North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on February, 2013. Two nuclear test preceded this one, the first in 2006, and the second in 2009.
However, the nation that has performed the largest number of nuclear tests since 1945 is the United States, a total of 1,032. In the same period, the USSR/Russia performed a total of 715 nuclear tests, and France performed a total of 210 nuclear tests.
Source: Statista: North Korea Conducts Third Nuclear Test
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that seeks the reduction of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming by setting emission reduction targets for industrialized nations. The Kyoto Protocol was signed on December 11, 1997 in Kyoto (Japan) by 191 countries. The United Stated signed the treaty, but later it did not ratify it.
This visualization by The Guardian shows total carbon emissions by country between 1997 and 2007, ten years since the protocol was signed.
The United States is the country that has produced the largest amount of carbon emissions (64,166 million tonnes) in the period 1997-2007 followed by China, Russia, Japan, India, and Germany.
Asia and Oceania combined are the regions with the highest carbon emissions produced in the same period (96,306 million tonnes). Asia and Oceania are followed by North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico) with carbon emissions of the order of 74,867 million tonnes, and Europe with carbon emissions at 50,370 million tonnes as of 2007.
Of the 7 billion people in the world, only 2.4 billion are connected to the Internet, that is roughly 34% of the population as of 2012.
Internet penetration is the highest in North America (79%), followed by Oceania (68%), Europe (63%), and Latin America (43%).
Source: Statista: Only a Third of the World’s Population Is Online
As part of the PBS series America Revealed, this aerial visualization shows the patterns of internet distribution in the United States. We can see that the regions with highest levels of internet connectivity include the Northeast, and parts of the South and Midwest, followed by the Pacific West.
For additional interesting aerial visualizations, such as the distribution of the unemployed, electricity network routes, public transportation paths, U.S. imports and exports of beef patterns, the distribution of the population in towns and cities, etc., visit: The Roosevelt’s – Aerial Data Visualisation Reveals Life In The United States.
For anyone who spends a significant part of their day working online, there is nothing more frustrating than having to use a slow internet connection. There are countries where slow internet connections are a thing of the past though, as shown by the household download index compiled by Ookla using data from Speedtest.net. According to the latest data, the countries with the fastest residential internet are Hong Kong, Singapore, and Lithuania. In Hong Kong, the average download speed is now a blistering 44.06 Mbps. Contrast that speed with the download speed in the countries with the slowest residential internet, namely Botswana, Uzbekistan, and Benin, where download speeds do not exceed 1 Mbps. How fast is your internet connection? You can check it using the meter at Speedtest.net
In this visualization by The Guardian, based on data from Amnesty International, we can see which countries still use the death penalty.
In 2012, 1,923 people were handed out a death sentence in 58 countries, and 976 executions were carried out in 20 countries.
China is by far the country that has carried out the largest number of executions, more than the rest of the world combined. Numbers are not know, though, since China keeps that information secret. China is followed by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United States, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia.
A body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 is usually considered a healthy body weight to height relationship. A BMI of 25 or higher indicates body weight not optimal for the height of a particular person.
This visualization published by Visual.ly, shows the different BMI values for adult men and women across the globe.
Countries with a healthy average BMI between 20 and 22.9 include several nations in Africa, Yemen, India, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, among others.
Countries with an average BMI between 23 and 24.9 include several Asian nations, several European nations (including France), some nations in Africa, and Honduras.
Countries with an average BMI between 25 and 26.9 include Canada, Russia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, all Nordic countries, Spain, Portugal, and nations in the Middle East.
Countries with an average BMI of 27 and over (the highest BMI range) include the United States, Kuwait, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Australia, UK, New Zealand, Greece, and Germany to name a few.
Humans can be infected by influenza viruses types A,B, and C. Type A affects humans, birds, and pigs. Type B and C affect only humans. Type C is less severe than type A and it does not cause pandemics.
In this visualization by Information is Beautiful, we can see how the different strains of influenza virus affect humans, what is their origin, and how they are transmitted from pigs and from birds ultimately to humans.
Type A influenza is divided into H and N strains. The “swine flu” N1H1 killed 15,000 people worldwide in 2009-2010. The “bird flu” H5N1 strain, with a fatality rate of 60%, has killed 371 people as of 2013. The more recent H7N9 strain has killed thousand of pigs in China, with 8 human fatalities to date.
This map published by CBS News warns travelers not to visit certain dangerous countries, or to exercise caution when visiting some of them.
Countries to be avoided at all cost include Niger, Chad, Sudan, Mali, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea.
Countries where travel should be done with a high degree of caution include Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, to name a few.
In this visualization created by The Guardian, we can see how North Korea compares to South Korea in terms of population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), life expectancy, freedom of the press, military spending, internet connectivity, infant mortality, among other indicators.
North Korea is a poor country with half the population of South Korea. It is one of the worst countries in terms of corruption and freedom of the press. Its military spending constitutes approximately 22.3% of its GDP, compared to 2.8% for South Korea.
Additional resource: IndexMundi: South Korea vs. North Korea – Country Comparisons
