A Truly Useful Mapping Tool Wednesday, September 10, 2008

As any kid who grew up in the US knows, if you were to dig a hole and not stop digging until you reached the other side of the planet, you'd end up in China or Australia, right? Well now you can find out just how wrong you were! This is off the charts for sheer awesomeness: an interactive mapping tool for finding antipodes – that is, for finding exactly where you'd end up if you dug a tunnel to the other side of the planet from a given spot. I found it via a Discover magazine article.

And you know what? Funny... not a single spot in the lower 48 states is directly opposite any major land mass at all. Okay, that's not 100% true... a spot in northern Montana maps to a small island near Antarctica, but that's it for the continental US. Northern Alaska maps to the edge of Antarctica and a tunnel dug in Bermuda would land you just off the coast of Perth. In order to get to China, apparently you'd have to start in Argentina.

But interestingly enough, a tunnel dug in Madrid would put you right in a hamlet called Weber, New Zealand. And Weber is right near a hill named Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which translates roughly as "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one".

Now you know.

A is for Apathy Monday, August 25, 2008

You might call it the alphabet for the apathetic, cool art from an angsty college student at Head Injury Theater.

• A is for Apathy, the Fire Burns Low
• B is for Burnout. Four years of this?
• C is for Computer. A thing of evil.
• D is for Day Job, Distraction and Depression.
• E is for Emo Drama. No one loves me.
• F is for Fans who scare me sometimes.
• G is Girls. Curse their curves.
• H is for Hysteria.
• I is for Inbox which scares me into seclusion.
• J is for Jared. I am my own enemy.
• K is for Krull. I am the chosen one.
• L is for Lazy.
• M is for Malignant; my tumor's name is Steve.
• N is for Neurosis. You'll never find me.
• O is for the Others. Their weird, but they have a great dental plan.
• P is for Prison (and a Pretty mouth).
• Q is for Quitting.
• R is for Routine. R is for Routine. R is for Routine...
• S is for Sex. Yes, please!
• T is for Thetans. The Scientologists are gonna get me.
• U is for Unemployment. "Spare some change?"
• V is for Vacation. Again, you'll never find me.
• W is for Warcraft. A lifetime lost to digital fish.
• X is for Xanax. And drinks make me forget.
• Y is for Ye Olde Website, why can't I be digital?
• Z is for Zombie Jesus. Five years ago I felt original.

His art reminds me a bit of one of my all-time favorite comic artists, Bill Sienkiewicz - perhaps it's the fact that he's not afraid to splatter the ink. Sienkiewicz's Elektra: Assassin blew my mind in high school. "Remember, America. Not wind like a watch, but Wind, like the air..." Perhaps a full post on Elektra: Assassin is in order...