Russian media says exit polls show 93 percent of voters elected to join Russia, in a move the West deems illegal.
See on www.aljazeera.com
Insured people are all alike, but uninsured people are uninsured for their own reasons.
It can be tempting to think of ‘the uninsured’ as the poorest of the poor. But that’s not entirely the case. While people living below the poverty line are the most likely to be without health insurance, 28 percent of people who make between 100 and 200 percent of poverty level (up to about $23,340) lack coverage, as do 15 percent of those who make between 200 and 400 percent (up to about $46,700).
These maps, created by Kevin Johnson and used here with permission, show where people not covered by either private or public insurance live in each city. Johnson used the 2012 American Community Survey; higher uninsured rates are represented by red and orange colors.
See on www.theatlantic.com
“The breakthrough came in 1996, when a new class of antiretroviral drug called protease inhibitors was launched. These were used in combination with two older drugs that worked in different ways. The combination meant that evolving resistance required the simultaneous appearance of several beneficial (from the virus’s point of view) mutations—which is improbable. With a viable treatment available, political action became more realistic. AIDS had been a “political” disease from the beginning, because a lot of the early victims were middle-class gay Americans, a group already politically active. Activists were split between those who favoured treating people already infected and those who wanted to stop new infections. The latter were more concerned to preach the message of safe sex and make condoms widely available, so that people could practise what was preached. Gradually, however, activists on both sides realised that the drugs, by almost abolishing the virus from a sufferer’s body, also render him unlikely to pass it on. They are, in other words, a dual-use technology.”
Seth Dixon‘s insight:
Tags: Africa, medical, development, diffusion.
See on www.economist.com
I made a music video to share my own story as a Muslim woman in America. In doing so, I was expected to share every other Muslim woman’s story, too.
Seth Dixon‘s insight:
This is one reason why I try to avoid terms like “the Geography of North America.” The geography of North America for this author is not identical to mine even if we might be occupying the same spaces. Our experiences and networks are shaped by ethnicity, class, gender and other markers of identity; we occupy overlaying and interrelated geographies. This article is an interesting read about overlapping cultural identities as global lives continue to weave a fascinating cultural tapestry. There isn’t one singular “Geography” with a capital G of any given place, but many geographies.
Tags: gender, popular culture, USA, globalization, culture, Islam.
See on www.theatlantic.com
Mesmerizing.
Seth Dixon‘s insight:
Earlier I shared a dynamic map of near-live wind data for the United States and a static rendering of global wind patterns. This interactive combines the features of both of those resources to provide a mesmerizing digital globe. Click on the ‘map to zoom in and to spin the globe. In addition to this tremendous digital globe, this link offers 11 tangible examples of how to use this and the patterns that it reveals.
See on www.policymic.com
By the end of this month, it is likely that Vladimir Putin’s Russia will fully control Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. And it is clear that he aspires to much more.
Seth Dixon‘s insight:
According to this article, Ukraine will be fine economically with Crimea being pinched off, but Crimea and Russia would suffer from an annexation
See on www.foreignaffairs.com
“The Main Languages of Business in Africa.”
Seth Dixon‘s insight:
While this is not a perfect map, if is still a powerful one to convey several points. One, the impact of colonialism is still felt in the the cultural, economic and political institutions of Africa. Two, given that most of African countries have many indigenous languages spoken by the population, the old colonial language remains as a de facto Lingua Franca in most places, especially among the elite. Take note of the OTHER category. Why is it other? What can we infer from this ‘othering’ of the only language native to Africa on the map?
Tags: language, Africa, colonialism.
See on www.africacncl.org
The Boston-Washington corridor, home to 18 percent of Americans, produces more economic activity than Germany.
See on www.theatlanticcities.com
With imagination one can explore and understand how very different life was for people in the United States before the Golden Spike was hammered into the ground in Utah in 1869. That was a much-hailed event that knitted the country together by linking two railroad lines from the eastern and western ends of the continent. Just ten years earlier, when the map at left was made, life was more centered on local transactions. It was hard for families with children to visit friends because travel in this part of the country was slow and arduous, over bumpy dirt roads by horse and wagon. A life involving daily travel for several miles from home each day to work was not feasible. Yet change was in the air even then.
Engineers had put together the recently-invented steam engine with the practicality of a road made of rails and cross-ties, and businessmen and politicians were envisioning a national transportation network – a railroad system. What a difference that could make in the life of this still-young nation! The federal government began sending dozens of mapmakers across the country to identify and draw the best routes for a national railroad in an initiative called “the Great Reconnaissance.”
The national railroad system brought a revolution in commerce and mind-set to the United States in the 19th century. Landsat technology has fomented a revolution of its own, making hundreds of maps of landscapes around the globe daily and becoming an integral part of our national infrastructure just as the railway system and automobile Interstate Highway Systems did in previous eras. With Landsat we have our own 21st century Great Reconnaissance.
See on landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov
