[Sigia-l] WINDS relation browser

[Eric Reiss]

Useful? Perhaps. It would have been nice if the idiots who entered
the data would have told me the units of measurement. For example,
here's some info for Latvia:

Total area 64100
GDP 14700
Inflation 20
Indep. date 06 09 1991

So I have to guess...
Kilometers or miles
Euros, Dollars, or Latvian roubles (adopted in 1992)?
Percentage? Index? 1-20 scale?
6th of September or 9th of June?

In short, these folks have not created the shared reference I need to
use this information effectively. Also, what is the source of these
"fact"? Total area does not agree, for example, with The Times Atlas
of the World.

And why the little infobubbles instead of a good old-fashioned map? I
like maps. I like to know that Lithuania is south of Latvia, not at 9
o'clock. Good grief - even the little bubbles ignore basic NSEW
geography.

The actual CIA factbook at
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/lg.html

is incredibly valuable.

Here, one can learn that the figures on the WINDS site are not
monocultural. For example, GDP is listed in US dollars, whereas land
area is expressed in kilometers.

Usable? See above. Also, since this is Flash, I can't cut-and-paste
the data into another application. 

Honest opinion?

Yet another example of artistic masturbation.

Best,
Eric

e-reiss & associates
copenhagen, denmark
www.e-reiss.com