Infographics, the Pinboard

I know I’m not alone in this, but I just love infographics. Knowledge! Packed into memorable pictures! Beautifully designed and all laid out in color! What’s not to love?

I decided when I began my infographics pinboard that if it looked good and the basic facts on any given topic weren’t deeply stupid or obvious lies, I’d pin them without further digging. The general idea is that if I ever choose to make use of the info, in a story for example, I’ll fact-check it then. So when the “psychology of color” graphic claims that blue is the most productive color for an office, I’m giving myself permission to go Mmmm, really? Says who? and still hoard the image.

This board is, in its way, cousin to photos like this one:
Anaconda Copper Mine

Not checking the info immediately is a strategy to keep me from deciding whether to exclude some lovely but silly stuff, and risk losing the potentially useful. I’ll never want to pause long enough in the pinning moment to do the truth-checking. Save now, research later is a way of ensuring I don’t end up with a brain full of “Wasn’t there a picture of this I could have used now? I wonder where on the intertubes that got to?”

It also means the range of info on this particular board is rather eclectic. There’s everything from stats on Kickstarter projects to facts about coffee and a few things that don’t exist in the world, like the Geek Tube Map.

The unifying thread, I suppose, is “This Might Be Knowledge.”

Funny, the PinBoard

It may actually be required by law in some jurisdictions that if you pin, you have a funny board.

In other news, this cormorant is also funny.
Birds09

Remember when many many people were new to the Internet? Every now and then someone in your life would go through that phase of passing along every single e-mail that came their way that made them giggle. Not to mention hoax virus warnings and the one about how Canada Post was going to start charging us a dime every time we had a naughty thought? And it wasn’t horrible. You like a good laugh as much as anyone else, right? But the four people you’d had to kindly dissuade before this particular mad mailer started hitting SEND had also forwarded all of these exact same silly things when they discovered them, six months and a year and two years and three years ago?

Now this niche has been filled by Tweeting and posting teh funnies to Facebook, and we can set our filters to pay a lot of attention, if we wish, or dial it down to none. I like Pinterest for this, for the simple reason that it keeps everything I find amusing in one easily clickable place.

Church Photos and Eternal Sky – the Pinboards

My thousands of pictures from Italy of church domes and interiors is probably a big clue that I love church architecture. So, for the 99.9% of the time when I can’t be in Italy snapping every square inch of something like the Capella Palatina at the Palazzo Reale in Palermo. . .

Last Import-25

. . . instead I have a pinboard of Church pictures. Naturally, this is really just a subset of my ever-growing “I want to go there” list. (And do feel free to stoke my lust for travel still further, if you have favorite pictures of spiritually-themed architecture you want to post in the comments.)

Speaking of places I want to go–imaginary ones, in this case–I’ve been completely loving Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky pinboard. It is a source of stunning visuals tied to her Eternal Sky “Silk Road Fantasies,” the first of which is the utterly awesome Range of Ghosts, Shattered Pillars and Steles of the Sky.

Here’s a wee tiny shot of the Shattered Pillars cover. It will be out on March 19th. I am extremely excited.

Collection of Cephalopods – the Pinboard

There’s a quite important octopus in the first book of the trilogy I’m currently working on, currently titled CHILD OF A HIDDEN SEA. So, naturally, I have been putting together a research board of octopus and squid shots.

(As some of you know, the other octopus connection, in my house, is Kelly’s Bobo tattoo.)

A fair number of my ocean-themed pins come from Rebecca Marsh’s Mother Earth’s Water World. She’s a prolific pinner and I recommend her if you’re just looking for eyecandy.

Cities I have seen – the Pinboard

I am filled with love for Pinterest. I can’t help myself: sticking things up on walls so I can see them is pretty much my preferred way of remembering things. (As opposed to, you know, actually remembering them.) And though I tend to ‘do’ Pinterest with what I think of as downtime, it’s remarkably productive for downtime. All those pretty nature pictures, especially the nudibranches, really are research for the current trilogy. And the writing essays, and the book covers–it’s just handy to have this particular bunch of virtual baskets.

So one of the boards I’ve been assembling is simply a list of cities I’ve traveled to. What’s been fun about this is I keep remembering other places I’ve been. I wouldn’t say I’m very well traveled, but this makes me realize how lucky I have been.

The board is here.

Please do tell me all about your favorite pinboard!