a fact have friends from every region of the earth. I was actually spawned from two people who came from opposite ends of the earth(USSR and Kenya) who for the most part would have never met in any other country besides the US.
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boogabooga
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Actually, I live in Cincinnati now and it's a little better than northeast Ohio. Mostly because the people here don't whine and rag on their own city so much. Some of it is frame of mind. The entire country has a job loss problem, not just Ohio.
So lets all just move somewhere posh like New York City or California. I'm sure they don't have any crime, pollution, or poor people...
So lets all just move somewhere posh like New York City or California. I'm sure they don't have any crime, pollution, or poor people...
Scav
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I think part of what makes Minnesota a draw for me is the variance of terrain -- and how short of a distance you have to go to see the change.
The same could be said of the weather: If you don't like it, just wait a few minutes; it'll change.
Let's see. While Minnesota as a whole can be best described as a massive temperate coniferous forest, there are these noteworthy distinctions: In the north is iron and taconite mining country, bordered by Lake Superior in the northeast. Lots of coniferous trees (pines, evergreens, etc.) that actually both survived a craze of strip mining and reforestation. The north is also the proud source of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River"]Mississippi River[/ame].
Central MN is hill and lake [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine"]moraine[/ame]land. The glaciers came through this area thousands of years ago in a series of advances and retreating, leaving a lot of hills and a lot of depressions in the land. The tagline you used to see on the license plates here said "10,000 Lakes" -- we're not kidding. I think this state has more lakes (and more different sizes of lake) than any other state in the Union. We go from a pond you could cover with your right foot to a monstrosity that swallowed up the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fitzgerald"]Edmund Fitzgerald[/ame].
The south half of Minnesota is a tornado magnet. The biome in that region more fits a rolling plains area; the entirety of interstate highway 90 from western extremis to eastern is actually gated at each town in case of a significant road-choking blizzard.
But again . . . you really don't have to drive far to go from cloyingly thick urban jungle to plains as far as your eyes can see. Take away the feral mosquitoes and I might be happier about living here.
The same could be said of the weather: If you don't like it, just wait a few minutes; it'll change.
Let's see. While Minnesota as a whole can be best described as a massive temperate coniferous forest, there are these noteworthy distinctions: In the north is iron and taconite mining country, bordered by Lake Superior in the northeast. Lots of coniferous trees (pines, evergreens, etc.) that actually both survived a craze of strip mining and reforestation. The north is also the proud source of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River"]Mississippi River[/ame].
Central MN is hill and lake [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine"]moraine[/ame]land. The glaciers came through this area thousands of years ago in a series of advances and retreating, leaving a lot of hills and a lot of depressions in the land. The tagline you used to see on the license plates here said "10,000 Lakes" -- we're not kidding. I think this state has more lakes (and more different sizes of lake) than any other state in the Union. We go from a pond you could cover with your right foot to a monstrosity that swallowed up the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fitzgerald"]Edmund Fitzgerald[/ame].
The south half of Minnesota is a tornado magnet. The biome in that region more fits a rolling plains area; the entirety of interstate highway 90 from western extremis to eastern is actually gated at each town in case of a significant road-choking blizzard.
But again . . . you really don't have to drive far to go from cloyingly thick urban jungle to plains as far as your eyes can see. Take away the feral mosquitoes and I might be happier about living here.
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