# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. With Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka, Billy Crudup. On a journey to find the cure for a Tatarigami's curse, Ashitaka finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest gods and Tatara, a mining colony. In this quest he also meets San, the Mononoke Hime.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a story of Yuugo Hachiken, a student in Ooezo Agricultural High School. This manga portrays the role agricultural system and Hokkeido in Japanese economy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yuugo Hachiken is studious, hard-working, and tired of trying to live up to expectations he just cannot meet. With the ushering in of a brand new school year, he decides to enrol in Ooezo Agricultural High School, a boarding school located in the Hokkaido countryside, as a means to escape from the stress brought upon by his parents.

# data[].attributes.headline
Using geographical knowledge to investigate killing in Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Using geographical knowledge to investigate killing in Africa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
CityGeographics: urban form, dynamics and sustainability

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Geographers have long grappled with the complex and ever changing configurations of global urbanism. Many terms have been coined to describe new 20th and 21st century urban forms: conurbations (Geddes, 1915), multi-nuclei cities (Harris & Ultman, 1945), megalopolis (Gottman, 1961), world cities (Hall, 1966), desakota (McGee, 1991), fractal cities (Batty & Longley, 1994), network cities (Batten, 1995), postmetropolis (Soja, 2000), splintering urbanism (Graham & Marvin, 2001), polycentric mega-city regions (Hall & Pain, 2006)...

These concepts are diverse, coming from different perspectives with different methods and archetypal case studies. But there are shared themes: a focus on more diffuse and polycentric urban forms; recognition of city connections across multiple scales; and the rise of ever larger urban regions embedded in thicker global networks.

Representing and exploring the diversity of contemporary global urban forms is a challenge for cartographers. We often focus on mapping the amazing richness and diversity of dominant global cities like London and New York. Yet this is clearly a very biased lens from which to frame the vast majority of the globe, as researchers have noted. Postcolonial critiques like Robinson's ordinary cities (2006) argue for a much more representative and cosmopolitan comparative urbanism. From a different angle, provocative research like Brenner's (2014) ' planetary urbanism ' has critiqued the contentions of a universal urban age, arguing that urban/rural distinctions are no longer meaningful where capitalist networks reach to every corner of the globe.

I recently released an interactive map of the new Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produced by the European Commission JRC and CIESIN Columbia University. This dataset makes several advances towards an improved cartography of the diversity of global urbanism. Firstly it is truly global, representing all the world's landmass and settlements at a higher level of detail, down to 250m. Secondly the population density and built-up layers are continuous: there are no inherent city boundaries or urban/rural definitions (the GHSL includes an additional layer with urban centres defined, but the user can ignore these and create their own boundaries from the underlying layers). Thirdly the dataset is a time-series, including 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2015. Finally the data layers and the methods used to create them are fully open.

Diversity and Structure of Global Urban Constellations
The complexity and scale of the GHSL data is both beautiful and beguiling. In China and India there are continuous landscapes of connected urban settlements with hundreds of millions of people, scattered across many thousands of square kilometres. The cartographic appearance of these regions is like constellations of stars coalescing in vast nebulae of diffuse population. Densities of South and South-East Asian towns and small settlements in semi-rural regions exceed many major cities in Europe and North America. These are complex evolving landscapes at a scale and extent unprecedented in the history of urbanism.

Similarly there are unique trends in other major regions of urbanisation such as Latin America. Here major centres are very high density, but the extent of diffuse rural populations is far less prevalent. As a result countries like Colombia and Brazil have some of the highest urban population densities in the world.

The recognition of this global diversity does not mean abandoning global theories of urbanism. Even amongst such complexity and diversity, we can still observe shared spatial patterns and connections. Clearly we are observing landscapes heavily influenced by our current era of intense globalisation, as well as retaining inherited patterns from previous eras. Spatial logics of globalisation are apparent across the globe, though differentiated between regions, economies and societies.

The pull of coastal areas for global trade is an obvious spatial pattern. The importance of port cities is also applicable to historic periods of ancient civilisations, and indeed to globalisation in the 18th and 19th centuries. But the difference in the 20th and 21st centuries appears to be the more intensive links between major ports and global megaregions of production and manufacturing. We can observe this in the huge megaregions of China: the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze Delta (both with around 50m population depending on where the boundary is drawn), which are China's leading manufacturing centres.

It also applies to Europe, with the higher density spine of the 'blue banana' linking low country ports to manufacturing centres in western Germany and north-eastern France, and more loosely to south-east England and northern Italy. As well as the manufacturing roles, it is clear that most major global financial centres are closely linked to megaregions, either at their core (e.g. Shanghai, New York, Tokyo) or within a couple of hours travel (e.g. Hong Kong, London, Paris). These centres provide the capital and business services that embed megaregions in global networks.

The importance of ports is also evident in South Asia. Port cities in South Asia are amongst the fastest growing in the world, such as Dhaka, Mumbai, Karachi, Kolkata and Chennai. But megaregions here appear as yet to be less extensive and well connected. Latin American cities are even more spatially separated and precisely defined in density terms, though there are signs of increasing connections between for example the two great Brazilian metropolises, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and in the north between Venezuelan and Colombian port cities.

Another fascinating pattern relates to large previously rural areas of population in developing countries that are urbanising in more diffuse and bottom-up patterns. McGee used the term desakota (village-city) to describe patterns of disperse rural development in Java Indonesia. There appear to be similar patterns emerging across regions of China and India, including many areas of the vast Ganges plain, and along the great rivers of China. One of most striking features in China is the concentration of semi-rural and urban populations radiating south-west from Beijing towards Shijiazhuang and then south towards Zhengzhou (this follows one of China's oldest rail routes, built 1903 and is nearly 600km long).

There are several areas of sub-Saharan Africa where desakota-like patterns seem to be apparent. The west coast around Nigeria and Ghana is one such area. Another is the many developments around Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Clearly the cultural and geographical diversity is very high in these regions, and my own knowledge of these countries is very limited. But the similar density patterns is still of interest.

Population and Density Statistics
The World Population Density map includes density statistics at national and city scales, with population totals classified into density groups (turn on the Interactive Statistics button at the top left). These help to identify differences in patterns of settlement, and how city densities relate to national distributions.

If we view the world's highest density cities, we can see the clear links to the above discussion of urbanisation in South Asia and East Asia, and major global port cities. Note however there are many issues with defining and measuring density, which need to be borne in mind when interpreting such statistics. These are measures of residential density, and results will likely be affected by the scale and accuracy of the underlying census data. It would also be better statistically to measure peaks as the 95th or 99th percentile to prevent a single square km cell skewing the results, as there are some outliers in the results.
Highest peak density cities GHSL 2015 1km scale-
We can also consider the highest population city-regions based on the GHSL urban centre boundaries. These are defined as continuous built-up areas, with polycentric regions linked into single cities. This leads to quite different results for world's largest cities, with the Pearl River Delta measured as the world's biggest urban agglomeration at 46 million (and that's not including Hong Kong or Macao). It is interesting to compare this to results from the UN World Urbanisation Prospects data, which keeps these regions as separate cities and identifies Tokyo as the world's largest city-region.
Highest population urban centres GHSL 2015 1km scale-
Future Cartography of Global Urbanism
Population density is clearly a very useful base from which to understand urbanisation and patterns of settlement. But we can also see its limitations too in the World Density Map if urbanisation is viewed only in terms of density. Many US city-regions are very low density, much lower than semi-rural parts of Asia and Africa, but these US cities are amongst the most affluent and highly urbanised areas of the globe.

Clearly a more comprehensive cartography of global urbanism would combine population density with measurements of development and economic activity, and the flows of people, goods, energy and information that describe the dynamics of how cities and networks function. The development of open global datasets like the GHSL will greatly help in these endeavours.

Another important issue is improving the sophistication of spatial statistics to include multiple urban boundaries and limit Modifiable Areal Unit effects. This would be possible with the GHSL dataset, and I have tried including national and city statistics, but clearly MAUP effects remain when using fixed city boundaries. Something along the lines of my colleagues' research testing statistics for multiple boundaries simultaneously and showing their influence would be a good avenue to explore.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Geographers have long grappled with the complex and ever changing configurations of global urbanism. Many terms have been coined to describe new 20th and 21st century urban forms: conurbations (Geddes, 1915), multi-nuclei cities (Harris & Ultman, 1945), megalopolis (Gottman, 1961), world cities (Hall, 1966), desakota (McGee, 1991), fractal cities (Batty & Longley, 1994), network cities (Batten, 1995),...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mapping Population Density Across the Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore the detailed geography of population across the globe with interactive mapping and statistics. Identify global megacity regions and the growth and diversity of urban forms. Data is from the Global Human Settlement Layer by the European Commission JRC.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's often said that England is the most densely populated large country in Europe - typically in discussions about the nation's rising population, and the growing strain on public services. But it's not true.

With 426 people per km², as of 2016, England is densely populated when compared to most other European countries. But it's not as densely populated as the Netherlands, where there were 505 people per km², or a much poorer country such as Bangladesh, where there were 1,252 per km².

Yet simply dividing the number of people by the land area of a country is not always the best way to understand population density. Consider a country such as Russia, where urban density is high, but there are vast swathes of empty land. The figures will tell you density is very low (eight people per km²); but this it not what most people in Russia experience in their daily lives. The same is true of Australia, Canada and other large, highly urbanised nations.

That's why I set out to understand the topic in more depth, using alternative measures of population density. I looked at 39 countries across Europe and came up with a set of statistics to help us understand settlement patterns in a more nuanced way. If you are interested in looking at this issue globally, I recommend Duncan Smith's World Population Density interactive map, or the World Bank's data comparison tool.

A bird's eye view

To begin with, I took Eurostat's population density grid data for 2011 and mapped it. This divides Europe into areas of 1km², and then gives a population count for each area, so that we can compare like-with-like across Europe. As you can see from the map, it provides a good overview of where people live, and where they don't live: notice the sparse settlement pattern in the Alps or northern Scandinavia, or indeed much of Spain.

Data: Eurostat. Mapping: by the author

This bird's eye view helps us to understand the wider context. For example, we can see an area of high population density extending in a rough arc from north-west England down to Milan, with a little break in the Alps. This is the so-called " blue banana ", or dorsale européenne (European backbone), identified by French geographer Roger Brunet in 1989, and it is home to more than 110m people.

But we can get further clarity still by honing in on "built-up" density, which takes into account only those 1km² areas with people living in them. I call this figure "lived density", since it provides a way of seeing the kinds of population densities that people experience in their day-to-day lives, within built-up areas.

The Spanish distribution

A good way to understand this measure is to look at Spain. It has a population density of 93 people per km², giving the impression of a sparsely populated country. This is borne out in the map, where much of Spain appears to be empty; much more so than any other large European country.

The reasons for this date back to Medieval times, as Daniel Oto-Peralías at the University of St Andrews has explained. Yet characterising Spain as a sparsely populated country does not reflect the experience on the ground - as anyone who knows Barcelona or Madrid can tell you.

Spain contains within it more than 505,000 1km squares. But only 13% of them are lived in. This means that the "lived density" for Spain is in fact 737 people per km², rather than 93. So even though the settlement pattern appears sparse, people are actually quite tightly packed together.

In fact, Spain could claim to be the most densely populated major European country by this measure, despite its appearance on the map. This also helps explain why Spain has the most densely populated km² in Europe; more than 53,000 people inhabit a single 1km² area in Barcelona. France also has an area with more than 50,000 people in a single km², in Paris.

Author

There are 33 1km² areas across Europe with a population of 40,000 or more: 23 are in Spain, and ten are in France. England's most densely populated km², in West London, has just over 20,000 people in it. Globally, the highest figure is close to 200,000, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

See for yourself

When we look at "lived density" across Europe, it's fair to say that England is a densely populated country - but it still sits behind Spain and the Netherlands on the list of major European nations, and below the microstates of Monaco, Andorra and Malta. The lived density figure for the Netherlands is 546 people per km², compared to 531 for England, 204 for Wales, 200 for Scotland and 160 for Northern Ireland.

Although these population numbers are a little dated now (they are based on 2011 data), they can still demonstrate how population density figures might differ from what we experience in our day-to-day lives. Arithmetic population density measures can be useful, but on their own they don't always help inform public debate, or match up with our perceptions of urban density.

I have provided the data for all 39 countries, where available, so you can compare the figures for yourself. By using a more sophisticated measure, we can gain a more nuanced perspective of settlement patterns and relative densities and, hopefully, better capture the reality on the ground in towns and cities.

Data: Eurostat. Calculations by the author.

Note: the final column shows how many 1km cells have people in them, but within that the level of density also varies, so this is not a "percent urbanised" measure.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Think your country is crowded? These maps reveal the truth about population density across Europe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's often said that England is the most densely populated large country in Europe - typically in discussions about the nation's rising population, and the growing strain on public services. But it's not true. With 426 people per km², as of 2016, England is densely populated when compared to most other European countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The map provides a level of detail previously unavailable. It is the first ever to collect data published by all of Europe's municipalities.

Since the turn of the millennium, Europe has been undergoing some pretty intense demographic change. Just how intense-and intricate-this change has been is revealed in a new map created by Germany's BBSR, the country's Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development.

The BBSR collected data between 2001 and 2011. While that might sound slightly outdated, these are actually the most up-to-date figures Europe has to offer, as 2011 is the most recent year for which comprehensive population data is available for the whole of Europe. According to its makers, the map provides a level of detail previously unavailable, as it is the first ever to collect data published by all of Europe's municipalities. The results are impressively comprehensive and reveal a few surprises.

The map works as follows. Dark blue patches show an average annual population fall of 2 percent or more, the medium blue patches a fall of between 1 and 2 percent, and the lightest blue patches a fall of up to 1 percent. Areas in beige have experienced no statistically significant change, while the red areas show population growth. Municipalities in deep red have experienced an average annual population rise of 2 percent or more, the medium red of between 1 and 2 percent, and the pale pink areas of up to 1 percent. The different sizes of each colored shape, meanwhile, show the radically different sizes of municipal units across the continent-large in the Baltic States, Turkey, and Northern Scandinavia, but far smaller in Ireland, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

A close reading of the map shows some key trends.

Suburbanization intensifies in Eastern Europe

Look at the Eastern section of the map and you'll see that many cities, including Prague, Bucharest, and the Polish cities of Poznań and Wrocław, are ringed with a deep red circle that shows a particularly high rise in average annual population of 2 percent or more. As this paper from Krakow's Jagiellonian University's Institute of Geography notes, Eastern cities began to spread out in the new millennium because it was their first chance to do so in decades.

During the Communist era, a lack of private construction companies and capital put a damper on the building of single-family homes, a restriction that continued to have effects in the early years of capitalism thanks to rapidly shrinking economies and a resulting lack of cash across the region. As the economic shock gradually subsided and more capital flooded into these regions, the beginning of this century saw many cities loosening their belts and spreading out.

Still leaving the East

We already know from other available data that Europe is experiencing a migration to the northwest, but the BBSR map adds complexity to this picture and reveals some interesting micro-trends. The dark blue coloring of the map's Eastern section shows that the lean years for Eastern states are by no means over. Residents have continued to leave Albania, Bulgaria and Latvia in particular in search of jobs, while even relatively wealthy eastern Germany has been hollowed out almost everywhere except the Berlin region.

Population growth in the Northwest, meanwhile, is far from even. While large sections of Northern Scandinavia's inland are losing people, there's still modest growth on the Arctic coasts. And while the Scottish Highlands contain some the least peopled lands in all of Europe, Scotland's Northeast shows remarkable population gains, a likely result of the North Sea oil industry concentrated in Aberdeen.

On the other side of Europe, the map reveals Turkey as a country undergoing intense demographic ferment. As people leave its countryside and move to its major cities and coasts, the country is transformed into a vivid mosaic that arguably shows more intense rises and falls than any other on the map.

Spain bucks the trend

Spain's trends look a little different from those of Europe as a whole. It's actually in the country's Northwest where the population has dropped most sharply, notably in the provinces of Galicia and León, which have long been known to produce many of Spain's migrants.

But other previously impoverished regions, such as Southwestern Murcia, have grown, a trend continuing along the Mediterranean coast where population levels have risen sharply. One reason for this is that the coasts are magnets for retiring or downsizing northwestern Europeans who move here on the hunt for daily sunshine and low prices.
This post has been updated to clarify that the BBSR map reflects average annual population change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This Incredibly Detailed Map Shows How Europe's Population Changed From 2001 to 2011

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The map provides a level of detail previously unavailable. It is the first ever to collect data published by all of Europe's municipalities. Since the turn of the millennium, Europe has been undergoing some pretty intense demographic change.

# data[].attributes.body
BBC travel columns for a significant historic places

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A look into how a destination has made a significant impact on the entire planet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Place to Find Out Characteristics of World Landforms

Choose One of the Landforms to Find Out Its Characteristics!

What are World Landforms?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Earth Landforms. Here you will learn about the major landforms of the world and other great features that are on the Earth's surface. There are many types of landforms around the world such as deserts, mountains and archipelagos.

How are Landforms Made?

Landforms are created a couple of different ways. Please see the bullet points below.

That is very curious question you are asking. Many of the landforms have been made throughout time. Largest landforms in the world took hundreds to billions of years to be what they are now. Gorgeous landforms of the world have been created in many different ways such as wind, eroding the surfaces of the world and depositing land and such soil in different places.

Another ways is movement of the earth's crust. The tectonic activity can create splendid landforms such as volcanoes, sink holes, mountains and faults or another words, a lot of the natural sites you see today.

Overall, mother nature has grace the planet in multiple ways and had created famous landforms in the world that we see today.

A lot of people spell the word landforms as land forms. Landforms is a compound word and the two words are brought together.

List of Major Landforms

There are many landforms that are on the earth's surface They are actually on other planets as well. One thing is certain there are major landforms that do cover the world that we live on. World Landforms does provide a list of all landforms that we see almost everyday like on TV or riding the bus home from school.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Choose One of the Landforms to Find Out Its Characteristics! Welcome to the wonderful world of Earth Landforms. Here you will learn about the major landforms of the world and other great features that are on the Earth's surface. There are many types of landforms around the world such as deserts, mountains and archipelagos.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Find information about New Zealand's temperature record and climate change in our information and resources section.
Information and resources
Introduction

New Zealand's climate is complex and varies from warm subtropical in the far north to cool temperate climates in the far south, with severe alpine conditions in the mountainous areas.

Mountain chains extending the length of New Zealand provide a barrier for the prevailing westerly winds, dividing the country into dramatically different climate regions. The West Coast of the South Island is the wettest area of New Zealand, whereas the area to the east of the mountains, just over 100 km away, is the driest.

Most areas of New Zealand have between 600 and 1600 mm of rainfall, spread throughout the year with a dry period during the summer. Over the northern and central areas of New Zealand more rainfall falls in winter than in summer, whereas for much of the southern part of New Zealand, winter is the season of least rainfall.

Mean annual temperatures range from 10°C in the south to 16°C in the north of New Zealand. The coldest month is usually July and the warmest month is usually January or February. In New Zealand generally there are relatively small variations between summer and winter temperatures, although inland and to the east of the ranges the variation is greater (up to 14°C). Temperatures also drop about 0.7°C for every 100 m of altitude.

Sunshine hours are relatively high in areas that are sheltered from the west and most of New Zealand would have at least 2000 hours annually. The midday summer solar radiation index (UVI) is often very high in most places and can be extreme in northern New Zealand and in mountainous areas. Autumn and spring UVI values can be high in most areas.

Most snow in New Zealand falls in the mountain areas. Snow rarely falls in the coastal areas of the North Island and west of the South Island, although the east and south of the South Island may experience some snow in winter. Frosts can occur anywhere in New Zealand and usually form on cold nights with clear skies and little wind.

Climate zones

To summarize the climate of New Zealand, selected locations throughout the country have been grouped into broad climate zones (see map to the right). A brief description of each climate zone illustrating the average rainfall and temperature can be reached by clickingon the links below:
Northern New Zealand Central North Island South-West North Island Eastern North Island Northern South Island Western South Island Eastern South Island Inland South Island Southern New Zealand Chatham Islands
The data are monthly averages for the period 1971-2000, for locations having at least 5 years of complete data.
Station details of each location
Similar scales have been used for each graph to allow comparison between locations.

Climate data

We also provide downloadable files for monthly and annual rain, temperature, sunshine, frost and wind data for selected locations throughout New Zealand. Actual data recorded at Reefton can be accessed for use in statistical analyses (see CliFlo).
Downloadable files
Resource prepared by Lesley Mackintosh
RSNZ Teacher Fellow 2001, NIWA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find information about New Zealand's temperature record and climate change in our information and resources section. Information and resources New Zealand's climate is complex and varies from warm subtropical in the far north to cool temperate climates in the far south, with severe alpine conditions in the mountainous areas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Although it's a popular misconception that it rains all the time on the West Coast, without its drenching, life-bringing rains, "the Coast" (as locals call it) would be a very different place. It's hard to imagine Westland without its vast tracts of rainforest; and, indeed, if not for the bountiful forests, the early economy of this isolated and wild region of New Zealand might never have gotten off the ground. Today, of course, one of the main reasons people visit the "Wet Coat" (another local nickname) is to experience its majestic rainforests. So here are some interesting facts about the rain and rainforests of the West Coast.

Orographic Rain

Rain is the life-blood of the ecosystems of Westland and its unique location, with a wide expanse of ocean on one side, and a sharply-rising mountain range on the other, means that rain, more than any other factor, has shaped both the geography and the natural history of the West Coast. The strong westerly winds which blow across the Tasman Sea pick up water vapour from the surface of the ocean as they move. When these moisture-laden air masses encounter the western side of the Southern Alps they are forced to rise. A complex set of physical properties - including, among other things, the adiabatic lapse rate and the Dew Point (don't worry, there won't be a test later!) - causes the water vapour to condense out of the air in the form of rain.

And what rain! On the West Coast it is measured not in millimetres but in metres. The Cropp River, inland from Hokitika, receives eighteen metres of rain annually, making it the wettest place in New Zealand. At higher altitudes, the rain falls as snow, filling the alpine basins and forming the glaciers which have shaped much of the landscape of Westland. The torrents of rain bring debris eroded from the mountainsides down to the lowlands and created the wide, fertile floodplains upon which the rainforests grow: themselves nourished by the constant wetting rains. Eventually, every drop of water - from the glacial ice to the run-off of tiny streams - returns to the Tasman Sea to be recycled into seawater and eventually returned to the clouds to once again fall on the forests and ranges of the West Coast.

The Wet Land

To early Maori, the rainforests and swamps of the West Coast presented an almost impenetrable barrier. But with patience and skill, Maori learned to harvest what they needed from the wet land: especially Pounamu, the lustrous green stone carried down from the mountains by the tumbling rives of South Westland. Subsequently, the European settlers found timber in abundance and sawmilling was one of the main industries of then early West Coast economy. As the rainforests were cleared, the land was brought into production for beef, sheep and dairy farming. However the swampy, infertile soils could only be farmed once drainage had been established. Even today, farmers have to balance the bountiful rain with the problems of flooding, erosion and the leaching of nutrients from the soil.

Humus is Everything

In a rainforest, nothing goes to waste. Leaves and bark, fallen branches, seeds and whole trees fall to the forest floor and slowly decompose into the rich, black humus and soils upon which the rainforest grows and thrives. The humus holds the rainwater like a giant living sponge, preventing it from running off and eroding the forest floor. The big rainforest trees, such as kaihikatea and matai, have shallow root systems and depend on the rich humus for their nutrients. Mosses and ferns carpet the rainforest floor, adding to the sponge-like feel you get when walking through the forest. The waters of the tiny creeks, which wend their way silently through the forests, are stained brown by the tannins which bleed from the humus as it decomposes, giving them the colour of the black billy tea brewed by the early explorers as they made their way through these dense and beautiful forests.

The Deep Dark Forest

Step a few metres away from your vehicle in a rainforest glade and turn around. Can you still see your car? Probably not. The thick understory of the rainforest forms a green barrier which can quickly shield landmarks from view. The early explorers found navigating and route-finding extremely difficult in the rainforests of the West Coast and would often spend days, even weeks, completely lost. Lush tree-ferns, bushy coprosmas with their round leaves and tiny coloured berries, five-finger trees with their hand-shaped leaves and dozens of other low-growing species fill every available space on the forest floor with foliage. And then...you look up.

The big guys of the rainforest are the trees. The trunks of the kaihikatea, matai and rimu trees stand ram-rod straight in the swampy ground, swaddled with creepers and dangling vines. The 19 th century writer Joseph Conrad once described visiting the Congo rainforests as being like going back to a time "when vegetation rioted on the Earth and the big trees were kings." And when you stand in a forest of towering kaihikatea trees in the silent, dripping rainforests of Westland, you can easily imagine the pre-historic times before people came to these islands and the big trees really did rule the Earth.

The Living Forest

The rainforests of the West Coast are alive with life. New Zealand has always been a land of birds, and despite the ravages of introduced predators - such as stoats, rats, possums and cats - if you stand quietly in the forest you will hear a symphony of bird-song. The limpid notes of the bell birds and tui provide the melody, while the trill of grey warblers, the "chit-chit" of riflemen (New Zealand's smallest bird) and the cork-on-a-bottle peep of the friendly fantail provide the harmonies and percussion. At night you may hear the mournful cries of the kiwi and the strange call of the ruru, New Zealand's native owl, which seems to say "more pork", hence its English name.

A colourful profusion of flowers can be seen in the rainforests and depending on the season, you will encounter rata, with its bright crimson flowers; perfumed white clematis; tiny pale blue coprosmas; and the spectacular yellow of the kowhai. But the overwhelming dominant colour is green, and in the rainforests of the West Coast, nourished by the constant rainfall and temperate climate, you will see every shade of green you can possible imagine. Just make sure you bring a raincoat!

For more information about Franz Josef and the West Coast, check out Westwood Lodge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
West Coast Rainfall and Rainforests: Nature's Beauty | West Coast, New Zealand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although it's a popular misconception that it rains all the time on the West Coast, without its drenching, life-bringing rains, "the Coast" (as locals call it) would be a very different place.

# data[].attributes.headline
Subaru’s secret: Marginalized foreign workers power a Japanese export boom

# data[].attributes.subject
Subaru’s secret: Marginalized foreign workers power a Japanese export boom

# data[].attributes.body
Immigration and Subaru Supply-Chain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Subaru's secret: Marginalized foreign workers power an export boom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Subaru has won U.S. drivers with its socially responsible image. But its supply chain relies on hundreds of migrants from poor nations who are far cheaper to employ than Japanese workers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Amos Chapple
Humans are resilient, hardworking creatures.

And there's perhaps nowhere where that's more evident than in the tiny village of Oymyakon, Russia, regarded by most as the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth.

Temperatures average around -58 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months, with the record low reaching -96.16 degrees Fahrenheit in 1924.

Adventurer and photographer Amos Chapple visited the village, as well as Yakutsk, its nearest city center.

Chapple spent a total of five weeks in the region, documenting everyday life in these harsh conditions, as well as the people who call the area home.
Christian Storm contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
21 amazing photos that show what life is like in the coldest inhabited town on earth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Humans are resilient, hardworking creatures. And there's perhaps nowhere where that's more evident than in the tiny village of Oymyakon, Russia, regarded by most as the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth. Temperatures average around -58 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months, with the record low reaching -96.16 degrees Fahrenheit in 1924.

# data[].attributes.body
Zebras Stripes and Temperature

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but some zebras change their stripes. Zebras in warmer places have more stripes, a new study shows, which might help answer an age-old question: Why stripes?

The answer probably comes down to keeping zebras cool and fending off disease-causing insects that are more common in hotter climates, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

All three species of zebra have bold black and white stripes that stand out among more drab-looking African grazers, like buffalo and antelope, especially against a plain savanna background. And standing out would seem to make a zebra more likely to become a lion's lunch.

This "stripe riddle" has puzzled scientists, including Darwin, for over a century. There are five main hypotheses for why zebras have the stripes: to repel insects, to provide camouflage through some optical illusion, to confuse predators, to reduce body temperature, or to help the animals recognize each other. (See " Zebra Stripes Evolved to Repel Bloodsuckers?")

A new analysis of the plains zebra-the most common species, which ranges from Ethiopia to South Africa-doesn't tease out one theory as the definitive winner.

But it does show that temperature is the factor most strongly linked to striping: More specifically, the warmer it is, the more stripes on the zebra.

Brenda Larison, a biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues visited 16 zebra populations throughout Africa and studied their stripe patterns, in a project supported by National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (See pictures of zebras in National Geographic magazine.)

The team then measured 29 different environmental factors-such as soil moisture, rainfall, prevalence of disease-carrying tsetse flies, and distribution of lions-and plugged them into a computer model to see which ones were related to differences in stripe patterns across the zebra's range.

The two factors that mattered most, said Larison, were how consistent the temperature was in a particular area and the average temperature during the coldest part of the year.

The researchers then went a step further, using the two temperature variables to predict the striping patterns of zebra populations not included in the study.

"We were able to show that we could predict it with significant accuracy," Larison said.

Why temperature affects striping is another question, she said, but there are two possible reasons.

One is the "cooling eddy" theory. When air hits a zebra, the currents are stronger and faster over the black parts (since black absorbs more heat than white) and slower over the white. At the juncture of these two opposing airflows, little eddies of air may swirl and serve to cool a zebra's skin. (Download zebra-stripes desktop wallpaper.)

For instance, Larison said, there's evidence that heavily striped zebras have 5.4-degree Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) lower skin temperatures than other non-striped mammals in the same area.

The other idea holds that more stripes may be a barrier against disease, since disease-carrying biting flies, like horseflies, tend to like it hot. Experiments in the field have shown that biting flies don't like landing on striped surfaces.

Tim Caro, a biologist at the University of California, Davis, supports the disease theory. "We're getting a lot of similarities in our findings," said Caro, whose own research showed that striping is linked to repelling biting flies. (Related: " Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? New Study Offers Strong Evidence.")

"Diseases carried by horseflies are really nasty," he said. "They can hold a lot of diseases like equine influenza, and it's possible that those diseases are going to be more of a problem under warmer, wetter conditions."
Kiss of Death for Lion Hypothesis
Neither the new study nor Caro's work found a link between striping and lion populations. ( Watch a video: "Lions vs. Zebra.")

"A lot of people in the public think that stripes have to do with confusing predators," he said.

"This is the kiss of death for that particular idea."
Follow Christine Dell'Amore on Twitter and Google+.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? New Study Makes Temperature Connection

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but some zebras change their stripes. Zebras in warmer places have more stripes, a new study shows, which might help answer an age-old question: Why stripes?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rain: A history for stormy times | Cynthia Barnett | TEDxJacksonville

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Special report : Inside the Congo cobalt mines that exploit children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Germany has been populated by humans for at least 600,000 years. Modern Germans, as well as their ancestors, have been reshaping the land to their needs for most of that time, much of that impact visible from aerial and satellite photography-from fortresses and palaces to factories, enormous cities, massive mines, farms, and more. Over the past few weeks, I took a virtual tour with Google Earth, and now want to share some of these snapshots of the human landscape in Germany. See also, earlier tours: Human Landscapes of Mexico, Canada, and the American Southwest.

View this page Hints: full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Germany has been populated by humans for at least 600,000 years. Modern Germans, as well as their ancestors, have been reshaping the land to their needs for most of that time, much of that impact visible from aerial and satellite photography-from fortresses and palaces to factories, enormous cities, massive mines, farms, and more.

# data[].attributes.body
Recommended by Kru Kin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Whether you're sipping a pint of kölsch in Germany or drinking a Heineken at a hotel bar in Hong Kong, there are a number of factors that can influence how much your beverage will cost. Cost of living is certainly a primary factor, but taxes, availability, type of establishment, type of beer ( craft beer vs macro brew), and local tastes will also affect the price of your pint.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank recently gathered critical data on how much a pint of beer costs in various major cities around the world.

Sticker Shock

Many of the cities that topped the price list have a higher cost of living, and it's no surprise to see Singapore and Oslo rank near the top.

The city of Dubai, however, is a unique case.

Technically, drinking is only permissible for expats and non-Muslim residents in Dubai, and being drunk in public can come with serious consequences. That said, the city's establishments serve beer with prices that reflect its high-end look and feel. Considering the scarcity and heavy regulations, those craving a pint might be happy to overlook the price tag of $12.

Cheap Thrills

The thirsty citizens of the Czech Republic consume the most beer by a long shot - a full 36% more than neighbors Austria and Germany. This is partially because demand is so high that companies are willing to compete on cost. As a result, beer is often cheaper than water in restaurants and pubs in Prague.

Manila's low cost of living and steady supply of domestic beer earned it the lowest price per pint on the Beer Price List. San Miguel, the Philippines' largest brewery, dominates with a market share of over 90%, and beer consumption is also on the rise in the country.

The 48 Pack

The median price of beer in the 48 cities analyzed was $5.70, and below is the full list of cities ordered from most to least expensive pint.
It's worth noting that the data collection focuses on expat (read: touristy) areas of the city. While that's not a perfect picture of prices in a city, it does allow for a more consistent comparison of wildly differing markets.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mapping the Price of Beer Around the World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whether you're sipping a pint of kölsch in Germany or drinking a Heineken at a hotel bar in Hong Kong, there are a number of factors that can influence how much your beverage will cost.

# data[].attributes.headline
ความเหลื่อมล้ำกับความเป็นเมืองในย่างกุ้ง

# data[].attributes.subject
ความเหลื่อมล้ำกับความเป็นเมืองในย่างกุ้ง

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ณัฐพล ตันตระกูลทรัพย์

อนรรฆ พิทักษ์ธานิน

ศูนย์แม่โขงศึกษา จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

เพิงไม้มุงจาก ฝาไม้ไผ่ขัดแตะ ที่เรียงรายเป็นกระจุกอยู่ตามถนนและพื้นที่ว่างในเขตอุตสาหกรรม Hlaing Thar Yar กลายเป็นภาพชินตาที่เกิดขึ้นในเขตอุตสาหกรรมแห่งแรกและใหญ่ที่สุดของประเทศ "เมียนมา" ประเทศที่นักธุรกิจทั่วโลกกำลังจับตาว่าจะเป็นโอกาสทองทางธุรกิจแห่งนี้

นอกจากความรู้สึกไม่เป็นระเบียบ ไม่งามตา สกปรก ดูเหมือนจะเป็นแหล่งเพาะเชื้อโรค และความรู้สึกน่าหวาดหวั่นของกลุ่มคนที่อยู่ในเพิงพักเหล่านี้ กลุ่มของสิ่งปลูกสร้างที่อาจเรียกได้ว่าเป็น "สลัม" ยังบอกอะไรกับเราได้อีกบ้าง หรือเราควรมองปรากฏการณ์นี้อย่างไร ไม่เพียงแต่สถานการณ์ในเขตนิคมอุตสาหกรรมแห่งนี้เท่านั้น แต่ยังอาจหมายรวมถึงความเข้าใจเกี่ยวกับการขยายตัวของเศรษฐกิจพม่าและการเติบโตของเมืองย่างกุ้งหลังการปฏิรูปทางการเมืองในปี 2010

ผู้เขียนร่วมกับ Bendar Social Development Group ได้ลงสำรวจและเก็บข้อมูลเบื้องต้นในพื้นที่ และเรื่องเล่าของ 2 ครอบครัว ที่อาศัยในเพิงพักเหล่านี้ น่าจะสร้างความเข้าใจและมุมมองเพิ่มเติมได้อย่างดี
ความสูญเสียในอดีต
U Kyaw Gyi ชาวมณฑลเอยาวดี เกิดและเติบโตในหมู่บ้านที่มีน้ำท่วมตลอดทั้งปี อาชีพที่ยึดถือมาแต่ครั้งบรรพบุรุษก็คือจับปลา โดยจับในบริเวณเดียวกับพื้นที่อยู่อาศัยนั่นเอง แต่วันเลวคืนร้ายรัฐบาลกลับนำพื้นที่ของหมู่บ้านมาจัดสรรเป็นแปลงสัมปทานเพื่อเพาะเลี้ยงสัตว์น้ำให้กลุ่มธุรกิจ ที่ทำกิน ที่อยู่อาศัย ซึ่งไม่เคยมีระบบเอกสารสิทธิใดๆจึงต้องสูญเสียไปทั้งหมดอย่างไร้ทางสู้ จนต้องเข้ามาหางานในเมืองกันทั้งครอบครัวตั้งแต่ 11 ปีที่แล้ว ปัจจุบัน 8 ชีวิต อาศัยในเพิงเล็กๆหน้ากว้างราว 2 เมตร แม้ฐานะในปัจจุบันจะดีขึ้นกว่าแต่ก่อนมาก แต่ก็ยังต้องเผชิญกับความไม่แน่นอนมากมายในชีวิต

ระบบกรรมสิทธิ์ที่ชาวบ้านไม่สามารถเป็นเจ้าของที่ดิน ทำได้เพียงเช่าสิทธิจากรัฐ บวกกับระบบฐานข้อมูลและการจัดเก็บเอกสารที่เรียกได้ว่าไม่มีระบบ กลายเป็นช่องโหว่ที่ทำให้สิทธิในที่ดินทำกินและปัญหาการเข้ายึดครองที่ดินขนาดใหญ่ของรัฐและนายทุนเป็นปัญหาใหญ่ในเขตชนบทพม่าตั้งแต่อดีตจนถึงปัจจุบัน

ปัญหาดังกล่าวสะท้อนความเหลื่อมล้ำในตัวของมันเองและยังเป็นแรงผลักให้ชาวบ้านต้องเข้ามาเผชิญความเหลื่อมล้ำอีกรูปแบบหนึ่งที่ในเมือง
ความมั่นคงในชีวิต
U Thein Lwin และครอบครัว มาจากเอยาวดีเช่นเดียวกัน หลังจากที่ต้องสูญเสียที่ดินทำกินจากสภาพเศรษฐกิจที่เลวร้ายของครอบครัว จึงส่งลูกเมียเข้ามาหางานทำในเมืองก่อนโดยมีเพื่อนๆที่มาก่อนคอยช่วยเหลือ แต่ก็ยังไม่สามารถพยุงฐานะครอบครัวต่อไปได้จนต้องตามมาหางานทำในย่างกุ้งตั้งแต่ปี 2010 โดยเข้ามาเป็นเจ้าหน้าที่รักษาความปลอดภัย มอเตอร์ไซด์รับจ้าง และงานอื่นๆอีกหลากหลาย

แม้จะพอดำรงชีวิตอยู่ได้ในปัจจุบัน แต่ปัญหาที่รบกวนใจมาโดยตลอดก็คือเรื่องที่อยู่ ตั้งแต่เข้ามาย่างกุ้ง U Thein Lwin ต้องย้ายที่อยู่หลายครั้งอันเนื่องมาจากหลายเหตุผล โดยเฉพาะเรื่อง "สู้ค่าเช่าไม่ไหว" จนมาได้ที่อยู่ในปัจจุบันที่ค่อนข้างลงตัวโดยซื้อสิทธิ (ซึ่งถ้าว่าตามกฎหมายแล้วก็ไม่ได้มีการคุ้มครองใดๆ) จากคนที่อยู่ก่อนหน้าในราคาราว 170,000 จ๊าต (ราว 130 เหรียญ) ซึ่งแม้จะได้ที่อยู่ที่ค่อนข้างพอใจแล้วแต่ที่จริงยังต้องอกสั่นขวัญหายทุกครั้งที่ได้รับหมายแจ้งจากทางเทศบาล (Yangon City Development Committee: YCDC) ให้ย้ายออกจากพื้นที่ โดยส่งตรงถึงประตูบ้านปีละ 4 ครั้ง

ความไม่มั่นคงดังกล่าวทำให้การพัฒนาและปรับปรุงที่อยู่ให้ดีขึ้นนั้นเป็นไปได้ยาก เพิงมุงจากพื้นไม้ไผ่สานจึงเป็นทางเลือกเดียวของผู้คนที่นี่ เพิงแบบนี้กันยุงและแมลงไม่ได้ ฝุ่นและกลิ่นต่างๆกลายเป็นเรื่องที่คุ้นชิน ที่สำคัญยังเสี่ยงต่อการเกิดไฟไหม้อย่างยิ่ง

ทั้งหมดนี้จึงทำให้สิ่งที่เรียกว่า "บ้าน" ที่สร้างความมั่นคงให้กับชีวิตทั้งทางกายภาพและจิตใจนั้น ไม่เคยเกิดขึ้นได้ในที่แห่งนี้
ค่าครองชีพสูงคุณภาพชีวิตต่ำ
งานเป็นสิ่งที่หาไม่ยากนักโดยเฉพาะในปัจจุบัน แต่งานประจำที่มีรายได้มั่นคงแทบจะหาไม่ได้ หลายคนสูญเสียเอกสารระบุตัวตน ทั้งบัตรประชาชนและทะเบียนบ้านซึ่งเป็นเอกสารสำคัญที่ต้องใช้ประกอบการสมัครงาน คนกลุ่มนี้แม้แต่เข้าเป็นแรงงานไร้ทักษะในโรงงานยังไม่มีสิทธิ รับจ้างทั่วไปและการค้าขายเล็กๆน้อยๆ อาทิ ร้านโชห่วย ร้านอาหารเล็กๆ และรับซ่อมจักรยาน จึงดูเหมือนจะเป็นอาชีพยอดนิยมของคนที่นี่

หากอยากจะมีรายได้ที่มากขึ้นหลายครอบครัวต้องดิ้นรนมากกว่านั้น บ้างต้องไปรับงานเย็บผ้าจากโรงงานมาทำที่บ้านซึ่งต้องลงทุนจักรเย็บผ้าเอง บางครอบครัวไปซื้อปลาสดจากแพปลาแล้วมาทำแดดเดียวขายส่งที่ตลาด หรือบางครอบครัวก็ดิ้นรนส่งคนหนุ่มสาวไปทำงานต่างประเทศ

แม้รายได้ไม่มั่นคงแต่รายจ่ายนั้นมั่นคงยิ่ง นอกจากค่าอาหารในแต่ละวันแล้วรายจ่ายเพื่อดำรงชีวิตในด้านอื่นๆ ทั้งค่าไฟ ค่าน้ำดื่ม น้ำใช้ ดูจะเป็นรายจ่ายหลักของทุกครอบครัวที่นี่ ค่าไฟที่มีต้นทุนสูงเพราะซื้อมาจากเพื่อนบ้านที่มีเครื่องปั่นไฟดีเซล โดยจ่ายเป็นรายวันคิดตามจำนวนเครื่องใช้ไฟฟ้าที่มีในบ้าน บ้านที่มีหลอดไฟ 2 หลอดและทีวี 1 เครื่อง จะเสียค่าไฟต่อวันราว 400 จ๊าต (ราว 10 บาท) หรือตกเดือนละราว 300 บาท นี่เป็นราคาสำหรับการใช้ไฟเพียงแค่ 3 ชั่วโมงต่อวันเท่านั้น สถานการณ์น้ำดื่มน้ำใช้ก็ไม่ต่างกันนัก ในหน้าฝนบางครอบครัวอาจเก็บน้ำฝนไว้ใช้ได้ แต่ในหน้าแล้งก็ต้องพึ่งระบบประปาจากเพื่อนบ้านที่มีเงินลงทุนเจาะน้ำบาดาลและขายในชุมชน

ความเจ็บป่วย แน่นอนเป็นรายจ่ายที่ทำให้ครอบครัวแทบล้มละลายได้ ครอบครัว U Thein Lwin ซึ่งถือเป็นครอบครัวที่ค่อนข้างมีฐานะ เพราะมีลูกไปทำงานต่างประเทศและส่งเงินกลับมาให้ทุกเดือน แต่เงินที่ส่งมานั้นกลับหมดไปกับค่ารักษาพยาบาลภรรยาของเค้า ที่ป่วยเป็นโรคปวดหลังซึ่งเป็นผลมาจากการใช้ร่างกายทำงานหนักในอดีต
กลจักรในการขับเคลื่อนการเป็นอุตสาหกรรม
ท่ามกลางการสนับสนุนให้ต่างชาติมาลงทุนเพื่อขับเคลื่อนเศรษฐกิจ รัฐบาลพยายามดึงดูดการลงทุนผ่านมาตรการต่างๆ ทั้งการแก้กฎหมายให้เอื้อต่อการลงทุน ทั้งการปฏิรูประบบเงินตรา และความพยายามในการพัฒนาระบบสาธารณูปโภค แต่สิ่งที่ดึงดูดทุนจากต่างชาติได้มากที่สุดกลับเป็น "แรงงานราคาถูกจำนวนมาก"

เมื่อเทียบกับประเทศในภูมิภาคที่มีระดับการพัฒนาใกล้เคียงกัน เมียนมามีต้นทุนทั้งด้านการขนส่งและต้นทุนสาธารณูปโภคสูงกว่าประเทศอื่นๆมาก แต่กลับมีต้นทุนแรงงานที่ถูกกว่า ทำให้อุตสาหกรรมที่ใช้แรงงานเข้มข้นจำนวนมาก เลือกที่จะย้ายฐานการผลิตมายังที่แห่งนี้ และความได้เปรียบด้านต้นทุนแรงงานนี้ก็สามารถชดเชยต้นทุนด้านอื่นๆที่สูงลิ่วได้ทั้งหมด

แล้วแรงงานเหล่านี้ดำรงชีวิตอยู่ได้อย่างไรท่ามกลางค่าครองชีพที่สูงลิ่วและอัตราเงินเฟ้อราวร้อยละ 6 คำตอบอาจหาได้จากสลัมที่เรียงรายอยู่รอบโรงงาน ซึ่งได้กลายเป็นทั้งโรงอาหารราคาถูก ที่พักอาศัยราคาต่ำของแรงงานบางส่วน และบริการราคาถูกอีกมากมาย ทั้งตัดผม ซ่อมจักรยาน ฯลฯ

อาจกล่าวได้ว่า โรงงานซึ่งควรเป็นผู้จัดสรรสวัสดิการทั้งอาหารและที่พักให้กับพนักงาน กลับผลักภาระดังกล่าวให้กับสลัมโดยรอบ ในแง่นี้สลัมจึงทำหน้าที่สำคัญในการลดต้นทุนให้กับอุตสาหกรรมซึ่งกลายเป็นกลจักรสำคัญในการขับเคลื่อนเศรษฐกิจของประเทศไปแล้วในปัจจุบัน
ความช่วยเหลือจากภาครัฐที่มาไม่ถึง
นโยบายแฟลตเอื้ออาทรเป็นสิ่งที่รัฐนำมาใช้เหมือนประเทศอื่นๆในการจัดการกับปัญหาสลัม ความพิศวงก็คือ ยูนิตที่สร้างแล้วเสร็จจำนวนมากยังคงไร้ร้างผู้คน หากแต่รัฐก็ยังเดินหน้าก่อสร้างขยายยูนิตอยู่ตลอดเวลา

ราคาสูงเกินไป สูงเกินกว่าที่ชาวสลัมจะซื้อได้กลายเป็นเหตุผลสำคัญหนึ่งที่โครงการนี้ล้มเหลว แต่อีกเหตุผลหนึ่งที่อาจสำคัญกว่านั้นก็คือการสร้างที่อยู่อาศัยแนวตั้งในบริเวณที่แยกห่างจากโรงงานอุตสาหกรรม ทำให้ชาวสลัมไม่อาจย้ายไปได้แน่นอน

ชาวสลัมซึ่งมีรายได้ผูกติดอยู่กับแรงงานหลายหมื่นคนจะอยู่อย่างไรหากแยกเค้าออกมาอยู่ห่างจากโรงงาน ไม่ต่างจากการแยกผู้ผลิตออกมาจากตลาดของเค้า ชาวสลัมบางส่วนมีอาชีพที่ต้องใช้พื้นที่ในการทำงาน อาทิ การเปิดร้านซ่อมจักรยาน ทำปลาแดดเดียว หรือบางรายมีแปลงผักของตัวเองเพื่อลดค่าใช้จ่าย กิจกรรมเหล่านี้จะเอาขึ้นไปทำบนแฟลตความสูง 10 ชั้น ได้อย่างไร

โครงการที่อยู่อาศัยของรัฐจึงมองสลัมว่าเป็นเพียงที่ซุกหัวนอนเท่านั้น และมองข้ามบทบาทในด้านอื่นๆ โดยเฉพาะการเป็นที่ประกอบอาชีพซึ่งสัมพันธ์กับแรงงานจำนวนเรือนหมื่นในเขตอุตสาหกรรม ในท้ายที่สุดแล้ว ความช่วยเหลือที่ปราศจากความเข้าใจของรัฐ ไม่ว่าจะทุ่มงบประมาณขนาดไหนก็จะไม่มีทางเข้าถึงชาวสลัมไปได้
เมืองกับการขูดรีด
ท่ามกลางการเติบโตของเมืองย่างกุ้ง ภาพที่ซ้อนอยู่จึงเป็นการเติบโตของพื้นที่สลัมเช่นเดียวกัน สลัมกลายเป็นแหล่งแรงงานราคาถูกของเมือง กลายเป็นคนกลุ่มสุดท้ายที่เมืองผลักต้นทุนต่างๆมาให้ โดยเฉพาะต้นทุนในด้านแรงงาน ไม่เพียงแต่แรงงานในภาคอุตสาหกรรมเท่านั้น หากหมายถึงการใช้แรงงานในกิจการทั่วไป ทั้งแรงงานก่อสร้าง พนักงานร้านค้า กรรมกรในตลาด รวมถึงคนขับรถสาธารณะ ในขณะเดียวกัน การมีอยู่ของสลัมกลับถูกมองว่าเป็นปัญหาของการพัฒนาเมือง นำไปสู่มาตรการต่างๆที่รัฐระดมใช้เพื่อกวาดล้างสลัมให้หมดไป

ความเหลื่อมล้ำในชนบทซึ่งทำให้ครอบครัวของ U Kyaw Gyi และ U Thein Lwin ต้องจากมา จึงถูกผลิตซ้ำในเมือง การกลายเป็นเมืองจึงเป็นกระบวนการเดียวกับการสร้างความเหลื่อมล้ำอย่างแยกไม่ออก และอาจจะกลายเป็นภูมิทัศน์ทางสังคมที่โดดเด่นของย่างกุ้งหลังยุคเผด็จการ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ความเหลื่อมล้ำกับความเป็นเมืองในย่างกุ้ง

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ณัฐพล ตันตระกูลทรัพย์ อนรรฆ พิทักษ์ธานิน ศูนย์แม่โขงศึกษา จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย เพิงไม้มุงจาก ฝาไม้ไผ่ขัดแตะ ที่เรียงรายเป็นกระจุกอยู่ตามถนนและพื้นที่ว่างในเขตอุตสาหกรรม Hlaing Thar Yar ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ISRIC can only fulfil its mission with strong partners. Interested in making ISRIC part of an exciting endeavour? Learn about the opportunities we see.

# data[].attributes.headline
Amazing journey on campervan from Japan to UK

# data[].attributes.subject
Amazing journey on campervan from Japan to UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kinjiro Ogawa drives 31,000 miles from his home country to his old house in Dulwich.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
OEC: The Observatory of Economic Complexity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An online resource for international trade data and economic complexity indicators available through interactive visualizations of countries and products.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A spring tide is a common historical term that has nothing to do with the season of spring. Rather, the term is derived from the concept of the tide "springing forth." Spring tides occur twice each lunar month all year long without regard to the season. Neap tides, which also occur twice a month, happen when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other.

Tides are long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is "pulled" back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the Earth in their monthly and yearly orbits.

During full or new moons-which occur when the Earth, sun, and moon are nearly in alignment-average tidal ranges are slightly larger. This occurs twice each month. The moon appears new (dark) when it is directly between the Earth and the sun. The moon appears full when the Earth is between the moon and the sun. In both cases, the gravitational pull of the sun is "added" to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth, causing the oceans to bulge a bit more than usual. This means that high tides are a little higher and low tides are a little lower than average.

These are called spring tides, a common historical term that has nothing to do with the season of spring. Rather, the term is derived from the concept of the tide "springing forth." Spring tides occur twice each lunar month all year long, without regard to the season.

Seven days after a spring tide, the sun and moon are at right angles to each other. When this happens, the bulge of the ocean caused by the sun partially cancels out the bulge of the ocean caused by the moon. This produces moderate tides known as neap tides, meaning that high tides are a little lower and low tides are a little higher than average. Neap tides occur during the first and third quarter moon, when the moon appears "half full."

NOAA's tide and tidal current predictions take into account astronomical considerations due to the position of the moon and the sun.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national oceanic and atmospheric administration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tides are long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is "pulled" back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the Earth in their monthly and yearly orbits.

# data[].attributes.body
History of soil map of Thailand

# data[].attributes.body
Boko Haram from Al-Jazeera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Boko Haram in Nigeria - the latest news from Al Jazeera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UNICEF reports that one in five "suicide bombers" used by Boko Haram has been a child. Find out more about Boko Haram attacks and their impact on Nigeria.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Youth Unemployment: The Middle East's Ticking Time Bomb

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Countries as different as Morocco and Iran are beset by joblessness, but many of the solutions are less than palatable.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How long will human impacts last? - David Biello

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could we actually live on Mars? - Mari Foroutan

# data[].attributes.headline
What would it be like to live on the moon? 

# data[].attributes.subject
What would it be like to live on the moon? 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could you live on the moon? - Alex Gendler

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national oceanic and atmospheric administration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NOAA's National Ocean Service Education: Estuaries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Revised July 06, 2017 | Questions, Comments? Contact Us | Report Error | Disclaimer | About the Site | User Survey Web Site Owner: National Ocean Service | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Department of Commerce | USA.gov

# data[].attributes.body
Eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano - The Boston Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The activity of Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island has become destructive since early May, burning dozens of homes and forcing residents to flee. Many fissures have opened, spewing lava into neighborhoods and into the Pacific Ocean.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Probing Kilauea's Plume : Natural Hazards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Volcanic plumes can pose health hazards and offer clues about a volcano's geology.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Emergency services in Guatemala are evacuating areas around the Fuego volcano after a new eruption sent lava spewing down its south side.

At least 72 deaths have been reported since the volcano first erupted on Sunday, with many others missing.

Authorities say more than 1.7 million people have been affected by the eruption, with more than 3,000 evacuated and many living in shelters.

Villages on the slopes of the volcano were buried in volcanic ash and mud.

How volcano disaster unfolded

Volcanologists said earlier on Tuesday that the initial eruption, which sent ash up to 10km (33,000ft) into the sky, was over for the near future.

Eddy Sanchez, the head of Guatemala's National Institute of Seismology, had said there would be "no imminent eruption over the next few days".

Emergency workers were still searching for bodies on Tuesday when the new eruption came.

Eruption in pictures

How many people do volcanoes kill?

More on Guatemala

Why were so many people killed in the initial eruption?

No evacuation alert was issued before the volcano erupted on Sunday, said Sergio Cabañas, the director of Guatemala's disaster prevention agency.

He said that local residents had received training in emergency procedures but were not able to implement them because the initial volcanic activity happened too fast.

Sunday's blast generated pyroclastic flows - fast-moving mixtures of very hot gas and volcanic matter - which descended down the slopes, engulfing communities including El Rodeo and San Miguel Los Lotes.

Volcanologist Dr Janine Krippner told the BBC that people should not underestimate the risk from pyroclastic flows and volcanic mudflows, known as lahars.

"Fuego is a very active volcano. It has deposited quite a bit of loose volcanic material and it is also in a rain-heavy area, so when heavy rains hit the volcano that is going to be washing the deposits away into these mudflows which carry a lot of debris and rock.

"They are extremely dangerous and deadly as well."

'Like black rain from the sky'

Londoner Faye Dunstan, manager of the Oxford Language Centre in Antigua, close to Fuego, described for BBC News the day the volcano erupted.

"We were just sitting at home and then suddenly there was rain from the sky but it was black and it was lava ashes," the 29-year-old said. "No one really thought it was a big deal so everyone was out taking selfies.

"But then we were driving and the police were stopping everyone from driving... People were coming out of their houses and restaurants to hose down all of the cars. There was lava ash everywhere.

"But still no one really realised that it was that bad of a situation until later on Facebook when the news kept coming in. It started with seven people dying. The number rose to 25 and then 33.

"In Antigua [a local city in Guatemala] people are collecting donations on street corners. Everyone has lava ash in their hair. There are schoolchildren everywhere because the schools are closed.

"People in neighbouring villages are scared there will be an aftermath, but everyone is coming together. There are endless supplies of water, food and clothes. It's a big community effort.

Lava ash like 'black rain'

What is a pyroclastic flow?
By Paul Rincon, science editor, BBC News website
A pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving mixture of gas and volcanic material, such as pumice and ash. Such flows are a common outcome of explosive volcanic eruptions, like the Fuego event, and are extremely dangerous to populations living downrange.

Just why they are so threatening can be seen from some of the eyewitness videos on YouTube of the Guatemalan eruption. In one, people stand on a bridge filming the ominous mass of gas and volcanic debris as it expands from Fuego.

Some bystanders only realise how fast it is travelling as the flow is almost upon them.

The speed it travels depends on several factors, such as the output rate of the volcano and the gradient of its slope. But they have been known to reach speeds of up to 700km/h - close to the cruising speed of a long-distance commercial passenger aircraft.

In addition, the gas and rock within a flow are heated to extreme temperatures, ranging between 200C and 700C. If you're directly in its path, there is little chance of escape.

The eruption of Vesuvius, in Italy, in 79 AD produced a powerful pyroclastic flow, burying the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under a thick blanket of ash.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Emergency services in Guatemala are evacuating areas around the Fuego volcano after a new eruption sent lava spewing down its south side. At least 72 deaths have been reported since the volcano first erupted on Sunday, with many others missing.

# data[].attributes.body
IN MOST places a large youthful population would be regarded as an economic blessing. But in the Arab world the young are treated, for the most part, as a curse to be suppressed. Faced with oppression and few opportunities, the region’s youth is wasting away.

The lack of opportunities in the Arab world has been exacerbated by a demographic boom. The region’s population doubled in the three decades after 1980, to 357m in 2010. It is expected to add another 110m people by 2025—an average annual growth rate of 1.8%, compared with 1% globally. In 2010 the proportion of Arabs aged 15-24 peaked at 20% of the total population. But the absolute number of young will keep growing, from 46m in 2010 to 58m in 2025. And the demographic stress is compounded by rapid urbanisation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The best stats you've ever seen | Hans Rosling

# data[].attributes.body
Background knowledge on Al-Shaba

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

Al-Shabaab, or "the Youth," is an Islamist insurgent group based in Somalia. It held sway over the capital of Mogadishu in the late 2000s, but a military campaign led by the African Union (AU) and supported by the United States and other Western partners pushed it back from major population centers.

Still, the insurgency has proved resilient and remains the principal security challenge in war-torn Somalia. It controls large parts of the country's south and continues to mount lethal attacks against international forces and civilians in the region. Meanwhile, al-Shabaab's unyielding threat has repeatedly pushed the AU to reevaluate its withdrawal and complicated U.S. counterterrorism operations, which have ebbed and flowed in recent years.

What are the origins of al-Shabaab?

One of the most impoverished countries in the world, Somalia has seen militant groups come and go in its decades of political upheaval. Analysts say the forerunner of al-Shabaab, and the incubator for many of its leaders, was al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI, or "Unity of Islam"), a militant Salafi group that peaked in the 1990s, after the fall of Said Barre's 1969-1991 regime and the outbreak of civil war. AIAI's core was a band of Middle East-educated Somali extremists that was partly funded and armed by al-Qaeda's chief, Osama bin Laden.

In the early 2000s, a rift developed between AIAI's old guard, which had decided to create a political front, and younger members, who sought the establishment of a "Greater Somalia" under fundamentalist Islamic rule. The hard-liners eventually joined forces with an alliance of sharia courts known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and served as its youth militia. Al-Shabaab and the ICU wrested control of the capital in June 2006, a victory that stoked fears in neighboring Ethiopia of spillover jihadi violence.

How did the group take shape?

Ethiopia, a majority-Christian nation, invaded Somalia in December 2006 and ousted the ICU from Mogadishu with little resistance. The intervention, which came at the request of Somalia's transitional government, radicalized al-Shabaab, analysts say. After much of the ICU fled to neighboring countries, al-Shabaab retreated to the south, where it began organizing guerrilla assaults, including bombings and assassinations, on Ethiopian forces. Some experts say it was during these years that the group morphed into a full-fledged insurgency, gaining control over large pieces of territory in central and southern Somalia.

The Ethiopian occupation was responsible [PDF] for "transforming the group from a small, relatively unimportant part of a more moderate Islamic movement into the most powerful and radical armed faction in the country," wrote Rob Wise, a counterterrorism expert. Addis Ababa said the intervention was a " reluctant response" to calls by the ICU for jihad against Ethiopia and its renewed territorial claims against both Ethiopia and Kenya. It has stressed that the intervention was supported by the United States and the AU, among others.

New Islamist-nationalist fighters swelled al-Shabaab's ranks from around four hundred into the thousands between 2006 and 2008. The group's ties to al-Qaeda emerged during this period. Al-Shabaab leaders praised the terrorist network and condemned what they characterized as U.S. crimes against Muslims worldwide. The State Department designated al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization in 2008, and al-Shabaab's leadership declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012.

Recent estimates [PDF] of al-Shabaab's membership range between seven thousand and twelve thousand. The group regularly forces civilians, particularly children, to enter its ranks; other recruits join voluntarily, often for financial reasons.

What are its objectives?

Al-Shabaab broadly seeks to overthrow the central government, expel foreign forces from Somalia, and ultimately establish an Islamic state in accordance with its version of sharia. To build its legitimacy among Somalis, the group provides services [PDF] within its protection racket, such as dispute settlement, that the government has long struggled to deliver. "Mogadishu isn't able to compete with what al-Shabaab has to offer in the areas where it's been strongest," says the American Enterprise Institute's Katherine Zimmerman.

The group has also expressed transnational aims, though factions within al-Shabaab have diverged on what exactly those are. A more common goal is an Islamic state that brings together all of East Africa's ethnic Somali areas, while a smaller subset of militants seeks expansion beyond the region and closer coordination with al-Qaeda.

In areas it controls, al-Shabaab enforces its own harsh interpretation of sharia, prohibiting various types of entertainment, such as movies and music; the sale of khat, a narcotic plant that is often chewed; smoking; and the shaving of beards. Stonings and amputations have been meted out to suspected adulterers and thieves. At the same time, the group bans cooperation with humanitarian agencies, creating a harrowing challenge in the face of unprecedented droughts.

Who leads al-Shabaab?

Ahmed Diriye, also known as Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, is the current leader of al-Shabaab. He was installed in 2014, after his predecessor, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Despite initial doubts among some analysts about Diriye's ability to maintain control over what was then a fractious group, many say al-Shabaab remains a largely cohesive organization. An executive council, or shura, believed to be made up of around a dozen members is the main decision-making body.

How is al-Shabaab funded?

Counterterrorism experts say al-Shabaab has benefited from several sources of income over the years, including other terrorist groups; piracy; kidnapping; and extortion of local businesses, farmers, and aid groups, among others. Altogether, the group generates around $100 million per year through these channels, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. It's believed to spend about one-quarter [PDF] of this revenue on weapons and explosives.

In recent years, Somalia analyst Abdirashid Hashi says, "they were able to collect money from almost every business in Mogadishu and beyond. They were not on the run, but rather they were very comfortable."

Al-Shabaab has built up an extensive racketeering operation that includes checkpoint tolls; taxes on imported goods; and zakat, an annual religious tax. The group has in the past profited extensively from taxing illicitly traded charcoal, but a UN ban on these exports appears to have choked off this revenue stream in recent years. The Eritrean government has in the past been accused of financing the group, but it denied these claims.

What has been the regional impact?

The UN Security Council authorized the AU to lead a multinational peacekeeping force in Somalia, known by its acronym, AMISOM, in early 2007. Its primary mandate was to protect the country's transitional government, which had just returned to power in Mogadishu. Uganda was the first nation to send forces into Somalia under AMISOM, and has maintained the largest contingent. Other military forces come from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. As of 2022, the mission comprised around twenty thousand troops.

Al-Shabaab struck outside of Somalia for the first time in 2010, when coordinated suicide bombings killed seventy-four people in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. "We are sending a message to every country who is willing to send troops to Somalia that they will face attacks on their territory," said the group's spokesperson at the time.

In 2013, al-Shabaab fighters claimed responsibility for an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed 67 people, and in 2015 the group killed 148 in an attack on a university in the city of Garissa. The latter was the deadliest attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi by al-Qaeda, in which more than two hundred people died.

More recently, al-Shabaab fighters have taken advantage of the civil conflict in Ethiopia, launching an offensive in the country's east in mid-2022. The group claimed to have killed dozens of Ethiopian soldiers in fighting over the following days, and although the Ethiopian military effectively halted the incursion, al-Shabaab remains a threat in the border region.

For years, the AU and United Nations have looked toward phasing down AMISOM and handing over security responsibilities to Somali forces, but they have repeatedly renewed the operation given ongoing instability. In April 2022, the AU heralded this drawdown by renaming AMISOM to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), though its mandate is largely a continuation of its predecessor's. ATMIS was expected to reduce its personnel by two thousand by the end of that year, with the ultimate goal of concluding operations by the end of 2024.

Where is al-Shabaab?

Al-Shabaab controls large parts of central and southern Somalia. And in recent years, it has stepped up its presence in the north, where it battles fighters affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State for primacy.

The group typically leaves an area ahead of an AMISOM offensive, but experts say that UN-backed forces do not have the capacity to hold recaptured territory and that militants usually return. "These victories are often illusory," the Atlantic Council's Bronwyn Bruton tells CFR.

Al-Shabaab largely retreated from Mogadishu by late 2011, following offensives by AMISOM and Somali forces. Counterterrorism forces regarded its exit from the capital as a major victory, though some experts say that al-Shabaab's withdrawal was a strategic decision and that it returned to the guerrilla tactics of its earlier days. It has suffered other setbacks, including losses of the port cities of Kismayo and Barawe, after which it made the southern city of Jilib its de facto capital.

In October 2017, the capital city suffered its worst terrorist attack to date when twin truck bombings killed more than five hundred people. Though al-Shabaab never claimed responsibility, the group is widely believed to have carried out the attack. The group said it was behind a siege at a hotel two weeks later that killed several senior government and military officials.

The capital has continued to suffer deadly attacks, including a 2019 truck bombing that killed more than eighty people and car bombings in late 2022 that claimed over one hundred lives. Experts warn that security continues to deteriorate there. "Mogadishu is backsliding," says AEI's Zimmerman. "And that has a series of follow-on implications for both the Somali government and for the ability of various international partners to be on the ground to provide assistance."

What is U.S. policy in Somalia?

Washington's primary interest in Somalia has been preventing the country from becoming a refuge for terrorist groups to plot attacks on the United States and destabilize the Horn of Africa, where long-standing disputes among Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia have festered. In recent years, U.S. officials have been wary of collaboration among militant Islamist organizations in the broader region, including al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

U.S. authorities also remain concerned about the jihadi group's ability to recruit members [PDF] of the Somali diaspora living in the United States. Al-Shabaab has attracted dozens of American volunteers to fight in Somalia, many from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The United States has largely relied on proxy forces in Somalia to fight al-Shabaab, and has hired private contractors to supply some of them, according to the New York Times. Over the last decade, Washington has provided several billion dollars to train and equip AMISOM and Somali security forces, though it suspended aid to most Somali units between 2017 and 2019 over corruption concerns.

In 2017, President Donald Trump authorized the first deployment of regular U.S. troops to the country since 1994, joining a small number of counterterrorism advisors already there. But in the final days of his presidency, and following the deaths of several Americans stationed in Somalia, Trump ordered all of the roughly seven hundred U.S. military personnel out of the country. In mid-2022, President Joe Biden redeployed several hundred troops there and authorized the targeting of a dozen of the group's leaders. That fall, the State Department doubled the rewards for information to help find and capture Shabaab's top leadership.

U.S. air strikes in Somalia spiked under the Trump administration, totaling more than 275 reported strikes, compared with 60 over the eight years of the Barack Obama administration. A single strike on a training camp northwest of Mogadishu in November 2017 killed more than a hundred suspected militants, according to U.S. Africa Command. Upon taking office, President Biden issued new guidance to limit the use of air strikes, but the pace of U.S. strikes has picked back up since the 2022 redeployment.

The United States recognized the Somali government in 2013 but did not reopen its embassy in Mogadishu until 2019, nearly three decades after it had closed. In prior years, U.S. diplomats had worked out of neighboring Kenya.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Al-Shabaab, or "the Youth," is an Islamist insurgent group based in Somalia. It held sway over the capital of Mogadishu in the late 2000s, but a military campaign led by the African Union (AU) and supported by the United States and other Western partners pushed it back from major population centers.

# data[].attributes.body
Sykes-Picot: Carving up the Middle East | The Economist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sykes-Picot: Carving up the Middle East | The Economist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Cape Town's Residents Are Surviving the Water Crisis—For Now | National Geographic

# data[].attributes.body
Look at the supply-chain in Chinese production hub.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (Full Documentary) | Future Cities | WIRED

# data[].attributes.body
The describes the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density. It usually creates the new suburban area.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Causes and Effects of Urban Sprawl - Conserve Energy Future

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Urban sprawl is basically another word for urbanization. It refers to the migration of a population from populated towns and cities to low density residential development over more and more rural land. The end result is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over more and more rural land.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As we near the end of January, brutal winter has set in in some parts of the world.

The Arctic Circle is one of those places. Average temperatures in the summer hover around 50° F, and in the winter they can drop below -50°F in many places.

While the Arctic is not very populated, people do inhabit the area. Photographer Cristian Barnett decided to document the lives of those people who make their homes on or near the invisible, dotted line of the Arctic Circle. In 2006, Barnett began his series, "Life On The Line," which was released as a book last year.

"The Arctic Circle is much more than just hunters and polar bears," Barnett told Business Insider. "There are many thriving, modern settlements where you're more likely to meet a hairdresser than a reindeer herder."

Barnett told us about 15 of the people he photographed.
This post was originally written by Christian Storm.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Meet 15 people who brave freezing temperatures to live in the Arctic Circle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As we near the end of January, brutal winter has set in in some parts of the world. The Arctic Circle is one of those places. Average temperatures in the summer hover around 50° F, and in the winter they can drop below -50°F in many places.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Surviving in the Siberian Wilderness for 70 Years (Full Length)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the world's first metro system was built - Christian Wolmar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are very few places on Earth that remain ungoverned, and even the tiniest islands and city-states tend to have rules in place for things like taxation and citizenship.

Government control is an established reality for most of the world, but what would happen if a neighborhood in your city suddenly became a lawless free-for-all? What type of industries would emerge, and how would people cooperate within that environment to ensure basic services continued to operate?

One example from recent history sheds light on just how such a situation could work: Kowloon Walled City.

Kowloon Walled City

Today's infographic is a fantastic editorial illustration from South China Morning Post from 2013 that takes a detailed look at the inner workings of Kowloon Walled City (KWC).

Often described as one of the most remarkable social anomalies in recent history, this bizarre enclave was more dense than any other urban area on the face of the planet.

The story of the KWC site begins in the Song Dynasty (960-1297) when a small fort was constructed to house soldiers who helped safeguard the salt trade. In the latter half of the 19th century, the small fort was expanded into a full garrison town as the threat of a British invasion hung over China.

In 1898, the 99-year lease of Kowloon and the New Territories was established with one exception: the 2.7 hectare walled fortress. Because China never dropped its claim on the site and the British took a hands-off approach, the site became a sort of lawless enclave.

After WWII, squatters began to fill the site and more permanent structures followed. By 1950, the population had grown to 17,000, and by 1990 over 50,000 people lived within a property the size of two rugby fields.

From Squatter Camps to Functioning Neighborhood

There was a tendency to view KWC is an isolated bubble of vice within the city, but the sheer volume of business activity within the informal settlement shows that outside customers were more than happy to benefit from lower priced goods and services. This symbiosis has few parallels in modern history, and it makes KWC a fascinating situation to look back on.

KWC is best known as an enclave of criminal activity and illicit businesses such as brothels and gambling dens, but that only tells one side of the story. Despite the lack of space and formal links to utilities, the neighborhood was remarkably productive. In fact, KWC was often been described as Hong Kong's shadow economy because the hundreds of tiny workshops and factories scattered throughout the site provided products for businesses across Hong Kong.

People moved to KWC for many reasons, including bankruptcy, poverty, or to avoid deportation. Others went there to take advantage of the lack of law enforcement and regulations.

One prominent example of skirting regulation was the high concentration of dental and medical practitioners operating within KWC. In addition to lower rents, doctors who immigrated to Hong Kong from China could avoid expensive licensing and retraining required by the colonial government. Industrial businesses were free to ignore fire, labor, and safety codes to produce goods at a lower cost, or to sell items that were considered taboo in the formal economy (e.g. restaurants serving dog meat).

Law and Order

Triads acted as a de facto city council by resolving civil conflicts, creating a volunteer fire brigade, and organizing garbage disposal. The tight-knit community within the settlement would also coordinate among themselves to conserve electricity and make repairs to shared infrastructure.

Despite the lack of formally recognized land ownership, people still bought and sold property within KWC. In one example, a construction company struck an exchange deal with the owner of a four-story building. The owner would retain a ground floor flat in a newly constructed thirteen-story building on the site.

The Bitter End

In 1993, after intense rounds of buy-out offers and forced relocations, Kowloon Walled City was demolished and converted into a park. Many of the businesses were forced to close forever as rents in the rest of Hong Kong were not affordable for most of the owners.

All this intensity of random human effort and activity, vice and sloth and industry, exempted from all the controls we take for granted, resulted in an environment as richly varied and as sensual as anything in the heart of the tropical rainforest. The only drawback is that it was obviously toxic.

- Greg Girard, author of City of Darkness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Infographic: This Fascinating City Within Hong Kong Was Lawless For Decades

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are very few places on Earth that remain ungoverned, and even the tiniest islands and city-states tend to have rules in place for things like taxation and citizenship. Government control is an established reality for most of the world, but what would happen if a neighborhood in your city suddenly became a lawless free-for-all?

# data[].attributes.headline
Geo-Spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP)

# data[].attributes.subject
Geo-Spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Geo-Spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP) - ศูนย์วิจัยสหวิทยาการเฉลิมพระเกียรติ ๕ รอบ พลเอกหญิงสมเด็จพระเทพรัตน์ราชสุดาฯ สยามบรมราชกุมารี Cultural Relationship Study of Mainland Southeast Asia (CRMA Research Center)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ศูนย์วิจัยสหวิทยาการเฉลิมพระเกียรติ ๕ รอบ พลเอกหญิงสมเด็จพระเทพรัตน์ราชสุดาฯ สยามบรมราชกุมารี Cultural Relationship Study of Mainland Southeast Asia (CRMA Research Center)

# data[].attributes.headline
Bulldozing the Border between Iraq and Syria

# data[].attributes.subject
Bulldozing the Border between Iraq and Syria

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bulldozing the Border Between Iraq and Syria: The Islamic State (Part 5)

# data[].attributes.body
Viva la Quinta Brigada: song about Irish fighters in the Spanish civil war.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Christy Moore - Viva la Quinta Brigada. Live at Barrowland Glasgow