I was musing geopolitik today and wondered about the world's largest countries by economy, land mass, and population. Among the standard pool of top contenders, an interesting comparison came to mind: Japan v. Russia.
GDP World Rank
Japan is #2
Russia is #8
Size
Japan covers 374,744 sq km
Russia covers 16,995,800 sq km
Population
Japan has 127,288,416 people
Russia has 140,702,096 people
So here's the punchline:
Japan's economy is roughly 3x the size of Russia's economy, however Japan only has 2% the land mass of Russia, which is the largest country in the world in terms of land mass AND Russia's population is only 1.1x greater than Japan's - nearly the same number of people in both countries!
Additionally, 13.7% of Russia's population is 65+yrs compared with Japan's 22%. The average life expectancy in Russia is 66yrs, while Japan has one of the highest average life expectancies at 82yrs!
So who wins in Japan v. Russia? The island nation of Japan has some compelling figures for it's relatively small size, however, it's military spending as a % of GDP is only 0.8% compared with Russia's 3.9%. Considering that Japan's not allowed to have a strong military per the 1947 Constitution and for post WWII cultural reasons you could say the USA + a small native defense force, is the de facto military for Japan. Since the USA's % military spending is 4.06% I'm going to go ahead and give the win in this country comparison to Japan.
*data comes from 2008 & 2009 estimates on www.cia.gov and 2008 IMF estimates.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
MCA aka Adam Yauch has cancer! Get Better Soon, Nethanial Hornblower!
It's hard to imagine that MC Adam Yauch is 44 years old. Born in 1964, the oldest, and in my opinion the most god-fatherly of the NYC based rap trio is my favorite B-Boy and I was sad to hear today that he has a type of cancer of the salivary gland. Luckily he says it's "very treatable" and should not affect his voice. His YouTube announcement was very lighthearted and was done with Adam Horowitz aka Ad-Rock in a studio. For more details check out the WebMD article on the matter... surprising that WebMD has written an article in the first place!
My friends know I'm a die-hard Beastie Boys fan. I bought Check Your Head & Ill Communication back when I was 11 years old (Ill Communication had just been released) and Licenced to Ill and Paul's Boutiques shortly afterwards. I remember making off like a bandit just like all the other kids using the BMG CD subscription service - yup - all done by snail mail. Remember that service where you could pick up 10-20 cds for just a few pennies?
Ill Communication quickly became my favorite CD. The B-Boys and Encarta '95 sound clips of grandmaster flash basically introduced me to the world of hip hop. These guys were my heroes, and I was always blaring their music in my '93 red honda civic. MCA's maturation from unruly, irresponsible teen-punk to Buddhist, Free Tibet activist was astounding to me. Tracks like Bodhisattva's vow, which include signature guttural Buddhist prayer chants, were inspiring to a kid very interesting in Hinduism and Buddhism...
After moaning and groaning about a lack of west coast concert dates over the years, I finally saw the b-boys live at the Bill Graham Civic in SF back in 2004. I was pretty much at the front of the line, I waited there all day maybe the second or third person from the entrance, reading a copy of enders game or speaker for the dead, I think... being at the front paid off when I had the chance to shake MCA's hand and have a fraction of a second cameo in the they filmed of the line outside the auditorium for the Mix Master Mike intro.
Adam Yauch, hope you have a smooth and speedy recovery so you can get back to pouring down the dharma for all the sisters and brothers.
My friends know I'm a die-hard Beastie Boys fan. I bought Check Your Head & Ill Communication back when I was 11 years old (Ill Communication had just been released) and Licenced to Ill and Paul's Boutiques shortly afterwards. I remember making off like a bandit just like all the other kids using the BMG CD subscription service - yup - all done by snail mail. Remember that service where you could pick up 10-20 cds for just a few pennies?
Ill Communication quickly became my favorite CD. The B-Boys and Encarta '95 sound clips of grandmaster flash basically introduced me to the world of hip hop. These guys were my heroes, and I was always blaring their music in my '93 red honda civic. MCA's maturation from unruly, irresponsible teen-punk to Buddhist, Free Tibet activist was astounding to me. Tracks like Bodhisattva's vow, which include signature guttural Buddhist prayer chants, were inspiring to a kid very interesting in Hinduism and Buddhism...
After moaning and groaning about a lack of west coast concert dates over the years, I finally saw the b-boys live at the Bill Graham Civic in SF back in 2004. I was pretty much at the front of the line, I waited there all day maybe the second or third person from the entrance, reading a copy of enders game or speaker for the dead, I think... being at the front paid off when I had the chance to shake MCA's hand and have a fraction of a second cameo in the they filmed of the line outside the auditorium for the Mix Master Mike intro.
Adam Yauch, hope you have a smooth and speedy recovery so you can get back to pouring down the dharma for all the sisters and brothers.
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