Monthly Archives: February 2013

Journalism: A Dangerous Profession

Journalism is a very dangerous profession. Many journalists are killed every year around the world while covering everything from business and sports to revolutions, wars, political upheavals, corruption, human rights violations and more.

In 2012 alone, 103 journalists were killed around the globe. Motives were confirmed for 70 of them. The deadliest countries for journalists in 2012 were Syria (28 deaths), Somalia (12 deaths), Pakistan (7 deaths), and Brazil (4 deaths). The motives where the confirmed in these cases.

The way journalists are killed, range from crossfire or combat to murder. Impunity is a shocking 100% for murder cases. More detail in the chart below:

For additional information, including the list of the journalists killed in 2012, visit: Committee to Protect Journalists: 70 Journalists Killed in 2012/Motive Confirmed

 

Coffee Consumption Per Capita Worldwide

Coffee production and consumption is believed to have originated in Africa, more specifically in the province of Kaffa, Ethiopia. In the fifteen century it was already present in the Middle East. From there it spread to Italy and then to the rest of Europe. From Europe it traveled to the New World, where it was first cultivated in the Caribbean island of Martinique. During the first quarter of the eighteen century it was brought to Colombia and Brazil.

Coffee is an important cash crop in many developing countries. It is also an important commodity traded in major commodity exchanges around the world. The largest coffee producers include: Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Honduras, Uganda, and Nicaragua among others.

According to ChartsBin, coffee consumption around the world is estimated at 1.3 Kilograms per person per year (a total of 7,358,897 metric tons). In the map above, we can see that the countries with the largest coffee consumption per capita include: Finland (12 Kg. per person per year), Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, followed by Canada, Germany, Brazil and other western European nations.

Sources:

 

Religious Beliefs Around the World

click to enlarge

Religion plays an important role in every culture around the world. This amazing visualization of world religions by the National Post, shows the origins of different religious beliefs and how they are spread around the globe. The world’s population fall into the following main belief groups: Abrahamic (Christian, Judaic, Islamic, and Baha’i faiths), Eastern Dharmic (Buddhist, Hinduist, Sikh, and Ayyavazhi faiths), East Asian (Chinese folk religions, Japanese Shinto, and Vietnamese religions), Secular (Irreligious, Atheist, and Agnostic), and Indigenous (practiced by indigenous people in different regions of the globe).

The Abrahamic and Eastern Dharmic religions are by far the ones with the largest constituencies, 48% and 19% of the population respectively. The secular/agnostic/atheist group is the next largest constituency, 17% of the world’s population.

 

Where Lightning Strikes

Lightning strikes are defined as electrical discharges caused by electrical imbalances in the sky. Lightning is one of the top three storm-associated killers.

The map at the top shows the frequency of lightning strikes in different parts of the world. The color yellow indicates the regions with the highest average of lightning strikes per square kilometer per year. The Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa), Colombia (South America), and the Caribbean islands stand out in this map as being regions frequently hit by lightning strikes.

In the U.S. a total of 28 lightning fatalities occurred in 2012. The Southern states seem to be prone to lightning strikes. In 2012, Florida experienced 5 lightning fatalities, followed by the state of Texas with 3.

Sources:

Also recommended: The Atlantic: Lightning Strikes [Photo Gallery]

 

Places U.S. Secretaries of State Have Visited Since 1989

The Washington Post has mapped the frequency of visits of U.S. Secretaries of State to foreign nations since 1989.

According to the map, the top visited nations by U.S. Secretaries of State Baker, Christopher, Albright, Powell, Rice, and Clinton include: Israel, with 90 visits, followed by Egypt with 61 visits, Syria with 48 visits, the Palestinian authority with 47 visits, and Jordan with 35. Other nations frequently visited include: Britain, France, Germany, Belgium (NATO headquarters), Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Mexico.

For the interactive map, visit: Washington Post: Fascinating interactive map: Where U.S. secretaries of state have traveled since 1989

 

 

Real-Time Twitter Activity Mapped

This visualization from Tweetping.net shows Twitter activity in real time, worldwide. Using Twitter’s API, Tweetping.net tracks the total number of tweets, including word and character count, generated per second. It also tracks the latest mentions and hashtags used, categorized by region. The lit areas show where Twitter activity is happening at the moment.

For more, visit: The Atlantic: What Twitter Really Looks Like

 

Women in Front-Line Combat Roles Worldwide

Women are not allowed to take part in front-line combat roles in most nations. According to the map shown above, published by the Washington Post, front-line combat positions for women are permitted mostly in western nations.

Countries that formally allow women in combat positions (red) include: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Eritrea, Israel, North Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, where the ban on women in front-line combat has been recently lifted.

Countries where women are formally allowed in other major combat roles (orange), such as artillery and fighter pilots, include: the United Kingdom, Serbia, South Africa, Pakistan and South Korea.

 

Freedom of the Press Index 2013

Freedom of the Press Index 2013

Reporters Without Borders released this week its freedom of the press report for 2013. According to the report, countries where press freedoms are curtailed the most are Turkmenistan, North Korea, Eritrea. In contrast, the countries where freedom of the press is respected the most are Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway. The map above shows the state of world press freedoms for 2013.