The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

I absolutely love seeing offbeat projects that have been lovingly created with a lot of thought and painstaking detail. One example: The Map of Humanity, in which philosophy, cartography and the human condition meet:

Click to see the Map of Humanity at a larger size.

SLG Publishing, the store that sells the Map of Humanity, has this to say on the page where you can order it:

This giant 24×36 Map of Humanity by Rex Libris and Nil creator James Turner is printed to order on our 12 color large format printer using archival quality inks. The Map of Humanity is printed on Heavyweight Coated Paper and is suitable for framing. Shipped rolled in a tube. Keep an eye open for paper upgrades. The thumbnail image and even the larger image on this page does not do justice to the work James Turner put into this piece.

The Map of Humanity is available for US$29.95 — you can buy it here.

And now, some close-ups. The northern half of the map is occupied by territories that represent humanity’s virtues. Here’s the “Wisdom” area of the map, located in the northwest. If you look at the large image of the map, you’ll see that the cities on the map are both fictional and real. For instance, the “Aspiration” area contains the Shakespearean Mountains and cities such as Gray Havens, Paris, San Francisco and Montreal:

To the northeast, you have “Reason”, with regions named Copernicus, Leibniz, Descartes, Curie, Elizabeth I, Adam Smith and…Disney?

Just as Inferno was the most interesting book of The Divine Comedy, the equatorial area and parts south are more interesting. Here’s a map of “Elysium” and its neighbour “Fool’s Paradise”. Here we get a little insight into Map of Humanity creator Justin Turner’s politics, as “Fool’s Paradise” contains an island called “The World State” with place names such as Mustapha Mond Island (he’s from Brave New World), City of Central Planning, Predestination Centre, New Jerusalem and its twin city Anabaptist Munster and Feely Corporation World HQ (“Feely Corporation” is also from Brave New World).

Here come the fun, down-and-dirty territories. To the southwest is “Hedonism”, home to regions like Gluttony, Treason, Delusion, Nightmare and Lies; I suppose Karl Rove’s got a summer home here. The province of Aimlessness is also in this area of the map, featuring cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, Moscow, Tripoli and one “Hamilton”, although there’s no telling which Hamilton is implied (when I think of “Hamilton”, the first place that comes to mind is Hamilton, Ontario). I think my deadbeat ex-housemate has a permanent home in the region.

And finally, in the southeast, we have “Abomination”, home to Destruction, Vengeance, Wrath, Prejudice and the readership of Free Republic and Canada Free Press:

It’s a pretty interesting map. I just might pony up the ducats to get this one.

Everything went well and we’re at home now. Feel free to phone!

Click to see the photo at full size.

I wish I’d noticed the similarity between Fred Thompson and “The Gentlemen” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer first, but AmericaBlog beat me to the punch:

A recent posting in the blog Making Light points to a Flickr photoset of science tattoos.

Remember the Simpsons episode titled Homer Goes to College?

Benjamin (one of Homer’s nerd roomates): Come on, Mr. Simpson, you’ll never pass this course without learning the periodic table.

Homer: I’ll write it on my hand.

Benjamin: Hoh! Including all known lanthanides & actinides? Good luck!

Well, the guy in the photo below may not have written it on his hand, but he has managed to get the complete periodic table of the elements — and yes, complete with all known lanthanides and actinides (those are the two extra rows below the main table) — on his forearm, and permanently to boot!

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Found via Making Light.

I’m more of a physics and math guy than a chemistry guy, so these tats appeal to me a little more:

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Found via Making Light.

And finally, the time dilation equation:

Click the photo to see it on its original Flickr page.
Found via Making Light.

The gist of this formula says that time slows down as you go faster. The slowing down doesn’t become really noticeable until you hit about one-tenth the speed of light; a 1970s experiment with two jets, each with its atomic clock, has provided empirical evidence.

Many science people I know — myself included — like to take scientific laws and weave them into our own personal philosophies. The owner of the time dilation formula is no exception:

The time dilation formula is over my heart and represents my personal belief in life: the faster you go, the more you get to see and the more you get to live. Maximum intensity and maximum velocity at all times for maximum lifetime experience per life.

In the words of Captain Picard: “Maximum warp! Engage!”

This image goes out to all you high school nerds who are wondering if the hurting ever ends: yes, and sometimes quite decidedly so.

Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Take my word for it: it gets better. Better yet, take successful nerd Paul Graham’s word for it. Here’s an excerpt from his 2003 essay on nerds and the high school pecking order, Why Nerds are Unpopular:

Nerds aren’t losers. They’re just playing a different game, and a game much closer to the one played in the real world. Adults know this. It’s hard to find successful adults now who don’t claim to have been nerds in high school.

It’s important for nerds to realize, too, that school is not life. School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral. It’s all-encompassing, like life, but it isn’t the real thing. It’s only temporary, and if you look, you can see beyond it even while you’re still in it.

If life seems awful to kids, it’s neither because hormones are turning you all into monsters (as your parents believe), nor because life actually is awful (as you believe). It’s because the adults, who no longer have any economic use for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do. Any society of that type is awful to live in. You don’t have to look any further to explain why teenage kids are unhappy.