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11 Things We Learned This Week

What did you learn this week? We learned …

… why we’re still using bad maps, and what the most beautiful projection in the world is.

 

… nine questions to help you evaluate the credibility of a news source.

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Pachyderms have a nose for news.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic

 

… cows can text.

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This cow isn’t texting; it’s helping a lovely Swiss miss fix her camera.
Photograph by Franc and Jean Shor, National Geographic

 

… a traveler’s guide to polite customs—when to shake hands, when to hug, when to kiss.

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Canadians are so polite. Wee Montrealers curtsey at a dance class in 1943.
Photograph by Conrad Poirier, courtesy National Library and Archives of Quebec

 

… what programs state schools are cutting (and what they’re boosting).

 

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Moody sculptor Michelangelo does not approve of academic cutbacks at the School of Athens.
Fresco by Raphael, courtesy Wikimedia. Public domain

 

… solar power is surging in Africa.

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This Tanzanian farmer uses a solar-powered light to chase away hyenas.
Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic

 

… where the world’s tallest tropical trees are.

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This lush rain forest is on the same island as the tallest tropical trees.
Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic

 

… the Great Salt Lake is disappearing.

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NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

 

… how to navigate the world’s slums—the “dominant and distinct type of settlement” of the 21st century.

Water and air pollution in Delhi, India. In 2016, according to the World Health Organization, Delhi (pop. 21M, from 11M in 2001) is the world's most polluted city (153 ug/m3 - Beijing is 56 ug/m3, New York 17 ug/m3). 13 of the 20 world's most polluted cit
The area along the Shahadra open sewer is inhabited by people who can not afford housing in other parts of Delhi, India.
Photograph by Matthieu Paley, National Geographic

 

… scientists are mapping Yellowstone’s plumbing.

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Illustration by Hernan Canellas, National Geographic

 

… you can play Bach on a giant wooden xylophone in a tranquil forest. And it’s beautiful.

2 thoughts on “11 Things We Learned This Week”

  1. It was really good to know for me the world’s oldest tress bristlecone pines so it’s like parents of mountain ash and redwood forest.. It’s like a competition between these two forests.. Well it’s really shameful to know that humans are big threat to these beautiful things.. We should be competitives to save these not to destroy these forests..

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  2. SmaXtec is really useful technique in the field of agriculture hope that in our country people will also be able to use this technology soon..

    It was interesting to read about different kind of meeting gesture of different countries.. It was incomplete but still worthy.. Hope to travel these countries and make this useful..lol.. .

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