Morning news

I try very hard not to expose myself to TV news, and morning news shows seem to be an especially virulently vapid flavor of the form. Still, I suspect that this assessment by Francesco Marciuliano's Medium Large strip of the typical morning show's daily descent into aggressive idiocy is accurate.  I'd ask if anybody out there can verify, but I'd worry too much for your mental health if you can/did.

Crimes of cartography

In a column called Design Crime over at Fast Company's Co. Design page they've found a map-based infographic produced by NBC Nightly News that they're calling "The Worst Infographic Of 2014 (So Far)".  From their review:

In short, just by changing the context of the original infographic, NBC Nightly News turned what was a straightforward visualization of America's demographics over time into some sort of alt-history map of 100 years of ethnic cleansing and racial segregation. Oh, and there's time travel in there for some reason too.

Bilingual geography gaff

OK, so here's a geography puzzle for you.  See if you can catch the map error on this Spanish news cast:

.

Did you see it?  If not here's a hint:
Spanish -> English
Rusia -> Russia
Polonia -> Poland
Alemania -> Germany
Hungria -> Hungary
Rumania -> Romania
Bielorrusia  -> Belarus
Ucrania -> Ukraine

Got it yet?  Here's a correct English version of a map of Central Europe.  Seriously, it took me a while to see it.

Crisis geography graphics

In a debut-for-this-blog Matt Bors gives us a commentary on the geography education of the US public.  I think The Daily Show makes fun of this a lot.

Confusion near Crimea

In all the Crimean hubub MSNBC is having a little trouble with their European map. Czechoslovakia broke up over 20 years ago.


We've already posted the t-shirt that proclaims "Ukraine is weak!".  That bit was used in a Seinfeld bit, although I don't know whether the TV bit or t-shirt came first:

Tonight at 11

Dan Rosandich gives us this grim... and I think kinda tired... take on tv news.  The blob on the front of the news desk is probably a sloppy attempt at a Goode's Homolosine Equal Area Projection

That's not China

Again with the misidentification of South America.  I gotta say, when I started this maps-in-comics blog I had no idea this was so common:

Breaking wind news

Because at heart I'm 10:

Egypt on the move

Because what's an international crisis without one of the "news" networks screwing up the geography.... although you'd think Fox News would know from Iraq, what with all the war they were so keen about having there a few years back.


Need more of this particular sort of thing?
Wrong Georia
"West" Cambodia?
That's some road trip
Here's a compilation including CNN screwing up the Middle East

Something beautiful

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis sometimes goes in for these depressing fables with the conceit that they're authored by the strip's "Rat" character rather than Pastis. The glob-looking thing in panel seven qualifies this as a map-related comic... kinda.

Weather in Kansas

That's a 54 degree temperature difference across the state.  That's one fierce cold front. 

And in the Dakotas...

In the spirit of the recent (justified) excitement about the weather here's a meteorological item from a recent New Yorker Magazine cartoon by Michael Crawford:

Is this a depiction of the anchorman being mean to the hapless TV weatherman?

Coming up at 11...

So in light of the recent uptick in the types of shootings that the media goes ape about, here's a couple of cartoons on that theme that use maps:

Dan Wasserman

Dick Locher

Following the GPS too closely

I've heard of several stories (mostly about Germans) following their GPS units too closely. And there was that episode of The Office where Michael Scott follows the GPS directions into a lake:


Here's a news report of somebody actually doing the same:

The winner

Mike Luckovich on the excesses of this season's campaign fundraising.  I thought I've posted more of his stuff.  

Boulder warming

When I first moved to Colorado many moons ago there was a front page article with a photo about a couple who had proudly made a map showing how an earthquake would drop most of the western United States, including the Rocky Mountains, into the Pacific Ocean, leaving much of the Denver Metro Area as beachfront property.  This couple was very serious and fervently believed in this theory of theirs.... or so the article claimed.  I've not been able to find that article (although I haven't actually tried) but what appears above is an artist's rendition of kinda the opposite... as in this is what it might look like looking south for almost everything east of Denver to become ocean... again I should say, since back during the Cretaceous it all was ocean... as one can see in this animation.    But actually this could be a convoluted global warming type theme... so we'll add this other one by Chip Bok which is very much global warming oriented and call it a a day.

Ironic forest

This is where irony reaches dangerous levels

Green screen fail

So this weatherman wore the wrong color blazer today.

Bad static hair day

Here's a handy weather report from Dan Piraro's Bizarro.

Wrong Georgia on my mind

In truth, this is an easy one for the U.S. resident geography novice to mix up.... though less excusable for a news organization.