The World’s Top 10 Highest Mountain Peaks: Chart

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The World’s Highest Mountain Peak is the famous Mount Everest in Nepal. Everest stands at an astonishing 26404.2 feet. The second highest peak is K2 at 28,251 feet. It is also located in the Himalayas. Climbing these peaks is not for the faint hearted. Just this week a Seattle-based US doctor died trying to climb Everest. For many people hiking to the base camp of these peaks is in itself an adventure and a challenge. One of the popular ones is the Annapurna Base Camp (or) ABC trek.

With that brief intro, the following chart shows The World’s Top 10 Highest Peaks:

Click to enlarge

Source: Is K2, the “Savage Mountain,” Becoming Less Savage?, Climbing.com

Below is a short excerpt from the above article:

K2 (8,611 meters/28,251 feet), or “Chogori,” is the world’s second highest mountain, after Everest (8,048 meters). Unlike Everest and the eight other highest mountains on Earth, K2 is not located in the Himalaya, however, but in Pakistan’s Karakorum. K2 is situated on the border of the Pakistani-Kashmir region Gilgit-Baltistan, and a slice of Kashmir administered by China as part of Xinjiang. All 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, and the vast majority of the 100 highest mountains on the planet, are located in either the Karakorum or Himalaya. 

Also known as the “Savage Mountain,” K2 is generally considered among the most difficult of the world’s 8,000ers, and its death rate was historically one of the highest of all 14 mountains, along with Annapurna I (8,091 meters) and Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters). The former sits at a death rate of approximately 25%, while Parbat and K2 have traditionally held death rates in the low 20 percents. However, swarms of K2 ascents in recent years, notably in 2022, are contributing to lowering the K2’s overall death rate, which currently sits around 13%. K2 was the last of the 8,000-meter peaks to see a winter ascent (in 2021).

The full piece is worth a read.

How BIG is Mexico: Map

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Mexico looks small when we look at the map especially when the northern neighbors US and Canada are so big. However I recently learned that Mexico is a big country. The following description details how big the country is:

Mexico is a nation in the southern part of North America. It is bordered to the north by the U.S., to the southeast by Belize and Guatemala. Mexico is a vast country. It covers almost 2 million square kilometers (~762 thousand sq mi), making it the global’s 13th-biggest nation by area. Moreover, Mexico is a tenth-most-populous nation (about 129 million citizens) and the most populated Spanish-speaking country.

Mexico doesn’t look big on maps that have a Mercator projection due to distortion. The maps below clearly convey the real size of this country.

The United Kingdom, Germany and other 21 European countries fit into Mexico.

Click to enlarge

Source: How big is Mexico?, VividMaps.com

Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution

The Periodic Table for Developed Markets Equity Returns from 2002 to 2021: Chart

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One of the key strategies for success with equity investing is diversification. I have written many times before that diversification can be done in many ways. For instance, one can diversify across sectors, regions, countries, asset classes, etc. When investing in overseas markets it is critical that an investor spread their assets across countries since no country is the top performer year after year consistently.

The following chart shows the performance of developed markets from 2002 to 2021:

Click to enlarge:

Source: Which Country Will Outperform? Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Matter, Dimensional Fund Advisors 

Below is a brief excerpt from the above article:

• Austria posted the highest developed markets return in 2017—but the lowest the next year.

• The US ranked in the top five for annualized returns over the entire 20 years but finished first in the country rankings just once over that period. In nine calendar years, it was in the lower half of performers.