kendavis

Map: Where Europe is growing and where it is shrinking - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/06/23/map-where-europe-is-growing-and-where-it-is-shrinking

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2015/06/ed-overview.jpg

However, new research, released by German researchers this week, reveals a far more nuanced picture of which parts of Europe have shrunk over the first decade of this century and which have grown.

Some of the data collected by Germany’s federal institute for construction research offers stunning insights. The institute’s map is one of the first attempts to compare demographic trends all over Europe between 2001 and 2011. Areas colored green had an average annual increase in population over that time span, and areas colored brown experienced a decline in population. In areas colored white, no significant change occurred.

These are the key findings:

These European cities are becoming more American

According to the researchers, many of Europe’s largest city centers have seen their populations dwindle between 2001 and 2011 as more people moved away and birthrates went up in metropolitan areas and suburbs where housing is more affordable.

mouais, pour la bagnole alors

Unlike in many other nations, France’s population is expanding above E.U. average in rural areas. German researcher Volker Schmidt-Seiwert told WorldViews: “The country’s excellent transport system might help explain why families deliberately decide to stay in rural areas, instead of moving into cities.”

#démographie #territoires

Russian court considering 23 year sentence for terrorism for Ukrainian filmmaker. This sure seems like a sham trial, and not even a very good one.

▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/ukrainian-filmmaker-oleg-sentsov-russian-court-suffer-or-die-for-his-be

#ukraine

Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine
By Maksymilian Czuperski, John Herbst, Eliot Higgins, Alina Polyakova, and Damon Wilson

http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/20150527_hiding_in_plain_site.jpg

▻https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/nvCM4kQXjtvRe931ULa9awPmDkgLIwq8DGE6kQ9Ynm9U3Duf5oTbTnqnBiaOt

▻http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/hiding-in-plain-sight-putin-s-war-in-ukraine-and-boris-nemtsov-s-pu

#russia #putin #putinatwar #war #ukraina

Where ‘speeding’ is legal: A map of maximum limits across the U.S. - The Washington Post

▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/17/where-speeding-is-legal-a-map-of-maximum-limits-across-the-u-s

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/08/Revised-speed-map.png

The Great Plains, with all that flat, wide-open and sparsely populated land, has long had the most generous — or audacious — speed limits in the country. Cross the Minnesota border into South Dakota, and the default statewide speed limit on the interstates there, as of this spring, is now 80 miles an hour.

Idaho, Wyoming and Utah have also pushed their legal limits that far. Texas, meanwhile, has a toll road that tops out at 85. Which, as we all know, means there are drivers there traveling 90. The Missouri River, as it turns out, is a kind of speed-limit fault line: Most states west of it consider legal what Virginia, Ohio and Illinois would call “speeding.”

#états-unis #sécurité_routière #cartographie #visualisation

Ukraine’s Fall Elections Matter More Than You Think
▻http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/ukraine-s-fall-elections-matter-more-than-you-think

With less than 80 days before election day in Ukraine, mayoral races are already heating up. Parliament approved a new election law that does two things: Ukraine will use an open-list system and the country will hold runoffs for mayors in larger cities. These two features combined with the potential decentralization reforms being debated by parliament make the October 25 local elections more important than previous ones.

The Communist Party and Right Sector won’t participate in the elections. On July 24 the courts banned the Communist Party of Ukraine. There were concerns that the bad economy might persuade older voters to vote red, sending obstinate representatives to local councils who would block reforms. Right Sector announced that it will not participate in the elections, focusing instead on a nationwide referendum.

The new election law has a number of drawbacks, and there is no organized effort to educate voters about the new open-list system. The new system means that voters will select a party and then select their candidate from the party list. Those parties that receive five percent will receive seats on the local councils and the seats will be distributed based on the voters’ selections within the party list—rather than a closed-list system where the party bosses predetermine the order on the list. The change will dramatically delay the vote counting process. Historically, final tallies have been intentionally delayed long enough for international and domestic observers to go home, and then the commissioners have a free hand to produce the results they desire. The most undemocratic provision of the new law prohibits candidates from running as independents and bans blocs where multiple parties unite into a single list. It also bans internally displaced persons—more than 1.38 million people—from voting.

Despite its drawbacks, the law mandates that at least 30 percent of each list include candidates of different gender. In practical terms, at least three of every ten candidates on a party’s list must be women.

In cities with more than 90,000 people, if no candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote, the law requires a runoff for the top two vote getters. Forty-seven cities meet that criteria and given Ukraine’s divided electoral history, 80 percent of those cities will likely have runoffs. The runoff requirement forces candidates to build coalitions and make compromises. If pro-European candidates were allowed to run as independents or in blocs, they would have a better chance of winning in the east and south.

De nouvelles règles électorales assez « exotiques » pour le scrutin municipal d’octobre.

Suivi d’un point sur 4 villes : Kiev, Odessa, Kharkiv et Lviv.

Great reporting!

“A Russian Activist Caught Putin’s Spokesman On A $425,000 Yacht”

▻http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/a-russian-activist-caught-putins-spokesman-on-a-425000-yacht

#russie

Did know the words for “tomato” in the languages of Europe and the Mediterranean all come from three distinct roots? Here’s a nice little map showing the etymology of tomatoes across the region:

▻http://geovisualist.com/2015/08/16/i-say-tomato-you-say-apple-of-paradise

https://geovisualist.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/tomatos.jpg?w=450&h=450

#maps #tomatoes #etymology #language