Maps and charts present a similar quandary.

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Vision and design experts say the best maps, charts and presentations use words and icons in addition to color.

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That, in turn, has set off a race among companies like SpotCrime to turn crime data into mash-ups of maps and analytics, producing charts and graphs in Web-friendly formats.

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All of the information is current, some is displayed as maps or pie charts, and one section even allows users to experiment with increasing and decreasing specific funds.

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Charts, maps and models which are used to demonstrate or explain matters are not evidence themselves, but testimony based upon such items and marks on such material may be evidence.

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But a Cornell Law School scholar suggests the court should take another approach, one that has been around for at least 250 years over another type of intellectual property that is strikingly similar to a gene sequence: Charts and maps.

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Instead of sifting through streams of tweets and Foursquare checkins to figure out a person's haunts and schedule, Riot collates data for users and displays it in everything from maps (saved in .kml files) and charts.

ENGADGET

Hundreds of hours of preparation and planning, good fish intelligence (satellite maps, dockside info, charts analysis), an experienced crew, patience, and, of course, good luck.

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DeltaCad: This easy-to-learn CAD program can produce scaled house plans and maps, as well as business cards, forms, signs, labels, and flow charts.

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