National Geographic – 122 Years and 1 Day Old

It is immediately identifiable by the characteristic yellow portrait-frame logo and the yellow frame that surrounds the covers of its magazines.

It’s photography and journalism is world-renowned and it has over 8 million members and a magazine circulation of 4.4 million.

The National Geographic Society was set up as an elite society – whose founding members included inventor Alexander Graham Bell - for “the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.”

Today it is now one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions and its mission has a broader theme: “to inspire people to care about the planet.”

Its flagship publication, National Geographic Magazine, began printing just nine months after the first meeting of the founding members in 1888 and started life as a rather a drab-looking scholarly journal sent out to 165 members.

Within 10 years, membership grew from 1,400 to 74,000, and in the following 10 years it advanced to 713,000. Today, over 4 million people receive the monthly magazine and over 40 million enjoy its hallmark photography and more mainstream writing.

It was the first US publisher to establish a colour-photo lab in 1920, the first to publish underwater colour photographs in 1927, the first to print an all-colour issue in 1962, and the first to print a hologram in 1984.

Surprisingly, National Geographic’s world-famous photography began as a desperate attempt by Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the son of a close family friend of the Society’s first president, Gardiner Green Hubbard, and son-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell, to fill 11 pages of the January 1905 issue before it went to press.

The story goes that Grosvenor was struggling to fill the remaining pages when a hefty packet of photographs was dropped on his desk. After opening the packet and laying his eyes upon 50 extraordinary photos of the mysterious city of Lhasa in Tibet he decided to use them despite the belief that they might cost him his job.

Luckily for Grosvenor, and the rest of us, the response from the Magazine’s members was so positive that photography, particularly photography of far-flung landscapes and rarely seen wildlife, would become the crux of the Magazine’s appeal.

Through its membership revenue it has enabled funding for more than 9,000 research grants and exploration funds, including notable projects such as Robert Peary‘s expedition to the North Pole, Hiram Bingham‘s excavation of the ancient Incan city Machu Picchu, Jacques-Yves Cousteau‘s underwater exploration, Louis and Mary Leakey’s research on the history of human evolution in Africa, and Diane Fossey’s and Jane Goodall‘s respective studies of gorillas and chimpanzees.

Published in 32 languages the Magazine is produced alongside documentary and feature films, books and travel guides, DVDs, music, and games, and a website and a television channel that reach 270 million households in 34 languages across 166 countries.

National Geographic Magazine is one of the greatest periodicals available and the wider Society has funded and/or documented some of the greatest scientific, cultural and political discoveries and moments over the past 122 years.

It has documented lost ancient civilisations, the exploration of the sea and space, and showcased remote cultures and breathtaking landscapes. Let’s hope it continues for, at least, another 122 years.

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In Numbers…the UK Economy

£1 trillion

The UK national debt.

£711 BILLION

The amount it costs to run the UK each year.

£32.7 BILLION

The cost of the newly announced High Speed 2 (HS2) line between London and Birmingham to open in 2026.

£25.5 BILLION

The total cost of UK exports in 2011.

£12 BILLION 

The current cost of the 2012 Olympics, which was originally estimated to cost £2.37 BILLION.

£187 million

Cost of Hibernian Express fibre laid between London and New York, to be used for high-frequency trading.

2.69 MILLION

The number of unemployed people in the UK (as of January, 2012).

£1 MILLION

The bonus state-owned RBS CEO Stephen Hester received this month, despite RBS missing its lending targets, its share price falling and RBS axing 3,500 jobs.

£241,461

The average cost of a house in the UK (as of January, 2012).

£234,263

The typical cost of raising a child to the age of 21 in London, compared to £218,000 in the rest of the UK.

£26,000

The average UK salary.

310

The number, in tonnes, of gold the Bank of England still has locked away.

35

The number of minutes saved on the journey between London and Birmingham on the proposed HS2 line, compared to the current fastest route.

6th

The UK’s ranking on the IMF’s list of world countries by GDP (after the USA, China, Japan, Germany and France).

6 MILLISECONDS

The length of time the new Hibernian Express fibre will save on a transatlantic trading connection.

And the Oscar Nominations Are…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 84th Academy Awards. This year’s most nominated film? Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, with 11 nominations, followed by Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, with 10.

I’m ashamed to say that, of the nine Best Picture nominees, I’ve only seen three: The Help, Midnight in Paris and Moneyball. But two aren’t even out in the UK yet so I don’t feel all that bad.

Like others, I’m quite shocked at some of the omissions from the list: where’s Fassbender? Where’s Drive? Where’s The Ides of March? Where’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tintin and Andy Serkis?

So, who will win? Well, the Oscars are nothing if not predictable. The big names are likely to get a hold of the little golden statues and those that have been overlooked for years or those that are Oscar regulars will likely get an award even though others may have given much greater performances. Who knows though, the AMPAS guys might surprise us all on February 26th.

Click on any of the films or names below for more information or click here for the full list of nominees and you can check out the nominations for the other categories, such as Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Writing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and so on.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

The Artist - Thomas Langmann

The Descendants - Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Scott Rudin

The Help - Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan

Hugo - Graham King, Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris - Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum

Moneyball - Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt

The Tree of Life - Nominees to be determined

War Horse - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir for A Better Life

George Clooney for The Descendants

Jean Dujardin for The Artist

Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis for The Help

Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

Best Achievement in Directing

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris

Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life

Alexander Payne for The Descendants

Martin Scorsese for Hugo

The full list of nominees is available on IMDb, here and you can check out the other categories, such as Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Writing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and so on.

State of the Union 2012

Just a quick post to showcase two Wordles I made of President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address (top) and the Republican response from Gov. Mitch Daniels (bottom). I think it’s quite interesting to see what the two men, and their respective parties are talking about in this election year.

President Obama used the 2012 State of the Union to launch his 2012 re-election campaign, portraying himself as the champion of working-class America against the small, wealthy elite he claims is protected by the Republicans.

In comparison, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said President Obama has resorted to “extremism” with stifling, anti-growth policies and sought to divide Americans, not unite them, in the formal Republican response to the president’s State of the Union address.

In one passage, President Obama spoke of how the defining issue of the time was how to keep alive the promise of America as a land of opportunity:

“No challenge is more urgent.  No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

“What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values but American values. We have to reclaim them.”

In comparison, Gov. Daniels  took aim at Obama’s efforts to raise taxes on the rich and castigate them for not contributing their fair share to America’s financial burdens:

“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat.”

All-in-all, the 2012 State of the Union was much the same as the speeches in 2010 and 2008: dominated by issues of the economy, jobs and tax. Obama even managed to squeeze in a rather shameless quip about his involvement in the killing Osama Bin Laden, saying that one of his most treasured possessions is the flag the Navy Seal team who killed Bin Laden carried and later signed for the President.

The Republican response was exactly as one could have expected, taking cheap shots at Obama’s economic and health care reforms and claiming that rich Republicans are just the same as the other 99% of America.

2011 = Ninth Warmest Year Since 1880

The global average temperature in 2011 makes it the ninth-warmest since 1880, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies announced last week.

A separate report from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the average temperature for the USA in 2011 makes it the 23rd warmest year on record.

NASA reported that the global average surface temperature for 2011 was 0.51 C warmer than the mid-20th century baseline temperature.

The first 11 years of the 21st century have been notably hotter than the middle and late 20th century – the only year from the 20th century that was among the top 10 warmest years was 1998.

These high global temperatures also come with a cooling effect from a strong La Nina ocean temperature pattern and low solar activity for the past several years.

The NASA statement reported that the current higher temperatures are largely sustained by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – with current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeding 390ppm (parts per million), compared with 285 ppm in 1880 and 315 in 1960.

NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre also reported that the average 2011 temperature for 2011 for the contiguous United States was 53.8 degrees F, 1 degree above the 20th century average.

The NOAA report also highlights that last year was a year of record-breaking climate extremes in the US, with 14 weather-related hazard amassing over $1 billion or more in damages each. However this number could rise to 15 if the damage from the pre-Halloween Northeast snowstorm reaches$1 billion. Damage costs are still being analysed and we’ll know soon.

Ferrite: The Funky 21st Century Lavalamp

Ferrofluid is a funky material with magnetic properties that is used in all kinds of clever things – from computer hard drives to speakers to NASA spacecrafts and cancer medications – but it can also be used to make a funky lavalamp style thingy.

Designed by David Markus, Ferrite is an interactive sculpture made of a glass tube in a machined aluminium enclosure accompanied with little magnet to manipulate the ferrofluid inside.

 

Ferrofluid displays capture the best qualities of ferrofluid, both as a liquid and as a ferromagnetic substance. By applying magnetic fields of different strengths, different shapes and formations begin to appear in this otherworldly black liquid. By suspending it in a clear liquid, even more interactive qualities are exposed.

Ferrite comes in two sizes: a 4.25” “Ferro,” starting at $100 and a full-size 8.5” “Ferrite,” costing $150. Check out Kickstarter for more info.

terra cibus By Caren Alpert

What’s in our food? Do we really know what we’re eating? What does our food look like up close? Is it really wrong to play with your food?

Caren Alpert is a commercial and fine art food photographer based in San Francisco and one of her latest projects, Terra cibus, which roughly translates as nourishment of the Earth, apparently, is Alpert’s innovative way of tackling our obsession with food.

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Focusing on everyday foods like chocolate cake, blueberries, and table salt and the like, Alpert uses scientific high magnification cameras to capture these food stuffs at a microscopic level. For example, the image of the chocolate sprinkles is magnified 65 times, whilst the image of the fortune cookie is magnified 150 times, the shrimp tail is magnified a 230 times and the chocolate cake is magnified a staggering 320 times!

Alpert states that the purpose of the project is to “empower viewers to reconsider how they think about their food.”

Did you know…

…Russian nuclear warheads fuel America?

At the end of the Cold War a pact was created between Russia and America to convert over 20,000 Soviet nuclear warheads into fuel for American nuclear power stations.

In 1993, the Soviets agreed to convert 500 tonnes of their weapons-grade uranium into fuel, for a price of course. A very high price no doubt. This programme is due to come to an end next year, twenty years after the agreement was made.

Former Soviet missiles now supply fuel for 10% of the US’s electricity demand. Amazing!

How’s it done?

Russian technicians disassemble the missiles, removing the missile casing and separate the explosives (which would have set off the nuclear reaction) from the enriched uranium (the stuff everyone is worried that Iran is trying to make!). The uranium is removed, shipped by rail or truck in sealed containers to one of two restricted cities: Seversk or Ozersk. The uranium is then machined into tiny shavings and roasted at 1,000C in a giant oven. This process turns it into highly enriched uranium-oxide powder.

At Seversk, the highly enriched uranium-oxide powder is injected into a flame reactor, which combines the powder with flourine to produce a white crystal resembling rock salt – highly enriched uranium hexafluoride.

To turn this weapons-grade nuke material into fuel, it is mixed with a whole bunch of scientific substances too difficult to pronounce, spell or type and is essentially watered down. The resultant substance is bad for missiles, but great for powering nuclear power plants.

The final substance is locked away in steel boxes, loaded onto super-sturdy 2.5 tonne steel containers, transported to St Petersburg on the back of a giant train, loaded onto a container ship and shipped to Baltimore, trucked to a nuclear facility in Kentucky under armed guard, tested, turned into fuel rods (those glowing green metal rods Hollywood loves!) and sold to nuclear companies throughout the country.

Citeology

I posted an article last week about mapping the relationships between different sciences and subsequently came across some other interesting academic referencing/mapping examples.

Citeology, a project by Autodesk, aims to visualize the relationship between academic papers through their citations. It essentially maps the way academic papers are cited by one another and shows you how the subject has evolved over a given time (and which authors like each other, I suppose!).

Citeology uses the names of each of the 3,502 papers published at the CHI and UIST Human Computer Interaction (HCI) conferences between 1982 and 2010 as its dataset. Each paper is listed by year and sorted with the most cited papers in the middle.

In total, 11,699 citations were made from one article to another within this collection. These citations are then represented by the curved lines in the graphic (below), linking each paper to those that it referenced.

As you can see in the graphic below, when you hover your mouse over any given article the title pops up. You can also zoom in to get a better view of the citation among papers and focus on a specific time period. All-in-all, it’s pretty cool. Even if you’re not familiar with the CHI and UIST Human Computer Interaction (HCI) body of work, which I am not, it’s still fun to play around with. I’d love to see similar projects for much larger datasets and datasets I’m more interested in.

What would be good, and what would add even more to the project, would be some colour-coding of author or subject and maybe a way to select certain authors or subjects to remove the ‘noise’ of the others and see individual citation maps. Just a thought. I’m sure the Autodesk peeps have done it or are working on it.

Autodesk works to help solve complex design problems, from pressing ecological challenges to the development of scalable smart infrastructure. Designers use Autodesk tools to not only create plans for buildings, but also to simulate their impact on the environment and track their performance over time.

Cool Typographic Maps

Similar, kind of, to the Cartoloji maps I showcased t’other day, these typographic maps by Axis Maps, a small cartography company that specializes in designing and building custom interactive maps, look fantastic and are an awesome idea.

Each map accurately shows the location of streets, parks, neighbourhoods and coastlines using only words. By weaving together thousands of words, a full picture of the city emerges. Each city intentionally differs in style, but the end result is similar and it’s only when you get up close that you realise what is actually going on on these fantastic maps.

The typographic maps project began as a fun side-project for the team to work on between jobs but soon became a fantastic way for them to showcase their work and creativity. To create these impressive maps, every single letter and word was manually placed, taking hundreds of hours to complete each map.  There is nothing automated about making the maps, with every aspect of the image laid out manually in Adobe Illustrator.

Poster-sized prints are just $30 and the team currently have Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Boston. I think the Boston image would look fantastic adorning the wall of mine and B’s future home.