Ever look close, I mean real close at the imagery you seen in Google Earth and other online map providers? You’ll notice most of it, in the United States at least, comes from the USGS or USDA Farm Service Agency. But have you noticed they sometimes doctor the imagery to remove clouds or other collection artifacts? Well, look at the above image again 😉 Here’s the Gmaps view in Tybee Island, GA. Thanks Andrew and Geoff!
[Editor’s note: An amusing take on the Arial versus Helvetica debate. Thanks Geoff!]
Republished from IronicSans.
It seems to be the consensus that Arial is a substandard alternative to Helvetica. But just how bad is it? What if the logos we’re used to seeing in Helvetica were redone in Arial? Would you even notice if the next time you saw the American Airlines logo it was redone in Arial? Here it is in both fonts. At a glance, can you tell which is which?
The top one is Arial. If you know what to look for, it probably jumped right out at you. If not, you may see that they’re different but still not know which is which.
To test your skills, and help you learn to recognize Arial vs Helvetica, I’ve taken 20 Helvetica logos and redone them in Arial. (Blasphemy!) A lot of them are just plain awful in Arial. But a couple of them are actually tough to tell apart.
You’ll get half of them right by just randomly guessing, but if you don’t do much better than that, here are some good resources for you to check out that will teach you the differences between Arial and Helvetica:
Link: How to Spot Arial
Link: Arial and Helvetica overlayed
Link: The Scourge of Arial
[Editor’s note: The annual geo bee’s U.S. round wrapped up yesterday. The winner, Eric Yang, will compete in the world championship in Mexico City. The contest was sponsored by Google this year and is hosted by Alex Trebek. Video of the winning question. Thanks Jo!]
Don’t mess with Texas seventh grader Eric Yang—at least when it comes to geography. Today the 13-year-old swept the toughest National Geographic Bee to date—with a perfect score.
Yang, of Griffin Middle School in The Colony, Texas, won the annual competition during a tie-breaker round with this question: “Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country?”
The answer, Romania, comes with a U.S. $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands with Jeopardy! host and Bee moderator Alex Trebek.
[Editor’s note: Part of their Remade in America series, this interactive map from the New York Times shows where select foreign-born groups have settled across the United States for the last 100 years. Find trends by ethnic group, zoom into individual states, query data values by county, and view historic data. Interactive leverages mapping toolset developed the last year at the Times for their impressive presidential election coverage. Thanks Geoff!]
Republished from The New York Times.
March 10, 2009. No credit given.Â
Screenshots below. Interact with the Flash version at New York Times . . .
(below)Â All groups as percent of population (choropleth by area)Â
(below) All groups as number of residents (graduated circles)Â
(below) Default “All Countries” view can be changed to focus on a specific country of origin. Â
(below) Focused on people born in China.Â
