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Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Cosmic Calendar v3

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Cosmic Calendar v3

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Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 31 May 2013 at 21:14:57 (UTC)

 
Original – The 13.8 billion year history of the universe mapped onto a single year, as popularized by Carl Sagan. At this scale the Big Bang takes place on January 1 at midnight, the current time is December 31 at midnight, and the longest human life is a blink of an eye (about 1/4th of a second).
Reason
The graphic helps cosmology, evolution, and written history in context. It has been widely referenced on the Web and is used as an introductory graphic in science and history classes. Unlike other Cosmic Calendar graphics on the Web, this one includes primary sources of evidence, key dates for human evolution, and the last 60 seconds of the year. As a featured picture it will be more likely to be noticed for its educational value. The current version of the graphic is graphically enhanced from a prior version, which had its content vetted through review.
Articles in which this image appears
Cosmic Calendar
FP category for this image
Wikipedia:FP#Sciences
Creator
User:efbrazil
  • Support This image is really informative and compresses the timeline of existence into an easily digestible graphic laid out in an innovative way. This is the type of image that should be on posters in schools --Andrew 23:16, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose While the concept has merit, this graphic is needlessly 'busy', and the different sized cells in the month calendar are confusing. The 'last 60 seconds of the year' section is American-centric (eg, why is the arrival of humans in North America more important than the earlier arrival of humans in Australia, or the later spread of humans through the South Pacific? And why is Columbus' arrival in North America highlighted?). Nick-D (talk) 23:24, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • In defense: First, thanks for the feedback. The cells at the bottom of the calendar are larger to allow for the expansion of human evolution, and I couldn't figure a different visual treatment would be better. A few reasons Columbus arriving in America was chosen: Columbus was almost exactly 1 second ago, Columbus arriving in America was very important for the current makeup of the Americas, for English speakers it's important to realize that the lone superpower was built from nothing in one second, and it's a single date versus a longer term process like the renaissance or humans spreading through the South Pacific. Whether Columbus arriving was a "discovery" or whether it was "good" or "bad", it was an important date- it marked the beginning of a process where modern times spread over the globe, overpowering indigenous peoples and natural environments the world over. See what great discussions will emerge from this awesome graphic?--Efbrazil (talk) 02:14, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • As a comment: The fact that this is American-centric is hardly surprising, nor a detriment to the value of the image. The Cosmic Calendar was, after all, laid out by an American. Cowtowner (talk) 04:50, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I like it, but I found the middle panel background hard to understand. At first I thought it was mere "artistic pattern", then I thought it might be rock strata, then I finally figured out it is a forest. I don't think it is particularly clear. 81.159.110.250 (talk) 22:59, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support As per the last nomination; I think it illustrates the concept more or less as well as we could reasonably expect it to. Cowtowner (talk) 04:50, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Not Promoted --Armbrust The Homunculus 21:15, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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