Living in the "Dark Ages"

From National Geographic, comes this fantastic image of our world at night.

Twinkle, twinkle, little cities. A spacecraft originally designed to look at clouds by moonlight was employed to make this view of Earth's artificial lighting. Showing urbanization rather than population, this light data has been used by NASA scientists to analyze urban sprawl and the technological advancement of the world's cities. The United States interstate highway system can be seen as a fine lattice, while the Nile River is a bright thread, thanks to the cities on its shores. The image also reveals Western Europe "out-glowing" China, the Trans-Siberian Railroad stretching across Asia, and the bright arc of Japan hovering above a mostly dark Australia.

It's very interesting how China, a country of billions, is so dark. Altruism leads to collectivism which leads to statism. Once you have a fascist, communist or socialist government in place with a tyrannical leader (see also North Korea), it makes living an easy, healthy, happy life and taking advantage of modern technologies very difficult, if not impossible. This picture, as amazing as it is, highlights the areas of the world that could use a good dose of liberty.