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What surpises you the most from these maps?

I actually feel like it is not that surprising because any area that is industrial, business, shops, restaurants, farmland, water sources, etc is highlighted in blue. What surprises me is that a whopping 53 percent of the US DOES have residents. wow. that is a ton.

I saw this on 60 Minutes last night. Alibaba is an internet-based sales company linking thousands of large and small businesses across China. Since its inception, Alibaba has grown to make the founder, Jack Ma, into the richest man in China. It recently debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Great globalization example. Thank you for sharing, Alexander.

Padraic, I found your article to be interesting. You made a great point that China's manufacturing jobs should be increasing due to outsourcing. I agree that it is odd that growth is easing in China.

I am surprised by this, but yet again, I am not. Today we are seeing commercials on TV about "buying American" or even on news channels like ABC; they are pushing the regrowth of U.S. industry by purchasing domestic products. So this has the possibility for being a turning point for America.

I do agree that it is weird that manufacturing jobs in China are slowly decreasing but also at the same time it makes sense. Outsourcing takes a long time and even though transportation by ship is the cheapest transportation, it is also one of the most inefficient. With advanced technology, developed countries will be able to find ways to produce their own goods quicker and cheaper, causing outsourcing to be pointless. Until countries like China find a more efficient way of producing and transporting than the developed countries today, I believe that the amount of outsourcing will slowly decline.

This article has interesting relationship with globalization. Due to modern technology jobs are moving, and in some instances disappearing altogether. A good example of this is car manufacturing. Detroit was a major factory town that pumped out hundred of thousands of cars in its prime and had a very strong economy. When the factories left Detroit the town failed. The factory workers were for the most part uneducated and as such were unable to find new jobs. This resulted in Detroit's economy collapsing. A similar process occurred in many US factory towns. These jobs have since moved to developing countries with less strict labor laws, and lower or non existent minimum wages. This has propelled countries like China upward economically. Some processes have been automated to the point that humans are really only needed to service the machinery, this has resulted in some jobs disappearing entirely. As technology improves this could happen more and more, for example self driving cars (http://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/). There are roughly sixty thousand cab drivers in New York City, when self driving cars become functional all those people will be out a job. Looking at the hospitality industry, specifically fast food giant, McDonalds, some positions such as cashier could potentially be automated in the next years (http://www.inquisitr.com/1594675/mcdonalds-counters-minimum-wage-hike-15-automation/). And so with more and more unskilled positions being moved across the globe or obsoleted and insufficient skilled positions that ask's the question "How will people support themselves?"

Thank you for the thorough response, William. This was an interesting article and a thought-provoking question. I wonder if the rise in automation of tasks will advance our development.

The Environmental Protection Agency has recently disclosed plans to lower the amount of methane emissions from gas and oil by 40 to 45 percent by the year 2025. The proposed plans would require emissions to be stopped at new natural gas wells, and repair all known leaks at these wells. The goal of the EPA is to reduce the amount of total pollution as it affects climate change and public health. The proposed regulations aren't being received very well by Republican lawmakers and energy groups, who argue that methane emissions have actually been falling in recent years. They believe that taking these plans into action will threaten security and economic growth, as they will increase the cost of energy for Americans. The EPA has also looked to set regulations on carbon pollution from planes, as well as trucks and vans. The theme of nature culture can be observed here, as many people of various political standpoints are fighting for their opinions on how nature should be protected, and the extent of human manipulation in nature. Through this we can see how the emission of gases is extremely difficult to reduce, and that the fight for nature preservation will be ongoing, as it has been for years and years.

Excellent application of the nature-culture theme. What's the relationship between a nation's development and their ability to help the environment?

Why is the Lehigh Valley a valuable site and situation for companies like Freshpet?

Since the Communist takeover of the region in 1949, the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China, have gotten a lot of religious and cultural persecution by Han Chinese. Similar to convicted communists during The Red Scare, Uyghurs have been prosecuted under false circumstances for separatist activities. While this isn't necessarily a dispute over territory, it's certainly an ethnic conflict and because of these hostilities, Uyghurs have a hard time finding migrant work within China. How does this relate to other ethnic conflicts like in Russia or Palestine?

I agree with Alexander about the similarity to Native Americans. Not only is China helping these people with jobs, but they are also making them go through the training programs which includes learning Mandarin, to the point where the minorities are in fear of losing their own identities. The Native Americans were forced to go through similar programs in order to "help them".

One of the cities that we will be traveling to in China is Xian. This city has a large Muslim minority. Do ethnic groups form enclaves as a refuge?

Why are these places not in the bottom ten?

Qatar and Kuwait do not surprise me as in they have an abundance of oil underground that is part of one of the biggest industries in the world. Sitting at the throne of the oil kingdom, I would expect those two to have high per capita income.

I'm surprised that retail services are more profitable than tech. services.

I would believe that the consumer sector would out do the tech sector simply for the fact that it is more traditional. People are more used to shopping and buying things in person, so tech services trying to let people buy things online face an uphill battle one getting people to switch over. Also everyone has to buy things at some point at a retail store, but not everyone will need help with their technology.

I believe that we would expect to see an increase in the profits of tech services because as more and more people grow familiar with these services, it is much more convenient and easier for them, like using online shopping rather than going out and spending the time and effort to shop in person. This can be shown by companies like Blockbusters and Borders who went out of business due to at home conveniences of the internet. However, some retail stores and services cannot, and most likely will not, go away because people need what they sell right away, such as grocery stores.

See the impact on overdevelopment and overpopulation.

How would the railway system impact your decision on where to build a factory?