Masakatsu Sashie is a Japanese painter, born in 1974 in Kanazawa. His paintings of spherical structures floating above rubble on the streets, envision a future where environmental disasters have made the cities depicted uninhabitable. While he has been painting since 1999, his work caught more national intention in 2005 at the Geisai art show.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has announced the winners of a UK national photography competition in which we challenged young people aged 14–18 for their unique take on society and the social sciences by asking them to take a picture on the theme of “Where Do I Belong?” – ESRC Press Office. Photo: “Society hurts”. (Photo by Grace Ridge/ESRC)

Revellers in Newcastle, England on the last Friday before Christmas, December 20, 2019. Black Eye Friday festive mayhem hit the nation; Christmas celebrations kicked off with a bang across the country as revellers flocked to pubs and clubs for the biggest night of the year. (Photo by Scott Heppell/PA Images via Getty Images)

Takehiko Yagi is a rising star in Japanese photography, and his vibrant pictures of the Hindu spring festival of Holi won the Grand Prize at the fourth annual Nikkei National Geographic Photo Prize. Diving into the Colors of Holi is his first exhibition in the US, on show at Foto Care Gallery in New York until 28 September, 2016. Here: Jaipur, India, 2013, (Photo by Takehiko Yagi/The Guardian)

Soldiers stand in front of a floral decoration during celebrations to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam People's Army at the National Convention Center in Hanoi December 20, 2014. The Vietnam People's Army was founded on December 22, 1944 and led by General Vo Nguyen Giap in Cao Bang province, initially with only 34 members. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

People remove mud and rocks from their house after a massive landslide in Chosica, March 24, 2015. Seven people were killed and more were feared dead in Peru after a massive landslide buried parts of a town amid heavy rains, authorities said on Tuesday. Six were missing and 25 injured in the disaster in Chosica, some 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) east of Lima, said Alfredo Murgueytio, the head of the National Civil Defense Institute, Indeci. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

A Waura Indian woman watches the activities of this year's “quarup”, a ritual held over several days to honour in death a person of great importance to them, in Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, August 24, 2013. This year the Waura tribe is honouring their late cacique (chief) Atamai, who died in 2012 and helped created the Xingu Park, and his important contribution in facilitating communication between white Brazilians and Indians. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

How sure are you of your geographical knowledge? Buzzfeed recently put Americans’ geographical knowledge to the test with a survey in which participants had to write in countries’ names on a blank European political map. Unfortunately, they didn’t fare too well, but some of their responses are hilarious (or hilariously mis-informed). But don’t be so quick to judge Americans – when Buzzfeed posted a similar survey testing Brits’ knowledge of the 50 United States, they also came up short. On the one hand, knowing a country’s states is different from knowing independent countries, but on the other, some U.S. states are larger than some European nations, and some U.S. states have larger economies than some European nations.