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Visualizations are fascinating things. Taking data and then adjusting a map based on that data can often provide insight that would not be readily apparent otherwise. Here are some examples I’ve seen over the last few weeks that have, at least for me, made me realize something I hadn’t realized before:

• Segregation in America. We like to think of America as a diverse society, a melting pot of peoples and cultures. But in our day to day reality, is it? Is the mixed neighborhood we see in the media the reality? The answer is, unsurprisingly, no. Here’s a fascinating article from the WaPo that uses maps to highlight segregation in America (if you run into their paywall, use Incognito or Private mode). As the article notes, “…some cities remain deeply segregated — even as the country itself becomes more diverse. To explore these national changes, The Post analyzed census data from 1990, 2000, 2010 and the latest estimates from the 2016 five-year American Community Survey. Using that data, we generated detailed maps of the United States using six race categories: black, white, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American and multi-race/other for the available years.”  The maps show significant segregation within each city, and for most cities, allow you to enter an address to see how segregated or diverse your local community is.
• Jews. Here’s a map that purports to show American Jews by county as of 2011. There’s a bit of controversy over it, but for me the main takeaway is how concentrated the pockets of Judaism are, and how empty other areas are. If you were to correlate this to areas where antisemitism is the strongest, my contention is that antisemitism flourishes where Jews are scarce. If people don’t see Jews regularly, they fear the unknown. Now connect this to the first map, and explore the theory of whether the areas of the strongest hatred of the immigrant and the Muslim are precisely those areas that have the fewest immigrants and Muslims. If we don’t see diversity — if we see people only as categories and not people — hatred flourishes. Stereotypes are believed, and fears magnify. These two maps, taken together, show why we have so much work to do in this country.
• Density. This map (and alas I don’t have anything better than the FB image) shows areas with equal population: first the coasts, and then the major cities of NYC and LA. Again, this visualization explains quite a bit, especially when you think in terms of politics. The politics of population dense areas — and the needs and concerns — tends to be very different than the less dense areas. The nature of crime is different, the diversity is different, the pressing needs of homelessness and economic distribution are different. Is it any wonder there is such a tension between the dominance of heavily populated areas in the popular vote vs. the power of less dense areas in the electoral college?
• Property Value. A similar interesting visualization comes by looking at property values. A handful of counties in the US account for the bulk of the value of the property in the US (and guess where those counties are — especially in light of the previous three maps). This demonstrates one reason behind some political trends we are seeing (combined with the adage from the musical 1776 about conservatives: most people would like to protect the possibility of being rich than face the reality of being poor). Here’s an example: “New York City’s 305 square miles make up 8/1000ths of 1 percent of the land area of the United States. Yet New York City accounts for 5 percent of the nation’s housing value—more than every single state but four (one of which is, of course, New York state).” The article’s conclusion is also interesting: “Folks who can’t afford to live in those places don’t get to take advantage of those labor markets. The demand to live in these places is soaring, but the desire among incumbents to accommodate newcomers is low. Hence NIMBYism, high housing costs, severe inequality—the whole shebang.”

In terms of non-map visualizations, here are two:

• Sushi on the Brain. Here’s a scientist who explains complex concepts using sushi. This is one that must be seen to be believed, for example, a model of the sections of the brain that control language, depicted in fish and rice. And with that, I return you to your lunch.
• Terms and Conditions. For a student project, Dima Yarovinsky printed the terms and conditions on paper for major social apps — WhatsApp, Google, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, respectively — which highlights what we’re getting into.

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This collection of news chum brings together a bunch of articles that all have to do with travel or things we use when traveling such as maps:

• Bordering on the Crazy. Most of us think of borders as straight lines. Perhaps another line meets them, bringing three entities together. Sometimes it is a form of a +, bringing four entities together. Sometimes it is even weirder than that. This article explores 11 different international border oddities, including multiple levels of enclaves (enclosed countries) and divided villages.
• Art on or In The Road. Canadian artist Roadsworth likes to take existing street and sign markings and turn them into street art. Literally. I find them quite cute, but I wonder if people notice them.
• Las Vegas Remembers. Las Vegas may not be keen on keeping the past (as the hotels go boom!), but it is keen on remembering it. It does this by…. naming streets. You’re familiar with the dead hotels memorialized in street names: Sands, Dunes, Riviera, Sahara, Tropicana (oh, right, that’s not dead yet). It also does it for start associating city — most recently, when it renamed a stretch of Riviera as Elvis Presley Blvd. Elvis Presley Boulevard, formerly Riviera Boulevard, is four-tenths of a mile and runs from the Strip to Paradise Road near the Convention Center and the Westgate. Other streets named after celebrities include Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. drives, all of which meet behind the Mirage. Jerry Lewis Way can be found south of that intersection, also intersecting Dean Martin Drive. Not far from there is Mel Torme Way, off of Spring Mountain Road near Fashion Show. Tony Bennett Way runs east of Paradise in between Twain and Flamingo. Debbie Reynolds Drive is near Convention Center Drive, and Hugh Hefner Drive is just off of Flamingo Road. UNLV’s most famous basketball coach has Jerry Tarkanian Way in the southwest along the 215 Beltway. Wayne Newton Boulevard is near McCarran International Airport. You get the idea.
• Belugas in the Air. Airbus has released photos of the Airbus Beluga XL. This plane, a modified A330, is used to fly aircraft components across Europe for manufacturing. Some think it is pretty. It reminds me of a Pontiac Aztek.
• The Speed of Sound. A bit faster than the Beluga is the Supersonic Jet designed by Industrial Engineer Charles Bombardier. The Paradoxal resembles a stingray, and would not be suitable for autonomous operations. But it would go fast, being outfitted with two rim-rotor rotary ramjet engines that would give it enough power to climb to 60,000 feet and reach Mach 3. At that point, the air-breathing engines would transform into rocket engines by injecting liquid oxygen injected into the gas exhaust port, placing it on a parabolic suborbital path with an apex of 65 kilometers (approximately 40 miles)—a cruising level well above the stratosphere. The plane would be made of standard civil aviation materials using current aircraft manufacturing techniques, and would be compatible with all existing airport infrastructure and services. However…. a few of its mechanisms have yet to be developed: for starters, the proposed R4E engines, though they could be replaced with existing turbines that use afterburners to increase thrust.
• Bye Bye 747. United Airlines has announced that it will be pulling its last 747 out of service this year. The 747 was a revolutionary plane when it was introduced in 1969, but its four engine design makes it a gas guzzler in an era where both fuel consumption and exhaust output must be minimized. Further, the economics are increasingly not there — profits are easier on an appropriately outfitted A330 or 767, and if you need BIG, there’s always the A380 or the 787. The 747 remains a cargo workhorse, given how much it can hold.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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To all those who celebrate this day in the non-traditional way: The Merriest of Christmases to you. To all those that celebrate in the traditional way: I hope your movie is entertaining and your Chinese food delicious and MSG-free. Why look? What has 🎅 Santa left under the virtual tree? It looks like a collection of boxes of news chum! Let’s unwrap them and see what we’ve got. I wonder if any of them are for me?

• 🎁 To: Porter Ranch Residents. I live in Northridge, just down the hill from Porter Ranch. The situation up there is a mess: it is bad for the homeowners, it is bad for the businesses in the area, it is bad for our property values, and it will be bad for all the customers of The Gas Company, who will have to foot the bill for this stupidity for years and years to come. For those that live in Porter Ranch, here are two things of interest: the first is a collection of resources from the Mayor’s office, the second is a commitment from SoCalGas that they will relocate residents faster.
• 🎁 To: Map Collectors. Here’s a collection of 25 of the best Los Angeles maps. It is hard to pick a favorite on the list. I like the map of former streetcar routes, but I think one of the most useful ones compares the size of Los Angeles to other major cities. Most people don’t understand the sheer size of LA, and the distinct difference in density. The change in property values from 2004 to 2014 is also scary: our zip shows a -24%. Mind you, we bought in the top of the market in 2005 😒 . Of course, my favorite map isn’t on the list; my favorite is the one done by my daughter that maps Yiddish books to where they were published in Southern California.
  
• 🎁 To: Those From the Midwest. EaterLA recently announced a present for those from the midwest, or those (like me) who have fond memories of visiting the midwest: it appears there is now a full-sized Steak and Shake now open in Burbank. I wonder if this will entice my dear friend Linda in St. Louis to come out for a visit :-). We’ll have to try it next time we’re in the area.
• 🎁 To: Honda CR-V Owners. Sigh, like us. Honda has extended the air-bag recall to a wider range of CR-Vs. Luckily, we live in a low humidity area, and most of the problems are the result of humidity. That’s perhaps why repairs are so slow out here: I’m still waiting to hear from Toyota on the availability of my repair; the passenger airbag in my wife’s CR-V was repaired in April ’15, and the driver’s airbag in October ’14.
• 🎁 To: Those Concerned About Government Waste. We’re all aware the government procures supercomputers. We’re probably also aware that those computers get replaced every few years to stay current, maintainable, and at the cutting edge to give our Nation the lead we should have. So what happens to the old computers that were so expensive to procure. The answer will not make you happy. Most are “put out with the trash”; that is, they are disposed. The most efficient, secure and financially feasible way to do it is by using a computer wood chipper, provided by contractors who specialize in IT asset disposition. This is true especially for the supercomputers with high-level security data. Some are repurposed, but the process isn’t easy. The first possibility is to try and trade in the supercomputer on a replacement with the contractor. Trade-ins are sometimes possible, and repurposing is sometimes possible. The third strategy, if the first two aren’t feasible, is to put the old supercomputer through the General Services Administration’s clearinghouse for distributing unused government property. But even though they are cheap, the new owner must come and get it, get it out of where it is, and possibly contract to remove and reinstall.
• 🎁 To: Those That Like Android. We all know that Windows is trying to have one operating system to rule them all: Windows 10 on the range from the desktop to the phone. What about a phone operating system on the desktop. How well does Android work with a keyboard and mouse? The answer is “Not good, but better than you would think.” The biggest affordance Android makes for a desktop OS is that it supports a keyboard and mouse. Any Android device can pair with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and if you want to go the wired route, just about any phone can plug in a mouse and keyboard via a USB OTG cable and a USB hub. But from there…
• 🎁 To: Las Vegas Lovers. Here’s an interesting collection of recommended books about Las Vegas. I’ve only heard of one of these. My list of Vegas books is over on the highway pages.
• 🎁 To: Those Interested in Food Safety. Tumeric has recently been in the news for a number of reasons. In addition to its use in Indian food, and turning everything yellow, it has wonderful anti-inflammatory properties. Tumeric Tea can provide great relief from arthritis problems. Here’s another use: it is being infused into kitchen surfaces to make them safer. Using nanotechnology, the researchers developed a way to bind curcumin (a tumeric compound) to metal and glass; essentially they used tiny bubbles (nanovesicles) to enclose a curcumin compound. The coated surfaces kill microbes—including E. coli—and prevent food from spoiling without imparting turmeric flavor into the food.
• 🎁 To: Food Waste or Waist Worriers. Being a member of the “clean plate club” (common in my generation) has been a terrible thing for my waistline, especially in these days of gigantic portions. But I also hate the notion of throwing away food. This is why I found this list of 12 things to keep food from going to waist or waste interesting. In addition to liking this being a list without a load of click-through screens, I like the following two tips: “Buying in bulk doesn’t save money if you end up throwing half of it away. When you don’t have a plan for how and when you will use a sale item, it’s more likely to go to waste, erasing any savings.” and “Shop for how you actually cook and eat, not for how you fantasize about eating. Exotic or otherwise aspirational purchases often go to waste.”
• 🎁 To: Font Lovers. Back when I started using computers, you were lucky to have 5 different fonts (but then again, I only had 2 on the Selectric). Now there are thousands. But that’s less true if you are writing in Chinese. It is extremely difficult to create a Chinese font. This article discusses how hard it is. Just consider this: The default set for English-language fonts contains about 230 glyphs. A font that covers all of the Latin scripts—that’s over 100 languages plus extra symbols—contains 840 glyphs. The simplified version of Chinese, used primarily in mainland China, requires nearly 7,000 glyphs. For traditional Chinese, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the number of glyphs is 13,053.
• 🎁 To: Yiddish Lovers. Last week, I kvelled about my daughter being written up in the JWeekly in the Bay Area for her presentation at the Magnes about her Findery Mapping work. She just wrote an article for a Yiddish Journal about her experiences this summer.
• 🎁 To: Board Gamers (Especially those who visit Las Vegas). One of my favorite places in LA (which, alas, I don’t get to as frequently as I like because they have poor parking) is Game Haus Cafe. This is a coffee shop with a large collection of board games. For those that go to Vegas, here’s some great news: There’s a similar shop in Las Vegas! Meepleville Board Game Cafe (FB) at 4704 W. Sahara Ave. The owner has more than 10,000 games in his collection. Meepleville will charge $5 for all-day play Monday to Thursday and $10 Friday to Sunday. They are open 10am – midnight Monday – Thursday. 10am – 1am Friday and Saturday. 10am to 8pm on Sunday, starting in January 2016. This is a must visit next time I’m in Vegas; it ranks up there with the National Pinball Hall of Fame.
• 🎁 To: Those With Large Record Collections. Those of us who have large collections of anything have the worry of about how our kids will dispose of it. This is especially true for records. The blog “Easily Mused” captures this well (and luckily, it provides a solution):

  “Even now, as the icy finger of Death gently tap tap taps on your shoulder, you can not help but smile as you gaze lovingly at your vinyl record collection which you have so diligently curated. Each gleaming scratchless platter is as close to perfection as the day it was manufactured, a testament to your love for and dedication to the recorded arts.

  Say, have you stopped to consider what will become of this treasure trove after you have departed this mortal realm? Many people such as yourself have bequeathed their records to a close friend or family member, receiving sincere assurances that said records will be treasured, cared for, and passed down to each succeeding generation. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth.

  The painful reality is, you will scarcely even have begun your eternal slumber before the sweaty and possibly jelly-stained fingers of your son or nephew will begin carelessly rifling through your precious vinyl stockpile. “What’s this crap?” he will exclaim. “Who the fuck is Buddy Rich?”

  Your beneficiary, having failed to discern the inestimable cultural value of your collection, will then proceed to recklessly hoist your record crates into the back of his freakishly oversized pickup truck, drop them off orphan-style at the front door of the nearest thrift store and peel away, bobbing his head zombie-like to the rhythm of the latest gangsta rap hit.

  Soon, your prized possessions will be unceremoniously dumped on the floor underneath three shelves that contain hardcover books no one will buy for even a quarter, like Jimmie Walker’s autobiography, Dyn-O-Mite!  or any Jackie Collins novel after Hollywood Wives. They will swiftly be procured by an eagle-eyed entrepeneur who talks like a sophisticated music aficionado, but is really only interested in the crinkly tones produced by shuffling big stacks of cash.

  Through his Ebay store, he will sell your cherished records for exorbitant prices and then send them, one by one, to every corner of the globe. Your ghost self will watch helplessly as your Basie goes to Boise, and your Miles goes to Milan. You will then spend the rest of eternity wandering about aimless and confused, trying but endlessly failing to remember the tune of one goddamn song.”

  Luckily, they provide a solution.

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Now, mates, time to swab the rest of the deck. The cookee said that he couldn’t use these tasty chunks in the stew — they just didn’t blend right. He says we should throw them overboard:

• Las Vegas Supply Chains. How does a Las Vegas hotel stay supplied? It takes a lot of work.
• Migraines and Abuse. Be abused when young, get migraines when you are older. Correlation or causation?
• General Mills. Can the other GM (General Mills) regain its place in the market by embracing Gluten-Free? If it works for General Mills, will it work for General Motors or General Electric?
• Queen Elizabeths’ Anniversary. Exactly when did Elizabeth II become queen? The question isn’t that easy to answer.
• World of Color. We live in a world blessed with color, but that wasn’t always the case. Here’s a history of color.
• Magic Erasers. Here’s how to make your own magic eraser. Wand not required.
• Humans Aren’t Special. Human’s aren’t that special after all: here’s how evolution is all fuzzy. I think the only uniquely human thing is going to theatre and concerts.
• Maps Explain Everything. Here’s a collection of subway-style maps that explain everything.
• All Burned Up. A telephony museum in Northern California was destroyed by the recent wildfires.
• Food Waste. Let’s get serious about reducing food waste.

Music: Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County (2010 Studio Cast): “Brotherly Love” (Ryan Bingham and Will Dailey)

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I’ve always loved maps. Collecting gas station maps got me into my interest in California Highways, and I never need a GPS because I have maps in my head. So whenever I see articles about maps and mapping, they fascinate me. Over lunch, I’d like to share some with you.

Earlier this week, Buzzfeed had a list of “27 pictures that will change how you view the world“.  Some of these are particularly enlightening, such as #6, the true size of Africa; #11, If the largest countries had the biggest populations; #20, What the world would look like if all the separatists won; and #27, the population of the United States in units of Canadas.

Yesterday, another collection was posted: 40 maps that help you make sense of the world. Some of these are duplicates of the Buzzfeed list, but a number are new to me: #1, Where Google Street View is Available; #3, The Only 22 Countries in the World Britain Has Not Invaded; #6, Paid Maternal Leave Around the World; #19, Map of Where 29,000 Rubber Duckies Made Landfall After Falling off a Cargo Ship in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean; #24, The Number of Researchers per Million Inhabitants Around the World; #27, Map of the Different Writing Systems; #39, Map of Europe Showing Literal Chinese Translations for Country Names.

The last collection mentioned Google Street View. So for our #3 item (because things always come in 3 or more), here’s a list of 16 amazing places to visit with Google Street View. Of course, the most interesting thing can be found inside a blue police telephone in London.

ETA: Here are 27 linguistic maps of the United States. No wonder we don’t understand each other!

P.S.: Here’s a PS visualization item: An interesting article on the geology made visible by the Sepulveda Pass construction. You’ll never look at the pass the same again.

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Today is the 4th of July. For those of you who haven’t already left for the 4th of July weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the USA by looking at it in various ways. This post was prompted by a post today of 22 maps that define America. So (as Harry Shearer would say), let’s take a tour of American… through maps…

• Business Insider has an article with 22 Gorgeous Maps that Define America. These maps include NFL loyalties, how Google autocomplete sees each state, the mean center of population, states labeled with the country that has equal population, and so forth.
• Zip Codes turn 50 years old this week. So here are some zip code maps. The first shows each state labeled with the leading portions of the zip code for that state. The second is a zoomable Google map that shows zip codes as of 2010.
• Perhaps you prefer politics. Here are a few political maps for you.  The first allows you to see how presidential elections went from the first (1789) to the next (2016). The second site provides all sorts of statistical maps for elections from 1840 through 2008. The last looks at electoral college reform, and shows the US divided into 50 states with equal population.
• Perhaps you want some perspective. Here’s a collection of maps that does just that: it overlays the USA with outlines of various countries so that you can see how small we really are.
• Are numbers your thing? Here are 25 interesting US census maps, shows all sorts of stuff, from minority concentrations, changes in population growth, and much more.
• Don’t know what you want? Here’s a Pinterest board of creative US maps. All sorts of interesting stuff here, including the US made of cast iron pans. As we’re talking miscellaneous maps, how about maps of US roadside attractions, a map of what each state is the worst at, or a map where the US states have been given porcine nicknames.
• Language your thing? We close out with a map American English dialects.

Music: Under Fire (NYMF) (Demo Cast): “Follow Me”

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It’s Saturday, and you know what that means — time to clear out those links that couldn’t form into a coherent theme over the week. That doesn’t mean this are incoherent links, but … umm … perhaps we should just get to the links:

• Theatre Stuff. This has been a busy week theatre-wise — based on some good reviews in the times and some timely discoveries, I’ve now filled out my June theatre dance card. You’ll see that in tomorrow’s review of Priscilla, but I do have a few theatre items. First is a very interesting review of Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson… written by a resident of Scottsboro AR. His take is very different than some. Second, I’ve become a tag at Bitter Lemons! Perhaps I should explain: Bitter Lemons is a theatre site here in Los Angeles that aggregates reviews and writeups of local shows, and then uses them to ascribe an overall “lemon” score — from sweet to bitter — on each show. They evidently like my writeups enough to include them in the meter, and I’m honored by that inclusion. I’ve even more honored that Colin, who runs the site, wrote a wonderful response to a post I did a while back regarding critics and their place. I also really liked their advice to the aspiring critic; I’ll take a number of those items to heart. A PS to the good folks at REP East: You should pay attention to this post about getting your shows in the Lemon Meter.
• Your Net Worth. Two different posts looks at the question of what you are worth to different groups. Yes, you. First, have you ever thought about who was the most valuable patron to a casino: a pennyslot player or a blackjack player. The answer may surprise you – the pennyslot player. What about on Facebook? How much are you worth if you “like” something? Read this post, and you’ll be very hesitant about “like”-ing in the future.
• The State of Affairs. A couple of state things. First, an interesting map that shows if you are in “dog” or a “cat” state. This is based on the percentage of pet ownership of each type. I’m in a neutral state, it seems. What I’d love to find is a map that categorized cities as “east coast” or “west coast” — and this isn’t a geographical distinction. Perhaps one day I’ll explain it, but I’ll give my two favorite examples: LA and KC are “west coast”, San Francisco and St. Louis are “east coast”.  Second, the city hall in St. Louis is slowly deteriorating, and no one is doing anything about it. It’s not that St. Louis doesn’t have city pride; it’s that they don’t associate it with their city hall.
• Conference Concerns. I’ve been involved with the ACSAC conference for many years (in fact, training submissions are still open — you have until Monday to get something in). Thus, I’m worried whenever incidents such as the recent IRS boondoggle hit the news — it makes people start seeing conferences as frivolous. It also leads to bills such as those mentioned in this article, that would ban travel to “fun” places. Conferences can be useful and cost effective, if GSA guidelines are followed and the organizers focus on technical content and quality. As always, perception is everything. The important thing to remember is electronic interaction cannot replace face-to-face interaction, just like recommendations from Amazon cannot replace browsing at the bookstore.
• An Interesting Kickstarter. The SCGD mailing list alerted me to an interesting Kickstarter: A group of gamers is attempting to start a Board Game Cafe in Glendale CA. I love the idea, but I’m less sure about the location — I think it would do better in Westwood (near UCLA) or Northridge (near CSUN). Still I may decide to support them. Basically, the idea is as follows: customers visit the café and for a small cover charge they get access to an extensive board game library (which often runs into hundreds of titles) as well as food and drink options from the café. There is no establishment like this in Los Angeles. There are game shops, but that’s a different atmosphere. The question is: Will it be a destination? It might — after all, they have pie. (All I know is the pie sold me — I’m a supporter. Please help them make their stretch goal so I get pie!)

Music: Folk Era Mini CD (The Kingston Trio): “Tom Dooley”

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An interesting article came across Google News today that discussed how the human brain makes maps. According to the article, it now appears as if all of the sensory cues around us – the smell of a pizzeria, the feel of a sidewalk, the sound of a passing bus – are much more integral to how our brains map our movement through space than scientists previously believed. What the article doesn’t explain is why some people are better at this than others.

I’m a primary example.

I have very good spatial memory. I can travel somewhere once or twice, and I’ll remember the routing and layout forever. I remember the layouts of friends childhood houses; I remember how to get places; I can navigate in areas I’ve never traveled because I have the map in my head. I don’t need a GPS if I can look at a map ahead of time — I can usually figure out what I need to get around (except right around the airport in Orange County — that’s a maze of twisty passages, all alike). On the other hand, I’m horrible with names. I’ll remember that I’ve seen a face, but I often forget the name that goes with that face unless I work regularly with that person.

By the way, my skill at remembering layouts extends to remembering what is in a room. I was at the Colony Theatre over the weekend, and pointing out the various furniture pieces they had moved since the last time I had been there. The artistic director noted they were from various shows, but I didn’t associate the pieces with the show — I just recognized they had moved.

Now I know people that are the other way around. A former colleague of mine was so directionally challenged he could get lost going down a hallway. But he is brilliant and has great recall of all sorts of other facts. There are people I know that are great on remembering people, but horrible on maps.

I’ve developed the theory that everyone has one thing they are exceptional at remembering. Mine is spatial layouts. What do you remember best?

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