People all over the world often think of the USA as the number 1 country in the world. People in the US think their country is the number one country in the world. While it is true the US is the number one economy in the world, in other categories the statistics tell another story.

I researched many categories of statistics for many countries, from various sources that rank countries, and present what I found below. From these various sources of information we learn that the USA is not numero uno in any categories that a US citizen can take pride in.

What is "fake news"?

Just what, exactly, is "fake news"? According to Mirriam-Webster:

"Fake news is, quite simply, news ('material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast') that is fake ('false, counterfeit')."

The term actually dates back to the late 18th century, though was rarely used even then. Spreading false propaganda, lies, rumors, and misinformation dates back much further, to the 13th century BC, where we find Rameses the Great spreading false propaganda and lies in regards to the Battle of Kadesh. Even Benjamin Franklin wrote fake news about murderous "scalping" Indians working with King George III in an effort to sway public opinion in favor of the American Revolution. There are written records of such famous people as Marie Antoinette, Joseph Pulitzer, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

As you might have noticed I have made some changes to my website. The obvious changes are the colors and boxes that the various text parts are in. I also updated the photo album. And the not obvious updates you cannot see, are in the code behind the web pages. I have made big changes to the code, now it is all html5 and css3. This doesn't really mean anything to you who are reading these pages, it does mean that it is easier for me to make future changes and do maintenance.

I have uploaded many pictures to the photo album - look in the Colombia folder for the new folders called Puerto Colombia and also Usiacuri, and also a folder called Misc Pics. Puerto Colombia is a small town just outside of Barranquilla. It has the remains of a very old pier, which was the longest pier on the Caribe coast, at something like 1 kilometer. Then a couple years ago during some very high winds part of the pier was destroyed. You can see me on the pier, or what's left of it, and in the distance you can see the end of the pier. There is a move to get funding to restore the pier. Usiacuri is a very small town (village) about 38 kilometers outside of Barranquilla. It's a very nice little town, and it is very small. In the pics you will see a view of the main street, it's about 2 blocks long. They have a fairly large park with a statue at the top of the hill in the park, there is a pic of me standing at that statue. There is a historic church, and I uploaded pics of it.

The Tour de France came to its conclusion today, and it was a very good tour, with many photo finishes. This years edition covered 3,540km (2,200-mile) and included starting in Germany, then the riders visited Belgium and Luxembourg before heading into France. The race started with 198 riders, and finished with 31 riders retiring before the final stage. The retirements including such big name favorites as Alejandro Valverde, Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, Thomas Geraint, Richie Port, Mark Renshaw, and Marcel Kittel. My short review here is centered on the Colombian riders partaking in this years Tour.