I've actually had a pretty good time in class this year but it is time to say goodbye I hope my efforts were not all in vain and that on day some kid will stumble upon this blog and learn from my experiences and my mistakes but until then this is goodbye.

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Arkyd: A crowdsourced satellite

http://techland.time.com/2013/05/30/arkyd-is-a-crowdfunded-orbital-space-telescope-you-can-control/

I saw this today and like the 3d printed food article I just couldn't ignore it. I have been stalking the tech section of google news lately and this is just what happens. But there is a major space craft company that has created a kick starter to put a satellite up in space that gives access to students and just people in general. I just think this is super cool and felt like it was awesome enough that I had to share it. You can contribute to the kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458134548/arkyd-a-space-telescope-for-everyone-0 I'm actually really obsessed with kickstarter it is just such a cool idea that has been used to fund so many really incredible projects.

EDIT: there are also Arkyd infographics I mean what's not to love

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Where I find infographics: Tumblr

Tumblr is a popular blogging site that I spend waaay to much time on. However over the course of the year I have been able to use this site as a source for infographics as well as inspiration for where I want to go in my blog. The blog visualgraphic.tumblr.com has a lot of really cool infographics and designs. The majority of the things posted there are minimalistic which is a really popular style for infographics. Here are some of the cooler designs I have seen posted recently.

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First 3D Printed Food!

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/20887
This isnt what I normally post but I thought this article was to cool to ignore. It is crazy how far science has come and how awesome it would be to eat a 3D printed pizza, even if its just protein layer flavor.

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How News Sources Address Disasters

This is just how I have noticed that most news sources report on big disasters like the tornado in Oklahoma. This is mostly specific to TV and Internet sources.
1) Breaking the story- the reporter quickly explains the circumstances and any known details, there is often a lot of confusion and the details are not correct.
2) Continuing coverage- getting more details from people who are actually there, death/injury toll begins to more accurately reflect the truth. Especially on TV there is a lot of repetition to make sure new viewers know what is going on and to fill air time. This is also when #prayfor____ begins circulating around social medias and spreads more, often incorrect, details.
3) Sending the reporters- news sources end up sending someone from their syndicate to cover the story. This is usually around early night/afternoon before shows like nightly news.
4) National news- the show is basically all this event they show tons of different angles and reactions from the victims. By now basically everyone knows about it. The full destruction is understood and aid begins to roll in.
5) New developments, Aid, Conspiracy's, Manhunts, etc.- Basically any thing that needs to be resolved is during the next few weeks.
6) Going back- news sources go back to look at how the community has coped a few months later.

This is just the general essence of what I have seen happening in the news when something very dramatic happens.

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How news must adapt for modern technology.

stateofthemedia.org/2013/digital-as-mobile-grows-rapidly-the-pressures-on-news-intensify/

The state of the media 2013 reports by journalism.org include a lot of really interesting articles about

problems facing modern journalists. It is definitely a long read but I have included the pictures because I 

think they summarize the article well. The graphs speak for themselves and if you don't have time to read

the article you should definitely check out these graphs.

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Family Project

I have been googleing some of my family members names to see if I could find articles about them. My cousin Kate is one of the womens softball coaches at Hofstra University and there have been quite a few articles written about the awesome season they are having this year. This is actually her first year at this position; she used to do almost the same thing at West Point and if I can find an article from her time there i will post it.
Hofstra Softball
This article is not directly about her actions but all the ones that were about her were from Hofstras news publication and I wanted to include an article from a seperate news source.

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What makes an infographic cool?

http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2013/5/8/tiago-veloso-what-makes-an-infographic-cool.html
This artice thing came from the website that I get most of the infographics that I review from. I like how they analyze infographics and the making of infographics. Anyone who wants to make infographics should check this and the whole website out because it does a really good job at analyzing infographics and their features.

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Family History Project

This website has a lot of information about my great-grandfathers ship and all of the things created about it.

Books about the USS Mason

Proud

DVD based on the true and heroic story of the USS Mason, a Navy battleship manned by an African-American crew during WWII, when segregation was still enforced.

Based on the book Proudly We Served by Mary Pat Kelly.

Proudly We Served: 
The Men of the USS Mason
by Mary Pat Kelly

This book tells the story of these brave African-American men and their contributions to the Allied victory. Their success had a direct impact on President Harry S Truman's decision to integrate all of America's armed forces after the war. Recommended in 1944 for a commendation for their heroic actions during a violent storm, the Mason sailors finally received that commendation in 1995, after the publication of this book in hardcover and the release of a companion documentary. The men and ship have been further honored by the Navy's decision to name a new destroyer (DDG 87) after the Mason and propagate its proud heritage into the twenty-first century.
Hardcover, 220 pages
List price $15.95

Better Than Good: 
A Black Sailor's War, 1943 -1945
     Author Adolph Newton became one of the very few African Americans to serve in the general enlisted ranks rather than as a mess attendant. In this intense, long-overdue memoir, he describes his life as a black seaman on an integrated warship, explaining how he dealt with discrimination and personal freedom and how, despite the difficulties, he developed a lasting affection for the Navy. Newton's story is representative of a generation of African Americans who came of age during the war, needing to prove themselves by fighting for a country that had denied them the full benefits of citizenship. A landmark work, it is the first memoir to be published by a black sailor in the forefront of Roosevelt's order to integrate the Navy. Based on journals he kept during the war, the book retains the raw emotions and expressions of a young sailor in the 1940s. He speaks candidly of race relations and how his views evolved from conversations with southern blacks, confrontations with prejudiced whites, and encounters with Europeans. And his story does not stop at war's end. Unable to find civilian employment that utilized his technical skills, he reenlisted in 1946 only to find the Navy more rigid than during the war. His reflections on life as a young black man who knew that just being good was not good enough make an important contribution to the record.
Hardcover, 208 pages
List price $28.95

On Board the USS Mason: 
The World War II Diary of James A. Dunn
Hardcover, 130 pages

I copied and pasted this from the website. I own the book Proudly We Served and I am going to look into getting some of the others for my project. 

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Styles of infographics #2

Historical infographics are really popular. I believe this is because infographc are easily created from timelines and timelines are a huge part of history. These could also fall under the category of educational infographics but I believe these are so popular they deserve their own post.

Again if you cant see the picture very well check out www.coolinfographics.com because some images just don't handle getting put on blogger very well.

2000 Years of Continental Climate Changes

I really like how this one displays data so nicely and efficiently using almost no words.

The History Of Famous Logos

This infographic is more of a "fun" historical infographic it also has a really cool design and layout that makes it more interesting to read. 

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Will Richardson Ted Talk

We watched a Ted talk about making the learning process different and better. Although I love and try to use some of the ideas he speaks about in my everyday life. I have an ipad, in fact I'm on it right now. I can use the ipad to teach me everything my teachers are supposed to and way more. I utilize the opportunities given to me in order to help me be more successful in learning and life. The learning system that I am deeply engulfed in is troubled. The American learning system is failing many children. We need to adapt to the resources students have and the WAY STUDENTS LEARN. We have fast paced classes and slow paced classes but we need to add creativity into the learning process. Change will be hard change can take a long time. It needs to happen but I don't think it will, at least in my generation it won't. But that's not going to stop me from using it to help advance my sucess as a person.

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Styles of infographics.

So I haven't been on here as much this month because I have been really trying to boost the progress and group moral of my group blog but I have been working on a little series of posts where I  compare some popular styles of infographics. I have no idea how long I am going to do this or how many posts it will be because whenever I give myself any kind of guidelines like that I end up getting bored and or frustrated trying to live up to the expectations I have set for myself.

Ok so the first section is the advertisement. This is an infographic that is used to promote a company or topic. I posted a while ago about the PF Changs one which I really liked but there are so many more. I don't think using infographics as ads is a bad thing. I like how it incorporates more facts and statistics than a normal advertisement.

Some of these came out pretty badly in the save/insert process but you can see them all in their full glory on coolinfographics.com

Examples:

Hotels.com

Project Prediction

Sony Walkman

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Boston Explosion Infographic

Here are some infographics I found about the Bombings in Boston. They help visualize what happened and put it into some perspective. Some of them are kind of small but I tried to get the best quality/biggest version.

This one is my favorite its actually a gif. If you check out the website I linked you can see it in its full glory. 

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The importance of social media during a tragedy.

The idea for this post has come to my mind too many times recently. I'm not sure if this era has caused more tragedies or if it is publicising them more but modern journalism seems to rely heavily on tragic events. One of my teachers was talking about some information she had learned from a seminar on how to act during a school shooting. She said that we should stay off all social media and resist posting what is going on to twitter and to not try to contact any of your loved ones in order to keep the phone lines clear. And I agree with that...to a point. I agree that it probably smarter to resist calling people/the police in order to keep the radio towers clear. But if you have taken a picture or feel your life is in danger or have vital information regarding the incident I believe it is important to post it or share it somewhere. It is always important to stay safe and protect yourself before using social media. Social media connects us and allows people to share their vantage points on whatever they are doing and this is never more important than when people are killed or are in immediate danger. The internet holds so much information that could be really important to the officials trying to solve this crime. I believe that using social media to share info about a tragedy is a good thing

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Post Winning Entries

I am going to post some of the sample winning entries from the competition website. There are some really good ones in here. I don't know what to expect when I get there but If its anything like this I will definitely need to step up my skills a bit before the competition. My main goal is not to win it is to gain new experiences and try to create something I actually enjoy.

Year 2011-2012

This one is my favorite I really enjoy the little characters and how professional it looks. 

Year 2010-2011

I like the simple and straight forward approach in this infographic. I feel like I might be able to make something similar to this one. 

Year 2009-2010

This one is rather busy but I really like the theme and layout of the information.

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Making infographics.

Yesterday I made an infographic following the guidelines of the practice prompt for the journalism competition. But as I went to save it I messed something up and it deleted. I still wanted to document the progress I have made so I drew a very rough sketch of what I had made. I created this infographic on ease.ly and in order to make it more like the actual competition I didn't use any of the premade items and themes. 

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Family Project: Farrell

Exhibit offers insight into African American WWII Sailors

My great-grandpa Farrell was a captain of the U.S.S. Mason during World War II. His ship was one of the very first with a predominately black crew. I am going to focus some of my family project on him. The article I linked describes the ship rather well. There was also a book and movie made on the ship. I will be tying these aspects into forms of modern journalism. I decided this would be a good way to start because it is journalism.

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Pandora vs. Spotify

I posted some time ago about how pandora a algorithms are cool/scary. I found this infographic pretty eye opening on how many more songs/people are on it. This infographic kind of makes me want to try out spotify as well. It's pretty cool how this kind of comparison can make you want to do one thing more than another. This kind of infographic is popular with some other products but it would be really cool to just be able to look at an infographic where you can really easily compare something you want to buy.

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The Mobile Phone Turns 40

Happy Birthday Mobile Phones
Today arguably the most valuable aspect of modern journalism and communication. Mobile devices are such an important part of my studies. Without them I doubt life would be the same.

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Family Project Update

Yesterday was Easter and I used it as an opportunity to advance my project. Honestly, the most interesting person in my family is my grandfather on my dads side. He is currently in the early stages of dementia so I try to get stories from my dad and his siblings. His belongings are a great way for me to get a window into his life.  One of the most noticeable characteristics are the giant book cases filled with books. There are bookcases filling a huge hallway that couldn't fit another book if they tried. That is just the tip of the iceberg; there is a room, a former office, with walls completely covered in books. It would be cool to check out all of books he has up there but there are piles, no mountains, of books all over the floor. Walking around the house you might miss the rest of the books he has because they are in a number of smaller bookcases throughout the house but don't fret, there are tons. On Sunday when I was at his house I took pictures of a few of the main hallways bookcases.

I am probably going to use this with my family project. I have started an infographic on my family and it will be done soon.

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Google Trends: Infographics

I was on Cool Infographics and I saw that they had embedded the graph from google trends. It is really cool how much the interest has gone up in the past two years. I believe that the interest will continue to grow in the future and more advancements will be made in the field. I'm pretty excited to see things like this and how infographics will advance in the future.

Google Trends

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Infographics Used In Marketing

So I know this infographic has nothing to do with my line of study but I really like when companies use infographics in this way.  The pictures are really pretty and it makes me want to go to PF Changs; I've never been but if the food looks half as good as it is in this infographic I'd be happy. This is a really good way of getting people to go to a restaurant. I think things like this would be great for more companies as a way to use infographics as a marketing technique.

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Infographics

I don’t know about this class but in english we are supposed to treat wikipedia like the gritty underbelly of the internet. However, I feel that you can find a lot of important information on wikipedia so this post is going to be all of the really important/interesting things I find on the infographics wikipedia page.

“In 1626, Christoph Scheiner published the Rosa Ursina sive Sol, a book that revealed his research about the rotation of the sun; Infographics appeared in the form of illustrations demonstrating the Sun’s rotation patterns.”

It is commonly believed that cave dwellers were the first infographic creators, I think that is really cool but Christoph’s creations were the first infographics like the ones created today. Other early infographic creators include Florence Nightingale and Carl Ritter.

Nightingales infographic which was presented to Queen Victoria.

The Pioneer Plaque

Infographics were even created to communicate with aliens! Visual data representation is truly universal. It is so cool to consider that as humans we can create something that can, hopefully,  be understood by an extraterrestrial.

Infographics became more popular in the 20th century. “In 1972 and 1973, respectively, the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft included on their vessels the Pioneer Plaques, a pair of gold-anodized aluminum plaques, each featuring a pictorial message. The pictorial messages included nude male and female figures as well as symbols that were intended to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The images were designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake and were unique in that their graphical meanings were to be understandable to extraterrestrial beings, who would have no conception of human language.”

Washington DC Metro Map

This picture made me realize I have an infographic hanging in my house.

The Tate Gallery By Tube

This is a picture of the image that is hanging in my house I honestly never even realized that this could be considered an infographic but it is pretty cool.

“Closely related to the field of information graphics is information design, which is the creation of

infographics. Author and founder of the TED, Richard Saul Wurman, is considered the originator of the phrase "information architect" and many of his books, such as Information Anxiety, helped propel the phrase "information design" from a concept to a job category.”

This was actually really cool to find out. It connects two of my favorite parts of my studies this year, and reminds me that I never have time to watch Ted videos lately which sucks.

*I tried to get all of the images on here instead of the links but my laptop froze whenever I tried to insert them*

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Technology Free Day

So on Wednesday we had a technology free period. I didn't really want/like it at the time because I actually had a plan for a post, they will come next week. Anyways I decided to draw a infographic about basically nothing because I was planning on making one already. But I like the idea of having a tech free day. It promotes communication on a deeper level than normal. If this happens again I think we should have some sort or warning so that we can have a good plan for the day.

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