The freaks come out at night (refrence to an old 80's jam)

This is a NASA image of planet earth, taken at the same time of night. It's very interesting to look at. Here are some of my personal observations: When you think of India you don't really think of it being so industrialized, but you can make out the countries shape very well in the picture. Looking at this picture we can now once again call Africa the "Dark Continent" and still be politically correct. The Nile river is lite up like a single strand of those icicle lights hanging off of your house at Christmas time. I thought South America was more developled than it is. If you look just east of India about an inch you can see Bangkok, it looks like the North Star in an empty sky. How do those people in Japan sleep at night with their whole country lite up like that? Can you find the Trans-syberian railway?

I would guess the deeper the concentration of the lights, the more wealth you can find in that country. This map is a great indication of the world's "haves" and "have nots".