Catherine Mulbrandon is an Economics graduate and Masters in Interaction Design who is into visualising data (her job is an interaction designer/information architect) and creates posters about aspects of the US economy, particularly income distribution as a hobby.
The segment shown is from one showing incomes levels for typical jobs from the year 2000. Depressingly, I realise that my salary then was exactly what she shows for the average income (and Computer Programmers, which is what I am!). If you like her posters- which have a clean open look to them, you can buy them online at cafepress.
Popularity: 19% [?]
This shows just how useful the web can be, showing as it does where the fires are raging in California, where evacuation centers are located, what has been evacuated, where volunteers are needed, red cross centers and what’s closed etc. It is periodically updated from Twitter.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Between 2003 and 2007 a group of people lived in a secret room (750 square feet size) above a parking lot in a shopping mall. They came and went unnoticed.
Eventually they got caught and the whole story came out, but for four years they lived there working on a memorial project to 9/11. Quite amazing.
Popularity: 17% [?]
I bet conspiracy theorists have a field day with this site. It’s obviously meant to secretly track people (yeah right!). Anyway I thought all notes had small metal implants that could be watched from space…Or am I confusing those with the small metal implants in noses or teeth put there by aliens?
It’s a bit of fun really. If you come into possession of a US note ranging in value from $1 to $100 and you’re registered with the site then you can enter its serial number and location and possibly see where its been if others have done the same.
This doesn’t just work in the USA, if you live in the UK and have a note there are 858 locations (villages, cities and towns) listed that you can log it against.
Link
Popularity: 8% [?]
This is a wonderful set of photos of a climb up the Bay Bridge and showing the views from the top which are just amazing.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Clearly a magazine that people are “dying” to buy. Girls and Corpses appears to be a somewhat satirical take on Lads magazines. The girls are hot and the corpses are dead!
I thought at first that this was a fake, like The Onion but it appears to be for real. Odd that I’ve never seen it in W.H. Smiths…
Wired Magazine sums it up “Straddling that fine line between brutal tastelessness and hilarious misogyny, Girls and Corpses is very much a throwback to the humor mags of the late ’70s/early ’80s, with a very pointed, sarcastic POV that recalls some of the best issues of National Lampoon. ”
Interesting note. I always thought that corpses was a British word while the US used cadaver. I suppose corpse isa bit snappier!
Popularity: 19% [?]
You have got to love anywhere that says “Come visit the “real” MOBA in the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre, conveniently located just outside the men’s room. The nearby flushing helps maintain a uniform humidity.”
This is a real museum located in Dedham, Massachusetts, as well as the website. The examples shown on the site exemplify that the art shown here is not very good. It’s a community-based, private institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition, and celebration of bad art in all its forms and in all its glory. The museum was founded in the fall of 1993 and presented its first show in March 1994. You can even buy greetings card featuring some of the Moba art work from the Massachusetts Bay Trading Company. That’s tempting!
Popularity: 11% [?]
It’s not often that I see something completely original but this I think qualifies although the name is not strictly accurate- Glass Cisterns might be better, albeit less imaginative. Totally glass toilets- not a good idea I guess there are some things that man is not meant to see.
I could see these catching on they look great. I bet somebody would even keep goldfish in them (would need a filter to prevent “Bob” being sent on a one way journey!). And it’s a decent set of accessories as well. Only problem I can see is that unless you’re a man (and even then, not always…), most of the time you wouldn’t actually be looking at the cistern!
Popularity: 8% [?]
I think this is an excellent idea and hope other third level educational establishments will follow- MIT already do this but not on youtube. The University of California, Berkeley has done a deal with youtube to host videos of their lectures.
These comprise biology (39 lectures) , physics (26 Lectures) and search engines(6 lectures) which is a bit of an odd mix. If you want to see and hear what Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google is like), have a look.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The link on the picture takes you to the UK Talk Like a Pirate Day website, while the bottom link goes to the US one. Maybe we’ll see other national sites some time eg “Parlez comme un Corsair?”
This annual event exhorts people to talk in the present tense, drop the gs off the end of words endin in ing and double up vowels- ie ee gettin’ that?
Both sites are interesting though the UK one looks better. Yaar!
Popularity: 14% [?]
Since 9/11 the US police have increased their use of paramilitary raids. Instead of approaching a house and asking politely they assume that the inhabitants are armed and go in very heavily handed as this tale recounts.
The Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute is named for Cato’s Letters, a series of libertarian pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. They have catalogued and now used Google Maps to highlight the increased number of botched paramilitary raids.
Understandably against real armed baddies, of which there are no doubts many in the USA, the old approach would be ineffective. But the number of botched raids does suggest a degree of sloppiness. In the tale listed, they only realised their mistake when they cleared the second floor “But the target has only got one!”…
Popularity: 17% [?]
I’m not sure if this site is still being updated as it has 2005, 2006 copyright dates but it has a fair amount of stuff on it so worth while for that.
It shows the locations (on Google Maps) where some films (that’s movies for US readers!) and TV shows were made. I’ve been watching Prison Break a lot, so as it is filmed in a real prison (Joliet Prison in Illinois according to the website), I thought’d I’d use it as the screen dump. If you haven’t seen the TV show, don’t miss it, it’s excellent.
Popularity: 10% [?]
In the USA you’ll often see telephone numbers in TV and films with the area code 555. This is a made up area code, specifically for entertainment purposes. This site has an incredibly exhaustive list. Simpson’s fans will know that the numbers occur very frequently, whether it’s the Sleep-Eazy Motel(555-1000) which is the same number as the Yellow Cab Company in the film the Fast and the Furious! Or Moe’s tavern (555-1239) or the Marital Stress Hotline (555-1680).
One thing’s for sure. Whenever you see a 555 number in a film etc. in future, it will remind you of this website!
Popularity: 9% [?]
This is simple but unless you really know the USA and exactly where all the states are located, it’s not that easy.
Just drag a piece to where you think it should go. It tallies up your score and shows you where it should have gone if you get it wrong.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Courtesy of Princeton University this animated GIF shows the entire continental USA for each of the presidential voting years from 1960 to 2004 inclusive.
It is colour coded, red for democrats and blues for republicans so you can see how states have altered (or not) over the 44 years.
Popularity: 11% [?]