Had a quick stop-over in Beijing and got to visit to the Great Wall of China.
Interesting to see how modern China is becoming.
My first visit to China was in the 1990s. A lot has changed (mostly for the better).
Here is a picture that compares today's Shanghai with what it looked like twenty years ago.
Progress.
Here is jigsaw graphic that shows the size of Africa relative to other countries.
via Kai Krause.
This video from the second season of "West Wing" presents other misleading map distortions.
Interesting stuff ... Click here for more.
We just passed the five-year anniversary of economic stimulus.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Swedish academic and Gapminder Foundation co-founder Hans Rosling says data doesn't always back up our conceptions about the world.
In the video, below, Rosling explains that our ideas about developed and developing countries largely reflect the reality of fifty years ago, rather than today.
This video, The River of Myth, was released to coincide with Bill Gates' annual letter, and shares its emphasis on the power of measuring to achieve progress.
How long would it take for an average person to earn a million dollars?
To find out, the Economist looked at how much the main breadwinner in an average household makes each year (before tax).
On this measure, America creates the swiftest millionaires, and also the most (around 5m households, or 4% of the total). South of the border, Mexicans can expect to work for three centuries to earn the same amount.
A lot of smart traders are putting greater emphasis and focus on Asia.
More Than Half Of The World's Population Lives Inside This Circle.
Take a look at this simple, but eye-opening, take on global population distribution.
There are more Muslims in the circle than outside of it. There are more Hindus in the circle than outside of it. There are more Buddhists in the circle than outside of it. Moreover, the circle pulls all of this off while being mostly water and including the most sparsely populated country on earth (Mongolia).
via valeriepieris on Reddit
OK, the 'circle' in this image is not actually a circle (it is a Winkel Tripel projection, to be precise), but that's besides the point.
By 2050, the U.N. predicts that 3.3 billion people will live just in Asia’s cities.
Clearly, a lot of people in the circle ... Yet, the chart below highlights why traders expect and believe that more smart money will move there.
by Aberdeen.
Life imitating Art.
Here is a version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.
Hadfield is not only an astronaut, he is a social media star who invited the world to experience space differently by sharing the photos and videos he captured during his stay on the International Space Station.
With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9d…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 12, 2013
In the clip, Hadfield floats around the space station singing the 1969 track (with modified lyrics such as, “Ground control to Major Tom, lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on,”) and playing an acoustic guitar while gazing at Earth from space.
Kind of fun to watch.
Why does measurement matter?
Bill Gates explores this question in his 2013 Annual Letter, highlighting innovations in measurement that are helping to eradicate poverty and disease.
Download Bill Gates' 2013 Annual Letter in PDF format.
Also see his "My Hope for 2030" video.
As we enter 2013, the world population has surpassed 7 billion people.
How can we get a sense of what it means ... and who we are?
One way is by statistically representing the world population as 100 people. That way, complex issues become more comprehensible and help us get a stronger sense of the big picture.
Here is a video introduction to the 100 Person Project.
The 100 People Project: An Introduction from 100 People Foundation on Vimeo.
And here is an infographic of some of the highlights of the research.
50 would be female
50 would be male
26 would be children
There would be 74 adults,
8 of whom would be 65 and older
There would be:
60 Asians
15 Africans
14 people from the Americas
11 Europeans
33 Christians
22 Muslims
14 Hindus
7 Buddhists
12 people who practice other religions
12 people who would not be aligned with a religion
12 would speak Chinese
5 would speak Spanish
5 would speak English
3 would speak Arabic
3 would speak Hindi
3 would speak Bengali
3 would speak Portuguese
2 would speak Russian
2 would speak Japanese
62 would speak other languages
83 would be able to read and write; 17 would not
7 would have a college degree
22 would own or share a computer
77 people would have a place to shelter them
from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
1 would be dying of starvation
15 would be undernourished
21 would be overweight
87 would have access to safe drinking water
13 people would have no clean, safe water to drink
If you want more information on this ...
The detailed research and source information can be found here and the statistics provided by Donella Meadows in 1990 that originally inspired the 100 People Project can be viewed here. A different groups research is here. And the Snopes research is here.
Almost All of the World’s Biggest Cities Will Be In Asia and Africa by 2030
Tokyo is the undisputed champion of mega-cities. With a population of 37.8 million, it dwarfs second-place Delhi. The Japanese capital has such a big lead in population that even though it’s expected to lose about half a million people over the next 16 years, it will still be the world’s biggest metropolis in 2030, according to a new report by the United Nations:
Here is a list of the Top 10 "mega-cities" by population in 2014 and projected in 2030.
Some of the mega-cities on the 2014 list aren't projected to rank as high in 2030 ... For example, New York, Osaka, and Sao Paulo will no longer make the top 10, and Mexico City will barely hang on as the sole representative outside of Asia and Africa.
This projection reflects the major shift driven by the urbanization in Asia and Africa, particularly in India (404 million projected new city dwellers by 2030), China (292 million), and Nigeria (212 million).
Why is the balance shifting so radically? Mostly because the rest of the world is already highly urbanized, while Africa and Asia are home to nearly 90% of the world’s remaining rural population.
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