Urban expert Joel Kotkin at newgeography has published a listing of the world's "smartest" cities. Kotkin defines smart cities as, "not only by looking at infrastructure and livability, but also economic fundamentals."

Rwanda has become the second country without any historic ties to the United Kingdom to join the Commonwealth of Nations (the first was Mozambique). Rwanda had close ties to France until the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda changed its official language from French to English last year.

As reported earlier, the Dead Sea, on the border of Israel and Jordan, is disappearing. Jordan and Israel cannot agree on how to solve the problem so the environmental crisis continues. The AFP has an thorough article on the problem.

In an echo of The Nine Nations of North America, The Atlantic has published an interesting article called The Nine Nations of China that divides China into nine regions based on the concepts of regional geography. Pop-up boxes provide more information about these nine regions of China. Hat tip to The Map Room!