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The Financial States of America

September 25, 2013 by 1 Comment

If you want to buy a house for cheap, buy one in Arkansas or Mississippi–those are among states in the center strip of the USA with the least costly houses. In fact, the swath extends from Nebraska to West Virginia–the flyover states. Houses in New York and California cost lots more. In fact, average home listings in the low-cost states are about four times lower than the averages in the highest states. That’s a large swing.

Here’s the map, a snapshot of a wonderful interactive map called The Financial States of America, published by moneychoice.org

Map1

Same website, same interactive map, but this time, I selected Well Being, and the results surprised me (of course, the site explains how they define and quantify well-being). No surprise that people in New Hampshire and Vermont are doing well. The surprise is that the every one of the “wellest” states is in the north–except Hawaii. The least well–the lowest ten states–are almost all connected in and beyond the Appalachians, with Oklahoma and Arizona in that group, too.  Here’s the snapshot (the interactive map would not translate to this blog, so I’m offering a few snapshots to encourage you to explore the map on your own).

Map2

The Minimum Wage map is fascinating because it shows how states that are near one another tend to make similar laws and accept similar rules. The states in the Deep South have no minimum wage. The states in the Pacific Northwest offer the highest minimum wage in the nation. Minnesota, Georgia and Wyoming offer the nation’s lowest minimum wage–an unjustifiable $5.15 to $6.20 per hour.

Map3

This is really interesting, to see American states behaving so differently from one another. One more, and then, you’re on your own. This one shows California with the nation’s highest GDP–the most productive economy, by far. Texas is second, and New York is third, and then, most other states don’t even come close. California’s GDP is now nearly $2 trillion dollars. If it was a country, it would compete with Italy and Spain, only about 10 percent smaller than the GDP of India. The state of New York competes, roughly, with South Korea. Texas’s economy is about the size of Mexico’s economy. By comparison, Michigan’s GDP is about the size of Denmark’s GDP–surprisingly small. Pakistan is slightly more productive than Connecticut. Tiny Delaware could fight it out with equally tiny Luxembourg. These match-ups are interesting enough to rate a Wikipedia article. Off the map, but NYC’s GDP is bigger than Spain’s. and Tokyo’s GDP is largely than Russia’s GDP (all GDPs are nominal). More GDP city data  here.

Map4

Enough of this. I could play with interactive maps all day long.

One more thing I found on the moneychoice site: an infographic about global money. This will keep me busy until bedtime…
The Future of Money: A Global Currency
Created by MoneyChoice.org

Filed Under: International, Learning, Trends Tagged With: , , , ,

“The forced, bloated expanding bundle”

September 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I like the phrase. It was used to describe the way Americans are forced to subscribe to cable television–if you want cable, you must pay for a tremendous number of unwanted channels. In the industry, the result of unbundling is called “a la carte” cable service because the operator allows you to select, and pay for, only the channels that you will actually watch. Bundled cable is, of course, the reason why Comcast accumulated enough money to buy NBC and Universal Pictures. It’s a sweet deal for cable operators, and for the cable industry, which is funded by selling products to people who don’t want them, but cannot do anything except, to use an example, buy everything in the store in order to make sure they have access to the loaf of bread and the jar of peanut butter. It’s a brilliant marketing scheme, and an utter failure of anything resembling consumer protection in the United States.

I could go on and on, and I could also make a case for why some aspects of the bundling business have utterly changed the television industry for the better. Mostly, though, I wanted to introduce you to an article about shifts in Canada’s cable television business that was published by Reuters last week. Here’s the start of it… to read the whole article, click here:

Subscribers to Rogers Cable in Canada can select from these a la carte channels. Most are not big name channels, but once the a la carte habits gains a foothold, the entire cable business may change.

Subscribers to Rogers Cable in Canada can select from these a la carte channels. Most are not big name channels, but once the a la carte habits gains a foothold, the entire cable business may change.

Analysis: Canadian Cable TV’s ‘a la carte’ menu begins to take hold

By Liana B. Baker and Alastair Sharp

NEW YORK/TORONTO | Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:49pm EDT

(Reuters) – A transformation in how some Canadian cable TV companies sell channels to consumers might be a sign of things to come in the much bigger U.S. market.

With “a la carte” pricing, cable companies are offering Canadians an alternative to “take-it-or-leave-it” bundles that effectively force viewers there – and in the United States – to pay for channels that they do not watch in order to get access to those they do.

(and so on)

Filed Under: International, Trends, TV & New Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Famous People from China

September 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Ma_Yuan_-_Water_Album_-_Clouds_Rising_from_the_Green_SeaYeah, well, my list isn’t very long, either.  Easy enough to list Mao, Chang Kai-Shek, Chao en-Lai, maybe the classical pianist Lang Lang, and the basketball player Yao Ming. Maybe Jet Li, who is probably from Hong Kong (I checked; he is from Hong Kong).

Here’s one of the most powerful, significant, nations, one with enormous history, and I can’t name a half dozen important people from the whole country! (Genghis Khan? Kublai Khan?) I found a pop culture site and found out that Audrey Meadows, from TV’s The Honeymooners, was born in China. I also left out the architect I.M. Pei, who was born in Shanghai. Still, my list is so embarrassing, I figured I ought to know more. So I found a book about important people from China. Appropriately, it’s called Chinese Lives, and it begins, as it should, with a map of China’s many provinces, only half of which I knew by name (Hangxi, Anhui, Shaanxi, and Gansu were among the unfamiliar ones).

I wasn’t sure whether Confucius was a real person, so I never added him to my list, but there he is on page 22, a real person born in 551 BCE, just over 2500 years ago. He was a teacher, and a government minister, eventually becoming an acting Prime Minister. Apparently, he did not play the political game very well; he was exiled, and that allowed him to do his best work, in texts that he edited after he turned 67 years old. The ideas that he wrote, compiled and edited became the philosophical basis for a particular sort of Chinese education, the kind that led to government jobs. Lots of emphasis on “unwavering loyalty to the lord” in a “harmonious society.”

Mo Zi was born around the time that Confucius died. Mo Zi was an philosopher who toured China spreading his ideas of an “egalitarian society based upon devotion to the common good.” He was strongly anti-war, and in favor of universal love.

I especially enjoyed the story of King Wuling of the Zhoa, whose reign began around 325 BCE. The King had a problem, though. According to tradition, his military force dressed in long robes, and traveled into battle on chariot. By 307 BCE, his men were being routinely beaten by the barbarians who traveled not by chariot, but by riding directly upon the horses’ backs. The robes were a problem. King Wuling’s contribution: he convinced the Chinese troops to abandon their traditional gowns and instead dress like the barbarians–in trousers, with boots.

The book is filled with statesmen associated with dynasties whose names are vaguely familiar (I really should read a good book about the whole history of China), more philosophers, a slave who became emperor, military leaders, and more of the stuff I expected to see here.

And then, a familiar name and an unfamiliar one: Li Bari (familiar, also known as Li Po) and Du Fu (not). Both were Chinese poets around 700 or so. Here’s Li Po goofing on Du Fu in a poem:

I ran into Du Fu by a Rice Grain Mountain

In a bamboo hat with the sun at high noon

Hasn’t he got awfully thin since our parting?

It must be struggle of writing his poems.

I keep checking these dates because they are so far outside of the sphere of U.S. consciousness. Su Dongpo was a poet born in 1037, more than 700 years before anybody had an inkling that the United States would exist. He was a painter, too, and a good cook whose recipes survive (Dongpo-style pork remains a Chinese delicacy.) Here’s part of his poem, “Time ‘Immortal’ by the River:’

I drank at night on East Slope, sobered up, got drunk again.

When I came home it was some time past midnight

The houseboy was already snoring like thunder.

I pounded on the gate and got no response.

Then leaned on my staff and listened to the river noises.

A drunk dude sneaking into his house, screwed up again. Things don’t change much, I guess.

Ma Yuan was a court painter. He lived from about 1190 to 1225. If you search for his name (also called Qinshan), you’ll find a lot of wonderful images. The painting at the top of this article was painted by Ma Yuan.

timthumb.phpThere are good stories about emperor Kublai Khan, and the beginning of Chinese drama as initiated by Guan Hanqing. You may know Zheng He, an admiral who led a large fleet to Africa and other far away places a few decades before Christopher Columbus was toilet-trained (I wonder whether there were toilets in Genoa in the 1450s?) Rumors about Zheng He discovering the American mainland are, apparently, quite wrong, the work of someone who mistranslated Chinese historical documents.

There are eunuchs (Zheng He was one, in fact), bandits, rebel leaders, generals and writers who specialize in ghost stories, emperors and national heroes whose names you’ve probably never heard before (they were certainly new to me). There’s Cao Zueqin, “China’s greatest novelist” who died just before the American Revolution and Lu Xun, “Greatest Chinese writer of the 20th century”–a whole culture to explore.

Imagine someone in China first encountering the stories of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Louis Armstrong, Robert E. Lee, Billie Holiday, George Gershwin, Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell, and Bob Dylan–never having heard any of these names before, finding a book called American Lives.

Filed Under: Books & Print, International, Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

AM, FM, UHF and the Future

September 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, The New York Times ran an article entitled “A Quest to Save AM Before It’s Lost in the Static.” The average listener to NPR is 56 years old, and new ones aren’t coming on board so quickly because of music services like Pandora. The big question that broadcast television executives are asking is whether there is a future for local television broadcast stations. In fact, the FCC is asking the same question, anxious to buy back a bunch of local television spectrum and sell it to the wireless operators because they say they represent the future. A century ago, we were trying to imagine a world where broadcast radio and television stations might someday exist. Now, we’re wondering whether we need them at all.

I really love this picture of a 1965 AM radio. It comes from a Ford Mustang. To see more, click on the radio.

I really love this picture of a 1965 AM radio. It comes from a Ford Mustang. To see more, click on the radio.

I suspect AM and FM radio are easier to defend because they provide news, sports, weather, emergency information, and entertainment for people on the road. Half of  radio listening happens either in a car or a truck (the rest happens at home, and to a  lesser extent, in workplaces). Once an also-ran, FM  is now the most popular part of the radio band. Music sounds much better on FM than AM radio, so AM is used, mostly, for talk, news, and religion (you knew that). Following the audience, many sports teams have moved to FM, leaving the AM landscape that much more barren. The New York Times article describes an effort to upgrade AM radio, an improvement requiring the replacement of every car and home radio. That seems as unlikely as the replacement of analog television seemed just a few years ago. But we did it.

The digital television transition moved some local broadcasters to other channels (“masked” with their old TV channel IDs so you never noticed), improved some signals for some households (worsened some signals for other households), and greatly increased the available television channels that could be transmitted by a single television station. Most network affiliates have made little meaningful use of  additional bandwidth, but MeTV, retroTV, and Antenna TV are among the entrepreneurial newcomers that make use of the additional bandwidth.  A handful of new non-commercial public networks have emerged, including several importing programs or full channels from other countries including Japan and France.

Jeannie_Bewitched_Website-960x445Where does  this lead? And how do we even begin to think about the future when so much television viewing is now on-demand and so much audio listening is via Pandora, podcasts, Sirius XM, and audible?

Let’s start with the audio side. Traditional radio listening is probably entering its final innings. The disruptive technology is mobile internet. It’s no longer a techno-stretch to include an internet device in an automobile or truck. Hundreds of channels are replaced by thousands. On-demand replaces scheduled programs.  ANy smart phone doubles as an audio file server, easily replenished via the cloud, and, with increasing reliability, the cloud itself becomes the server as the driver enjoys a live stream without considering its source. Program your vehicle with voice-activated instructions, and the car will know  you prefer Car Talk on Tuesday mornings during your commute. Brands matter, podcasts matter, but 24/7 feeds of country music and local news breaks don’t, or won’t. Press a button to see and hear local traffic conditions with appropriate automated warnings, and suggested re-routings. Sirius XM is trying to stay ahead of the curve by selling its own internet channel packages, and starting its own on-demand services. Good idea, but a half dozen companies will offer, more or less, similar subscription services, and, of course, everybody is competing with free (free has been the standard for AM and FM radio, and old habits are hard to change). Add audiobooks and podcasts to the mix, and the AM/FM prognosis becomes even more gloomy.

What about TV?With few exceptions, people watch programs, not networks. New matters less than buzz. If you haven’t seen it yet, last season’s Boardwalk Empire trumps  this season’s Girls. There is so much product,  so much fragmentation of viewing time, everyone plays catch-up almost all of the time. Catch-up has the potential to transform large numbers of viewers into video library consumers , not television viewers who know or care what’s on NBC on Wednesday nights at 9PM. In fact, if there was no broadcast television, viewers would quickly find alternatives on cable, on demand, and various internet services. Which is to say, 20th century television is probably enjoying its last laps. We just don’t need what we had before–there are better alternatives.

With broadcast radio and broadcast television, we established and continue to enjoy a public trust. As members of the public, we provide broadcast spectrum, at no charge, to the likes of CBS and its local affiliates, and they provide a mix of news, entertainment, and other useful or interesting stuff at no charge. The whole thing is monitored by an FCC that is not perfect, but generally watches out for abuses, and the public’s interests. That’s all good, and that’s in the process of going away.

In its place, there is no public trust, no assurance of an appropriate mix of news, entertainment and other useful or interesting stuff, and almost none of it will be provided at no charge. We are making a VERY POOR choice. We have missed a step. We are handing our mass communications to companies whose principal business is collecting monthly fees for services, not attending to the needs of the communities they serve, not attending to any national agenda or public interest. We have already seen bad behavior from operators who wish to constrain what is and is not made available through their commercially-controlled networks. We will see more control–all quite reasonable because these companies are not required, nor encouraged, to do good. They are required (by shareholders) and encouraged (by advertisers and subscribers) to keep the public interested, to capture our imagination and attention, but not for anything resembling good reason.

In short, we are missing a step. You and me, we have some interests to protect here. We should be unwilling to transfer control of all media to companies with no meaningful public interest requirement.

Let’s think about that. And let’s continue the conversation in the  near future.

Filed Under: Audio, Trends, TV & New Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Next Spring, Near Paris

September 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Start saving your money. Next May, go to Paris. Leave early on the morning–there’s an 820AM from Paris’s Saint-Lazare Station to Vernon, and then, there’s the taxi. The train arrives at 9:05AM at Vernon, and the cab will get you to the front entrance of Monet’s home and gardens by about 9:15AM. You want to arrive early, perhaps catch the mist rising from the water garden, perhaps take a few pictures or just gaze before the crowds populate every view. (Get there earlier, if you can; it’s always best to arrive first-in-line here.)

Sigh.

Summer is ending. There is autumn color: the purples and luminous yellows, the garish reds and the beginnings of orange trees reflected in the water. But there is nothing like spring.

In 1883, Claude Monet settled in Giverny, a village fifty miles outside paris. He rented a house with an orchard, the future Clos Normand, the flower garden at the front of the house that broke with the traditional idea of a pleasure garden.

9781419709609So begins the tale, told mostly in large, vivacious images, of Claude Monet’s extraordinary gardens (and home), told with love and with style through Jean-Pierre Gilson’s photographs, with text by Dominique Lobstein. Published by Abrams–one of the best in the world at this type of book, the visual tour begins, as it should , in the purple haze and tangled wisteria branches hanging over the famous Japanese bridge. The photograph is subdued; there are no bright colors yet. On the next two-page spread, there are brightly–colored bushes and their quiet reflections, house peeking out of the background behind some trees. Flip to the next of these several two-page spreads and it’s a riot of roses, glowing in the sun, red, pink, nearly white, braced by green leaves so dark and sometimes so nearly translucent, bold as can be. The text begins.

And on the next spread, so does spring. After the prelude, spring commences with a field of pink tulips, clean green fences and stair rails, dark green-blue leaves, and the stunning-but-simple house with its own pink facade and blue-green shutters. The effect is stunning, as if in a painting–and here, that’s precisely the effect that the master painter intended. To be at Giverny is to live inside a Monet painting, at least for a morning.

It’s not all cluttered with noisy flowers and oh-so-subtle impressionist gardening. “Monet wanted a garden that could ‘breathe’ with flowers, bushes and an open vista…” so he removed the many trees from the old orchard, and replaced them with Japanese cherry trees that yield, at least for a brief time in the spring, lighter-than-air blossoms, punctuated, here and there, as in any number of his paintings, with spots of bright color; here, red and purple tulips.

I wish I knew the name of every flower (and I wish the author’s captions included this information!). The phenomenal two-page spread showing yellow towers of flowers two stories high, dappled with pink-and-purple irises, golden yellow somethings (frustrated…), and it’s followed by several more. (I want to it to be spring today, and I want to go to Giverny tomorrow.)

And then, when your head is beginning to explode because Monet was such a genius, there’s a pair of small green rowboats, a field of happy daffodils, and in the distance, the Japanese bridge that he painted so often. Here, with a less exhausting spectrum, it’s possible to rest and reflect, and observe. The yellowy green of the locust leaves in contrast with the deep green of the background trees–with just a hint of small violet flowers to set the counterpoint.

The flighty, wavy petals of mauve tulips surprise me every time I see them. Here, they’re pictured with the famous lily pad pond in the fuzzy distance, and the sharp, sun-dappled orange wallflowers in the foreground. Another two-page spread, one of my favorite two-page spreads in the book.

Just checking–I’m not even half way through the book. Some surreal lily pad images–two look as though they were made for a science fiction film, but they are real–and then, with a page turn, there are paths of dry ochre leaves on the ground, paths with strong color of fall, not spring. The quiet beauty of barren trees and cool skies, the yellowing willow and golden hour light, it’s bittersweet. Moreso because the last set of images show the house with shutters now closed tight.

But then, we get to go inside. A row of old copper pans artfully hung in front of a blue-and-turquoise tiled wall with cabinets. A yellow dining room whose walls are filled with Japanese prints (Monet collected them, and they are a highlight of every Giverny tour, but few people spend the time to look at them as closely as the artist once did). It’s a classy old country home, less formal than most. And then, there’s a small staircase leading down to a room with Persian carpets on the floor and a whole lot of miscellaneous Monet paintings almost haphazardly scattered on the walls. It’s his studio.

The book closes with snow. Which means spring is coming again. Soon.

Filed Under: Art & Photography, Books & Print, Creative, International, Travel & Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Three Old Pros

September 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

McBrideNow that I’ve written that title, let me check. Christian McBride qualified as a young lion in the early 1990s, but he’s just turned forty. He’s got some old soul, though, perhaps the result of coming up with Bobby Watson’s group, playing with Milt Jackson, J.J. Johnson, and Freddy Hubbard. He’s a master of control, a craftsman of the first order and an ideal mate for the his very talented pianist Christian Sands, himself a protege of old soul Billy Taylor. Rounding out the trio is an equally top-rank player, Ulysses Owens, Jr. The name of the CD, on Mack Avenue records, is Out Here, and it’s very satisfying, clean and varied with tight, focused performances. This is jazz composition and performance of the highest caliber. There’s a lot of strong material here, but McBride’s own “Ham Hocks and Cabbage” is especially fine. Oscar Peterson’s “Hallelujah Time” is wistful, pensive, and sweet, nicely played by Sands. Dr. Billy Taylor’s “Easy Walker” is another of the CD’s best tracks, mostly because of the strolling, gently swinging motion of McBride’s bass, and its interplay with the Sands’ piano. Best of all: McBride bowing his way through the sentimental melody, “I Have Dreamed.” Selecting individual tracks is fun for me because everything here is so well-constructed and winning, but the funk of “Who’s Making Love” is lots of fun–with McBride doing a bit of showboating on a tune that can easily handle it. If you’re beginning to think about gifts for the holiday season, this is one in the category of “you can’t go wrong.”

So who’s older: pianist Keith Jarrett or vibraphonist Gary Burton? Both musicians started their career in the early 1960s, both have recorded dozens of albums, both are veterans of the jazz fusion era and managed to forge remarkable careers as collaborators.

2200 XJarrett’s work is immediately magical, glorious in its improvisation and sonic exploration. He’s been doing these albums for decades, and yet, every time I put a Jarrett CD on (or, for that matter, an LP), I’m immediately transported into the filagree of his imagination, sipping a drink at an after-hours jazz bar where the player is extraordinary and I just don’t want the evening to ever end. Recorded live at the KKL Luzern Concert Hall, the CD called Somewhere begins with the  mind-bending “Deep Space,” and here, it’s Jarrett’s show with just the right additional color and light provided by double bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette; later in the track (the second part is Miles Davis’s “Solar,” their interplay moves the music into an even more interesting exploration, a testament to the extreme skill, experience and love of experimentation that these three musicians consistently offer. So that’s one track, again the first, and again, a favorite. (And I suppose I should mention that the sonic fidelity of these recordings is at such a high level, it would be difficult to imagine a disc sounding any better.) There are some favorite standards here (mine, anyway); it’s difficult for me not to be captivated by Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere;” and the less-often-heard “Stars Fell on Alabama” and the Jimmy van Heusen- Johnny Mercer tune, “I Thought About You.” Ooops–I’m listening to the wrong track–that’s really catchy, and less schticky than I remembered: “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”–well, a little schtick for me. Back to the dark night sky and mystery of “Stars Fell…” and my mind easily drifts to Perseids and stardust. What a lovely album.

GaryBurtonThe old guy in the crowd–Gary Burton is 70 to Keith Jarrett’s 68–opens with a Antonio Sanchez’s rocking drum, instantly establishing a more ambitious, brighter tone for the new Guided Tour, also from Mack Avenue. This is a quartet with Burton leading as one might do with a piano. Sanchez really drives this music. It’s a bigger sound than you would typically expect from a quartet. Burton is leading an exploration not entirely different from Jarrett, but more clearly articulated, more melodic, catchier. The difference is the way that Julian Lage is playing electric guitar, almost as if he’s playing in the style of Burton and his vibes on “Jane Fonda Called Again,” never passive or receding or relaxed, but instead, aggressive and punchy. Yes, they play pretty, too, working the pastoral mood on “Jackalope,”  and the Latin romance of “Helena” (especially nice guitar from Lage on this one), but it is so much more fun when these guys really go for it, with Burton playing fast and strong. Best example is probably the last track, written by drummer Sanchez, called “Monk Fish.” Scott Colley is the capable, but less showy, bassist; tough to get a word in edge-wise when the other players are clearly having so much fun. Far livelier than the other two CDs, Guided Tour is a terrific introduction to the Burton’s massive catalog.

What a great night of jazz listening. I haven’t enjoyed writing an article about anything in I don’t know how long. Thanks for the opportunity. Go–listen!

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Small Atlases Make Intriguing Gifts

September 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Sometimes, it’s difficult to understand an idea without seeing a picture. I suppose that’s one of the reasons why I like the idea–if not always the execution–of infographics.  Give me a good map with abundant legend, little boxes with big information, arrows to guide me, and I’m more like to understand a complicated idea. The book publisher Dorling-Kindersley, also known DK, has developed a brilliant style based upon the visual display of encyclopedia information (you know their Eyewitness Travel Guides, for example).

Given sufficient free time, I’ll wonder about just about anything. One thing thing I’ve always wondered about is how mankind managed to populate every corner of the earth. Think about it–a small population in central east Africa with extremely limited resources, no meaningful transportation, little protection from the elements or from one another, somehow ended up in Siberia, South America, even Australia. How? Well, mostly, they walked. (Along the way, they struggled to invent the needle so that they could sew animal skins together, astonishing tech in their time).

You can learn a lot about the world by studying migration maps. For example, just about everybody knows that a large portion of the U.S.’s black population came from Africa. Now Africa’s a big place. Where did they come from, exactly? Yeah, well, I had no idea until I checked a map in People on the Move: An Atlas of Migration by Russell King. There were two main “collection points”–one was Luanda, still the largest city in Angola (many of those slaves were controlled by Portuguese interests, so they ended up either in Brazil or the U.S.). Slaves leaving from Accra and El Mina (or, Elmina) mostly traveled to Brazil, Virginia or Louisiana. Some African slaves ended up in Portugal, too. The British, French and Dutch colonial slaves more often traveled to the Caribbean Islands.And that’s just part of the story: lots of African slaves were sent along Arab trade routes and up into Turkey–a much earlier system of human trade based upon ancient tradition.

MIGRATION_GreatSo that’s one migration. There’s another 13.5 million people moving during the period 1815-1915. Those people are moving, mostly, from Europe to America. Lots from Ireland, England, Scandinavia, and later, Spain, Italy, and eastern Europe–the peopling of America.

Migration is still a robust human endeavor. The oil boom in the Persian Gulf has been a magnet for several million people (the population of the United Arab Emirates [capital city: Dubai] has increased from 180,000 in 1966 to 4.4 million four decades later, with most of the new people foreign nationals). Lots of movement in the USA, too, first from to the west, then from the south, then from the rust belt to the south. People migrate for marriage, careers, college studies, so many reasons. Never really thought much about it, but this book has been fascinating.

And it’s part of a series. All are published in the U.S. by the University of California Press, but they’re made by Myriad Editions and they’re available from other publishers in other languages in other parts of the world.

I first encountered the series through The Atlas of Global Inequalities by Ben Crow and Suresh K. Lodha. If you’re fascinated by headlines like “2% of adults possess more than 50% of all global wealth” and “50% of people possess only 1% of all global wealth,” this book is your next birthday present. The authors go very deep into graphing of statistical information, lavish in their use of shapes and colors to clarify confusing points, so this book requires, and rewards, quiet and attentive reading. The relationship between life expectancy and household income is striking–live long and prosper in New Zealand or Iceland, or live a few less years but live somewhat richer in the U.S.A, Norway, or Luxembourg. Life expectancy in Africa is 54 years, but in North America, the average is 79 years. Children born in central Africa are likely to live only half as long as children in western Europe.

There is, in fact, a wide range of topics covered in this series. I’ve been through these two, plus a more challenging topic, The Atlas of Human Rights, which tracks, mostly, violations of freedom.

Myriad-BooksOf course, I want to browse every page of every one of these 100+ page mini-atlases. I suppose The Real State of America and The State of the World ought to be the next ones that occupy a quiet afternoon, but The Atlas of  Water  and The Atlas of Food are no less intriguing.

Closing out this article, here’s an spread from The State of the World Atlas:

Obesity-Burger

Filed Under: Books & Print, International, Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Kickstarter Has Kickstarted

September 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
kickstarter

If the graphic appears a bit fuzzy, visit the Fast Company site for the article, scroll down, and click on the yellow-and-black infographic. You can magnify the infographic on their site, but nowhere else.

I missed this Fast Company article when it was published in April. Most useful was the infographic. In it, I learned:

  • Among creators, film and video is the most popular type of Kickstarter project, but this category ranks second among backers, and sixth in the list of successes.
  • The category most likely to be funded: projects related to dance (but there aren’t many of them, and there aren’t many people who back dance). Theater projects come in second,  music in third, and and art in fourth. Both music and art are strong in terms of number of projects, and also, in terms of their success rate, ranking fourth and fifth on the list.
  • There are lots of game projects, and lots of people who back game projects, but in terms of project success, odds are not so good. Still, games have generated more revenue than any other category.
  • Video matters. More than four out of five Kickstarter projects are pitched with a video.
  • For the past several years (that is, for as long as Kickstarter has been around), just over 2 in 5 projects are successfully funded.

There’s much more in the article.

Filed Under: Trends Tagged With: , , , ,

Comparing the New iPhones

September 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

compare_iphone5ccompare_iphone5sApple certainly knows how to generate buzz. They introduce two new telephones, and the internet lights up.

Today’s big news is the new iPhone 5s, a more powerful computer in the same small-sized box. The chip is now an A7, far more sophisticated, and faster. Why should you care? If you play games on the phone, serious games with adventurous graphics, you will see more detail, more fluid movement, and the kind of sophistication you’re accustomed to seeing on, say, an iMac. If you’re an avid iPhone photographer, you’ll find that autofocus is quicker, and that frame rates for video are faster. Of course, the overall operation of the phone-as-computer is snappier, more efficient, more energy efficient, too. There’s a sexy fingerprint sensor, too. And there’s a more natural flash.

Both phones now include an 8MB camera.

The 5c is designed for fun–it really is a cool-looking phone. It costs about $100 less than the 5c, and it comes in five colors. Aside from the processor (here, it’s an A6, which is still quite powerful), and the lack of a fingerprint sensor (some people will need one, some won’t), it’s very similar to the more expensive model.

For those whose iPhone 4 was beginning to look and feel a bit old, it’s now time to refresh the phone with a new one. For those with an iPhone 5, it may be wise to wait because there’s nothing here–aside from gaming speed and a better camera–that would compel a shift. Nice to have, not essential.

Apple has succeed with their iPad cases, so they’ve picked up the concept here, too. You can buy a nifty plastic case, in colors, for the 5s, or nice leather cases for the 5c.

For a closer look at features, similarities and differences, check the Apple comparison page.

So that’s the quick scoop. I’m sure you’ll see another hundred articles about the phones by morning, but I was curious for myself, and thought I’d share my notes with you.

Filed Under: Mobile, Products Tagged With: , , ,

Touched by an Eagle

September 10, 2013 by 1 Comment

I was quite taken with Ellen Eagle’s new book, Pastel Painting Atelier.  It’s a classy book, hardcover and quite beautiful, as this atelier series tends to be. Unlike most books about art, unlike most books written for creative people, this one provides several hours of quiet time with the artist at work in her studio, in her mind, with her eyes, with her hands.  She sees beauty in the tiniest of details: the curve of the silhouette of a woman’s face, the arrangement of the old pipes beneath the even older sink in the corner of a Manhattan studio, the private thoughts that take shape in a best friend’s eyes.

Here and there, the book is an instructional work for artists who wish to perfect their pastel technique, but that’s a small part of the whole. (In fact, the obligatory step-by-step demonstrations that end the book are its least essential part). The best parts are small comments that accompany the many sensitive images, often of women who might, in a glance, be dismissed as ordinary. Eagle describes her model, Mei-Chiao, as follows: “the inward gesture of the head to the chest was beautiful to me, and the backward pull of the shoulders is balanced by the triangular opening blouse neckline.” Minor details become a beautiful painting. Same girl, different painting, one that I found by exploring Ellen Eagle’s portrait website, an endeavor I recommend when you have the time to look carefully…

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The artist’s use of line and color is quite masterful, and throughout the book, it’s easy to get lost in page after page of exquisite, often subtle, portraits. She has a knack for capturing women especially well, almost as if she is drawing and painting their minds as well as their fine features. One of my favorites is below, also taken from her website. She describes the painting below as follows: “In Roseangela’s flesh, I saw warm yellow-greens co-mingling with touches of cool violets and pinks. The planes that faced the light contained color pinks, blues, and greys. Warm tones ran throughout the flesh. Warm, dark burnt sienna defined the depths of her eye sockets. Where the orange dress caught the light, the colors took on a cool temperature. The weight of her clasped hands pulled the dress inward, causing a slight angle away from the light, and the cooler tones gave way to warmer ones.” It’s almost as if she’s writing a poem with colors.

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This is a gentle book, an inspirational one with the promise of some instruction for the visual artist, but you need not be an artist to see what she sees, and to enjoy the way that Ms. Eagle perceives and so lovingly sees the world.

Here’s the cove. The image on the cover is another favorite. The artist was especially taken with the pose struck by the model. Be sure to visit  Eagle’s website to see the uncropped version.

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Filed Under: Books & Print, Creative Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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