Comments on: Here be dragons

Here be dragons

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:15:25 -0800

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:27:30 -0800

These rock. That first example is hilariously ridiculous, but some of the others are pretty useful and interesting (to me at least). The descendants of Adam. How the countries of the world are connected.

By: kamylyon

kamylyon — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:35:43 -0800

neat!

By: Turtle

Turtle — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:56:50 -0800

I'd like a data view on some of those. The world's most connected countries seem to be China (16), Russia (14), Brazil (10), Germany (9), Saudi Arabia (8). America is trailing at 2. I'm not sure what it all means, but it's pret-ty terrifying.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:05:40 -0800

Neat and utterly confusing.

By: mr.marx

mr.marx — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:06:43 -0800

my brain hurts

By: mkultra

mkultra — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:17:43 -0800

[this is good] Thanks for the link. But what would Tufte say (I can't tell, yet...)?

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:23:11 -0800

Now if they'd just put it like that in the book, I'd be a believer!

By: Scoo

Scoo — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:35:51 -0800

Here's a good one (possibly NSFW)Sexual Fetish Diagram. I'm in there, but I'm not saying where.

By: Scoo

Scoo — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:40:50 -0800

Also good: The Geek Hierarchy by Lore Sjöberg Unabridged

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:48:04 -0800

Fantastic! Terrific stuff.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:55:26 -0800

kamylyon, that's supposed to be, if you have the Bender nature: "Neat!" *clickflash* None of these diagrams help me tie the movers'n'shakers of the late Roman Republic to the Julio-Claudians, however. Hmph.

By: fluffycreature

fluffycreature — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 06:55:40 -0800

This gets me going like the InforPorn sectionof Wired every month. Organized data is hot! InfoPorn examples: Power Grid (1.6 MB PDF) The Free and the Unfree (contains links to series of five InfoPorns from June 2004.)

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 07:17:35 -0800

More diagrams in the vein of the first.

By: Zurishaddai

Zurishaddai — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 07:42:20 -0800

Whoops, they left the Greek New Testament out!

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:26:49 -0800

I have to agree with myself when I think the more diagram we say we more we're attracted to PowerPoint and this is bad bad bad.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:47:57 -0800

I have to agree with myself when I think the more diagram we say we more we're attracted to PowerPoint and this is bad bad bad. diagram that sentence.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 08:53:32 -0800

do they still make kids diagram sentences in schools?

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 09:01:21 -0800

I expect still the I gave in which be able customize the price... of another way I followed austere

By: banished

banished — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 10:07:18 -0800

No amberglow, unfortunately diagramming is out. I am a strong proponent of teaching phonics, sentence diagramming, basic math (no calculators), and an intense study of geography in schools. It's embarrassing to me that something like 11% of 18 to 24 year olds in the U.S. can't point out the United States (!!!) on a World Map.

By: bitpart

bitpart — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 10:36:06 -0800

It'd be better if these were PDFs and the text was searchable. Still great though.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 10:57:40 -0800

11% of 18 to 24 year olds in the U.S. can't point out the United States (!!!) on a World Map. what's beyond pleasantville?

By: Hildago

Hildago — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 11:36:19 -0800

I had to diagram sentences. Perhaps that is what made me the person I am today?

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 11:57:23 -0800

Very neat. I almost missed this link as it came with no explanation. I am glad I got bored later and clicked on it.

By: ChrisTN

ChrisTN — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 13:06:32 -0800

Great charts, but if you want the ultimate in freaky Bible charts, check out the work of Clarence Larkin. (Scroll down and click on the chart names, beginning with "The Seven Thousand Years of Human History.") I still have nightmares from the Sunday School class that used these when I was a kid. Truly beautiful, in a nutty kind of way.

By: onlyconnect

onlyconnect — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 13:23:28 -0800

These diagrams are exuding focking confidence and we like them!

By: iamck

iamck — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 13:31:41 -0800

Thanks for the link. But what would Tufte say (I can't tell, yet...)? Here's a hint: The US is connected to Mexico and Canada.

By: lazy-ville

lazy-ville — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 13:31:58 -0800

Here be dragons?

By: tss

tss — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 14:37:13 -0800

I thought the graphs of states and countries were pretty silly. Putting everything into those little boxes and shuffling them around got rid of an important piece of information---the relative spatial arrangements of the states---which even in a diagram consisting of nodes and edges could be preserved to some degree. Missouri is not south of Illinois---why make it look like it is? Plus the restriction that each "box" can only have a max of four lines coming out of it is confusing and unnecessary. The notion of which states touch each other can be represented in a perfectly normal planar graph (i.e. none of the edges cross each other) without recourse to those strange diamond-shaped subgraphs. While an acknowledgement of syntactic structure is necessary in schools, I'm glad to hear that sentence diagramming is on the outs, convinced as I am that (a) sentence diagrams use an excess of idiosyncratic and uninformative spatial arrangements; the parse trees from linguistics are much clearer (b) linguistic syntax is far more a matter of probabilistic tendencies and rote idiom memorization than abstract symbolic manipulation, and hence more fluid than either parse trees or sentence diagrams like to allow. That last one is a controversial one. Bring it on, I say.

By: kamylyon

kamylyon — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:12:31 -0800

::adds in:: *CLICKFLASH!*

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:17:44 -0800

I always liked diagramming--for us visual learners it was a pleasure, and i think it helped clarity-wise (hanging things off of subjects, objects, and verbs show you which parts are most important, no?)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:20:05 -0800

oh, Straight Dope on See Spot run.

By: signal

signal — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:55:47 -0800

But what would Tufte say He'd probly say something about chart-junk, The ideas are good, the execution is a bit off, IMNSHO.

By: TungstenChef

TungstenChef — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 16:50:30 -0800

Here's a good one (possibly NSFW)Sexual Fetish Diagram. I'm in there, but I'm not saying where. Does anyone care to enlighten me as to what "mudlarking" is? And why it's got a direct line to scat and piggy play??? The Urban Dictionary is failing me here.

By: superfem

superfem — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 18:05:14 -0800

But what would Tufte say He'd probly say something about chart-junk, The ideas are good, the execution is a bit off, IMNSHO. Chart-junk indeed. I took a seminar on visualizing legal concepts that was taught by an excellent diagrammer (she eschews chart-junk also). She makes income tax maps now that you can find on Amazon:

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 20:28:00 -0800

Two of my favorites are the famous chart of Unix history and a family tree of the Left. (I'm in there, but I'm not saying where.)

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 23:03:05 -0800

Thanks.

By: codger

codger — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 07:01:06 -0800

Just to state and/or question the obvious, the connections of a country are merely its neighbors, right?