Five significant items of geographic significance have occurred over the past few days; you might have missed some of this news, which I tend to Tweet as it happens so if you're a Twitter user, you might want to follow me (@mrgeog) for the latest geographic news.
Samoa Jumps Ahead in Time
My favorite piece of news is the Oceanic island nation of Samoa which has decided to skip Friday (December 30, 2011) in an effort to be in the same day as commercial partners and neighbors Australia and New Zealand. Thus, like Kiribati in 1995, Samoa is relocating the International Date Line
Brazil: An Economic Powerhouse
It was determined last week that the economy of Brazil has overtaken the United Kingdom as the world's sixth largest economy. The top five global economies are currently: 1) United States, 2) China, 3) Japan, 4) Germany, and 5) France. By 2020, however, Russia and India are expected to occupy the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. At that time BRIC will consist of four of the six top economies.
The Eurasian Economic Union Begins
In related economic news, just over twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus are joining together to form an economic union beginning on January 1, 2012. The three countries form the core of the Eurasian Economic Union, which hopes to compete with the United States, China, and European Union and to include additional former Soviet states in the coming years.
South Sudan Opens U.S. Embassy
South Sudan, the world's newest country, is establishing their embassy in Washington D.C. as part of that country's process joining the international community. The Washington Post has a nice article about South Sudan's efforts to build its diplomatic corps.
China's Own GPS
China's own Global Positioning System, known as Beidou (meaning "compass") was inaugurated recently. The system currently provides geographic positioning for China and surrounding regions but the full planet is expected to be covered by 2020 as China launches additional navigational satellites over the next few years. It is not currently known how many satellites were launched to provide the coverage of China.
Comments
YAWN……
Cool. I know “yawn” isn’t riveted by the news but it is news. There are a couple things here I didn’t know.
THE POINTS CLAIMED AS VERY CAN ALSO BE DEMANDED AS BELONGING TO THE DOMAINS OF SEVERAL OTHER HUMAN KNOWLEDGE DISCIPLINES. I WANT TO KNOW WHETHER ANY SUCH TALK HAS ARISEN THAT GEOGRAPHY IS TRYING TO EXPAND ITS COMMAND AREA….SUBRATA MUKHERJI.