http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/09/25/4748.aspx David Yager / U. of Maryland How would you like to get an inside look at a child mummy? Watch the continent-wide "fireworks" of airplane flights at night? Visualize an elk's bugle? Get up close and personal with a Cuban banana cockroach?en-USCommunityServer 2.0 (Build: 60608.1)http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2006/09/25/4748.aspx#4755Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:15:59 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:4755Chris Eldridge, Harrisburg PAI know the map of Hawaii was not as aesthetical as those beautiful glass geometric shapes, but it really struck me as being very good. Diagrams and illustrations are something I look at for quality and there really is a huge difference. Surprisingly, children’s books often have the very best illustrations – even when compared to top-of-the-line books by high ranking institutes. For example, the illustration showing the Apollo mission profile (launch, stage separation, hookup with LM in Earth orbit, head to moon, etc) was extremely poor and dry in the Smithsonian Guides: Space flight. Yet in the kid's book "Astronomy Today" (part of the Random House Library of Knowledge) it was far more colorful and realistic. Similar differences existed in the way these two books showed a side-by-side comparison of all the rockets (from Redstone to the shuttle) to scale. It’s a huge difference and opposite of what you might expect. The map of Hawaii was the first map that I’ve ever seen showing such “meaning.” Sure, I knew that it was the tallest mountain in the world, but did I ever see it presented like that? No. The combination of all the maps showing how long the chain really is was also very informative: more like a collage which I also love! Part of the problem with many presentations is the standard TOP, SIDE, FRONT view that many like to put in books, but do little for our mind’s desire for “perspective.” To an architect, these three standard views portray important information – BUT NOT to the rest of us. I personally hate side views of anything and the front/top are no better. Thus, when I see a illustration of the Mountains that form the Hawaiian chain, I love the angled view. Typically elevation maps are as appealing as watching paint dry. Strict side views show elevation just fine but are also very dry. It is ONLY when we get that proper “angled” visual that we see all of it together. You see more information in an angled view than you do with top/side! A lot more! Exploded diagrams which show the internal workings of complex things like shuttles and jet planes are also great in kid’s books but dry in others. Exploded diagrams are, to me, a real art form. P.S. Did Popular Mechanics artists ever win this thing? Man they have some good artists!