The Atacama Desert, in northern Chile, is famous for being the world's driest. The soil is also saline and, because of the altitude, bombarded with high levels of UV radiation. But life is there, waiting for the rains. When a decade's worth of rain fell in a day, scientists found a variety of extremophile bacteria, archaea, and fungi began to bloom in the soil. Researchers study the Atacama as a proxy for Mars. www.sciencenews.org/article/rain-wakes-undead-microbes-chile-atacama-desert
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With possible trade wars in the headlines, it may be instructive to understand how much various states depend on foreign trade. This topological map shows the percentage of each state's GDP that is derived from international trade (the bigger the pink circle in the center=the greater the % of GDP connected to foreign trade). The states most dependent on international trade: Michigan (auto industry), Louisiana (petroleum/chemicals), South Carolina (BMW/Boeing), Tennessee (auto industry: Nissan, GM, Volkswagen), and Kentucky (auto industry: Toyota, Ford). howmuch.net/articles/how-important-is-international-trade-to-the-economy-of-each-state
Most people who hear the name "Adam Smith" think of the "invisible hand" of the marketplace -- a phrase that appears once halfway through his 750+ page tome An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) -- and assume Smith was an economist. In fact, although Smith's subject in Wealth of Nations was political economy, he was a moral philosopher. This article provides a more nuanced understanding of Adam Smith's views on government, marketplaces, liberty, and the public good.
"It is certainly true that there are similarities between what Smith called ‘the system of natural liberty’, and more recent calls for the state to make way for the free market. But if we dig below the surface, what emerges most strikingly are the differences between Smith’s subtle, skeptical view of the role of markets in a free society, and more recent caricatures of him as a free-market fundamentalist avant-la-lettre. For while Smith might be publicly lauded by those who put their faith in private capitalist enterprise, and who decry the state as the chief threat to liberty and prosperity, the real Adam Smith painted a rather different picture." aeon.co/essays/we-should-look-closely-at-what-adam-smith-actually-believed These maps, based on satellite data, look at the planet's 37 largest aquifers. The map on top shows usage/withdrawal. (The darker the red, the greater the withdrawal of water from the aquifer.) The map on the bottom shows aquifer recharge over the same period: the 21 major aquifers *not* in blue were being depleted at a faster rate than nature was recharging them. geographical.co.uk/images/articles/places/cities/Cape_Town/graph1.jpg
Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday. Celebrate by re-reading your favorite Dr. Seuss books! My family's favorites? The Sneetches, Horton Hatches the Egg, Yertle the Turtle, The Lorax, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and many of his shorter stories like "Gertrude McFuzz," "The Zax," and "The Big Brag."
The uprising that led to the Syrian civil war will mark its 7th anniversary in two weeks. Fighting and civilian casualties have intensified recently in Afrin (between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish militias in northwest Syria) and in Eastern Ghouta (between government-backed forces and rebels just east of the capital of Damascus). This map, updated regularly in Al Jazeera (Qatar), shows regions of control and active conflict zones.
www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2018/2/26/acfd95ed0db746428d4178c37175bd67_6.jpg |
Blog sharing news about geography, philosophy, world affairs, and outside-the-box learning
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