Category Archives: Africa

If you’re happy and you know it…

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

As usual, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden top the country ranking in the annual World Happiness Report .  However, seeing Israel at #5 , just above the Netherlands and Norway, is quite a surprise. The map above also does something extra: … Continue reading →

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Conflict Cartography

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I was recently bemoaning the fact that the main stream media in the United States can’t seem to focus on more than two serious conflicts at the same time, and even then, the coverage is sorely lacking. But I just … Continue reading →

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How big was it

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Growing up in and around New York City I have always been fascinated by the process of urbanization. So the animation (below) by Ollie Bye intrigued me. The examination of the growth of the world’s largest cities from 3000 BCE … Continue reading →

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Black History Month

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Here in the former Colonies there has been an alarming campaign by reactionary racist groups to suppress the study of American History in general and the study of the oppression of Black Americans and slavery in particular. This is not … Continue reading →

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It’s all Greek to me

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have to admit that I geeked-out on this fascinating website devoted entirely to global writing systems. During my life I’ve actually learned four writing systems, but in my old age I’m only fluent in one of them. World Writing … Continue reading →

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Living in the Real World

Posted on June 24, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Most reasonably educated adults—other than flatearth nincompoops—are well aware that the way we map our planet distorts the actual size of countries and continents. For centuries, we have generally ignored the wildly misleading maps that are used in most publications. … Continue reading →

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Egyptian Book of the Dead

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Earlier this year, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of a 52-foot-long papyrus scroll of the Book of the Dead discovered in the necropolis of Saqqara. This is the first complete ancient papyrus found in Egypt in … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Art, Books, History, Middle East, Museums | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Tourisme Bouquiniste: Rabat

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have been seeing photographs of this tiny bookshop for years, but they never identified the bookstore or the bookseller. Recently, I finally found a story that provided a narrative to go with the images. The shop is called Bouquiniste … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Books, Bookstore Tourism, Tourism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Who reads what where

Posted on January 23, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I’m a sucker for a clever infographic, especially if it pertains to books or reading. The graphic above shows which reading genres are most popular in 36 countries around the world. To collect the data, the folks at Study In … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Asia, Books, ebooks, Europe, USA, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

History is made of maps

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

History Maps uses a combination of interactive maps, videos, illustrations and Wikipedia content to explain and guide the user through an impressive collection of historical events. Beware, it’s easy to fall down this rabbit hole and spend an unplanned hour … Continue reading →

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