The military’s secret Afghan War Diaries, released by Wikileaks in 2010, details a staggering 463,000 incidents that happened in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009, from the mundane to the tragic. “Current Casualty list: 6x KIA (1x male, 4 female, one baby) 3x WIA (all female, one of which was 9 months pregnant),” reads one entry; KIA stands for killed in action, for wounded in action. advertisement advertisement On a new website that launched today, designer Dylan Halpern transformed each of the logbook entries into a simple set of icons. The symbols show the type and category of attack–for example, friendly fire or an IED explosion–and whether anyone was wounded or killed. The website is the offshoot of a massive printed visualization, stretching over 89-feet wide and 10-feet tall, that was on display last weekend at a gallery in Richmond, Virginia. As people walk around the Wall of War, they can follow each attack, explosion, and raid from the … [Read more...] about This Massive Chart Shows The War In Afghanistan As A Numbing Litany Of Death And Destruction
Gas leak kilkenny
What It’s Like To Be One Of The Few Female Aerospace Engineers
Anita Sengupta’s childhood fascination with science fiction and curiosity led her to a career as a project manager in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. advertisement advertisement She helped design the 70-foot parachute that slowed the descent of the Curiosity rover so it could land safely on Mars in 2012, and she’s currently working on an experiment intended to make its way to the International Space Station in 2016. Yet, at a conference a few years ago, Sengupta was struck by a thought as she listened to one of the speakers explain to the audience how appreciative he was of the mentors who’d had a hand in inspiring him and helping shape the direction of his career. “I sat there thinking, I’ve been working here for 10 years, and I never had that,” she said, lamenting the reality that there still aren’t enough women in her field that other women can look up to. “It was sad for me to come to that realization. But I think, … [Read more...] about What It’s Like To Be One Of The Few Female Aerospace Engineers