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Dominik M. Schwarz is my kind of geek.

“It’s easy to print something large. It’s easy to print something very detailed. The combination though is difficult, especially if you ask the printing shop for only one copy.”

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A path to the past

The Geologic Time Spiral — Designed by Joseph Graham, William Newman, and John Stacy

The Earth is very old—4.5 billion years or more according to scientific estimates. Most of the evidence for an ancient Earth is contained in the rocks that form the Earth’s crust. The rock layers themselves—like pages in a long and complicated history—record the events of the past, and buried within them are the remains of life—the plants and animals that evolved from organic structures that existed 3 billion years ago.

USGS: The Geologic Time Spiral (via Wikipedia)

See also: 4,000 years of human history in one chart

Further information

‘A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland; exhibiting the collieries and mines, the marshes and fen lands originally overflowed by the sea, and the varieties of soil according to the variations in the substrata, illustrated by the most descriptive names’

BBC News: William Smith: Seminal geology map rediscovered

A first edition copy of one of the most significant maps in the history of science has been rediscovered in time for an important anniversary.

Tucked away in a leather sleeve case, the mislaid artefact was last seen roughly 40 or 50 years ago. Smith spent the better part of 15 years collecting the information needed to compile the map. It is said he covered about 10,000 miles a year on foot, on horse and in carriage, cataloguing the locations of all the formations that make up the geology of the three home nations.

The roughly 1.8m by 2.5m map is made up of 15 sheets.

The outline of the geography and the strata were printed from copper plate engravings, but the detail was finished by hand with watercolours.

The lower edge of a formation is saturated and then the paint is made to fade back to the high edge. It is this colouring technique, combined with the tendency of many of England’s rocks to dip to the south or southeast, that gives Smith’s map its iconic look.

• William ‘Strata’ Smith (1769-1839), the Father of English Geology.
• Images of the rediscovered Smith map on Flickr. There’s lots of additional information on this main image.
• More William ‘Strata’ Smith images on Flickr

See also

• Recovering The Doves Type from the bottom of the Thames
• Canyonlands National Park texture and shaded relief map

See also

Iconic Arms is a series by Stuart Brown on YouTube about legendary weapons in FPS history.

“In games, your gun is player agency made manifest.”

Iconic Arms looks at the history of famous weapons like the double-barreled shotgun, AK-47, M16, the Magnum, their place in popular culture and how their performance characteristics and functionality have been tweaked – sometimes radically – for more balanced gameplay.

Though I’m no fan of guns, I particularly love the graphics in this series with their flat colourful silhouette shapes, bold uber-tightly kerned Helvetica and fast diagonal wipes.

• Open World Origins, also by Stuart Brown: What was the first truly open world game? What other titles set the standard along the way? And what makes them so popular today?
• How to script and record narration for video, also by Stuart Brown.
• The Best Amendment, a game about gun control.
• Other Places, a series celebrating beautiful video game worlds.
• Tropes vs Women in Video Games: The second episode of Anita Sarkeesian’s series exploring the Women as Background Decoration trope in video games.
• This is Phil Fish, a case study in internet celebrity.
• The History of Helvetica, A fascinating history of the creation and adoption of this ubiquitous Swiss font.

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Nature: The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population

Clustering of the 2,039 UK individuals into 17 clusters based only on genetic data.

European ancestry profiles for the 17 UK clusters.

Britain has a long history of invasions: over the past two millennia, various armies from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxons conquered the bulk of the British Isles. A new genetic analysis of the country has revealed which invading force had the greatest impact on its DNA.
The Verge: Genetic map of the UK shows which invasions created Britain’s DNA

Major events in the peopling of the British Isles.

Nature: The results throw new light on several aspects of the peopling of Britain. For instance the genetic contribution to southeastern England from Anglo-Saxon migrations is under half, suggesting significant pre-Roman but post-Mesolithic population movement from the European continent. The data also reveal that non-Saxon regions contain genetically differentiated subgroups rather than a general ‘Celtic’ population.

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Ampp3d distorted the UK map to show where all the money is,
where all the people live and how much they pay to live there.
Also, obesity and pubs.

The median cost to buy a home in London is almost £465,000 – compare that to the North East, where you can pick one up for just £99,132. Actually, that’s still quite a lot of money!

London practically disappears from the map, because the obesity rate is significantly below the national average. Scotland, on the other hand, looms large.

We looked at data from the Good Pubs Guide to locate all the quality drinking establishments that its reviewers considered to be at least ‘worth a visit’.

It’s no surprise that a lot of people live in London and the South East. But THIS many? The North West is also popular.

Five weird UK maps that show the real issues facing the country

See also: a map of racism around the world and 4,000 years of human history in one chart.

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Ten characters in 100 styles, by Jaakko Seppälä

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(I’m not sure where this chart originated, but I first saw it on The Awl)

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Infographic by South China Morning Post

I also found these brilliant cross sections by Zoohaus via Arch Daily:

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The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense by Crispian Jago. (via Boing Boing)

The curiously revered world of irrational nonsense has seeped into almost every aspect of modern society and is both complex and multifarious. Therefore rather than attempt a comprehensive taxonomy, I have opted instead for a gross oversimplification and a rather pretty Venn Diagram.

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A Visual Compendium of Typewriters

A throwback to the original word processor, this chart features over 60 beautiful hand-illustrations of some of the greatest typewriters from antiquity to recent history.

(via)

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The Periodic Table of Storytelling second edition – by James Harris

Buy the print and check out the interactive version that will link you directly to the relevant TV Tropes pages.

(I posted the original here too.)

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The Shapes of Stories, a Kurt Vonnegut Infographic by Maya Eilam

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Hypermorgen icons on the Noun Project

Hypermorgen is an interdisciplinary lab for futures research:

We recently designed some icons to represent topics that will most likely become increasingly interesting in the next few years.

Some of them are tongue in cheek (like the Stanford bunnies in the 3D replication icon), some are more critical (like the synthetic biology spidergoat). They are meant to provoke different associations to start discussions about the future.

(via futurescope.co)

27 Drinks Made From Coffee

Craig (A.K.A. Wheezywaiter) who looks at 27 drinks you can order at an American cafe.

See also: Coffee drinks illustrated by Lokesh Dhakar

Coffee drinks illustrated by Lokesh Dhakar

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(via Slate, Fast Co. Design and Boing Boing)

The chart emphasizes domination, using color to show how the power of various “peoples” (a quasi-racial understanding of the nature of human groups, quite popular at the time) evolved throughout history.

The chart was advertised as “clear, vivid, and shorn of elaboration,” while at the same time capable of “holding you enthralled” by presenting “the actual picture of the march of civilization, from the mud huts of the ancients thru the monarchistic glamour of the middle ages to the living panorama of life in present day America.”

See also: The Histomap of Evolution

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The Pixar Theory — A Timeline

I summarised this yesterday, but the timeline explains it better.

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By Grant Snider.

Why Do People Hate Citi Bike?

New York magazine’s Dan Amira summarized it all wonderfully with a Venn diagram.

“In a way, the depth of conservative animosity for a bike-share program makes perfect sense. Because, as the Venn diagram above indicates, Citi Bike finds itself at the very nexus of five different things that conservatives hate.”
CrazyBike — The Morning News

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The Charted Cheese Wheel

I can’t vouch for its accuracy. The cheddar looks a little orange to me.

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A map by Massimo Pietrobon showing the supercontinent of Pangea with modern political borders.

Here’s another post where the creator talks about how he made the map. It’s more artistic than scientific I think, but a worthwhile curiosity all the same.

(via io9)

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The Periodic Table of Storytelling by ~DawnPaladin

Based on data from TV Tropes [WARNING: Do not click link until you have ample free time available].

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A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries from the Washington Post:

A couple of caveats:

First, it’s entirely likely that some people lied when answering this question; it would be surprising if they hadn’t. But the operative question, unanswerable, is whether people in certain countries were more or less likely to answer the question honestly. The willingness to state such a preference out loud, though, might be an indicator of racial attitudes in itself. Second, the survey is not conducted every year; some of the results are very recent and some are several years old, so we’re assuming the results are static, which might not be the case.

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From the fascinating Strange Maps blog.

These two maps were produced by Steve Goldman. They show the place names in both groups of islands that he considers strange.

“I’ve loved place names on Orkney and Shetland since I was a kid. They are by turns surreal, beautiful, nonsensical, rude, and bizarre… There seems to be no consistency to them at all.”

Creating the World of “Oblivion”

Creating the World of Oblivion

A behind-the-scenes look at “Oblivion” (2013) and the film’s innovative in-camera special effects with director Joe Kosinski, lead graphics animator David “dlew” Lewandowski, and design director Bradley “Gmunk” Munkowitz.

Separating science from hype

From the Rockerfeller University, a simple guide to separating science from hype, no PhD required:

1. Separate the sales pitch from the science — “In short, read articles carefully and figure out if the claims they make are based on the facts they present.”
2. Find the data — “use Google Scholar to look for the original source. Search with whatever information you have: the names of the scientists, their institution, or the main topic.”
3. Evaluate the data — “Think about it this way: if you were in charge of figuring out the height of the average American male, you would need to measure a bunch of people to get it right. If you only measured a few people, and they happened to be basketball players, you’d be way off.”
   The section on misleading graphs here is brilliant.
4. Put the story into context — “If you’re having trouble finding alternative perspectives, the Wikipedia page for the topic can be a good place to start, especially if it contains a “controversy” or “criticism” section.”
5. Ask an expert — “Is there a science blogger you like? Tweet at them. […] Nothing beats a real discussion (even over Twitter or email!), but you can also check out neutral, non-biased sites like Mayo Clinic.”

(via Boing Boing)

Rethinking the birth certificate

For the April issue of Icon Magazine design agency IWANT rethought the birth certificate.

The birth certificate is the first official document you are given in what is hopefully a long life of much lesser forms and documentation. It is the official record that you have arrived and is special for those involved. The current document feels historical and archival, but doesn’t offer much information or feel special.

I really like the layout, but I’m not keen on having nonsense like the Zodiac sign included – and especially not a given religion. As Dawkins points out, “There is no such thing as a Christian child: only a child of Christian parents.”

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The Imaginary Atlas has a lovely selection of imaginary maps, including this Woodcut Empire created for a live roleplay game.

The Woodcut Empire

And this is one of the Invented Cities of Robert Berlo:

Imagining the Mundane: The Invented Cities of Robert Berlo

Also discovered today: itsamap.tumblr.com & fuckyeahcartography.tumblr.com.

Live map of London Underground trains

London Underground live.

Live map of London Underground trains

Live departure data is fetched from the TfL API, and then it does a bit of maths and magic.

There’s also a fun (but not really useful) Skyfall version.

How far is it to Mars?

Website-as-infographic: distancetomars.com

If the Earth were 100 pixels wide, the Moon would be 3000 pixels away, and Mars … well, you’ll have to see for yourself.