In future lists, we will attempt to go deeper on language, culture, and geography.

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Knowledge and culture has its way of passing through time and geography, as these manuscripts remind us of the dialogue between cultures as an essential part of intellectual development.

UNESCO: CULTURE

America, more than any other nation is more of an engineered society (based on principles, ideas, institutions and processes) and less of a culture (a shared response to the limits of geography and the tolerance of neighbors).

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It lies within New England, in geography, and perhaps in culture, the closest you get to European sensibilities.

BBC: Brutal murders spark death penalty debate

Neither culture nor geography can explain gaps between neighbouring American and Mexican cities, they argue, to say nothing of disparities between North and South Korea.

ECONOMIST: Creating economic wealth

But despite the feeling of continuity and history, one senses that a global renaissance is taking shape, as people mix the old and the new in fresh ways, defying geography, linking us all in elements of a common culture.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Culture on Demand: Letter from Cortona