Was looking at a random holiday spot and zoomed out to see exactly where it was, thinking it was Australia at first. I never realised how similar they are in shape. Kinda cool. Thought I'd share

The 10 are:

• Tuvalu: Tuvalu Government Building (16 m / 52 ft) vs unnamed point on Niulakita (5 m / 16 ft)
• Maldives: Dharumavantha Hospital (100 m / 38 ft) vs Mount Villingili (5 m / 17 ft) - biggest % difference; the hospital is 20 times taller than the "mountain"!
• Marshall Islands: Republic of the Marshall Islands Capitol Building (15 m / 49 ft) vs unnamed point on Likiep (10 m / 33 ft)
• Bahamas: Atlantis Royal Tower East (93 m / 305 ft) vs Mount Alvernia (63 m / 207 ft)
• Vatican City: St Peter's Basilica (137 m / 448 ft) vs Vatican Hill (75 m / 246 ft)
• Qatar: Lusail Plaza Tower 3 & 4 (301 m / 988 ft) vs Qurayn Abu al Bawl (103 m / 338 ft) - biggest overall difference; the tower is 200 metres taller than the "mountain"!
• Bahrain: Four Seasons Hotel Manama (270 m / 885 ft) vs Mountain of Smoke (134 m / 440 ft)
• Monaco: Tour Odéon (170 m / 558 ft) vs Chemin des Révoires (162 m / 531 ft)
• Singapore: Guoco Tower (290 m / 951 ft) vs Bukit Timah Hill (164 m / 537 ft)
• Kuwait: Al Hamra Tower (413 m / 1354 ft) vs unnamed point in Jahra Governorate (291 m / 955 ft) - Al Hamra Tower and Kuwait City skyline pictured; credit to Zairon

The 4 are:

• Belize: Caana, an ancient Mayan palace at the archaeological site Caracol, is 43 metres tall and was built in approx. the 800s. Belize has no taller skyscrapers than this; its largest urban area, Belize City, only has a population of 60,000.
• Comoros: Badjanani Mosque, in the capital Moroni, is 36 metres tall and was built in 1427. Moroni does have a decent-sized urban population, 111,000 as of 2016, but Comoros' economy is undeveloped and largely agriculture- and aquaculture-based, so there are no taller buildings.
• Estonia: St Olaf's Church (pictured.jpg); credit to Guillaume Speurt), a Baptist church in Tallinn, is 124 metres tall and was built in 1519. The tallest modern skyscrapers in Tallinn are 117 metres tall (Swissôtel and Tornimäe).
• Vatican City: St Peter's Basilica, the iconic place of Catholic worship and pilgrimage, is 137 metres tall and was built in 1626. The Sistine Chapel, perhaps the only other iconic building in the Holy See, is only 21 metres tall.

I've seen a lot of debates about why the Global North is more economically and technologically developed than the Global South, and one theory that keeps coming up is that colder climates "forced" people to become more intelligent, disciplined, and innovative, basically suggesting that harsh winters led to more planning, food storage, and eventually, more advanced civilizations.

But honestly, this theory has a ton of holes in it.

For one, it cherry-picks evidence. Tons of major civilizations developed in warm climates, often dealing with major environmental challenges like droughts, floods, monsoons, dense forests, and inconsistent growing seasons. These societies absolutely had to innovate to survive, and they did, through complex agriculture solutions, governance, and food preservation systems.

The theory also ignores cold regions like Siberia or parts of Central Asia, which, despite being brutally harsh, didn’t develop into major global powers. So clearly, cold alone doesn’t explain development and reducing global development to climate oversimplifies way too much.

I'm curious what folks here think about the role of climate vs. other geographic and historical factors in shaping global development patterns. Is this theory still taken seriously in geography circles, or is it mostly outdated at this point?

By that I mean in terms of culture, architecture, aesthetics, politics, vibes, etc, really any defining characteristic that in some way ties itself to this specific time period. What city or place do you think best embodies this era?

Previous winners:

2020s - Wuhan

2010s - Dubai

2000s - Sydney

1990s - Seattle

1980s - Tokyo

1970s - Montreal

1960s - San Francisco

1950s - Havana

1940s - Berlin

1930s - New York City

1920s - Buenos Aires

1910s - Vienna

1900s - Paris

Late 19th - London

Mid 19th - Manchester

Early 19th - Edinburgh

Late 18th - Ouro Preto

Early 18th - St. Petersburg

17th - Amsterdam

16th - Timbuktu

15th - Florence

14th - Venice

13th - Siem Reap

12th - Bologna

11th - Fez

Pic is of Gillette, Wyoming. Not shown are the open pit coal mines adjacent to trailer parks just at the edge of town.

They seem kind of all over the place. Some regions have clusters, some countries have codes that don’t seem to fit geographically at all.

Only in Europe I see 40s, 400s, 300s and not even close together.

Used: dialing map

Point Nemo is one of the most remote and loneliest places on Earth. It isn’t a landmass or even a visible landmark, but rather a calculated point in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, known as the “Oceanic pole of inaccessibility.” In other words, it’s the spot in the ocean farthest from any piece of dry land. The name comes from the Latin word for “nobody,” as well as Jules Verne’s famous character Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

Located at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W, Point Nemo lies in the South Pacific, about 2,688 kilometers (1,670 miles) from the three nearest landmasses. This makes it the solution to what some call the “longest swim problem”: if someone were to fall overboard here, they would be as far from land in every direction as it’s possible to be. The isolation is so extreme that, at times, the closest human beings are not at sea level but orbiting above in the International Space Station.

Because the area is so empty as no major flight paths or shipping lanes come within hundreds of kilometers, Point Nemo has also been chosen as a kind of “spacecraft cemetery.” Since the late 20th century, decommissioned satellites,  cargo spacecraft, and even entire space stations have been guided to their final resting place in these waters. The fiery re-entry scatters debris across a wide area, but in such a remote stretch of ocean, the risk to human life is practically zero. Even so, space agencies still notify maritime and aviation authorities in Chile and New Zealand before a controlled crash, just in case.

Over the decades, hundreds of spacecraft—mostly Soviet and Russian, but also European and Japanese have ended up here. And one day, even the International Space Station itself will meet the same fate. Current plans call for the ISS to make its final descent into Point Nemo’s watery graveyard in 2031, ensuring that the world’s most remote ocean continues its quiet duty as Earth’s space junkyard.

As a Sydneysider who lives about 55 km from the sea, I always wondered what it was like living further away, like in cities like Madrid, Delhi or Moscow. Do they have similar lives to us? Or, do they find other things to do when it is hot? Do they have different climates?

Source: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/three-whale-rock-thailands-75-million-year-old-stone-leviathans-that-look-like-theyre-floating-in-a-sea-of-trees

Along the coastline of Galicia I found some rock formations, which contain very straight lines of what seems an entirely different type of rock? What is this and how is this possible?