Nighttime Image of Beijing and Tianjin from the International Space Station

Another cool (?) image from NASA. Taken by an astronaut aboard the space station, hence the oblique angle.

Polar View

Some nice maps from GISS showing temperature anomalies for November in the Arctic and Antarctic: It's clear from these, that though temperatures were low in NW Europe they were much higher than normal across Arctic Canada and Russia. For more information, visit Climate Progress

World Atwitter

This is just very cool:One minute of global Twitter activity.

Global Map of Forest Canopy Height

NASA has produced a cool map of world forest heights. Woodlands and savannas are not included so the green areas are a very low end estimate of world forest cover.

Blue and Red States and Climate Change

Source: U.S. EPA, Climate Change Indicators in the United States, April 2010.The map above shows that there has been more climate change on average in "blue states" - those that vote Democratic than in "red states" - those that vote Republican in the US. The colors are neatly reversed (here they are the traditional blue for conservative and red for left wing). Does this partly explain the divide

World Values Map

I was visiting the World Values Survey website in the process of collecting more data for my EERH project.Thought I'd post this fascinating "map" from their homepage:Not surprisingly, the English speaking countries (sorry Quebecois) are found grouped together. I found this was also the case for levels of sulfur abatement technology. Similarly the Germanic or Protestant countries occupy a common

U.S. Electric Supply and Grid

Some great maps of U.S. electricity supply and grid from NPR's website. The map above shows all power stations by size. Other maps show the share of different power sources by state (e.g. Vermont is the most nuclear state in the Union). Most importantly the transmission lines are mostly not where the best locations for alternative energy are (with the exception of some areas of the southwest near

George Friedman

If you've been around the investment blogosphere for a while, you've probably come across the writings of George Friedman, CEO of Stratfor, a "private global intelligence firm". Today, I heard George Friedman of Stratfor speak here in Australia. I guess it was part of his global book tour. His book - the next 100 years - was on sale. Usually, I don't read the stuff he writes as it seems very