The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

The Geography of Personality Interactive Map
|| 9/25/2008 || 7:07 pm || Comments Off on The Geography of Personality Interactive Map || ||

The map above is from the Wall Street Journal’s on-line article about the paper A Theory of the Emergence, Persistence, and Expression of Geographic Variation in Psychological Characteristics[pdf]. The researchers poured through 600,000 surveys and came up with some interesting results on the spatial distribution of the big 5 personality traits in America. I found it interesting that Washington, DC leads the United States of America in Openness, is third in Extraversion, and is second to last in Agreeableness.

Federico Aubele’s Anthropomorphic Map of Panamericana
|| 9/12/2008 || 11:18 pm || Comments Off on Federico Aubele’s Anthropomorphic Map of Panamericana || ||

I am a bit late on posting this t-shirt, but since I have been posting other t-shirts lately, I feel the time is write to put up this entry. I went to see Federico Aubele and Natalia Clavier the other night and saw that the shirt above was for sale.

Argentinian-born Federico Aubele‘s Panamericana was released in the United States last September on Washington, DC-based ESL Music. It’s Federico’s second full-length album and it turned out being one of my favorite CDs of 2007. In full disclosure, I “sing” in the chorus with 4 others on the track “Este Momento” (a long story for another posting).

The map above combines his head and curly hair with the continents of North and South America. The greek prefix pan means “all, whole, all-inclusive,” hence the geographic title of the album, Panamericana. I’ve always been a fan of how his chin exudes the Alaskan Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands almost as if its cartographic goatee. The songs on the album even include geographic sounding titles like “In The Desert” (En El Desierto) and “In Every Place” (En Cada Lugar) and to compliment the map t-shirt, the CD’s insert even contains a map of the Pan-Aamerican Highway.

Unlike the Addias map shirts and the Express Clothing map t-shirts, Federico Aubele’s Anthropomorphic Map of Panamericana t-shirt was made in America by American Apparel. However, I don’t know where the graphic was printed (maybe by American Apparel?) For some reason I own two copies of the shirt, but I haven’t taken a picture of myself wearing the shirt…yet.

Here’s a YouTube video of the song La Esquina from Panamericana:

He’s currently on tour with his wife Natalia Clavier (who’s first CD is great, BTW). Check either of their MySpace pages (links above) to see if they are coming near you because you might be able to get the shirt above in person.

Related Fashion:

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The Adidas World Map and the Adidas Map of the Western Hemisphere
|| 9/6/2008 || 11:44 pm || Comments Off on The Adidas World Map and the Adidas Map of the Western Hemisphere || ||

As I mentioned in my last entry I went to the Adidas store in Georgetown last night. While I was looking through the clothing on the various racks, I spotted these two map related t-shirts. They use the Adidas logo as the texture of the surface of the earth. Unlike Express clothing’s cartographic t-shirts, this time around I actually looked at where the shirts were made. The location and the Adidas map of the Western Hemisphere are below the fold:

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Wasilla, Alaska is literally off the map, the Google Map that is
|| 9/4/2008 || 8:34 pm || Comments Off on Wasilla, Alaska is literally off the map, the Google Map that is || ||

The Republican Party’s vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Tonight this website had a visitor from Wasilla, Alaska who looked at this statehood-related map. Upon looking at the city on Google Maps, I found out that Wasilla is a border city where the imagery of the geography shows only a portion of the city using new high-resolution imagery. In some ways, this map proves that Republican Party’s vice-presidential choice was literally off the map.

UPDATE – Due to the presidential election, Google has updated their imagery of Wasilla, Alaska.

Related Google Map Entries:

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A New & Somewhat Accurate Map of the Tropic of Gemini and the Tropic of Sagittarius
|| || 7:11 pm || Comments Off on A New & Somewhat Accurate Map of the Tropic of Gemini and the Tropic of Sagittarius || ||

For the last month I’ve been working on a slightly strange map above. It’s based on Johannes van Loon’s “Scenographia systematis mvndani Ptolemaici” (1660), which includes an “Axis Zodiaci” that shows the signs of Gemini and Sagittarius being slightly more illuminated than Cancer & Capricorn (see below). This shading possibly indicates that the author was aware of natural movement of the earth since the time of Ptolemy (~125 A.D.).

A new & somewhat accurate map of the Tropic of Sagittarius and the Tropic of Gemini was created using two maps of the Tropics from Wikipedia. I added the glyphs of the Zodiac over the meridians, but unlike the antique map below, I moved the signs backwards. The word “tropic” itself comes from the Greek tropos, meaning turn, referring to the fact that the sun appears to “turn back” at the solstices. I have read that in 1989 the Tropic of Gemini moved into the constellation of Taurus, which technically means it should be the “Tropic of Taurus,” but to keep the circle of animals in exact opposition, I kept the tropic in Gemini, hence “somewhat accurate.”

Close-up detail of A New & Somewhat Accurate Map of the Tropic of Gemini and the Tropic of Sagittarius

For hundreds of years cartographers have included the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer on nearly all globes and world maps. Yet with the natural movement of the earth through space & time, the solstices are not located in the constellations of Capricorn or Cancer anymore. So why do cartographers continue to label the maps & globes using this incorrect information? Does cartographic tradition trump astronomical observation? Should contemporary maps be changed to reflect the passage of time? Are there any antique maps that place the Tropics in any other constellations? Leave your comments below.

Johannes van Loon’s “Scenographia systematis mvndani Ptolemaici” (1660)

Postscript: I believe I was incorrect in my analysis above. I failed to take into account the sideral.

Related Antique Entries:

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Democratic National Convention 2008 – Photos from Day Two
|| 8/27/2008 || 11:44 pm || Comments Off on Democratic National Convention 2008 – Photos from Day Two || ||

The Iraq Veterans Against the War hosted a free concert at the Denver Coliseum with The Coup, Flobots, and Rage Against the Machine. After the sold out show, about 4,000 people took part in a 4 mile march to downtown Denver to give the presidential candidate Barack Obama Campaign a list of demands regarding the war the in Iraq and the treatment of veterans.

Below are the photos I took today:

View the rest of the photographs:

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My Weekend in Photos [8/22-8/24]
|| 8/25/2008 || 6:46 am || Comments Off on My Weekend in Photos [8/22-8/24] || ||

The photos below document some of what I saw on Friday, Saturday, and early Sunday morning.

View the rest of the photographs:

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A World Map Sign @ the A N M Market & Deli in the Atlas District
|| 8/16/2008 || 5:34 pm || Comments Off on A World Map Sign @ the A N M Market & Deli in the Atlas District || ||

Last week I went to the Atlas District of Washington, DC to see my housemate’s band perform at the Rock & Roll Hotel. When I went outside to look for some food I stumbled up the A N M Market & Deli located at 1363 H Street NE, Washington, DC. It looks like they opened recently and have chosen to use a type of text coloring that I find unique– a world map.

Photos from last night’s “Quart Bag” exhibition @ the Civilian Art Projects
|| 8/9/2008 || 12:42 pm || 3 Comments Rendered || ||

Unidentified woman looking at my piece “Without You I am Lost,”
next to Brook Halvorson’s “Stool Sample – Jeff Koons” and RenÃ© TreviÃ±o’s “Cupcakes for gay Iranians“

Inspired by the many things you can do with a quart bag, Civilian Art Projects and friends have invited 100 DC area artists to participate in a community art exhibition called Quart Bag. The exhibition provides an imaginative opportunity for artists to use thirty-two ounces of space within a plastic quart size bag. All works of art will be sold for $100 or less, providing an opportunity for all people to walk home with a piece of art that is FAA approved.

Below are some of the photographs I took last night at the opening reception for Quart Bag at the Civilian Art Projects. There were over 100 different pieces in the show and I managed to photograph about 1/3 of them.

Photograph of exhibition attendees

Continue:

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Lost in a hairy bush? Use a map! – Or just a razor instead…
|| 3/28/2008 || 1:29 pm || Comments Off on Lost in a hairy bush? Use a map! – Or just a razor instead… || ||

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Hello! Thanks for stopping by! My name is Nikolas Schiller. I am an American citizen currently living in New York City and working remotely to support structural change in Washington, DC.

This blog is my online repository of what I have created or found online since May of 2004. I've been on hiatus since 2018 but plan on contributing more content in the not so distant future.

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