These GIFs show the steady progression in median ages in the Western Hemisphere and Europe from 1960 to 2060.  www.visualcapitalist.com/animation-rapidly-aging-western-world/

The archaeological record suggests that war has been around as long as humans have been around. The goal of war seems to be changing, though: for most of human history war has been fought to expand territory and build or strengthen nations, but over the last 30 years war has increasingly been fought to break apart nations. This article provides a look at this phenomenon: aeon.co/ideas/war-once-helped-build-nations-now-it-destroys-them

Are politically independent floating city-states part of the geography of the future? Earlier this year, French Polynesia agreed to let construction begin on a floating city off its shores in international waters. "Long the stuff of science fiction, so-called 'seasteading' has in recent years matured from pure fantasy into something approaching reality, and there are now companies, academics, architects and even a government working together on a prototype by 2020." www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/business/dealbook/seasteading-floating-cities.html

This map of the contiguous U.S., created by EarthArtAustralia based on satellite data, shows America's forests. mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/united-states-earth-map-trees.jpg

This thoughtful article from the BBC (UK) looks at the ethical choices programmers face in designing driverless cars, autonomous weapons, even caregiving robots:

"What kind of ethics should we programme into the car? How should we value the life of the driver compared to bystanders or passengers in other cars? Would you buy a car that was prepared to sacrifice its driver to spare the lives of pedestrians? If so, you're unusual. Then there's the thorny matter of who's going to make these ethical decisions. Will the government decide how cars make choices? Or the manufacturer? Or will it be you, the consumer? Will you be able to walk into a showroom and select the car's ethics as you would its colour? "I'd like to purchase a Porsche utilitarian 'kill-one-to-save-five' convertible in blue please…""
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41504285

From The Economist (UK): "In 2016 two-fifths of people in sub-Saharan Africa had mobile phones. Their rapid spread has beaten all sorts of odds. In most African countries, less than half the population has access to electricity. In a third of those countries, less than a quarter does. Yet in much of the continent people with mobile phones outnumber those with electricity, never mind that many have to walk for miles to get a signal or recharge their phones’ batteries. Mobile phones have transformed the lives of hundreds of millions for whom they were the first, and often the only, way to connect with the outside world. They have made it possible for poor countries to leapfrog much more than landline telephony. Mobile-money services, which enable people to send cash straight from their phones, have in effect created personal bank accounts that people can carry in their pockets. By one estimate, the M-Pesa mobile-money system alone lifted about 2% of Kenyan households out of poverty between 2008 and 2014." www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/11/daily-chart-5?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/inmuchofsubsaharanafricamobilephonesaremorecommonthanaccesstoelectricitydailychart

This cool site from the BBC allows users to compare any two years to get a sense for how the world has changed: population, inventions, life spans, CO2 levels, then-untreatable diseases, species extinctions, etc. the-global-change-calculator.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/

This map from the Library of Congress shows "judicially established Indian land areas" as of 1978, the year the Indian Claims Commission expired. The commission was created after WWII to thank Native Americans for their service during the war. Native peoples did not regain any lands lost over the prior three centuries, but the U.S. government did provide a monetary settlement based on this map. tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:gmd:gmd370:g3701:g3701e:ct008649/full/pct:12.5/0/default.jpg

Tomorrow Americans celebrate when their immigrant founders were assisted by the local population, making it timely to look at research related to immigration. In my classes we talk about push and pull factors affecting immigration. This article focuses on the "migration hump" -- the observed phenomenon that economic migration tends to increase as households move from poor to middle class, at which point further income gains cause migration to flatten out and decline -- and how an understanding of the migration hump should play a role in developed countries' immigration strategies. www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/11/02/when-and-how-can-foreign-aid-slow-migration/

"We estimate the probability of having a magnitude 9 earthquake [in the Cascadian Subduction Zone] in the next 50 years is about 10 to 14 percent." The Cascadian Subduction Zone stretches more than 600 miles, from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Northern California and has a reputation for producing massive earthquakes (as well as the volcanic Cascade Range). The last major quake was 317 years ago, long before Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland were economically significant cities with large populations. news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/earthquakes-big-one-cascadia-seattle-geology-science/

This topological map looks at public debt by state: a pink ring on the outside means liabilities exceed assets (a blue ring means assets exceed liabilities); the size of the ring reflects the $$ value of the assets/liabilities. States with the worst debt ratio: New Jersey, Illinois, and Massachusetts. howmuch.net/articles/the-united-states-of-debt

Kids Philosophy Slam has released its 2018 essay contest topic: "Truth or deceit: which has a greater impact on society?"  The contest is open to all K-12 students, including international students, with different contest categories by age. The deadline for submissions is March 9. www.philosophyslam.org/

This 1-minute YouTube clip from The Economist (UK) maps out the rise of the megacity -- cities with more than 10 million inhabitants -- from just New York City and Tokyo in 1950 to 32 megacities (mostly clustered in Asia) today and a projected 41 megacities, housing 9% of the world's population, by 2030. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDS_BqDeZ4k

It's not too early to buy your tickets for the Smithsonian Discovery Theater's popular "Seasons of Light" show. "Seasons of Light" explores holiday traditions involving light, from Christmas to Hanukah to Diwali and beyond. Live performances Dec. 1-21 (M-F  only). Target age is 5-10, but younger and older children are also likely to enjoy the performance. discoverytheater.org/shows/2017/dec/seasons-of-light.shtm

This remarkable geo-graphic compares the economies of 31 Chinese cities to 31 countries with similar economic output.  If you scroll down, it also compares the economies of 3 Chinese mega-regions to countries. For example, the cities of the Pearl River delta have a combined economy larger than Italy's. www.visualcapitalist.com/31-chinese-cities-economies-big-countries/

As we prepare to shop for our Thanksgiving meals, it is worth considering that "For the first time in many years, the estimated [global] number of undernourished people has actually gone up rather than down [to about 800 million or 2.5 times the population of the United States]. ... Hunger remains a universal problem. ... In low-income countries, the share [of respondents to a Gallup Poll asking whether there have been times in the past 12 months when they didn’t have enough money to buy food] has gradually increased to around 60 percent. In middle-income countries, it’s stuck around 30 percent. Even in advanced economies, it’s quite high, somewhere near 10 percent. There are about a billion people living in advanced economies, so 10 percent means 100 million people still grapple with food insecurity in high-income countries. Even more striking, there is no evidence of any improvement over the past decade. While the world has become considerably richer, the issue of hunger has not become appreciably smaller." This article from the Brookings Institution considers issues of agricultural credit, government subsidies and tariffs, and grain productivity. www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2017/10/23/the-world-is-off-track-to-end-hunger-so-whats-the-solution

Last weekend marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Baha'i religion, which today has five to seven million adherents. Founded in Iran, the Baha'i faith has its world headquarters in Haifa (Israel) with other architecturally distinctive houses of worship in Delhi (India), Santiago (Chile), and Wilmette (Illinois). Shown is the Baha'i's Lotus Temple in Delhi. res.cloudinary.com/himanshujain/image/upload/v1455976179/activity/lotus-temple-new-delhi_ohir7q.jpg

This map compares climates within the U.S. with those in other parts of the world.  Like southern California? Visit Malta :-). Wondered what Kabul is like? Lubbock, TX, apparently.
i.redditmedia.com/SdqHC4SFT1yFu8Gu0ZOhCbQ7ospG_CaegvFnaMXvDtQ.jpg?w=1024&s=89b0c312484a365d37507e71d0aff82e

Next Thursday is World Philosophy Day :-D. In 2002, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared the third Thursday in November each year to be World Philosophy Day. Why does the UN think it's worthwhile to promote the study of philosophy? According to UNESCO, World Philosophy Day was created in part to "foster philosophical analysis, research and studies on major contemporary issues, so as to respond more effectively to the challenges that are confronting humanity today and to raise public awareness of the importance of philosophy and its critical use in the choices arising for many societies from the effects of globalization or entry into modernity." www.un.org/en/events/philosophyday/

Today is the anniversary of the armistice ending World War I. As part of the agreement ending the war, Germany lost its colonies in Africa and Micronesia and the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires were broken up. This map shows the ethno-linguistic composition of Austro-Hungary before the war began. cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4620799/austria_hungary.png

In some of my geography classes I have students learn about a sampling of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which is how I came across the TimeTravelTurtle. Michael Turtle, the Australian journalist who blogs as the TimeTravelTurtle, has visited more than 200 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. His photo essays are an instant outside-the-box vacation: www.timetravelturtle.com/unesco-world-heritage-list/

This map is based on data from Latinobarómetro, an opinion poll conducted in 18 Latin American countries annually. i.imgur.com/wDWqFq3.png

This interactive map provides information on active conflicts around the world. The size of each dot reflects the duration of the conflict it represents. At the site, click on the dot to find out more about the conflict: its history, opposing goals, deaths, and current status. emmeline.carto.com/viz/b69015da-136a-11e5-a64a-0e43f3deba5a/embed_map

For a foliage display outside North America, the normally green kochia bushes planted in Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka, Japan (on the main island of Honshu, northeast of Tokyo) turn a brilliant scarlet during the dry season. www.atlasobscura.com/places/kochia-hill

This map shows, at the county level, the location of the point of highest elevation in each U.S. state. i.imgur.com/axAIG3Z.png