Earth

Today it it 40 years since the American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, and could look up and see the Earth from another object in our Universe.I was in participating in a sailing competition at the time (and looked like this) but in the evening we were gathering at Alexandra Hotel, Molde where we could through bad TV-screen pictures participate in this historical event. I remember we were much more interested in having fun with other sailing friends, but spent some "minutes" and a few beers in front of the TV in the restaurant.

The development of the World, as we usually call our planet, is visualized on the next photo. From the start (4.5 billion years ago) there are many things we do not know, but some of the present facts are:

Area: total: 510.072 million sq km
land: 148.94 million sq km
water: 361.132 million sq km
note: 70.9% of the world's surface is water, 29.1% is land

Population: 6,790,062,216 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 27.2% (male 950,127,898/female 894,359,186)
15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,235,114,476/female 2,192,071,874)
65 years and over: 7.6% (male 227,748,114/female 290,640,668) (2009 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 66.26 years
male: 64.3 years
female: 68.35 years (2008 est.)

Religions: Christians 33.32% (of which Roman Catholics 16.99%, Protestants 5.78%, Orthodox 3.53%, Anglicans 1.25%), Muslims 21.01%, Hindus 13.26%, Buddhists 5.84%, Sikhs 0.35%, Jews 0.23%, Baha'is 0.12%, other religions 11.78%, non-religious 11.77%, atheists 2.32% (2007 est.)

Languages: Mandarin Chinese 13.22%, Spanish 4.88%, English 4.68%, Arabic 3.12%, Hindi 2.74%, Portuguese 2.69%, Bengali 2.59%, Russian 2.2%, Japanese 1.85%, Standard German 1.44%, French 1.2% (2005 est.) note: percents are for "first language" speakers only

Labor force: 3.167 billion (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 40%
industry: 20.6%
services: 39.4% (2007 est.)
Unemployment rate: 30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment (2007 est.)

Elevation extremes: lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean
highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Future challenges: Many people are very concerned about climate changes, and that is ok for short term worries if you hunt for depressions, but what about the anticipated Armageddon? Are you worried about that? The law of relative distance is always here for you.