Thursday, April 16, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Today's writing quote:
"The greatest merit of style is, of course, to make the words absolutely disappear into the thought." Nathaniel Hawthorne (as quoted in Sherwin B. Nuland, "The Uncertain Art," Am. Scholar, Winter 2001, at 129, 130).
Yikes.
Texas lawmaker: Asians should change their names to make them ‘easier for Americans to deal with.’
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tuesday coffee break: "the best statistical graphic ever drawn"
"Napoleon's March to Moscow, 1812: Beginning at the left on the Polish/Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army (422,000 men) as it invaded Russia in June 1812. The width of the band indicates the size of the army at each place on the map. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow is depicted by the darker, lower band, which is linked to a temperature scale and dates at the bottom of the chart. The crossing of the Berezina River was a disaster, and the army finally struggled back into Poland with only 10,000 men remaining. Charles Joseph Minard's graphic plots six variables: the size of the army, its location on a 2-D surface, direction of the army's movement, and temperature on various dates. The word 'Napoleon' does not appear. It well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn." --excerpted from Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Monday, April 6, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Pun for the ages
"Some stricken with pun-lust sink so far into their infirmity that their minds become trained to lie in wait for words on which to work their wickedness. They are the scourge of dinner tables and the despised prolongers of office meetings...they simply can’t help themselves."
From the New York Times, Op/Ed
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Friday coffee break: Recent scenes from Afghanistan
Another set of amazing shots from Boston.com's Big Picture series
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