Not surprisingly, Russia has become the most sanctioned country in the world, with nearly 6,000 different sanctions targeting individuals and/or governmental entities. This geo-graphic from Statista looks at the countries with the most international sanctions. cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/27015.jpeg

In late February, Ukraine invited foreign fighters to come to the defense of Ukraine and announced the creation of a "foreign legion" to deploy these foreign fighters. Within 10 days, Ukraine said 20,000 people from 52 countries had expressed interest in joining. At the same time, Russia said these foreign fighters would be considered mercenaries, not regular combatants, which not only potentially exempts them from the protocols governing the treatment of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, if Russian history is any guide, it suggests Russian forces may execute them on sight. This article from Foreign Policy examines the history and law surrounding foreign fighters: foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/15/ukraine-war-foreign-fighters-legion-volunteers-legal-status

Tulips, as both bulbs and cut flowers, are strongly associated with the Netherlands. But the Netherlands' dominance in floriculture extends far beyond tulips. In fact, the Aalsmeer Flower Market, southwest of Amsterdam, oversees the distribution of 43 million cut flowers every day! Flowers are flown into Aalsmeer from all over the world, sorted, graded, auctioned, and rapidly distributed across Europe. The building in which the flower auction is held is the fourth largest building in the world by footprint, roughly the size of 200 soccer fields. www.visitaalsmeer.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/RoyalHolland-Flower-Auction-Aalsmeer-1-1920x1440.jpg

With some states, including Maryland and Georgia, temporarily lowering state gasoline taxes to reduce the impact of rising oil prices at the pump, this topological map compares state gas taxes, which range from a low of 15¢ per gallon in Alaska to a high of 70¢ per gallon in California.  (Map from the print edition of www.wsj.com/articles/maryland-georgia-pause-gas-taxes-with-prices-near-record-highs-11647880317.)

The University of Massachusetts-Amherst is offering a free summer residential program in philosophy June 26-July 9. This year's "Question Everything" theme is identity and diversity. Applications are due April 10.  www.umass.edu/uww/programs/pre-college/residential/philosophy

World Water Day was earlier this week. This map, developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit based on projections from the World Resources Institute, shows anticipated stresses on world water supplies by 2040. The UN defines a territory as water stressed when it has withdrawn 25% of its freshwater resources. The EIU report includes a number of other interesting maps related to too much or too little water around the world.  (Map from impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/water-optimisation/download/water-opt-report-EIU-version.pdf.)  

HHMI Biointeractive has hundreds of free online activities to enrich life science learning, including this new one for high school students that uses data science to understand island biogeography: www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/exploring-island-biogeography-through-data

China's agricultural minister recently announced China is looking at its worst winter wheat harvest since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Although the timing of the announcement is viewed as somewhat odd, China's wheat problems are assumed to be due to heavy rains and flooding in central China that impacted last fall's planting season.  China is the world's largest producer and consumer of wheat. ipad.fas.usda.gov/rssiws/al/crop_production_maps/China/China_wheat.jpg

March is often a good time of year for flying a kite. The Wall Street Journal's "The Future of Everything" section mentions a couple of new technologies trying to put kites to good commercial use: "SkySails Group, a Germany-based power company, is developing kites that fly a quarter-mile off the ground to produce energy. As the kite rises, it unwinds a tether connected to a winch and generator, which convert the force on the tether into electricity. 'High-altitude wind is the largest untapped energy resource on Earth,' founder and managing director Stephan Wrage says. Its largest kites are nearly 1,940 square feet in size—generating about 200 kilowatts of power, and meant to replace diesel generators in remote, off-grid islands and villages. The company has installed several pilot kites at sites including the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, with plans to connect them to the grid. ... A French company, Airseas, has developed an 10,800-square-foot kite called Seawing that attaches to a ship’s bow with a cable and pulls the vessel along using wind power. The company’s aim is to help decarbonize the shipping industry, says CEO and co-founder Vincent Bernatets."
www.wsj.com/articles/the-next-bets-for-renewable-energy-11646848262

The impact of even fairly conventional warfare can be long lived from a biogeographic perspective. A 460-square-mile area of northeastern France was so badly contaminated by shelling during WWI that shortly after the war the French government cordoned it off as the Zone Rouge, or Red Zone, an area deemed unfit for agriculture or human habitation. Even today, more than a century later, there are untold numbers of unexploded shells, including gas canisters, in the Zone Rouge and enough arsenic in the soil to kill 99% of plant life. www.atlasobscura.com/places/zone-rouge

This map from Bloomberg combines educational attainment and prevalence of knowledge/professional/creative jobs to identify the top U.S. metropolitan areas for knowledge work. Top regions for knowledge work: the San Francisco Bay area, the Boston area, and the Washington, DC area.  Between 2010 and 2019, San Francisco saw the most growth in knowledge workers, followed by Pittsburgh and St. Louis.  (Map from www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-16/the-top-u-s-cities-for-knowledge-workers.)

For those who enjoyed -- or didn't quite get to -- the NBC philosophy comedy "The Good Place," creator Michael Schur has a new book out with the tongue-in-cheek title How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.  This article, adapted from the book, introduces the complexities involved in living an ethical life: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/03/04/good-place-michael-schur-ethics/

Because of the inherent problems trying to convert a 3D planet to a 2D visualization, mapmakers' projections all tend to distort the sizes, shapes, and positions of landmasses in various ways. This website allows users to choose a country and then superimpose it over another area to get a better sense for relative size and how size is frequently distorted as one moves toward the poles: thetruesize.com (Just for kicks, move Russia to the equator, for example.)

You can find hands-on projects to learn about the vernal equinox, spring migrations, plant seasonality, frog song, and more at Journey North: journeynorth.org/

Climate Central is a US-based nonprofit using science, big data, and proprietary machine-learning mapping to identify coastal areas likely to be underwater or subject to frequent flooding by 2050. According to Climate Central's interactive map, hard-hit areas in Ireland are likely to be Dublin's waterfront and sections of southwestern Ireland, including Shannon's airport and parts of Limerick and County Clare. coastal.climatecentral.org/

One of the lesser-known shortages emerging from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is neon.  Russia and Ukraine together account for about one-quarter of the world's supply of neon, a gas used in lasers to print computer chip circuits, and an estimated 70% of the world's purified industry-grade neon. Because many chip makers stockpiled neon in the months leading up to the invasion -- having learned a lesson after Russia's annexation of Crimea sent prices soaring in 2014 -- the industry is estimated to have about a six-month supply on hand, although specific resources vary by company. qz.com/2134896/if-ukraines-neon-exports-flag-the-chip-shortage-will-get-worse/

Brisbane, Australia, is vying to become the home port of Australia's new nuclear submarine fleet. Biogeography says this would be a very bad idea. Why? The abundant jellyfish in the waters off Brisbane would almost certainly clog the subs' intake valves and force a shutdown of the nuclear reactors powering the subs. It's happened before: www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/11/jellyfish-nuclear-submarine-emergency-reactor-shutdown-brisbane-base-moreton-bay-australia

In the U.S., one in six callers to suicide hotlines hang up while waiting for help. This map looks at the geographic pattern of this issue in the last quarter of 2021: the darker the color, the higher the proportion of abandoned suicide hotline calls. (Map from www.nytimes.com/2022/03/13/us/suicide-hotline-mental-health-988.html.)

With a new appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, the term "judicial philosophy" will be thrown about a lot.  What does it really mean?  This article provides a nice summary of the six major schools of judicial philosophy:  chooseyourjudges.org/facts-2/glossary-of-judicial-philosophies/

War is bad for landscapes and cultural preservation.  Ukraine has 7 sites that have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and another 17 sites that are on a tentative list for prospective inclusion. To find out more about each of these sites, you can click on the site names or locations on this interactive UNESCO map: whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/UA

Next Monday is Pi Day (3.14).  San Francisco's Exploratorium offers several pi-related activities, including this one that helps kids discover pi on their own: https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/pi-graph.  Of course, the classic way of celebrating pi day is to bake a pie, in which case these recipes might come in handy: cookinglikeyourmom.wordpress.com/?s=pie

Egypt was once the bread basket of the ancient world. Today, it is the world's biggest importer of wheat. This map features the 10 biggest importers of wheat over the last 4 years -- with Egypt, Indonesia, and Turkey in the top three -- suggesting these countries are likely to feel the pinch of rising wheat prices and possible wheat shortages with Russian and Ukrainian wheat off the market. Egypt's heavy reliance on imported wheat coupled with its long political tradition of subsidizing bread makes it particularly vulnerable to crisis.

Wars do not appear out of thin air, and these two articles -- based on interviews with Rutgers political science professor Alexander Motyl and with Brookings Institution Russia expert Fiona Hill, respectively -- are the best I have seen for trying to understand the context for Russian president Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine and what this suggests for the future. foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/03/putin-kgb-history-war-ukraine-genocide-russia and www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/28/world-war-iii-already-there-00012340

The Sea of Azov, at the far northeastern end of the Black Sea (and the Atlantic Ocean) has been in the news recently. Situated east of the Crimean Peninsula, the Sea of Azov is the shallowest of the world's seas, with a depth that does not exceed 46 feet. Historically, the sea was known for its rich fishing. Although Russia and Ukraine agreed to share the Sea of Azov in a 2003 treaty, today the sea is all but encircled by Russian military forces. The besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol sits on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, as shown on this map from the geopolitical consulting firm Stratfor: www.stratfor.com/sites/default/files/styles/wv_small/public/ukraine-navy-sea-of-azov-092418_0.png.

Wondering where your state gets its electricity?  This topological map shows each state's mix of electricity and how it's changed since 2002.  (Map from www.wsj.com/articles/americas-power-grid-is-increasingly-unreliable-11645196772.)