Tag: maps

  • The Demilitarised Zone

    Over the weekend, the American and North Korean leaders got into an argument with the North Korean leader calling President Trump old and the American leader calling Kim Jong Un short and fat. High class diplomacy. So what holds the North Korean army, by numbers likely not quality one of the largest armed forces in the…

  • The Importance of Cartography

    Today I wanted to share with you a piece from the BBC that explores the importance of cartography, or mapmaking, in relief efforts particularly in Malawi, a country located in southeastern Africa. This is a still from a short video—it clocks in at just a tad under three minutes—that you can watch to see how…

  • Voting in Virginia

    Today is Election Day here in the States, but neither for the presidency nor for Congress. 2017 is an off-year, but it does have a few interesting races worth following. One is the New Jersey gubernatorial election across the river here from Philadelphia. Further down the Northeast Corridor we have the gubernatorial election in Virginia.…

  • What Does Your Name Mean? (Country-level Edition)

    Shoutout to my very good friend Jonathan Fairman for passing this one along. Browsing the internets, I often find these little adverts saying something about “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Name” or “10 Things Your Name Says About You”. They grab my attention because, as you all know, genealogy is kind of a…

  • What If Designers Ruled the World? Or At Least the Country

    Happy Friday, all. We made it. So today we enjoy an xkcd post about how graphic designers would change the country if they seized control. Though to be fair, if this graphic designer seized control of the country, he would not be interested in just adjusting state borders. He’d probably work on the margins and…

  • Arctic Sea Ice Levels Continue to Decline

    You may recall how over two years ago I posted about a piece from the New York Times that explored the levels of Arctic sea ice. It showed how the winter sea ice of 2015 was the lowest level ever recorded. Well last week the Times updated that piece with new data. And instead of the…

  • Earthquake Early Warning

    Last month, two massive earthquakes devastated Mexico. Now, if you were like me, you were captivated by the photos and videos of the quakes striking and tearing down buildings and infrastructure. But, think about it for a second, how did people know to take out their mobiles and record the tremors for posterity’s sake? Well,…

  • German Election Results

    On Sunday Germany went to the polls. Angela Merkel won a fourth term, but the anti-immigrant nationalist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), won nearly 13% of the vote. That places a nationalist party in the German parliament for the first time since World War II. A lot of the graphics I saw were straight-up bar charts…

  • Nambia

    C’mon. You knew I was not going to let that one slip by. President Trump, in a meeting with African leaders, twice name-dropped Nambia and in one mention held it up as having a nearly self-sufficient healthcare system. Funny thing to mention as the US is on the brink of eviscerating its healthcare system. But…

  • The Cassidy-Graham Healthcare Bill

    I meant to post this yesterday, but accidentally saved it as a draft. So let’s try this again. Yesterday the New York Times published a print piece that explored how the Cassidy-Graham bill would change the healthcare system. This would, of course, be another attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. And like previous efforts, this…