Posts Tagged ‘new yorker’
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
[Editor’s note: That’s what Russians say when they’re not pulling your leg. This book from National Geographic has this and other intriguing idioms from around the world. It’s beautifully illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Julia Suits. Good for the holiday gift list. Thanks Jag!]
Republished from HangingNoodles.com.
That’s what Russians say when they’re not pulling your leg.
From National Geographic Books by Jag Bhalla
A collection of 1,000 funny and intriguing expressions from around the world.
These odd sayings say a lot about how odd the human mind can be.
NPR “An Enchanting Tour” listen and read here
The Splendid Table on the food chapter listen and read here
PRI “A Banquet of foreign idioms” listen here
Guardian “On the joys of idioms” read here
Guardian quiz read here
“On language addiction (its our most ubiquitous mind altering drug) and the thrill of the novel (semantic ambush)†read here
Example Idioms
Not hanging noodles on your ears: Russian – not kidding
To live like a maggot in bacon: German – live in luxury
Like fingernail and dirt: Spanish, Mexico – well suited
Bang your butt on the ground: French – die laughing
Plucked like a chicken: Yiddish – exhausted
To bite the elbow: Russian – to cry over spilt milk
Smoke from 7 orifices of head: Chinese – to be furious
To become naked: Japanese – to go broke, poor
An ant milker: Arabic – a miser, tight wad
Give it to someone with cheese: Spanish – to deceive
Squeezer of limes: Hindi – self invited guest, idler
To break wind into silk: French – live the life of Riley
To reheat cabbage: Italian – rekindle an old flame
Continue reading and buy at HangingNoodles.com . . .
Tags: bhalla, cartoon, expressions, idiom, jag, julia suits, national geographic, natty g, new yorker, russian, world
Posted in General, Geography, Merchandi$e, Print | Comments Off on I’m Not Hanging Noodles on your Ears (National Geographic)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
[Editor’s note: This cover illustration from Matt Wuerker for Politico is a take on Steinberg’s classic illustrations for the New Yorker that show the mental map for politicians living in the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C. The lead article looks at the top 50 politicos to watch. Thanks Laris!]
Republished from Politico.
Given the name of this publication, we sometimes get asked a good question: What exactly is a politico? There are a lot of definitions that fit, but here’s one that seems to work well: A politico is a participant in and/or an especially avid devotee of the theater of politics.
There is no grander stage than the capital for this particular drama. And what is the main thing you do at the theater? You watch it, of course. And then you laugh or cry or yawn or boo. At the end, you applaud — whether out of admiration for the performance or gratitude that it is over.
This issue (the third special glossy that POLITICO has published this year) is devoted to 50 Politicos to Watch. In some cases, the people are on the watch list because they are on the rise — the kind of list people in Washington relish being on. But be careful what you wish for. Some politicos are interesting to watch because they are in the middle of one sticky mess or another.
But in every case, the names we compiled here — and, let’s be honest, the list is somewhat random — were identified by our reporters and editors as being characters in motion, in the middle of interesting plots.
Tags: argentina, beltway, canada, capital, capitol, dc, economist, illustration, k street, karklis, mark wuerker, mental map, new yorker, pacific ocean, pennsylvania ave, political art, politico, potomac, steinberg, virginia, washington, white house
Posted in art, General, Geography, Maps in the Wild, Print, Promote | Comments Off on Mental Map: View from Washington by Matt Wuerker (Politico)
Monday, March 30th, 2009
[Editor’s note: “Illustration by Jon Berkeley with apologies to Steinberg and The New Yorker”. Map illustration shows China’s world view / mental map with Tiananmen Square central, the US in the distance, and Europe but a spec on the horizon. This mental map is a good example of a network topology based projection.]
Republished from the March 21st, 2009 print edition of The Economist.
And how the world should see China
IT IS an ill wind that blows no one any good. For many in China even the buffeting by the gale that has hit the global economy has a bracing message. The rise of China over the past three decades has been astonishing. But it has lacked the one feature it needed fully to satisfy the ultranationalist fringe: an accompanying decline of the West. Now capitalism is in a funk in its heartlands. Europe and Japan, embroiled in the deepest post-war recession, are barely worth consideration as rivals. America, the superpower, has passed its peak. Although in public China’s leaders eschew triumphalism, there is a sense in Beijing that the reassertion of the Middle Kingdom’s global ascendancy is at hand (see article).
China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, no longer sticks to the script that China is a humble player in world affairs that wants to focus on its own economic development. He talks of China as a “great power†and worries about America’s profligate spending endangering his $1 trillion nest egg there. Incautious remarks by the new American treasury secretary about China manipulating its currency were dismissed as ridiculous; a duly penitent Hillary Clinton was welcomed in Beijing, but as an equal. This month saw an apparent attempt to engineer a low-level naval confrontation with an American spy ship in the South China Sea. Yet at least the Americans get noticed. Europe, that speck on the horizon, is ignored: an EU summit was cancelled and France is still blacklisted because Nicolas Sarkozy dared to meet the Dalai Lama.
Continue reading at The Economist . . .
Tags: art, beijing, china, clinton, illustration, jon berkeley, map, mental map, middle kingdom, network topology, new yorker, steinberg, superpower, topology, wen jiabao
Posted in art, General, Geography, Mapping, Print, Promote | Comments Off on Mental Map: How China Sees the World (Economist)
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
The June 30th edition of the New Yorker magazine featured this cover artwork titled “Subway Man” by Roz Chast.Thanks Christina!
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Tags: art, christina rivero, june 2008, new york, new yorker, roz chast, subway
Posted in art, Mapping, Print, Promote | Comments Off on Subway Man (New Yorker)
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
A battle of ideas is going on inside your mind.
Reprinted from the Jun 26th 2008 edition of the Economist.
THAT problem solving becomes easier when more minds are put to the task is no more than common sense. But the phenomenon goes further than that. Ask two people to answer a question like “how many windows are there on a London double-decker bus†and average their answers. Their combined guesses will usually be more accurate than if just one person had been asked. Ask a crowd, rather than a pair, and the average is often very close to the truth. The phenomenon was called “the wisdom of crowds†by James Surowiecki, a columnist for the New Yorker who wrote a book about it. Now a pair of psychologists have found an intriguing corollary. They have discovered that two guesses made by the same person at different times are also better than one.
That is strange. Until now, psychologists have assumed that when people make a guess, they make the most accurate guess that they can. Ask them to make a second and it should, by definition, be less accurate. If that were true, averaging the first and second guesses should decrease the accuracy. Yet Edward Vul at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harold Pashler at the University of California, San Diego, have revealed in a study just published in Psychological Science that the average of first and second guesses is indeed better than either guess on its own.
Continue reading at the Economist . . .
Related content: The wisdom of crowds at the Economist.
Related content: Measuring the Crowd Within: Probabilistic Representations Within Individuals (pdf scientific article)
Tags: brain, edward vul, harold pashler, james surowiecki, mit, new yorker, psychological science, science, uc san diego
Posted in Best practices, Data source, Election, General, Print, Promote, science | 1 Comment »
