Indicus's maps, wikiboxes, &c thread

[Excelsior]

View attachment 75956

This emerged out of me trying to figure out what exactly the Internet would look like in my "Revolutionary Britain" thing. This led me to the computer, which in turn led me to the transistor, which in turn led me to the discovery of germanium, which in turn led me to the elements in general (and also to semiconductivity and quantum mechanics, but that's a whole other story). Along the way, I've filled out the periodic table up to plutonium.

Spoiler: Notes for the elements I remembered to make notes on

*Halogine named after proposed name halogen, with ending conforming with fluorine
*Glucinium named after its sweet taste (OTL name used in France till 1947)
*Coronium named after the corona rather than the sun (a name for an OTL theorized element also detected from the Corona)
*Humboldtium discovered in Bolivia from humboldite [argyrodite] also from there, named after Humboldt
*Residuine named after being residue gas (from air)
*Janium named after ninth planet, Janus
*Vestium named after the asteroid Vesta
*Junonium named after Juno
*Astraeum named after Astraea
*Norium named after Nordere, another name for Norway
*Meridium extracted from lapidolite (find new name), found in Minas Gerais, Meridia
*Concordium and Teutonium created from didymium, named in honor of the unification of Germany
*Celtium discovered by an Irishman
*Borussium and berolinium discovered by a Prussian
*Aurantine named after orange color
*Democratium named by French guy after democracy
*Mediolium named after Milan
*Caeruline named for blue color
*Albine named after white color
*Exine named because it flows out
*Cartium named for the British Charter of Liberties and Securities
*Ouralium named after the Ural mountains
*Grannius named after Aachen
*Gallium named in honor of France
*Lutetium named after Paris
*Decipium named for being deceptive
*Popularium named by a Brit after "the people"
*Londium named after London

I love element stuff. I always wanted to write some sort of timeline via alternate element names but couldn't figure the story out.

 

[Indicus]

I love element stuff. I always wanted to some sort of timeline via alternate element names but couldn't figure the story out.

I suspect that’s quite doable, though you’d have to add a lot of mini-biographies of the discoverers and emphasize national slapfights over naming disputes. Though as you say, it’s harder to wrap it into a story - perhaps it’s about the technologies the new elements enable.

 

[Thande]

View attachment 75956

This emerged out of me trying to figure out what exactly the Internet would look like in my "Revolutionary Britain" thing. This led me to the computer, which in turn led me to the transistor, which in turn led me to the discovery of germanium, which in turn led me to the elements in general (and also to semiconductivity and quantum mechanics, but that's a whole other story). Along the way, I've filled out the periodic table up to plutonium.

Spoiler: Notes for the elements I remembered to make notes on

*Halogine named after proposed name halogen, with ending conforming with fluorine
*Glucinium named after its sweet taste (OTL name used in France till 1947)
*Coronium named after the corona rather than the sun (a name for an OTL theorized element also detected from the Corona)
*Humboldtium discovered in Bolivia from humboldite [argyrodite] also from there, named after Humboldt
*Residuine named after being residue gas (from air)
*Janium named after ninth planet, Janus
*Vestium named after the asteroid Vesta
*Junonium named after Juno
*Astraeum named after Astraea
*Norium named after Nordere, another name for Norway
*Meridium extracted from lapidolite (find new name), found in Minas Gerais, Meridia
*Concordium and Teutonium created from didymium, named in honor of the unification of Germany
*Celtium discovered by an Irishman
*Borussium and berolinium discovered by a Prussian
*Aurantine named after orange color
*Democratium named by French guy after democracy
*Mediolium named after Milan
*Caeruline named for blue color
*Albine named after white color
*Exine named because it flows out
*Cartium named for the British Charter of Liberties and Securities
*Ouralium named after the Ural mountains
*Grannius named after Aachen
*Gallium named in honor of France
*Lutetium named after Paris
*Decipium named for being deceptive
*Popularium named by a Brit after "the people"
*Londium named after London

As the inventor of 'turn the periodic table 90 degrees, ah, ah, now it's AH' you will be hearing from my lawyers

Really good work!

 

[Makemakean]

I have yet to come up with something interesting to do with the periodic table for the Swedish Strangerverse. The one thing I do have at the back of my head is that because Scheele explicitly identifies electricity with phlogiston (which he only did implicitly in OTL), electricity continues to be seen as some sort of chemical element, as it indeed was during the 18th century, with chemists actively trying to distill it, believe it or not.

 

[Thande]

I have yet to come up with something interesting to do with the periodic table for the Swedish Strangerverse. The one thing I do have at the back of my head is that because Scheele explicitly identifies electricity with phlogiston (which he only did implicitly in OTL), electricity continues to be seen as some sort of chemical element, as it indeed was during the 18th century, with chemists actively trying to distill it, believe it or not.

The closest thing I can think of is dissolving metal reductions like the Birch reduction, which is sometimes described as "a solution of electrons" (bright blue because electricity is blue, which is a fantastic example of real science that sounds like kid logic) and the active reagent is an electride salt [Na(NH3)x]+ e−

 

[Makemakean]

The closest thing I can think of is dissolving metal reductions like the Birch reduction, which is sometimes described as "a solution of electrons" (bright blue because electricity is blue, which is a fantastic example of real science that sounds like kid logic) and the active reagent is an electride salt [Na(NH3)x]+ e−

That moment when I suddenly wonder why, during the many years in which I studied chemistry, I never wondered, "Seeing there are solutions where one of the ions is the proton, shouldn't there be solutions also where one of the ions is the electron"?

 

[Indicus]

As the inventor of 'turn the periodic table 90 degrees, ah, ah, now it's AH' you will be hearing from my lawyers

Really good work!

In my defence, I did look at some alternate periodic tables and conclude that they’re either impractical (like the cool Periodic Galaxy) or not the sort of thing 19th century chemists would come up with (like the Janet table). I suspect periodic tables are one of those things that look the way they do for a very good reason.

I have yet to come up with something interesting to do with the periodic table for the Swedish Strangerverse. The one thing I do have at the back of my head is that because Scheele explicitly identifies electricity with phlogiston (which he only did implicitly in OTL), electricity continues to be seen as some sort of chemical element, as it indeed was during the 18th century, with chemists actively trying to distill it, believe it or not.

Chemists are going to have their minds blown when they try to distill electricity from nothing, put electrodes in a vacuum tube, and play with magnets nearby.

 

[Thande]

In my defence, I did look at some alternate periodic tables and conclude that they’re either impractical (like the cool Periodic Galaxy) or not the sort of thing 19th century chemists would come up with (like the Janet table). I suspect periodic tables are one of those things that look the way they do for a very good reason.

Well quite. I have similar views of most of the alternatives. Of course one interesting possibility is the idea of isotopic periodic tables becoming more mainstream, but they'd likely be too big and complicated to stick on a classroom wall.

 

[Makemakean]

Chemists are going to have their minds blown when they try to distill electricity from nothing, put electrodes in a vacuum tube, and play with magnets nearby.

It's actually quite interesting in that in the late 16th century/early 17th century, it was speculated that there was some sort of connection between electricity and magnetism, but for unclear reasons it soon became a consensus that these were entirely unrelated phenomena, and it took until Ørsted in the early 19th century before it was discovered that, no, actually, they are related.

In the Swedish Strangerverse, Ørsted (though he still exists) is not the one to make the discovery. Instead what happens is that on one public lecture, some great natural philosopher declares that there is no relationship between electricity and magnetism, only for one nobleman who happens to be present and happens to be an admiral in the navy to declare that any sailor who has tried to navigate through a thunderstorm can tell you that that is obviously wrong.

 

[Indicus]

It's actually quite interesting in that in the late 16th century/early 17th century, it was speculated that there was some sort of connection between electricity and magnetism, but for unclear reasons it soon became a consensus that these were entirely unrelated phenomena, and it took until Ørsted in the early 19th century before it was discovered that, no, actually, they are related.

In the Swedish Strangerverse, Ørsted (though he still exists) is not the one to make the discovery. Instead what happens is that on one public lecture, some great natural philosopher declares that there is no relationship between electricity and magnetism, only for one nobleman who happens to be present and happens to be an admiral in the navy to declare that any sailor who has tried to navigate through a thunderstorm can tell you that that is obviously wrong.

This is a lot, but I’m just envisioning a generation of scientists asking sailors in the most condescending way possible for their scientific insights after this moment.

 

[Thande]

This is a lot, but I’m just envisioning a generation of scientists asking sailors in the most condescending way possible for their scientific insights after this moment.

Quite a tradition of that - see the Longitude Problem.

 

[Indicus]

 

[Indicus]

An experiment with QGIS. My font choice isn't the best and I'm not happy with a few of the labels (and editing this as an SVG would probably crash my computer), but that aside I think it looks good.

 

[shearsforest]

An experiment with QGIS. My font choice isn't the best and I'm not happy with a few of the labels (and editing this as an SVG would probably crash my computer), but that aside I think it looks good.

View attachment 78638

Love it.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Love the tiny Jefferson Panhandle digging into Minasota. Very realistic.

 

[Indicus]

Love the tiny Jefferson Panhandle digging into Minasota. Very realistic.

Minasota here got reserved for a long while as an Indian Territory, as was voted on by the Senate in the early 1840s in OTL, and Jefferson has that panhandle as a legacy of the US government wanting to control the Missouri River.

 

[Indicus]

An experiment with QGIS. My font choice isn't the best and I'm not happy with a few of the labels (and editing this as an SVG would probably crash my computer), but that aside I think it looks good.

View attachment 78644

Took some trial-and-error but I've been able to get the grasp of QGIS since making this, so here's a more "proper" version of this map.

 

[Indicus]

I realize my alternate wikibox aesthetic has ended up looking like an Ipod.

Spoiler: Text format and full-color flag

Name - République de Nouvelle-Hollande (French) / Republic of New Holland (English)
Continent - Oceania
Capital - Lorient [Perth]

​

Administration​

Head of state - Grand Elector John Maloney
Head of government - General Councillor for the Interior Amélie Tam
Legislature - National Assembly
President of the National Assembly - Guillaume Bremer
Judiciary - Tribunal of Cassation
President of the Tribunal of Cassation - Lawrence Haig
Form of government - Unitary republic under a democratic ministerial directorial constitution
Form of law - Cambacérès Code (civil, criminal, procedural), Brougham Code (commercial)

​

Geography​

Area - 2,534,596 km^2
Largest cities
-Lorient - 1,204,000 (city), 2,541,000 (metro)
-Espérance - 302,000 (city), 748,000 (metro)
-Callaghanville [Kalgoorlie] - 112,000 (city), 251,000 (metro)
Time zone - TMP+08:00
Currency - New Hollandaise piastre

​

Demography​

Language - French, English
-Note: English is dominant in Aururie department (incl. Callaghanville) and co-dominant in Espérance department; French is dominant in other departments
Population - 3,813,000
Density - 1.50 /km^2

​

History​

-Proclamation of the Colony of New Holland - April 7, 1808
-Charter for Self-Government - July 6, 1888
-Declaration of a Republic - January 22, 1954

​

Symbols​

National festival - Naturaliste Day (January 22) - commemorating victory against Germans at the Battle of Cape Naturaliste (1883)
Anthem - L'Armée des Nations / Army of the Nations
Motto - Unité, Liberté, Ordre

Flag​

 

[Thande]

View attachment 80665

I realize my alternate wikibox aesthetic has ended up looking like an Ipod.

Spoiler: Text format and full-color flag

Name - République de Nouvelle-Hollande (French) / Republic of New Holland (English)
Continent - Oceania
Capital - Lorient [Perth]

​

Administration​

Head of state - Grand Elector John Maloney
Head of government - General Councillor for the Interior Amélie Tam
Legislature - National Assembly
President of the National Assembly - Guillaume Bremer
Judiciary - Tribunal of Cassation
President of the Tribunal of Cassation - Lawrence Haig
Form of government - Unitary republic under a democratic ministerial directorial constitution
Form of law - Cambacérès Code (civil, criminal, procedural), Brougham Code (commercial)

​

Geography​

Area - 2,534,596 km^2
Largest cities
-Lorient - 1,204,000 (city), 2,541,000 (metro)
-Espérance - 302,000 (city), 748,000 (metro)
-Callaghanville [Kalgoorlie] - 112,000 (city), 251,000 (metro)
Time zone - TMP+08:00
Currency - New Hollandaise piastre

​

Demography​

Language - French, English
-Note: English is dominant in Aururie department (incl. Callaghanville) and co-dominant in Espérance department; French is dominant in other departments
Population - 3,813,000
Density - 1.50 /km^2

​

History​

-Proclamation of the Colony of New Holland - April 7, 1808
-Charter for Self-Government - July 6, 1888
-Declaration of a Republic - January 22, 1954

​

Symbols​

National festival - Naturaliste Day (January 22) - commemorating victory against Germans at the Battle of Cape Naturaliste (1883)
Anthem - L'Armée des Nations / Army of the Nations
Motto - Unité, Liberté, Ordre

Flag​

View attachment 80668

I do like that aesthetic, and I would also make an Apple comparison, but more to early Apple computers (which, of course, the iPod aesthetic may well have been referencing itself).

 

[Indicus]

I do like that aesthetic, and I would also make an Apple comparison, but more to early Apple computers (which, of course, the iPod aesthetic may well have been referencing itself).

View attachment 80672

The 80s Apple aesthetic is a lot more intentional on my part - on post 192 here on this thread I did try to replicate that, with partial success. Something I’ve been trying to do is use that aesthetic to make my personal site, using React, and I suppose both these things are tangents from that. The wikibox being a collection of dropdowns comes from Latin Wikipedia, like here (the dropdowns don’t work on phones). Combining the two with design cues in my head - well, I was struck with what I made.