Dataviz by Sunlight

US maps Afghanistan’s geology… from 50,000 feet

When Afghanistan made the news in June of 2010, it wasn’t for the usual reasons. The US Government had brought in geologists to evaluate Afghanistan’s mineral resources and their conclusions were spit-take worthy. The iron, copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth elements present are worth something in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. This is a country whose GDP has recently climbed to $30 billion.

Timeline: How Obama Compares to Bush on Torture, Surveillance and Detention

As his reelection campaign ramps up, President Obama has touted his winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s also kept up the tough talk about the broader war against Al Qaeda. In 2008, Obama stressed that his presidency would break from George W. Bush’s most controversial national security policies. So we took a look back at some of those policies, to see how much has changed under Obama — and how much has stayed the same.

zeitvox:

New Great Game in Afghanistan

Today, Afghanistan’s natural resources are estimated to be worth billions of dollars. The resources in the neighboring Central Asian states are thought to be worth even more - the cake is huge and as yet largely untouched.

…The Chinese government has been conducting an offensive “shopping spree” in Afghanistan and other Central Asian states for some time now. To Washington’s displeasure, Beijing was able to secure the exploitation rights for the region’s biggest copper mine, by shelling out three billion dollars. Now, fully-laden trucks head from the mine in eastern Afghanistan to China on roads built by the Americans. >continue<

Vast Mineral Riches | New Oil Deposits in Afghanistan

“We do the heavy lifting…they pick the fruit”

erikscholz:

3D Infographic About Civilians Wounded and Killed in Afghanistan

Smoothly animated and scripted in cutting edge super elaborate code. The interactive visualization tells us how many civilians were killed or wounded by military and insurgents in Afghanistan from 2009-2010. Factors are location, jets, helicopters, accidents, explosive devices and more. The grim facts were collected from this document. You might be asked to replace your oldschool browser with a new one, though.

“That this visualization can be viewed in-browser is a testament to the promise of modern web technologies such as WebGL, HTML5 and CSS3, all of which were leveraged in this piece. As browsers adopt support for these standards, developers and their audience will enjoy fewer barriers to rich experiences, hopefully increasing the visibility and appreciation of code as art.”

(via Fast Company Design)

horvathtamas:

Amazing Examples of Infographics to Visualize You Ideas