Political Borders [97]

US Industrial By-products [102]

Nuclear Desire [2]

Not all countries that crave the power and prestige of nuclear weapons have been able to master the technology and the supply of uranium necessary. In addition to the five official members of the nuclear club (incidentally the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council), at least another eight nations actively pursued steps to qualify for membership. Recently some countries have been militarily persuaded to abandon their nuclear plans (Iraq). Others have voluntarily started to destroy their arsenal (Ukraine, Libya, South Africa). In the mid 1990s North Korea struck a billion-dollar deal with the US using its alleged arsenal as a bargaining chip for economic help.

US Patent Holders [284]

This globe represents half of all patents in the US - those registered to
foreign holders. Countries with more than 1000 patents registered in
the US are indicated by name, with the point size of the representative
text scaled according to the square root of the total number of US
patents held. Japan accounts for roughly one third of foreign-held US
patents, followed by Germany, the UK, and France. Were the number
of domestically held US patents to be indicated according to this logic,
the entire surface of the globe would be covered.

Rocket Launch Sites [256]

Known locations, both active and inactive, of space rocket launches.