Map Monday: Tracking Troublemakers
This is a whole different take on maps as community organizing tools. Richard Rogers, a local blogger for the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood of Washington, DC, is sick of all of the “troublemakers” in his area. By using publicly-available aerial photographs and a simple graphics editor, Rogers is creating a record of the problem as far as he sees it. Even more than that, this map can act as a place for coming together around the issue of neighborhood troublemakers.
The blogosphere makes it easy to combine postulations (the alley between Ridge and N Streets NW is a favorite travel route of the trouble makers, as well as a new marketplace for drugs.) with harder data like the range of MPD CCTV cameras. It also makes it easy for relevant parties to discuss the issue. For example, the comments section after the post contains a discussion between readers and author about exactly where and why “troublemakers” are hanging out.
In case you don’t want to jump over to Rogers’ blog and check it out yourself, here’s a legend for the map:
Yellow blocks — Suspected residences of neighborhood trouble makers
Red areas — Suspected usual range of crime cameras
Red arrows — Favorite hangout and loiter spots of neighborhood trouble makers
Yellow arrows — Hangout spots of neighborhood trouble makers during the day only
Blue arrows — Recent incident locations
Previously featured social-engagement through maps:
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The neomodern paradigm of narrative, objectivism and structuralist precapitalist theory
For those of you shuffling off to college this next August I’ve found a spectacular tool for you:
An essay generator. No, it’s not that silly simple one that spews out a few paragraphs and images, this one uses really big and scary words. And apparently got past the acceptance requirements for Social Text, a journal by the Duke University Press.
In any event I invite you to try it out – simply visit this page and you’ll get a new masterpiece every time!
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Map Monday's Wingman
I figured I’d present to you method of experiencing the world in a little more of an… animated fashion than a traditional map. I know most of you already know him and have likely seen one of his videos, but this one was released just last month.
He dances. Badly. Everywhere in the world. Just for fun.
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“A man without a mustache is like a cup of tea without sugar.”--English proverb
Willi Chevalier
Sigmaringen, Germany
Sigmaringen Beard Club
Partial beard freestyle category (“Willi has won this category at all WBMC’s in memory with the exception of the 2003 WBMC when he was on injured reserve following an unfortunate encounter with a power drill”)
The mustache is a widely debated form of facial hair that I, for one, was never a fan of until just recently when I discovered this: the World Beard and Mustache Championships . Only eighteen years old, this amazing phenomenon brings together hirsute competitors to rival one another in a range of categories (six specifically for mustaches: natural, Hungarian, Dalí, English, imperial, and freestyle).
Elmar Weisser
Brigachtal, Germany
Swabian Beard Club
(Beard depicts Berlin’s Brandenberg Gate)
Burke Kenny
Olympia, Washington
Beard Team USA
(Kenny is “a former pizza delivery professional”)
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The Dalí category makes a great deal of sense if you’re familiar with pictures of the painter, one of which is below. Dalí not only dedicated paintings to his stache, he also created a book of his mustache with photographer Philippe Halsman.
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All of this made me curious about Guinness Book World Records, so I discovered Badamsinh Juwansinh Gurjar—the man designated in 2004 as winner of the world’s longest mustache. At that time his mustache was twelve and a half feet and he had not cut it for twenty-two years. Gurjar is pictured below.
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e.g. versus i.e.
I’ve been doing a lot of editing documents lately and it has come to my attention that I never knew the difference between i.e. and e.g., and have therefore used them interchangeably. That’s probably not a great idea now that I’m writing for a wider audience than my friends who read this blog so I looked it up. Here’s what I found.
“I.e.” stands for the Latin phrase ‘id est’ or that is. “I.e.” is used in place of “in other words,” or “it/that is.” One uses i.e. when one wants to specify a previous point or re-phrase something to catch a different nuance of meaning.
“E.g.” is also Latin, though it stands for ‘exempli gratia’, which translates as for the sake of an example. One uses e.g. when an example is needed, but one wants to imply that the examples given are just some of the many possible examples.
Some examples:
- Her heart sunk as the ship disappeared into the water; i.e., she was devastated. from WiseGeek.com
- I like citrus fruits (e.g., oranges and lemons). from Daily Writing Tips
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Map Monday: Making international legislation
In a world that increasingly ignores national borders as categories of analysis, it’s hard to ignore that few problems fit neatly inside country lines. Global warming, international trade, fisheries, arms proliferation, and many other crises are truly international in scale, and the only suitable response to them has to come from the international community. The map above shows which countries have signed international conventions designed to battle the global problem of hazardous waste dumping. I’m looking for more maps around the issue of international participation and global government, if anybody has them, commence linking.
Once again, this Map Monday feature has been stolen from the UNEP site with extra thanks going to designers Cécile Marin, Emmanuelle Bournay.
Previously featured on Map Monday:
- Potential Powder Kegs – Arms and landmine stockpiles around the globe.
- Thermohaline Circulation – The current that keeps the world temperate. Will it last forever?
- Deforestation in Borneo – The hand of man over time on one tropical island.
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Corporate team-building. ...yea?
“ The Go Game is the future of corporate play. It’s the intersection of wireless technology, Mission: Impossible, and team-building as you have never seen it.”
This is hide and go seek, capture the flag, and any other silly game all wrapped into one. First of all you are issued a lunch box (right) filled with all the necessary tools for fun: Cell phone, digital camera, a CD, a host of actors, a scripted game plot, and prizes. Seriously! What happened to good old fashioned four square? Check out this gallery of corporate folk having fun. Some selections below.
Check out my earlier post about Stuff White People Like for similar embarrassment.
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Map Monday: Potential powder kegs
The planet is scattered with hazardous or explosive leftovers from a succession of technical breakthroughs – be they military or industrial – just waiting to be washed away by a flood or mudslide or carried off by a hurricane. If disaster strikes these “powder kegs” multiply the danger to people and the environment.
If this topic is of any interest to you, please see President Eisenhower’s farewell speech about the dangers of the arms race and what he and many others term the “Military Industrial Complex.” Many of the landmines and other weapons used to kill all over the world have their roots here in the United States and it is only by waking up to this and changing the subsidy programs in this country that we can possibly change the violent realities in other countries. In the mean-time, there are organizations like the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines that work to deal with the short-term effects of this plague.
This map and description has been shamelessly lifted from UNEP.
Previously featured on Duenos:
- Anti-Landmine Commercial – A scary look at what it could mean if these problems were as common here as they are in some of the places highlighted in the map above.
- Map Monday: Thermohaline circulation – The current that keeps the world temperate.
- Map Monday: Deforestation in Borneo – Another human trend that is doing damage, this time to Orangutans.
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The five-year old's dream team: Kellogg's™ and Lego®
When I first saw that Kellogg’s™ and Lego® had teamed up to create what I have no doubt is a delicious combination of chemicals to make fruit snacks (I’m sorry, “Fun Snacks”—I wouldn’t want to get confused and shortchange the fun sealed into these packets) in the shape of Legos, I was pretty impressed. Although you might be disappointed by the fact that they are neither certified as Kosher nor vegetarian (that damned gelatin again), ingredients and nutrition facts (get ready, Richard Simmons: only one carbohydrate per serving!) can be seen on Kellogg’s™ site.
Don’t get too excited too quickly, though. I expect that the real fun will come after the Fun Snacks confuse some bright little American children into eating their less digestible Lego® blocks (unlikely to have 13 grams of sugar per 25 grams) and start the legal fun. As Penny Arcade blogger Gabe says, “I would love to know what sick bastard at Kellogg’s came up with this genius idea. I just spent the first three years of my son’s life trying to get him not to eat blocks, and now you’re telling him they taste like fucking strawberries.”
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Google comes in Pig Latin
It also comes in Bork, bork, bork!, Elmer Fudd, l33t, Klingon, and many more. Visit Google Language Tools to see them all.
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Holy balls! wtf is the garbage?
Italian artist Graziano Cecchini decided to protest the halt on garbage collection in Italy… how? By making more garbage! But cute, colorful, fun garbage in the form of 50,000 balls. I think he wanted to make a ball pit out of the Piazza di Spagna… apparently nobody warned him what those are like in McDonalds.
It does beg an interesting question though – what to do with all of the garbage. I mean we accumulate this stuff continuously, if we reached a critical mass where would we put it that wouldn’t hurt the environment?
The impact on Naples has been pretty bad – nobody wants to buy products from the area anymore because they might be contaminated. There’s talk of building a modern incinerator to help ease the problem (or you could just talk to the mob and get it dumped in eastern Europe) but I suspect they’re going to need a more long-term solution. Time will tell…
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Pancake batter in a spray can
So here’s another stupid product unleashed upon the American public. Perhaps unleashed is the wrong word, because if I know my country, I know they’ll love this. Batter Blaster is an organic solution to all the hard work and dancing that used to go in to making pancakes from scratch. Just shake the pressurized can of organic wheat flour (unbleached), organic cane sugar, organic whole egg solids, organic soybean powder, lactic acid from beet sugar, baking soda, and organic rice bran extract propellant, and spray it on to a greased pan or waffle iron. Oh yeah, it makes waffles too.
Thanks to the Shiny Shiny blog for bringing this product—or delightful hoax—to my attention.
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Map Monday: Thermohaline ocean circulation
This map, put together on behalf of the UN Environmental Programme , demonstrates the current system of currents that transfer heat throughout the oceans. Often called the “ocean conveyor belt,” thermohaline circulation is what keeps northern Europe and North America from being all together too cold in winter because it brings hot water from the tropics which warms the air in those regions. Recently the thermohaline process has become quite popular to talk about because of increased cold, freshwater run-off coming from the polar ice caps. Scientists are saying that these effects could slow down, stall or even reverse thermohaline circulation and (worst-case scenario) plunge northern Europe and North America into a local ice age.
Previously featured from UNEP on Map Monday:
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m4intern
This is what reading blogs is all about!
m4intern is a place for all the best of “male for intern” lust to play out across cyber space. Here are some of my very favorites”
Rents are very expensive in this town and if you are intern, recent college grad or work for a non-profit, well, it is pretty hard to make rent. So I would like to offer one room in my two room condo, fully furnished to the right girl in exchange for some physical intimacy (we can discuss the exact details)
Wanted: Princess to spoil intern recent grad or young prof
I’m looking for an intern, recent graduate, or young professional who is used to or wants to be treated like a princess! Let’s do dinner, drinks, shopping, whatever!
I’m a busy professional with no time for a full time girlfriend! However, I see this as being a fun and exciting opportunity. I have a awesome apartment with all the bells and whistles – pool, fitness, cafe, etc.! Luv it!
Me: I’m that 20-something hill staffer. I have waited for this day for nine months. And now, you are back, Beautiful, you are back. You’ll see me at the bars, leaning back in my chair, my tie loosened, my wallet open to you and your beautiful friends. I know the best bars you’ve never head of, the best restaurants you can’t afford. And I would love to show you around my city.
An interesting proposition for dc summer interns
This is addressed to all the young interns who have invaded this great city for the summer to gain a real education about how our nation’s capital really works. Although I am not one of you I am, instead, one of the powerbroker lobbyists who is in his forties who has his fingers on the pulse of this city.
But as I am sure all you young interns, with your tanned and toned lean, muscular legs, long silky hair, and firm breasts and tight firm asses know…this town is full of powerbrokers like me who are very sexual and have kinky desires that we fantasize about and want to make a reality just like we make most things happen in this town.
I am looking for those interns who are open minded, willing to try something new and safe and help make this powerbrokers fantasy come true and earn a little extra spending cash during your internship.
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Creepy phone ad
Engadget has it right when it describes this phone ad (for the LG Secret) as more creepy than sexy. If you live in Europe this is probably work-safe, but if the person sitting next to you gets uncomfortable at Hanes underwear ads, I’d suggest waiting for them to take a potty break before watching.
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co2 trends across the globe... going up
Global emissions from consuming/flaring of fossil fuels
When thinking about emissions, global warming and environmental stewardship, it’s easy to blame to forget who is responsible for most of it. Perhaps a better chart is this per capita take on co2 emissions.
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A rather harsh license agreement
I don’t normally read license agreements when I “buy” software but for some reason I looked at this one while installing the Prism Video Converter (which I highly recommend by the way) and I started to wonder what kind of game I was playing. Is it really worth risking death to convert that .avi to a lower quality .wmv?
Has any one else seen something like this before?
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A new take on business cards
Melvin@ melvin.net described himself as a “hacker, entrepreneur, and all-around mischief maker” back when his website was still functioning. I suppose that’s why he wanted something a little different for his business cards, which is why he had these made. The designer is named Jeni Mattson and the card is made of punch-out lock-pick tools which apparently work. Pretty cool.
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Map Monday: Deforestation in Borneo
This is the first of what will hopefully a popular series highlighting different maps from and about different parts of the world. Enjoy.
Taken from the UNEP site, where the map was found: The tropical lowland and highland forests of Borneo, including vast expanses of rainforest, have decreased rapidly after the end of the second world war. Forests are burned, logged and clear, and commonly replaced with agricultural land, built-up areas or palm oil plantations.
With other rapidly expanding economies around it, Borneo is unable to turn away from the pressing demand for tropical lumber and building materials. This is really sad when you put into context and think and think about how Borneo is by far the largest home to orangutans in the world. I won’t show it here, but there’s another map showing the shrinking habitat for native orangutans and it correlates very closely with the above deforestation map.
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Longaberger Basket building is a giant basket
The Longaberger basket company is a specialty basket company based in south-eastern Ohio who make handcrafted Maple wood baskets. These are the kind of baskets that Yogi Bear spends so much of his life pursuing. In fact, the company is so dedicated to the art of the pic-uh-nic basket that they modeled their company headquarters after one. Check out ths sweet picture of it by Flickr member Dania H.
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