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www.blogoram.com:: The Iraq "Weather Map" By UML Guy. Very Cool.

So we keep hearing stories of "hot spots" in Iraq, where trouble is happening. (And somethimes, we hear "stories" from "reporters" who are just trying to fan the flames and keep the spots hot.)

And when I heard this drumbeat of stories (or the same story repeated long past its news value) in the same locales, I would think: "Well, yeah, we know there are terrorists in that area. But what about the rest of the country? And what about all the good things happening even there among the terrorists? What about the cool spots?"

And that led me to this idea; and with the help of Microsoft MapPoint and Microsoft Excel, I was able to produce this "weather map", showing various hot and cool spots in Iraq:

Screencap (but do go to the site for an interactive map, with links to the related stories):