The United States has 4 percent of the world's population and 34 percent of its Nobel laureates.

We often forget that Spain controlled big parts of Europe, in Italy and the Netherlands. In the Middle Ages, Spain and Portugal were so powerful that they signed a set of treaties literally dividing up the globe between them.

Latin America and the Caribbean are the happiest on average in the world.

It's no secret that Europeans and Americans win most Nobel prizes.

Religious distinctions are deeply important for many of the problems in today's Middle East, particularly between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Syria and Iraq.

Here is what Muslims and Muslim organizations are expected to say: "As a Muslim, I condemn this attack and terrorism in any form." This expectation we place on Muslims, to be absolutely clear, is Islamophobic and bigoted.

Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to.