Cool Stuff: Food Rules

Food Rules - Holstee

How cool is this redesigned letterpress WWII-era food poster by Holstee? 

To Watch: Song of Our Warming Planet

A Song of Our Warming Planet from Ensia on Vimeo.


A stunning way to communicate the realities of climate change.

Map: Washington, TV

T.V. Map by Dorothy - via FastCo Design

What if all the TV shows existed not only in a single universe, but in a single city? And what if that city was Washington, D.C.? That's the concept behind U.K. Printmaker Dorothy's latest map. Click over to FastCo Design to read more about it.

Cool Stuff: Mountain Calendar

2014 Mountain Calendar - Pam Lostracco

This 2014 Mountain Calendar isn't the most practical of calendars, but it definitely is beautiful.

Map: Births and Deaths around the World

Simulation of Worldwide Births and Deaths  by Brad Lyon- via The Atlantic

This map by mathematician and software developer Brad Lyon visualizes all simulated births and deaths around the world in real time, using the d3.js library created by Michael Bostock (NYTimes graphics editor). The results are absolutely mesmerizing. It's one thing to know that, based on current birth and death rates, hundreds of people are born and hundreds others die nearly every minute. It's another thing entirely to see it. Read more about the project over at the Atlantic, or see the map in action here.

Map: King of Beers

Beer of Choice Map - Blowfish

This map has been making the rounds on different media sites, but it's still pretty fun. According to Blowfish (maker of the map), Budweiser can no longer claim the title "King of Beers"-- instead, that title belongs to Blue Moon. Of course, what interests me the most isn't the most popular national beer, but rather the regional trends in beer preferences. Click over to Slate to learn more. 

Cool Stuff: Mini Scratch Map

Mini Scratch Map - Restoration Hardware

How fun is this mini scratch map?

Mapping Music: Bob Dylan

Place Bob Dylan Sang About - Bollier, Kirk, and Kreitner

Some writers at Slate created this great map with a marker for every place ever mentioned in a Bob Dylan song to mark Bob Dylan's 72nd birthday. Click over to the original article to explore all of the places!




Note: I will be creating my own maps soon- my work has just been delayed due to the government shutdown that temporarily made all census data unavailable.

To Watch: Time

This film is a compilation of the amazing comic, Time, a 3,099-frame comic that played out over the course of many weeks, with a new panel revealed every half-hour. As xkcd creator Randall Munroe explains in this blog post, the story is set thousands of years in the future during a unique geologic event in the Mediterranean Sea. I highly recommend watching the whole film and reading the post about the careful research and beautiful artwork that went into creating this unique piece.

To Read: The Problem with Rankings

Ranked States - Mikey Burton

This is a quick read, but a very worthwhile reminder: Don't take state rankings at face values. As a nation now obsessed with data, it's time to talk a bit about methods. Comparing diverse populations can lead to wildly misleading results. As this short article in the Atlantic shows, there can be many behind-the-scene confounding factors that contribute to a seemingly interesting statistic.

Maps: Civil War Slavery

Slave Population in the Southern States - Library of Congress

This beautiful, historic map was a favorite of President Lincoln, who studied it in great detail during the American Civil War. The map is shaded according to the number of slaves living in each county, and Lincoln found that the darker areas also corresponded to high levels of secessionist attitudes. However, as he saw and we now can see, the South was far from monolithic in its number of slaves and attitudes toward secessionism. Click over to the New Yorker to learn more about this map and the history of infographics.

Cool Stuff: Seasonal Produce Calendar

Bison Seasonal Produce Calendar

This seasonal produce calendar by Bison is quite lovely

Cool Stuff: Travel Notebook

Travel Notebook - Wit and Whistle

I love this notebook from Wit & Whistle

Map: From ISS

Guess what this is?

It's every photo taken from the International Space Station, plotted. Which is pretty awesome if you ask me. You can read more about this map over at Future Tense. And if you want to see some of those ISS shots, head over here (once the shutdown* is over).



*A word on that: Taking the government hostage is not the way to pass or repeal legislation in a democratic republic. Please give us back NASA, the CDC, the USDA, the Census, and all the other functions that should be happening right now.

To Watch: Overview

OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

This film, about viewing our earth from the outside, is absolutely fascinating and beautiful.

Cool Stuff: Stars

I have loved the stars - Hairbrained Schemes

This print by Cheryl of Hairbrained Schemes is absolutely lovely.

Map: The Most Popular Websites

Website Popularity Map - Oxford Internet Institute - via Pew Research

This cool map from the Oxford Internet Institute maps the most popular websites by country and weights them by the number of internet users by that country. Rather unsurprisingly, Google and Facebook dominate. Read more about it at Pew Research.

Cool Stuff: Patience

Patience - Wise Ideas

Patience is a virtue. One in a series of eight prints by Wise Ideas.

To Watch: Bodies on the Border

Bodies on the Border from The New York Times - Video on Vimeo.


This New York Times documentary explores the human rights crisis here along the nation's southern border. To learn more about what you can do to help, head over to No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes).

Map: London, 1890

Bacon's New Map of London Divided into Half Mile Squares & Circles

This beautiful traveler's map of 1890 London is the work of George Washington Bacon of 127 Strand, London. Bacon's New Map of London Divided into Half Mile Squares & Circles depicts the city in excellent detail, with four inches to the mile. (Bonus: This map is now in the public domain, so you can print off a copy for your own collection!)