.: Above The Aether :.

Data visualizations fascinate me like fish tanks enthrall cats.  This is an interesting map of Walmart’s growth across the United States.  I think the designer choose to make the stores green dots on purpose…
What do you think?
Link to the dynamic map (requires Flash).
- Dave

35 women have held seats in the United States Senate since its inception.  The number of women in the Senate has more than doubled in the last 20 years.  I find it interesting that the majority of the women who have held seats in the Senate have been democrats (22 out of 35).
I’m not sure [...]

This short flash movie reminds me of a spreading plague or war.  Funny that it’s religion.
Link (via BoingBoing)

From Wikipedia:
The origin of this custom has been much disputed. Many theories have been suggested.
What seems certain is that it is in some way or other a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on old New Year’s Day, the 25th of March, ended on the 2nd of April.
It [...]

The New Yorker magazine online has some amazing photos of the bridges of New York City. You can see the collection of photos here.
The photo above makes me nervous just looking at it and I’m not really afraid of heights.
(Found at Digg under the design category)
-Dave

Justine and I went for a long walk today at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, TX. We live pretty near the cemetery and talked about it last night at dinner with Ted & Leslie. It’s quite an impressive place. We both walked for over an hour through the cemetery and still did not [...]

This is a satallite image from Google Maps of the SR-71 spy plane docked just a few blocks away from the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City. Isn’t it ironic that citizens can now spy on a spy plane?
The actual map page can be found here.
-Dave

Nothing better than some good old ass-kicking from the best part of the Bible (the Old Testament).  You can read other scary bible quotes here.  Now go out there and kick ass for the Lord…especially if they’re Jebusites.
Deuteronomy 20:10-17
When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they [...]

From an article on Discover.com. Fact number 13 is one of the most interesting…
#13. During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.
So how many mummies does it take to move a steam-powered train? What is the BTU [...]