(via questions-of-science)

This only took a little more time than a regular Wordle. I realized I needed to do a Wordle of pretty much every song on the album, so I thought it would be easier to combine them into one. The lyrics correspond by color to their respective song titles. I tried to mimic the shape of the album cover art, but there was no way I was going to try to match the colors. I like my colors better anyway.

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Country names are sized in proportion to their population. The colors are a color on the country’s flag, usually the most prominent. For example, though red is more prominent in its flag, Vietnam is yellow because there were too many other red countries, etc. Only the top 100 are colored appropriately; the rest are all blue because I’m lazy like that. If you click the image, you can zoom in and see Number 100,  Hong Kong, in red, below Nigeria and above Syria. I think the font, called Teelphoto, is supposed to be legible even when very small/zoomed-out.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

Here is my source for the populations. Also check out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density for  densities and other statistics in a sortable table.

All the people, places and things mentioned in We Didn’t Start the Fire, because they’re really the more important part, and there’s only one of each.

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A Wordle of We Didn’t Start the Fire, by Billy Joel. I like the fiery colors (and the word fiery) and the size/somewhat orderliness of the title.

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A short simple song by Coldplay, and one of my favorites, The Scientist.

I like the proximity of back and start, the prominence of ooh, and the color of science and nobody and the fact that they are close together.

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A month-long Skype conversation with some of my best friends.

The really long brown line to the left of one says “ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” in reaction to one of them listening to Justin Bieber.

I like the proximity of thing and think and though and thought. Also: right back, just like, that’s life, actually don’t, much also, oh yeah, best people, cool wordles.

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Yea! 

(slightly confused by non-Parks&Rec stuff, but that’s okay)

(Source: marissannb, via tormax)

From Victor Hugo’s “Demain, dès l’aube” (Tomorrow, at dawn). Shape and colors evoke sunrise. The title words are close together and in the same color.

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Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.

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From a famous essay by American diplomat George Kennan under the pseudonym “X” about “The Sources of Soviet Conduct”. Soviet power is big and in red. Communist/Cold War colors. Lots of words so it has a smooth shape.

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After the first snow of winter, 2010-11. There was quite a bit. Snowy/wintry colors. Asterisks are supposed to look like snowflakes.

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Several “SNOW”s, “Snow”s, and “snow”s, and “*”s

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. The red of “mistress”, “love”, “roses”, and “red”; the darkcolor of “black” and “wires”; the light gray of “white” and “snow”.

Here is a video of my favorite recitation (4:36).

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My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
   As any she belied with false compare. 

The “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I like the proximity and dark colors of “sleep”, “death”, and “end”. The gray-scale colors match the depressing topic of the speech.

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Oscar nominees, 2011. Red for the red carpet, gold for the Oscars. Alphabetized. 

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