I really like maps...

Virtual maps, vintage maps, maps of population proportion, maps of the "old world" the way the old world saw it, topographical maps, simple linework of jurisdictional divisions (we have a number of those in our city alone! police districts, fire/emergency districts, supervisorial districts, water districts, etc., and all with different borders), maps that illustrate a region in a book.

Sidenote: I don't understand why some books - fiction and non - fail to include these when they mention specific placenames in a region. I know it's not hard to look them up on my phone which is usually 3 inches from my hand at any given point in time anyway, and maybe I should be better at geography by now, but they just can't hurt. Plus they are visually stimulating and a map in print always lends gravitas to the text, saying, "Look, these cities are a travelable distance, I didn't just make it up because I figured you wouldn't know any better."

I also really dig collaborative approach theory lately, as well as framing the future success or stagnation of global states in a geopolitical context. I've started to form a "big picture" for my (hopefully) future graduate studies: that true cooperation, not just political like-mindedness or similarity in social and economic goals, are necessary for states to succeed in the long term, to form a symbiosis of sorts. So when I stumbled across this video while randomly seeking some inspiration on the TED website, I thought, Perfect!, but also, "Damn, someone already wrote my thesis, and he did it in under 20 minutes." Oh well. I'm sure there's something out there for me still.