slash11: Oh yes you couldn't resist. I shouldn't have mention the jews since almost all people can't talk about them. We will see...

SimonG: Zee Jews took my lunch money!!!

(damn, it is hard not to feed him)

Delixe: The Arab world seems to be heading gleefully towards WW3 without the help of the Americans.

slash11: Could you explain me why the Arab world want's a WW 3 ???

Delixe: I can assume you live in a cave or you are unaware of this thing called 'news'. What started as simple uprisings seems to have become a worldwide cry for freedom. And it's right too. For too many years a few people have had all the power in these countries at the expense of the people. It's Lybia at the moment but you already have countries like Egypt, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia worried about when it's going to happen to them.

Fujek: Which simply proves how misleading and thus critically dangerous the presentation can be. I'd dare to argue that had a Chinese, Russian, Indian, African, (read basically non European country with a long history) author designed the little application, the showcased conflicts would have been different.

Oh yes, which is why this map would have been great in the university cartographic design class I taught. One of the things I try to get across is how dangerous maps can be. A few design elements, even a change in map projection can alter the story of the map. Suddenly a government can justify war or a company can claim they have greater cell phone coverage. Words can work, but put it in a map and it becomes more "real" to the readers. There is a great book on the subject called "How to Lie with Maps", it goes into a brief history of this sort of thing.

Fujek: That's a rather bold statement.
If you have nations with populations reaching several million wage war it is only logical to assume more casualties than the same situation with several thousand inhabitants involved. Thus the 'size of conflict' is misleading if you do not scale it properly.

Oh no, not at all. From a map design standpoint is is perfectly acceptable to use graduated symbols for raw data counts like this. It would have helped to have some sort of legend though. Not sure how a legend would have worked with those explosion animations though. You can still see that one battle was larger than another since the unit measured is the same across time, number of people killed. If this were a static map showing for instance casualties per country shaded to reflect casualties during a major battle or war, then proportion of the "population" should be used in an area shaded technique. It all depends on what you define as the population: proportion of combatants only or total number of people per country?

Fujek: {sarcasm} You're right. The Jews used their tool the United states of America to wage most wars between 1000 and 1500!{/sarcasm}

Delixe: A revolution happens once. This is turning global quickly. As for the West, well there is going to be hell to pay for them when all the truth comes out that it was the US, UK and France that enabled these dictators to keep power. It's already looking likely that when Gaddafi is tried he will blow open the truth on just how dirty the West is.

Delixe: A revolution happens once. This is turning global quickly. As for the West, well there is going to be hell to pay for them when all the truth comes out that it was the US, UK and France that enabled these dictators to keep power. It's already looking likely that when Gaddafi is tried he will blow open the truth on just how dirty the West is.

mystral: That's true but it doesn't change the fact that the Arab World doesn't have the resources to wage war on the West. We're not in 750 here.
The most they will be able to do is make it hard to get oil and stepping up terrorism, neither of which is quite WW 3.

slash11: Since if the US would attack Iran then China is almost forced to declare war on the US and then the situation get's totally out of control

slash11: All of these dictators are enabled by the US but everyone knows that....
You really think Egypt will attack Europe. With what weapons they don't have that much...?
What you should really care about is Iran.

Delixe: It would take just one nation to do something monumentally stupid to start WW3. WW1 started over something very small that snowballed into the Great War. Israel is the country to be most feared about doing something very stupid.

slash11: For ww 1 i recommend to read the Balfour declaration good information for you

Delixe: I know enough. UK schools cover WW1 in great depth in History, WW1 had a more destructive effect on the UK than most other countries. I was grossly simplifying the events but my point is it really only takes one act of monumental stupidity to start a war.

slash11: Germany offered peace numerous times during ww 1 , same is true during ww 2. But obviously Germany has to be destroyed over and over again...
And wars don't come by coincidence. They are always planned years ahead.
If you learned so much about ww 1 then tell me about the Balfour declaration and if you don't know about it then get the information