My five links:

I got most of my information from: www.deathpenaltyinfo.com.

I found some interesting historical data on executions here: http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution.htm. But I can't be entirely sure as to the veracity of it due to it just being some random person's website.

The original Chernoff Faces map: http://go.owu.edu/~jbkrygie/krygier_html/geog_353/geog_353_lo/geog_353_lo11_gr/turner_chernoff.jpg.

And while I make neither an argument for no against the death penalty with this map, I will point people to http://www.prodeathpenalty.com and http://www.antideathpenalty.org. But I have not read their literature but they seem to be on the up and up.

final project: second iteration

I changed the colors a bit. The light face has remained the same but the other two have lightened up a bit. The red is less intense now and instead of being white, the other states are green. I added a third color also. I was trying to keep any of the colors from jumping out because I am not trying to argue in either direction with this map. I am hoping that the legends all work. There is a lot going on and a huge number of symbols that need to be defined. It looks like everything is easy enough to read. I think it all works though. Let me know if there is anything that needs to be tweeked.

final project: take one

This is the first iteration. And to be honest I would be happy if it was also the last. But I know that is not to be. My fonts don't all match. Hopefully the three different size of face can be easily identified. I am trying to figure out another way to illustrate things intead of the smile. And I think the mixed eye symbols work. I had to make this a simple chloropleth also because there are 3 states that have the death penalty on the books but haven't executed anybody. I also need to line up the methods symbols on the legend. Does the rest of the legend work or is it confusing? Are the colors a problem at all?

Happy turkey day you poor bastards of North Cakilaky

This is about as good as it gets by my hand. I have finally been a little creative when it comes to legend design and background. I think it turned out pretty well. Dr. Leslie thinks it looks a lot better than the roller skating cows. But he is still talking about that map even though he may not like it. Martha helped me a bunch with the legend layout. Now that I am done maybe she can get her work done.

the new--or rather vastly improved--color map

It was hard to do the colors by hand. I did not want to just take a color scheme straight from colorbrewer.org though it would have been easier. And it may have looked a bit better but this is a learning experience and I have learned that with a bit of work, good colors can be done by hand. It just takes longer. Much longer. Compared to the gray-scale version, this is perhaps easier to read. But I spent a few years doing black and white photography as a hobby and I think I can pick out subtleties in gray better than others. The way I displayed the data has huge swaths of the country falling into the same class and therefore are the same color. The eye did not focus on the middle gray tones in the same way as the middle green that I used. I actually prefer the gray-scale version and think that had I just tweaked a couple of the tones, it would have been more presentable.

and while i am at it--WV

3rd post of the day but separate from the other 2

here are the goofy rollerskating cows that people have been talking about.

part 2 of below post

quintiles map:

gotta play a little catch-up

my 2 different classification schemes--maximum breaks and quartiles. the latter looks better but definitely doesn't tell all the information. this is just the former--latter in above post.

to be recognized in the halls of valhalla

For those who may not have seen it on the news or in the paper:

LIEUTENANT MICHAEL P. MURPHYUNITED STATES NAVY

FOR SERVICE AS SET FORTH IN THE FOLLOWING
CITATION:

FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND INTREPIDITY AT THE RISK OF HIS LIFE ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY AS THE LEADER OF A SPECIAL RECONNAISSANCE ELEMENT WITH NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE TASK UNIT AFGHANISTAN ON 27 AND 28 JUNE 2005. WHILE LEADING A MISSION TO LOCATE A HIGH-LEVEL ANTI-COALITION MILITIA LEADER, LIEUTENANT MURPHY DEMONSTRATED EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM IN THE FACE OF GRAVE DANGER IN THE VICINITY OF ASADABAD, KONAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN. ON 28 JUNE 2005, OPERATING IN AN EXTREMELY RUGGED ENEMY-CONTROLLED AREA, LIEUTENANT MURPHY’S TEAM WAS DISCOVERED BY ANTI-COALITION MILITIA SYMPATHIZERS, WHO REVEALED THEIR POSITION TO TALIBAN FIGHTERS. AS A RESULT, BETWEEN 30 AND 40 ENEMY FIGHTERS BESIEGED HIS FOUR-MEMBER TEAM. DEMONSTRATING EXCEPTIONAL RESOLVE, LIEUTENANT MURPHY VALIANTLY LED HIS MEN IN ENGAGING THE LARGE ENEMY FORCE. THE ENSUING FIERCE FIREFIGHT RESULTED IN NUMEROUS ENEMY CASUALTIES, AS WELL AS THE WOUNDING OF ALL FOUR MEMBERS OF THE TEAM. IGNORING HIS OWN WOUNDS AND DEMONSTRATING EXCEPTIONAL COMPOSURE, LIEUTENANT MURPHY CONTINUED TO LEAD AND ENCOURAGE HIS MEN. WHEN THE PRIMARY COMMUNICATOR FELL MORTALLY WOUNDED, LIEUTENANT MURPHY REPEATEDLY ATTEMPTED TO CALL FOR ASSISTANCE FOR HIS BELEAGUERED TEAMMATES. REALIZING THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF COMMUNICATING IN THE EXTREME TERRAIN, AND IN THE FACE OF ALMOST CERTAIN DEATH, HE FOUGHT HIS WAY INTO OPEN TERRAIN TO GAIN A BETTER POSITION TO TRANSMIT A CALL. THIS DELIBERATE, HEROIC ACT DEPRIVED HIM OF COVER, EXPOSING HIM TO DIRECT ENEMY FIRE. FINALLY ACHIEVING CONTACT WITH HIS HEADQUARTERS, LIEUTENANT MURPHY MAINTAINED HIS EXPOSED POSITION WHILE HE PROVIDED HIS LOCATION AND REQUESTED IMMEDIATE SUPPORT FOR HIS TEAM. IN HIS FINAL ACT OF BRAVERY, HE CONTINUED TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY UNTIL HE WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED, GALLANTLY GIVING HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY AND FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM. BY HIS SELFLESS LEADERSHIP, COURAGEOUS ACTIONS, AND EXTRAORDINARY DEVOTION TO DUTY, LIEUTENANT MURPHY REFLECTED GREAT CREDIT UPON HIMSELF AND UPHELD THE HIGHEST TRADITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL SERVICE.

SIGNED GEORGE W. BUSH

and the appropriate link: http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/

odd chloropleth i found

It's one of those cool bivariate ones we probably won't be making in this class. Hopefully the stuff on it can be read.

favorite websites of yesteryear--where are they now?

take a look it is pretty interesting: http://blog.compete.com/2007/10/01/top-ranked-web-sites-popularity-2001/

what is this google.com that seems to be oh so popular?

ok seriously--i have never heard of pogo.com and i spend a lot of time online.

Mine doesn't look as good as the original. Oh well. I have nothing more to say here.

Funky Map

courtesy of explorenorthampton.com

Cheating the graticule

The directions told me to copy and paste to make my job easier. So I did. It was much easier to recenter and resize an ellipse than to draw a new one while making sure it was snapping to the right spots on the grid. I also figured out how to make text on a path work on the underside--you have to flip it in the type menu or something like that. One thing that bothers me though is that she said we wouldn't have to draw in any continents. But I get this sneaking suspicion that we will have to do that next week.

Pen was difficult

Using the pen was a pain. But there was a way to adjust it. So it looks better now. And I even had my friend Liz take a look and she told me to change some of my grays and dash patterns.

My 4 Links

I only had to add 3 links but I added 4 instead. Oops. Oh well too late. Wikipedia is an obvious choice. While not always 100% correct on the info it does give a good idea and some links. TerraServer is pretty cool and I like it more than Google Earth. I just think the maps are better. US-Highways is something that I just enjoy. I consult it before any road trip. I have never been much of a fan of the interstates unless I need to get somewhere within a timeframe. If I have the leeway I prefer the "Blue Highways" (interesting book by the way). And that brings us to EHOWA. It is a most interesting blog. He uses a lot of photos and links to videos and such. There is a lot of adult specific material so don't go clicking his links when there are kids/parents/etc around. But the primary reason I post the link is that even when we are doing homework we need breaks. Ernie's site provides a welcome diversion from time to time.