Here be dragons

September 26, 2004 5:15 AM

TERRIFYING DIAGRAMS!
posted by Pretty_Generic (37 comments total)

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.
posted by nthdegx at 5:27 AM on September 26, 2004

neat!
posted by kamylyon at 5:35 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by Turtle at 5:56 AM on September 26, 2004

Neat and utterly confusing.
posted by elpapacito at 6:05 AM on September 26, 2004

my brain hurts
posted by mr.marx at 6:06 AM on September 26, 2004

[this is good]

Thanks for the link. But what would Tufte say (I can't tell, yet...)?
posted by mkultra at 6:17 AM on September 26, 2004

Now if they'd just put it like that in the book, I'd be a believer!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:23 AM on September 26, 2004

Here's a good one (possibly NSFW)Sexual Fetish Diagram. I'm in there, but I'm not saying where.
posted by Scoo at 6:35 AM on September 26, 2004

Also good: The Geek Hierarchy by Lore Sjöberg

Unabridged
posted by Scoo at 6:40 AM on September 26, 2004

Fantastic! Terrific stuff.
posted by 327.ca at 6:48 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:55 AM on September 26, 2004

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.)
posted by fluffycreature at 6:55 AM on September 26, 2004

More diagrams in the vein of the first.
posted by kenko at 7:17 AM on September 26, 2004

Whoops, they left the Greek New Testament out!
posted by Zurishaddai at 7:42 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by elpapacito at 8:26 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by quonsar at 8:47 AM on September 26, 2004

do they still make kids diagram sentences in schools?
posted by amberglow at 8:53 AM on September 26, 2004

I expect still the I gave in which be able customize the price... of another way I followed austere
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:01 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by banished at 10:07 AM on September 26, 2004

It'd be better if these were PDFs and the text was searchable. Still great though.
posted by bitpart at 10:36 AM on September 26, 2004

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?
posted by quonsar at 10:57 AM on September 26, 2004

I had to diagram sentences. Perhaps that is what made me the person I am today?
posted by Hildago at 11:36 AM on September 26, 2004

Very neat. I almost missed this link as it came with no explanation. I am glad I got bored later and clicked on it.
posted by caddis at 11:57 AM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by ChrisTN at 1:06 PM on September 26, 2004

These diagrams are exuding focking confidence and we like them!
posted by onlyconnect at 1:23 PM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by iamck at 1:31 PM on September 26, 2004

Here be dragons?
posted by lazy-ville at 1:31 PM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by tss at 2:37 PM on September 26, 2004

::adds in:: *CLICKFLASH!*
posted by kamylyon at 3:12 PM on September 26, 2004

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?)
posted by amberglow at 3:17 PM on September 26, 2004

oh, Straight Dope on See Spot run.
posted by amberglow at 3:20 PM on September 26, 2004

But what would Tufte say

He'd probly say something about chart-junk,
The ideas are good, the execution is a bit off, IMNSHO.
posted by signal at 3:55 PM on September 26, 2004

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.
posted by TungstenChef at 4:50 PM on September 26, 2004

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:
posted by superfem at 6:05 PM on September 26, 2004

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.)
posted by dhartung at 8:28 PM on September 26, 2004

Thanks.
posted by The God Complex at 11:03 PM on September 26, 2004

Just to state and/or question the obvious, the connections of a country are merely its neighbors, right?
posted by codger at 7:01 AM on September 27, 2004