Is there another map in the news right now? This interactive map from The New York Times is updated regularly to show 2020 election results (tabs for President, Senate, House, and state-by-state with county-level information) including information about outstanding ballot counting: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-president.html
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This short piece by Tim Marshall, who specializes in the intersection of geography and foreign affairs, looks at how a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy may impact geopolitics.
"Sun, wind and water are found in different quantities, but are global, and power garnered from them won’t need to be shifted around the globe in huge tankers. Some countries are better placed than others. The UK, notably Scotland, is well positioned to take advantage of wind power, but might be ‘solar challenged’. The USA has abundant sun, wind and water, and gas reserves aplenty, as it makes the slow shift. ... China is dominant in making solar cells and batteries, and is trying to corner the market in the materials required for their manufacture. It’s also home to huge reserves of neodymium, which is used to make the generators for wind turbines. Chile is well placed: it’s the world’s largest source of lithium. This leads us on to some of the losers. Creating and storing energy from renewable sources requires a range of rare earth materials and other commodities. For example, cobalt and lithium are vital for making rechargeable batteries. Most of the known quantities of cobalt are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and while this might seem a positive for the DRC, the likelihood is that both outside and internal powers will continue to fight over its resources even as scientists race to invent cobalt-free batteries. ... Some of the Gulf States, Venezuela, Canada, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and, to a lesser extent Russia, will see a gradual reduction in fossil-fuel revenue. ... Some shifts in the balance of power can’t be predicted, but we can say with confidence that they will happen. Bloomberg’s annual New Energy Finance report projects that by 2050, the world will get half of its power from wind and solar." geographical.co.uk/geopolitics/geopolitics/item/3864-the-race-to-dominate-renewables With the arrival of the new iPhone 12 touting 5G speed comes the question, where do the components of our cell phones come from? This article from BBC Future reveals a toxic artificial lake in Inner Mongolia, China, that is central to the mining and production of the rare earth metals that have become essential to our electronics: www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
This map, based on Census data, considers the percentage of adults in each state who have at least a bachelor's degree. Nationally, an average of 30.9% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree. (The states in blue, red, and white have education rates above this national average; the states in yellow, green, and peach have education rates below this national average.)
The end of daylight savings time in most of the U.S. -- some of the U.S. doesn't use daylight savings time in the first place -- serves as an introduction to the philosophy of time. What is time? Is time a continuum of past, present, and future? Or is time a series of "nows"? Does time "pass"? Is time linear? Or cyclical? (And how do dominant religious teachings affect our thinking about that aspect of time?) Does the future branch out infinitely from any one "now"? Or is the future a predetermined moment we arrive at? Is time even real? Or is it just a mental phenomenon? Various aspects of the philosophy of time are woven into both physics and metaphysics. However you prefer to think about time, I will be teaching my 14-week high school "Philosophically Speaking" class online from 3:00-4:00 pm ET on Wednesdays beginning in January. :-)
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Blog sharing news about geography, philosophy, world affairs, and outside-the-box learning
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