A Real Map of the Middle East
Could this map be any more different from the previous one discussed on this blog? That one dealt with the water, wetlands and shifting shorelines of Louisiana. This one zooms in on lines in the sand of the Middle-Eastern desert. Yet both maps do something similar: knowing that our current maps no longer reflect reality, they replace their conventional wisdom with a new cartography, based on the new facts on the ground. For Louisiana, that means a shoreline that bites much deeper inland.
Saudis bankroll Taliban
In interviews with The New York Times, a former Taliban finance minister described how he traveled to Saudi Arabia for years raising cash while ostensibly on pilgrimage. The Taliban have also been allowed to raise millions more by extorting “taxes” by pressing hundreds of thousands of Pashtun guest workers in the kingdom and menacing their families back home, said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser. Yet even as private Saudi money backed the Taliban, Saudi intelligence once covertly mediated a peace effort that Taliban officials and others involved described in full to The Times for the first time. Playing multiple sides of the same geopolitical equation is one way the Saudis further their own strategic interests, analysts and officials say.
World War 2
World War 2, also known as the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia. The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. However, in Asia the war began earlier with Japanese interventions in China, and in Europe, the war ended earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. The conflict spilled over into Africa, included a handful of incidents in the Americas, and a series of major naval battles.
If the World were 100 PEOPLE
50 would be female 50 would be male 26 would be children There would be 74 adults, 8 of whom would be 65 and olderThere would be: 60 Asians 15 Africans 14 people from the Americas 11 Europeans33 Christians 22 Muslims 14 Hindus 7 Buddhists 12 people who practice other religions 12 people who would not be aligned with a religion12 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 languages83 would be able to read and write; 17 would not 7 would have a college degree 22 would own or share a computer77 people would have a place to shelter themfrom 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
Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State
Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. That was their return cargo. — The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (1871)
World War II
Facts, information and articles about World War II, 1939-1945 USS Arizona Pearl Harbor World War II Facts
Global inequalities in population, wealth, and religious origin shown in six maps.
This map of Canada shows the country's familiar vastness. A single line drawn across its deep south adds a surprising layer of information. The line runs well below the 49th parallel that constitutes that long straight stretch of U.S.-Canada border from Point Roberts, WA to Lake of the Woods, MN (see also #519). Split in two by the U.S. state of Maine poking north, the line traverses four eastern provinces, cutting off the southern extremities of Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. Nova Scotia is the only province that falls mostly below the line.
Thank these women for the equality you have
Say Thank You Say thank you. Say thank you to the women who gave you a voice. Say thank you to the women who were arrested and imprisoned and beaten and gassed for you to have a voice. Say thank you to the women who refused to back down, to the women who fought tirelessly to give you a voice.
World War II: Why is it so important 70 years later?
World War II is a huge topic. There are many sources both online and in print form. Primary Source materials: The Avalon Project at Yale University is a digital library relating to law, history and diplomacy.
Roman Roads – Sasha Trubetskoy
If you think this would make a cool poster, follow this link and send me a few bucks. I’ll email you a crisp PDF for printing! It’s finally done.
America, You Look Like an Arab Country Right Now
Dear America, We have been watching the drama of your presidential elections with much interest and curiosity for some time now. It’s hard not to notice the many similarities between our own countries and yours. From fiery inauguration protests and bitter disputes about crowd size, to the intelligence service’s forays into politics and the rise of right-wing extremists, it appears that you are traveling very much in our direction—and at the same time, like us, becoming a curiosity for foreign correspondents trying to explain what’s happening in your region to the world. You might be distraught about where you are headed, but we aren’t!
What would you have done?: Terrible choices people had to make during WW2
How could Japanese airmen “volunteer” to become Kamikaze pilots? Why did the SS believe the Nazi state’s racist values? For nearly 20 years I have tried to answer questions such as these by meeting hundreds of people from the Second World War. I was interested in what motivated the perpetrators, but I also encountered victims confronted with awful choices.
This Map Shows the Hourly Wage You Need to Afford an Apartment in Your State
A new report shows that skyrocketing rent prices have put basic living arrangements out of reach in nearly every state for most low-income workers. In order to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in the U.S., workers on average need to earn at least $20.30 an hour, according to 2016 data from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). That’s roughly $13 more per hour than the federal minimum wage, and roughly $5 per hour more than the average national $15.42 hourly wage earned by renters last year.
What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class
My father-in-law grew up eating blood soup. He hated it, whether because of the taste or the humiliation, I never knew. His alcoholic father regularly drank up the family wage, and the family was often short on food money. They were evicted from apartment after apartment. He dropped out of school in eighth grade to help support the family.