Category "History"
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Napoleon in Russia: Classic 19th Century Infographic
This is an amazing, classic 1869 French infographic and data visualization on Napoleon’s disastrous 1812-13 Russia campaign. Although it does not entirely fit into an Instagram square (this was originally published on IG), the very thick line in color is the Emperor of France’s army arriving. The extremely thin black lines are the surviving retreating troops staggering back home from Moscow. Frost bite and the bitter Russian winter were a major factor contributing to the heavy losses. (The temperature is shown in the bottom of the chart in Celsius, and you can see the impact of lower temperatures on the thinning black line. Had wind chills been understood in 1869, an even more dramatic correlation might have been possible.) This infographic is successful because it succinctly captures a great deal of information into a single figure. In addition to showing Napoleon’s dwindling troop strengths at various points in the campaign, a rough sense of chronology, geography (town names) and troop movements is given, together with the environmental conditions that contributed to the disaster. … Read the restData Science History: Quipu, Inca talking knots
These are Quipu, the talking knots of the Inca. This is data science history! This historical monochrome illustration dates from ca. 1615. It was drawn by Spanish conquistadors documenting the Inca. It is impossible to administer a complex civilization without a means of processing data and information. (This is one of the ideas behind our SETI photo and blog post theme of the last few days. Recall our earlier posts on Carl Sagan‘s expansion of earlier ideas measuring civilization through energy and information.) Although the ancient Inca (of modern-day Peru, Chile Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina) lacked writing, the Inca did have this system of these “talking knots” that allowed them to record transactions and information about their empire. This system was in use by the Inca from the 3rd Millenium BC, and, amazingly, remains in isolated use in some parts of South America into the present day. A version of this article originally appeared as a photo post on our Instagram feed.… Read the restPuzzle painting: French anagram, Voltaire, Freedom of Speech
We celebrated the end of our puzzles with photos of other puzzles. For today’s puzzle painting: a French anagram, Voltaire, and Freedom of Speech? The solution? Why is Voltaire a puzzle? Well, Voltaire is actually a pen-name that is an anagram of the author’s real name. So there is a puzzle in that name. Of course, it’s also timely, as Voltaire has rather much been in the news lately. The New York Times ran an op-ed today in which someone criticized France for double standards. (The US freedom of speech is constitutionally protected. Speech in France is also free, but there are things in France, which, unlike in the US, it is illegal to say. The Times didn’t point this out, but we should mention that the US has sedition laws that are thought to become enforceable in times of war or major crisis — and are thought to be unconstitutional during times of peace.… Read the restDemocratic Governance: Signing of Mayflower Compact
Another Thanksgiving post: Democracy & Democratic governance. This painting is Signing of Mayflower Compact, 1620 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930). Although we’re anxious to get back to the Conquistadors (and astrolabes), we’ve stopped here with the Pilgrims for Thanksgiving in the US. We can talk a little about democracy, a theme that came up earlier in the context of mathematical modeling and data in our social progress article. Navigation wasn’t the only problem facing the Mayflower. (Since we’re about data and information; that’s one of our main interests in this period: good navigation required good data, and mass-produced information first became cheaply available in the 14th century.) Issues with the ship’s design caused another problem. It was not particularly well-suited to sailing against the wind, a big problem on trans-Atlantic voyages. These issues greatly slowed the voyage, depleting provisions. The original destination was intended to be the already existing colony of Virginia It arrived late in the season after a late start (due to problems with a second ship that ultimately had to return to England), and too low on provisions.… Read the restRecent Comments
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