By BoLOBOSE payday loan
[Editor's note: Op-Art from the New York Times showing who (which states) supports and opposes health care reform grouped by age and income. Data from 2004, so not current but still informative. Thanks Martin!]
Republished from the New York Times. Nov. 18, 2009.
[Editor's note: VladStudio has some great map-themed desktop images. This new project was inspired from airplane moving maps but instead of showing the big metros emphasizes tiny settlements and Vlad dedicates it to Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Thanks Curt!]
Get this iPhone and desktop optimized wallpaper from VladStudio . . .
T-shirt seems to be out of stock on the Patagonia.com site but was still available in their Georgetown, DC brick and mortar outlet.
[Editor's note: My colleague Patterson Clark has a new science column in the redesigned print edition that features a weekly graphic. Last week it was on frost heaves using cross section profiles in 3 panels.]
Republished from The Washington Post.
Weather conditions have been favorable for the formation of frost heaves: Heavy rainfall and melting snow from the last week of December, followed by a long bout of freezing weather, created dynamic subsurface freezing that lifted some exposed soils up onto a bed of sharp ice crystals. (Looks spongy; feels crunchy underfoot.).
Frost heaves can damage soil structures, making soils more prone to erosion. Heaves can also lift overwintering plants out of the ground, breaking roots and exposing the roots to freezing temperatures. Heaves can also shift, and possibly damage, fence posts, sidewalks or other structures set into the top couple of feet of earth.
[Editor's note: China's government censoreship and web practices have been in the news this week after Google threatened to pull out of the country. This map / tag cloud / art piece highlights forbidden topics and websites inside China. Thanks Curt!]
[Editor's note: Science comic geek alert. Thanks Martin and Jo!]
Republished from XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
[Editor's note: "A rare, 400-year-old map that displays China at the center of the world will be on exhibit at the Library of Congress from Jan. 12 to April 10 2010, before it is digitized and then heads to its intended home at the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. If you haven't checked our Ricci in China, it's a fascinating time period in the history of cartography. Thanks Curt and Mary Kate!]
Republished from the BBC.
Visitor instructions from the Library of Congress . . .
The huge map is being displayed at the Library of Congress in Washington
A historic map of the world, with China at its centre, has gone on display at the Library of Congress in Washington.
The map was created by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in 1602. It is one of only two copies in existence in good condition.
Because of its rarity and fragility – the map is printed on rice paper – the map has become known as the “Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography”.
This is the first time it has been on public show in north America.
Ricci created the map at the request of Emperor Wanli who wanted it to help scholars and explorers.
‘Revered by Chinese’
The map was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1m (£0.62m), making it the second-most expensive rare map ever sold.
It denotes different parts of the world with annotations and pictures.
The map had China at the centre of the world to underline its importance
In the Americas, for example, several places are named including Chih-Li (Chile), Wa-ti-ma-la (Guatemala) and Ka-na-ta (Canada), and Florida is described as “the Land of the Flowers”.
Ford W Bell, a trustee for the James Ford Bell Trust, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, that the map was “one of the two best in terms of quality, as far as we know”.
“Ricci was a very smart missionary. He put China right at the centre of this new universe, this new globe, to underscore its importance,” he said.
“Ricci, of course, was the first Westerner to enter Beijing. He was revered by the Chinese, and he was buried there.”
The first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese embassy in the US, Ti Ban Zhang, said in a statement that the map represents “the momentous first meeting of East and West”.
[Editor's note: Beautiful photo, in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.]
Republished from the Wall Street Journal.
TRADITIONAL WEDDING: South African President Jacob Zuma, 67, left, sang and danced in traditional Zulu attire with his new wife, Thobeka Madiba, 38, during a traditional wedding ceremony to formalize the marriage in Nkandla Monday. Ms. Madiba, the polygamous president’s third wife, is already married to Mr. Zuma under South African law. (Rajesh Jantilal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
[Editor's note: Beautiful map of a blue and red circulation system stretching across the United States with the heart located at Washington, D.C. Selected by a lefty advocacy group as part of their media campaign during the ongoing health care debate. Thanks Laris!]
Republished from The Washington Post. December 2, 2009
Public Option Please, a lefty advocacy group, set out to find a poster artist who could dramatize their argument for government-funded health care. Judges (including Arianna Huffington and Jesse Dylan) found not just a poster artist but a poster girl for their cause. Their winner, Amy Martin of Los Angeles, created her striking image of red and blue blood vessels coursing through a map of the United States when she was home sick with the flu, and a few weeks later, organizers said, lost her job and health insurance. “A healthy United States is dependent on healthy American citizens — which is why I presented America as a vulnerable living system.” She’ll spend her $1,000 winnings on insurance premiums, they said.
[Editor's note: I created these three tag clouds to represent the responses to a national poll conducted for The Washington Post. Respondents chose 1 word to represent the Republican party. The words are all on the same type size scale in each of the 3 clouds. The position of the same words also needed to be consistent between clouds (ie: Palin in the upper left). Obviously the Republicans are on message about being conservative. Created with a custom script in Illustrator. Arranged by hand.]
Republished from The Washington Post. Nov. 30, 2009.
Those taking the poll were asked what word or phrase they would use to describe the Republican Party. The chart below shows all responses cited by two or more people, sized by number of responses.
View larger original at The Washington Post.
