Dynamic ebola map

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/maps/en/

This World Health Organization (WHO) dynamic map shows the spread of ebola from 2014-2015 in West Africa. Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea were the most affected countries in West Africa.

2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa - Case Counts
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/case-counts.html

Brasileros

Last summer on a trip to South America, I spent a week in Curitiba checking out its innovations, both the ones it is famous for and new ones.

In the hostel I stayed at were both foreigners and Brazilians from Rio and Sao Paolo and other parts of the country. I talked with a young computer programmer from Sao Paolo in his 20s, he said he had just been to Atlanta for a computer conference. We talked about differences between Brazil and the US.

He said, "In the US, people go into government to represent people. Here, people go into government to make money."

I told him there is definitely corruption in US politics, lobbyists and pork. But now we hear that 2/3 of Brazil's congressmen are under some type of probe or investigation, including the President and the next two in line.

"You guys are trying to figure out how to regulate the internet, we're trying to get rid of corruption," he said.

Brazil has a huge mix of rich and poor but has made a lot of progress in reducing poverty. It is an industrial and agricultural giant. All the hard work the Brazilian people have put in to achieve this success is one of the reasons they are so fed up with the corruption in Operation Car Wash and the misuse of funds by Dilma Roussef, who is likely on her way out.

Whoever takes over Brazil's leadership after Roussef has a big task, to somehow unify this divided giant and create an atmosphere of transparency in a country long ruled by elites for elites but which now has a huge middle class.

European fertility rates

This chart shows both European fertility rates as well as the mean age of women having their first child. Notice that Mediterranean countries Italy, Greece, and Spain are both waiting longest and have the fewest kids.

Global farmland grabs

Typically we think of globalization involving communications, trade, and people moving around the world. But farmland can't be shipped and can't fit in a fiber optic cable. So, many countries in need of more farmland have made deals and/or are seeking new deals to get the rights to other countries' farmland. Case in point: United Arab Emirates (UAE), a small but rich desert country, invested $10 billion in farmland in Sudan in 2015. One of the biggest attempts at a farmland grab was in 2008, when Daewoo Corporation of South Korea signed a 99-year lease for 1.3 million acres of Madagascar's farmland, but the deal was was cancelled in 2009 after major protests.

This site posts examples of this phenomenon.

Farmlandgrabs.org - the global rush for farm land and peoples' struggles against it
http://www.farmlandgrab.org/

This article below says the grabs in Africa are not as large as they are often advertised. Nonetheless, they definitely do exist.

The myth of the African land grab - Foreign Policy
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/20/the-myth-of-the-african-land-grab/

Incidentally, the UAE-Sudan deal partners one of the Islamic world's richest, most stable and orderly countries with one of its poorest and most chaotic. Sudan ranks 4th on the list of the world's most fragile states. The three countries ranked as more fragile than Sudan are all close by: two neighbors with which it shares borders, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In this neighborhood of the world, racked by poverty and insecurity, securing those new farms in Sudan will be an interesting proposition for UAE.

good video on UK "Brexit" referendum coming up June 23

Could Britain leave the EU? This June, the UK is holding a nationwide referendum vote on whether to stay in or leave the EU. This short video explains the key issues involved.

For America, it is a big issue as well, and Obama just headed to the UK to urge them to stay in the EU. Why do we care? The UK and US have what is called the "special relationship" in international relations: we have each others' back. If the UK pulls out of the EU, the US will no longer have that link to EU decision-making through the UK.

The Brexit Debate: What Happens if the U.K. Leaves the EU
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-13/election-analyst-who-beat-pollsters-sees-24-chance-of-brexit

good video on the history and geography of the Spanish language

good video on the history and geography of the Spanish language

The Spanish Language and What Makes it The Coolest - Langfocus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSfCDdTtBn0

Nebraska: 93% farms, running out of water fast

Nebraska is 93% farmland, with one in four jobs related to agriculture. While Nebraskans are nicknamed "Cornhuskers," beef production is actually the #1 agricultural activity in Nebraska and the state is #1 in beef and veal exports. But Nebraska is still the #3 corn producer in the US, and has a major ethanol industry to go with it. Together the cattle-corn-ethanol trio are known as the "Golden Triangle."

44% of Nebraska's farms are irrigated by the Ogallala Aquifer, which, unfortunately, is projected to start running out in some areas in 2045 and be 69% depleted by 2060. One more reason why ethanol and corn subsidies are ill-advised--besides the fact that there are hundreds of important crops besides the handful the US government government oversubsidizes: corn, wheat, cotton, sugar, rice, soy.

Even Without a Drought, We’re Depleting Groundwater at an Alarming Pace
http://modernfarmer.com/2015/07/ogallala-aquifer-depletion/

The Okinawa connection

With US Air Force and Marine bases, the island of Okinawa, Japan has seen a lot of Americans come and go. Many were stationed there for years. Of my past students, one just told me she was moving to Okinawa for three years as her husband was stationed there. A former student from a few years ago spent time as a Marine there, where he met his first wife. He has Japanese-American kids and learned Japanese while over there. And one lady several years ago had grown up as a kid for several years on Okinawa, she chose to do her project on Japan including Okinawa in order to learn more about the place that she didn't understand back then.

Okinawa is a subtropical island, warm, high humidity with palm trees, lots of rocky coasts, and is closer to Taiwan and Shanghai, China than to Tokyo. What an opportunity to travel from there, to the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Korea, SE Asia, and the rest of Japan all close by.