The Internet's Undersea World

An infographic map from the The Guardian in the UK, a map showing the few underwater cables that connect the world.

Found on digg.com

U.S. Flag Infographic

For the 4th of July, I wanted to post a new link to the U.S. flag as an infographic, but it looks like the "Meet The World" brazilian website that I posted about in February 2008 is down right now.  I still have the image, and its from the flag series by artist Icaro Doria. 

Icaro Doria is Brazilian, 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. He is part of the team (with Luis Silva Dias, João Roque, Andrea Vallenti and João Roque) that produced the flags campaign which has been circulating the Earth in chain letters via e-mail.

Big Blue Marble: Water and Air

Found on infosthetics.com, phiffer.com and boingboing.net

Global water and air volume. Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth's atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometers across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometers across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometers of the atmosphere.

Credit: Adam Nieman / Photo Researchers, Inc

I'd love to see one more showing all of the oil in the world.

The original appears to be here at PhotoResearchers.com

The Infographic that Saved a Million Lives

Great story from 37signals.com about a very simple infographic that motivated Bill and Melinda Gates to change the focus of their charity spending.

“No graphic in human history has saved so many lives in Africa and Asia,” says NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about an infographic in a ‘97 Times article that spurred Bill and Melinda Gates to take action on public health.

...But then bill confessed that actually it wasn’t the article itself that had grabbed him so much—it was the graphic. It was just a two column, inside graphic, very simple, listing third world health problems and how many people they kill. but he remembered it after all those years and said that it was the single thing that got him redirected toward public health.

The world as you've never seen it before

Check out WorldMapper! Above is a map of the world based on true Land Mass, but with WorldMapper, you can adjust the size of the countries based on whatever data you are trying to convey.

This is the world map based on Total Population:

This is the world map based on Total Computer Exports:

Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US news media is actually showing less. She uses WorldMapper to communicate her point about the state of today's news in the US.

Outdoor Pictogram Headlines

Neat experiment by Dave Bowker over at Designing The News. The idea is to use pictgraphics to visualize news headlines in public places. Specifically in Europe, you could establish a universal set of icons over time that people who speak different languages could interpret and understand.

Beer in Germany this week?

I'm headed to Nuremberg, Germany (also know as Nürnberg) for a trade show this week. Anyone in the area want to meet for a drink? Send an email to my Gmail account.

Global Distribution of Water

From the United Nations Environment Programme website, the Global Distribution of Water specifically highlights the scarcity of freshwater.

Found on digg.com

Kapitaal

What if the only things you could see in the world around you were brands and advertising? No walls, no people, no sidewalks...just ads. Apparently it would be more than enough to get around in the world.

This is an awesome video! Thanks to pascal for submitting the link in the comments to an earlier video post: See The World in Words

Map of World Happiness

From geostrategis.com, the world's first map of world happiness.

This world map on happiness was distributed through a Globe and Mail article by Sheryl Ubelacker (28/07/06). It is an interesting perspective, but primarily focused on the social side of well being. It provides a strong visualization but lacks the substance to become a strategic or policy significant map. This map was prepared by Adrian White, University of Leicester