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You are here: Home / Open Threads / More Better Cake Than An Unnamed Atlantic Editor Can Bake

More Better Cake Than An Unnamed Atlantic Editor Can Bake

by Tom Levenson|  July 22, 201110:26 am| 49 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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This confection showed up in my email this morning as a data visualization treat.  Good kindergartner that I am, I find I have enough to share:

<a href=”http://epicgraphic.com/data-cake/”> <img src=”http://epicgraphic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/data-cake-graphic.jpg” alt=”data cake” width=”550″ height=”521″ /></a><br />Image by EpicGraphic

And as long as we’re on the subject of visualization, here’s a lagniappe.  The inestimable and inexhaustible Bora Zivkovic, major-domo of the Scientific American science blogging network, recently wrote a long post on future forms of science journalism..  I agree with some of what he says, though not all, and there is a slim chance I’ll actually find the time to argue with him in public.

But in the meantime, let me share with you this little number from Bora’s post that to me makes the point that there are stories within stories within stories, if only one chooses to look — even in the midst of the most familiar tale.

<div align=”center”><iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/lELy1gJT-kg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Consider this an I-can’t-stand-any-more-tea-leaf-reading-on-the-debt-ceiling open thread.

Update: per commenter Matt F @22 — this video is actually a reference/response to this one, “Remind Me.”  The maker of the LRRH clip above writes on the Vimeo posting of the piece that he made the cartoon to satisfy a school assignment to reinterpret the fairy tale, and he acknowledged that it was inspired by Röyksopps’ original.

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Next Post: Where’s this going? »

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 10:30 am

    Umm cake meanwhile…

  2. 2.

    dr. bloor

    July 22, 2011 at 10:33 am

    The Teatards called–they refuse to authorize funding for the flour and eggs, and want to know where the hell their cake is.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist.

  3. 3.

    PurpleGirl

    July 22, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Yes, I can’t take any more writing/commenting on the debt ceiling and the gutting of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

    I’m sitting here trying to decide if I want to order a bunch of books from Borders today or wait to see what I can get in a store tomorrow. (Will relatives understand my spending or not, hmmmm, probably not?)

    It’s absolutely too hot to go to a store today. Maybe I’ll go and see who’s in the cooling center in my development — there are residents who don’t have A/C so they open the community center.

  4. 4.

    Rosalita

    July 22, 2011 at 10:35 am

    carrot cake? mmmmmmm

  5. 5.

    jeffreyw

    July 22, 2011 at 10:36 am

    Presentation

  6. 6.

    Mike Goetz

    July 22, 2011 at 10:37 am

    Data-Information-Presentation-Knowledge

    These things have no place in our politics.

  7. 7.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Perhaps I’m being insane but a bombing of a large European city takes precedence to cake? Sorry for the rant but the Danes are good people.

  8. 8.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    July 22, 2011 at 10:45 am

    Umm…wasn’t it Norway and not Denmark?

  9. 9.

    Citizen_X

    July 22, 2011 at 10:46 am

    Meanwhile, some wingnuts in in Arizona are upset over the use of the word “haboob” to describe the recent giant sandstorm (AKA as, well, a haboob). (Note: the NYT article only quotes two people, so I don’t know how widespread the “outrage” is.)

    I say let’s give ’em this one. We can call it “God’s wrath on the idiots,” instead.

  10. 10.

    MikeJ

    July 22, 2011 at 10:46 am

    @wesindc: When did the Danes take over Oslo?

  11. 11.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    July 22, 2011 at 10:46 am

    I want to know what’s in this data; and I want the precise algorithm for turning it into information.

    Presentation and knowledge will take care of themselves.

  12. 12.

    wobblybits

    July 22, 2011 at 10:48 am

    @wesindc: The Danes? Didn’t the explosion happen in Norway? I always thought the Danes referred to people from Denmark?

  13. 13.

    Citizen_X

    July 22, 2011 at 10:48 am

    but the Danes are good people

    Oh yeah? Why’d they just bomb Norway, then?

  14. 14.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    July 22, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Meh, nice video, I guess some people with good video making skills have way too much time on their hands.

    Blah, just in a bitter mood this morning. I guess that video reminds me of the superficial faux intellectualish type people who’d read Gladwell or something.

  15. 15.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 10:49 am

    LOL my bad. Had Danes on the mind. However…why not an issue enough to interrupt the non stop chatter about how important the US is?

  16. 16.

    NonyNony

    July 22, 2011 at 10:51 am

    @Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    I want to know what’s in this data; and I want the precise algorithm for turning it into information.

    One of the most awesome things about living in the future is that if we want an algorithm like that all we have to do is ask.

    Sometimes I resent that I live in the future and I don’t have a flying car. But more often living in the future has more subtle benefits than a flying car could give.

  17. 17.

    Citizen_X

    July 22, 2011 at 10:51 am

    Right now the “bombing” in Oslo is just being reported as an explosion, cause unknown.

  18. 18.

    Quackosaur

    July 22, 2011 at 10:52 am

    The explosion happened near the PM’s office in Oslo, so most certainly Norway and not Denmark, unless we’ve managed to travel back in time 200 years.

  19. 19.

    chopper

    July 22, 2011 at 10:52 am

    the cake is a lie.

  20. 20.

    MikeJ

    July 22, 2011 at 10:55 am

    @wesindc: GYOFB

  21. 21.

    slag

    July 22, 2011 at 10:55 am

    there are stories within stories within stories, if only one choses to look

    Quelle que “choses”?

    But it’s still a great point!

  22. 22.

    MattF

    July 22, 2011 at 10:55 am

    That video is just a ripoff, IMO. The original is this.

  23. 23.

    Tom Levenson

    July 22, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Re Oslo: I don’t know anything about it other than what you can read at sites that have actual reporters on the ground. I can’t speak for the other FP folks here — but I’m not writing about the explosion/bombing because I literally have nothing useful to say about it at this time.

  24. 24.

    slag

    July 22, 2011 at 10:59 am

    @Amanda in the South Bay:

    I guess that video reminds me of the superficial faux intellectualish type people who’d read Gladwell or something.

    Are we really going to get into a smackdown over Malcolm Gladwell? It is Friday, after all. And isn’t there some Mac v. Microsoft action happening already? Sometimes, there really can be too much of a good thing.

  25. 25.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 11:00 am

    What the hell does GYOFB mean?

  26. 26.

    jeffreyw

    July 22, 2011 at 11:00 am

    @Ivan Ivanovich Renko: algorithm

  27. 27.

    LGRooney

    July 22, 2011 at 11:02 am

    Thanks to their knowledge of geography, Fox news must have gotten a graphic wrong somewhere, the teahadists hit the wrong capital!

    We’ve been discussing their ability to become violent…

  28. 28.

    slag

    July 22, 2011 at 11:04 am

    @wesindc: Get Yoda Out For Brunch.

  29. 29.

    MikeJ

    July 22, 2011 at 11:06 am

    @wesindc: Get your own fucking blog.

    If you want to inform people that something just happened, that’s a nice thing to do. If you want to shit on a thread because people aren’t discussing what you want to discuss, that’s whining. There’s way to get people to discuss what you want. Go to your own fucking blog where you set the agenda. Don’t whine because other people don’t want to panic or talk about shit that nobody actually has any information about yet.

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 22, 2011 at 11:06 am

    Get Your Own F’n Bourbon.

    Or not.

  31. 31.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    July 22, 2011 at 11:08 am

    As usual the Telegraph has live updates.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8655175/Oslo-explosion-live-coverage.html

  32. 32.

    Tom Levenson

    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Re Slag @21. Well yeah.

    Fixt

  33. 33.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am

    NonyNony – mmmmmm, carrot cake…

    thanks!

  34. 34.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Now wonder ABL is all up in arms. If one makes one simple mistake attack ensues. WTH? I rarely comment and when I do I am nice. I think Tunch looks good for his size.

  35. 35.

    Surly Duff

    July 22, 2011 at 11:09 am

    “…major-domo of the Scientific American science blogging network recently wrote a long post on future forms of science journalism..”

    Does it also claim all science writing is just boring climate change and global warning articles like Argle Bargle whines?

  36. 36.

    Tim F.

    July 22, 2011 at 11:20 am

    From your graphic, I conclude that knowledge is the process of converting useful information into shit. Too often true.

  37. 37.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 22, 2011 at 11:24 am

    You thought that the Danes were going to take that Fortinbras business lying down? Hell, no.

    Of course, they had to wait. But that’s what the wily Danes are good at… waiting. And butter cookies. And Lego™.

  38. 38.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2011 at 11:29 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    But that’s what the wily Danes are good at… waiting. And butter cookies. And Lego™.

    And wind turbines. But no one mentions that because Algore is fat.

  39. 39.

    slag

    July 22, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @MattF: You’re right. That video is very much a ripoff. But that’s also why the eaten cake isn’t the best metaphor for knowledge. Knowledge is regenerative.

  40. 40.

    wesindc

    July 22, 2011 at 11:43 am

    Yumm butter cookies…

  41. 41.

    gocart mozart

    July 22, 2011 at 11:48 am

    Frank Zappa
    Trouble Every Day
    Well I’m about to get sick
    From watchin’ my TV
    Been checkin’ out the news
    Until my eyeballs fail to see
    I mean to say that every day
    Is just another rotten mess
    And when it’s gonna change, my friend
    Is anybody’s guess

    So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
    Hopin’ for the best
    Even think I’ll go to prayin’
    Every time I hear ’em sayin’
    That there’s no way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day
    No way to delay
    That trouble comin’ every day

  42. 42.

    murbella

    July 22, 2011 at 11:52 am

    that looks delicious.

  43. 43.

    stuckinred

    July 22, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    gocart mozart –

    Someone beside me knows it!

    as it applies to you and me
    there ain’t no great society

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    July 22, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    Ican’t also help but notice the data side of the equation is missing a few critical points. Which makes the metaphor even more apt.

  45. 45.

    ET

    July 22, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    lagniappe is a great word

  46. 46.

    gocart mozart

    July 22, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    Stuckinred Johnson is right!

    You know we got to sit around at home
    And watch this thing begin
    But I bet there won’t be many live
    To see it really end
    ‘Cause the fire in the street
    Ain’t like the fire in the heart
    And in the eyes of all these people
    Don’t you know that this could start
    On any street in any town
    In any state if any clown
    Decides that now’s the time to fight
    For some ideal he thinks is right
    And if a million more agree
    There ain’t no Great Society
    As it applies to you and me
    Our country isn’t free
    And the law refuses to see
    If all that you can ever be
    Is just a lousy janitor
    Unless your uncle owns a store
    You know that five in every four
    Just won’t amount to nothin’ more
    Gonna watch the rats go across the floor
    And make up songs about being poor

    Blow your harmonica, son!

    More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/f/frank_zappa/#share

  47. 47.

    Bill Murray

    July 22, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    MikeJ – July 22, 2011 | 10:46 am · Link

    @wesindc: When did the Danes take over Oslo?

    1536-1814, after the fall of the Kalmar Union

  48. 48.

    DFH no.6

    July 22, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    Citizen_X @ 9, re: “haboobs” in AZ,

    Not really much outrage in these parts that I’ve noticed at the use of Islamofascist term “haboob” to describe the recent dust storms.

    Just the typical Abe Simpson types yelling at clouds (literally, in this case). Fuckers gotta complain about something.

    The local rightwing rag (The Arizona Republic) even had the term in large font on its front page. Proving, I suppose, to Teabag Nation around here that the paper really is part of the liberal media.

    Have to say, it’s the first time in my 30 years here that I’ve ever heard the term “haboob” used for a phenomenon that occurs pretty regularly. Maybe someone used it here before, but I never heard it myself till last month’s monster that made the news. “Dust storm” has always been the common (and, truly, perfectly adequate and accurate) term used before.

    I don’t care, we can call them “haboobs” instead from now on. Have to admit, it sounds somewhat humorous to us English-speakers (making it more fun to say than the pedestrian “dust storm”). And if it pisses off a few cranky rightwingers, all the better.

  49. 49.

    gocart mozart

    July 22, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    DFH,are the haboobs more well-developed in Arizona. Do they bounce around from place to place? Please keep us abreast of the situation.

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