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December 19, 2012
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An engineer who explores the relationships between energy, technology, and policy. Based in Austin, TX. Follow on Twitter @davidwogan.
I have an update to the North Korea by night entry I posted several days after Kim Jong Il’s death in December 2011. At the time, I wrote “perhaps there is no better visualization of the isolation and oppression that the North Koreans live under”. I would like to amend that statement to reflect this updated set from NASA’s Earth Observatory (link).
We see with even more clarity the isolation of North Korea in direct contrast to the prosperity of the South. The lights literally run up to the 38th parallel and end. Full stop. Unbelievable.
The reason we can see these lights so clearly is that the image contains wavelengths through the visible spectrum up to infrared using NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometry Suite (VIIRS) satellite. Filtering and post-processing allow everything from city lights, wildfires, gas flares, and yes, even fishing boats (check out the seaborne lights) to be visible.
About the Author: An engineer who explores the relationships between energy, technology, and policy. Based in Austin, TX. Follow on Twitter @davidwogan.
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Early to Bed,early to Rise-makes a man,healthy,wealthy and wise.
Link to thisThe blacked out people may be wise (possibly).
One out of three is all North Korea can manage.
This is a sad photo. The people who live in this shadow land have no choice about their drab fate. Nothing could illustrate better the inhuman perversity of dictatorial communism.
Link to thisLooks like most of Canada.
Link to thisPlease post the image of Haiti so we can get some contrast in the Western Hemisphere.
You remember Haiti, right? That place on Earth where suffering is manufactured and poverty is a cash crop.
They don’t have a succession of Kims in Haiti; as a ‘colony’ they now have Bill & Hillary, who are the personal protectors of the Duvaliers.
Link to thisThe line between India and China is almost as sharp…
Link to this