A new political party, designed by software devs and engineers, is joining the race in California. If elected, PlaceAVote‘s Congressional candidates vow to decide on every bill based on the majority vote of their constituents—as measured via online polling. Could that sort of direct, digital democracy improve how Congress works? Would it make government more dysfunctional? (Is the latter even possible?)
As anyone who’s driven through Middle America knows, it feels like there’s very few places in the U.S. that don’t have at least a few inhabitants. But as a map by cartographer Nik Freeman proves, there are still some amber waves of grain and fruited plains that remain. Emphasis on some.
In 2012, American homes consumed 3.65 billion kilowatthours (kWh) worth of electricity—up from 720 million kWh in 1950—more than double per household than our British counterparts, and second only to China. How did the American home become such an energy hog, despite so many advances in efficient appliances and construction? Blame the American Dream.
Forty-thousand tons of rock salt meant for New Jersey’s icy roads is currently banned from so much as entering the Port of Newark. The reason? A nearly century-old maritime law that requires shipping vessels to fly the American flag. Naturally.
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Americans are living longer, healthier lives—79.8 years on average—ranking 35th in the world in terms of life expectancy from birth. But where you live in the United States has a drastic impact on how far over or under the average your personal timeline will be. This illuminating map by the non-profit Measure of America shows how long you’ve likely got, and what country it’s most similar to.
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In the event of a nuclear strike on American soil, we’re going to be in a little bit of trouble. But at least we’ll die safe in the knowledge that the valiant leaders of our nation—or any yahoos lucky enough to be in office at the time—will be escaping the nuclear holocaust in a fleet of environmentally-impervious airborne command centers.
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The fact that we’ve kept the number of U.S. states relatively static is nothing short a miracle—there have been hundreds of attempts at state secession over the years. But what if they had all succeeded? This brilliant map depicts that alternative universe, where the U.S. is broken up into 124 different states that stretch from sea-to-shining-sea.
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You’ve heard of Black Friday, the darkest day for American capitalism; Cyber Monday, where everyone gets out their latent shopping aggression online; now there’s even Grey Thursday, as retailers open on Thanksgiving Eve to get an edge on the competition. But, friends, have you heard of Brown Friday?
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Claytonias F. traveled around America the past few months and documented it all with a quadcopter drone, a Phantom and a GoPro. The aerial views of our wonderful country are incredible to us foot worn humans but probably just a normal Wednesday for flying birds. This is probably the closest we’ll come to flying. And it’s close enough, I guess.
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Stories about weird local laws always begin like urban legends. You might have heard that in Wisconsin, the Dairy State, all restaurants are required by law to serve cheese with every dish, including placing a slice of certified Wisconsin cheese on top of each and every order of apple pie.
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