3,303,000 Z$ and rising according to:
http://www.worldometers.info/
I've posted the "worldclock" in the past, but this new site is fascinating. It really gives you some stuff to think about. I was surprised by a number of the figures... Since January 1st, this year, Over 500,000,000 cigarettes have been produced! WTF. Suddenly I'm thankful that I work and live on a smoke-free campus. And I continue to be blown away by the amount of coal and oil we are capable of mining and pumping. That's some serious infrastructure.
In other news, Oil might not actually be a "fossil fuel." ::boggle::
More
http://www.worldometers.info/
I've posted the "worldclock" in the past, but this new site is fascinating. It really gives you some stuff to think about. I was surprised by a number of the figures... Since January 1st, this year, Over 500,000,000 cigarettes have been produced! WTF. Suddenly I'm thankful that I work and live on a smoke-free campus. And I continue to be blown away by the amount of coal and oil we are capable of mining and pumping. That's some serious infrastructure.
In other news, Oil might not actually be a "fossil fuel." ::boggle::
More
http://www.gapminder.org/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
http://maps.maplecroft.com/
Three fantastic tools that are easy to use and very much worth exploring.
Crossing the borders from Zambia to Zimbabwe was like going from Eastern Berlin to Western Berlin during the Cold war, Zambia became independent in 1964 and followed a socialist government structure for a long time, while Zimbabwe became independent in 1984 and was very well settled economically, owing alot to many colonists that choose to stay, settle and become Zimbaweans injecting the country with western knowledge that at the time was lacking.
There were paved European style roads (not potholed warzone driveways), parking meters, public swimming pools, parks, alots of shops filled with goods, alot of services, vibrant local development, economic devleopment was strong, agriculture was strong and the standard of living fairly high.
However all that collapsed the moment Robert Mugabe started overstaying his welcome as president, and started to incite racial politics to retain power by taking away white farm land (which employed and provided economically far more) and giving it over to so called war veterans (basically squatters) who didn't know the first thing about farming, leading to economic ruin since the agriculutral market simply collapsed and it was the driving force of the rest of the economy. Many people who had been settled choose to simple vacate their lands.
Its really sad.