2014 - The Warmest August in Known History

August 2014 was the warmest August on record for the globe since records began in 1880,
This beat the previous record set in 1998.
Nine of the 10 warmest Augusts on record have occurred during the 21st century. 

Greenland and Baffin Bay are roasting...

Articles:

Warmest August?

Global Analysis - August 2014 -National Climate Data Center

The Middle East - Key Players, Islamic Branches and More...

The Middle East - Key Players and Notable Relationships

A forced-network visualization of key players and notable relationships in the Middle East created by David McCandless & UniversLab.

Article >

---

Islamic Sects, Schools, Branches & Movements

A visual guide to the major & notable sects, schools & movements within Islam.

Article >

---

Islamic Schools and Branches

This article summarizes the different branches in Islam

WikiPedia Article >

Dumbing Down with GPS (?)

Smartphones and the Uncertain Future of 'Spatial Thinking'

Like any technology, digital maps are changing our brains as well as our behavior.

Experts who study the issue are concerned that spatial thinking might be the next casualty of technological progress. "Basically, people don't really learn their environments". The worry is we may become, as a society, what the Japanese call hōkō onchi—deaf to direction.

Studies conducted over the last decade have shown that GPS navigation has a generally damaging effect on the user's ability to remember an environment and reconstruct a route. Asked to recall various aspects of their surroundings, participants using GPS navigation performed 20 percent worse than their paper-map peers.

Article >

How Google Works

Article >

Article > (#4)

Article >

Animated Wind Map

This is beautiful and educational!

Zoomable

Interactive Map >