Asia
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Pakistan’s Environmental Milestone
When it comes to environmental progress, Pakistan is far from anyone’s mind. Yet according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, a Swiss nonprofit foundation, the country has planted over a billion trees, making its otherwise barren northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa resplendent with fresh saplings. Continue reading
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India Unveils Largest Health Care System in History, First Manned Space Mission
India has long been touted as a potential superpower. To that end, it is taking a few bold moves into that direction. During a speech marking the country’s independence day, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, announced that the government will begin providing health coverage to its poorest citizens starting September 25th. As Newsweek reported: Continue reading
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Where Most Sporting Goods Are Made
The Pakistani city of Sialkot may not be a household name, but it is the source of the Adidas footballs that are being used in the World Cup (as they had been in the last one). In fact, Pakistan’s twelfth-largest city — with less than 700,000 residents — is the world’s largest producer of footballs,… Continue reading
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When Schizophrenia Isn’t a Mental Illness
Culture may play a huge role in how schizophrenia manifests, according to one study published in a leading British psychiatric journal. It interviewed 60 adults diagnosed with schizophrenia – 20 each from the U.S., Ghana, and India – and found one stark difference between the nationalities: while American subjects were likelier to report violent, sadistic,… Continue reading
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Americans: Don’t Forget to Thank Mr. Ding This Fourth of July
Since I’m pressed for time today, I figured I would stick to something light and cheeky: while most people know that the Chinese invented fireworks over a millennia ago, they may not realized that China (perhaps ironically) remains the main source of the fireworks most Americans will be using to celebrate their nation’s independence. In… Continue reading
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The World Cup’s Classiest Countries
Senegal and Japan would seem as far apart culturally as they are geographically: the West African nation of 15 million is poor, highly diverse ethnically and linguistically, and predominately Muslim; the East Asian island nation of 125 million is among the wealthiest and most homogeneous societies in the world, and is heavily influenced by Buddhist… Continue reading
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India’s Ambitious Democracy
In the spring of 1947, the eve of India’s independence from the U.K., the leaders of its independence movement made the fateful decision for their new country to be a secular, constitutional republic with suffrage for every adult citizen: more than 170 million in total. Overnight, India became the world’s largest democracy, a distinction it… Continue reading
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The Middle East’s First Particle Accelerator Turns One Year Old
Here’s a rare bit of good news coming out of the Middle East: last year saw the inauguration of its first and still only synchrotron radiation facility, a large, complex, and powerful machine that, in layman’s terms, acts as an exceptionally keen microscope. (The largest and most well known example is the Large Hadron Collider… Continue reading
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The Kalliu Relay System
One of the earliest and most effective mass communications system ever developed was the “kalliu” relay system of the Neo Assyrian Empire in the Middle East. The Assyrians formed one of history’s first empires in the 10th millennium B.C.E., perfecting many strategies and institutional of imperial rule that set the standard for other empires. Chief… Continue reading
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The U.N. Official Who Quietly Saved the World From Nuclear Annihilation
Though they are in charge of an organization that represents virtually all of humanity, Secretary-Generals of the United Nations — described variably as the “world’s moderators” and the “chief administrative officers” of the U.N. — have never been household names. Not many could name or recognize the current officeholder, António Guterres, the former prime minister of… Continue reading
About Me
Humanist | Bibliophile | Writer | Wiki Editor | World Citizen | Esquire (J.D. / LL.M.)