Today we’re taking a journey to the center of the Internet to learn about the data centers and structures that make our web work.

(Pictured: a map of the Internet from 2005.)

The Sleepiest States: “The findings suggest that, in general, those in the South are most likely to report sleep disturbance and daytime fatigue, and those in the West are least likely.”

3rdofmay:

The art: Johannes Vermeer, Officer and Laughing Girl, c.1657.

The news: “Love Longitude? ‘Maphead’ Locates Geography Buffs,” on NPR’s Fresh Air. Former ‘Jeopardy!’ champ Ken Jennings has written a new book about maps. He was on Fresh Air yesterday.

The source: Collection of The Frick Collection, New York.

Nota bene: From Vermeer to Jasper Johns, artists have long used maps to tell us something about our world. Vermeer may have used maps in many of his paintings to suggest that the characters in his paintings were naval officers on a courtship visit or that the women in the paintings were writing to or pining for men in the navy. Then again, Vermeer may have used them for other reasons altogether — art historians have been debating this topic for years.

Do you ever read an atlas for pleasure? If you go to a new city, can you imagine not knowing which way is north? Is it hard for you to imagine life without a map?

Then you might be a maphead, says trivia buff Ken Jennings.

Philadelphia rail map - 1972 (by rjwhite)

crookedindifference:

World Map by Johannes Kepler, 1627

usagov:

Commercial lithographer Henry S. Graham printed this choropleth map showing the distribution of the slave population in September 1861. The map shows in graphic terms the density of the slave population in the Southern states, based on figures from the 1860 census. Although the development of this map was a collaborative government effort, cartographers working for Edwin Hergesheimer, U.S. Coast Survey Drafting Division, created it.

Learn more about this map and other Civil War maps and charts from the United States Office of Coast Survey.

I am listening to the Fresh Air podcast (Sam Chwat interview), and thought you might enjoy this American Dialect map for the FreshAir Tumblr.

Thanks Lucas! (who doesn’t have a blog)

nprinterns:

On Assignment: Getting Music for NPR Programming

A visualization of tweets sent on New Year’s Eve 2010

US (by Twitter)

When you superimpose a soccer field on top of NASA’s map, it turns out Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — the entire time they were there — barely crossed 90 yards of moon! What Neil called “a giant leap for mankind” wasn’t quite as giant as it seemed. Oh, the trip was a “leap” to be sure, a fantastic accomplishment, but the first moon explorers explored an astonishingly small area.