To get a better understanding of the difficulties facing the divers working on the wreck of the Sewol, the Wall Street Journal published this illustration.
Wreck of the Sewol
Credit for the piece goes to the Wall Street Journal’s graphics department.
In fact, don’t do this ever. Today’s bad chart comes from the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities. I saw it and could only shake my head and wonder why.
The Mayor’s Office version
Something more like this much more easily communicates the story.
My take on the data
Credit for the original piece goes to the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities.
On a day when I am going to be travelling across the Midwest for a holiday on Monday (hint, that means no post), what better topic than Cameron Booth’s interstate map as a subway map? Well, how about his most recent project? In it he combines both interstates, e.g. I-76, and US highways, e.g. US-30 and US-202. In his own words, though, the result becomes so complex that it is more akin to a simplified road map than a subway map. Regardless, it’s still pretty impressive.
The northeast quadrant of the United States
Credit for the piece goes to Cameron Booth.
Well, okay, actually there is. But the cultural reference would have made even less sense if I omitted the negative. Anyway, in honour of the two baseball games I am seeing this week—last night’s and tonight’s Red Sox games—here comes this piece from Pew Research Center.
It’s a simple but fairly clear graphic. We are looking at the ethnic breakdown of baseball since 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. My only qualm, as ever, with this stacked area chart is that while you can see the clear trend upward in white share, it is a bit more difficult to see the directions the other ethnicities are moving.
Diversity in baseball
Credit for the piece goes to Pew Research Council.
After shootings in Kansas City, the Washington Post looked at hate crimes versus poverty. It turns out there is a somewhat positive correlation.
Hardship vs. hate
Credit for the piece goes to the Washington Post graphics department.
Tax Day for Americans seems like a great time to talk about income inequality. The article from which this chart comes talks about a recent book exploring the parallels of the 19th century’s inequality—as the article reminds us, the time of “Please, sir, may I have another?”—and the forecast for the 21st. Anyway, the graphic is a nice use of small multiples and highlights that despite the damage done to capital wealth by Great Depressions and two world wars, it is well on its way back to unequal levels.
Income inequality
Credit for the piece goes to the New York Times graphics department.
Good news and bad news, folks. The good news is that this chart does not apply to people living in Chicago, Philadelphia, or elsewhere. Unless—here’s the bad news—you live in Washington, D.C. In that case, well, prepare to die. You know, if you have allergies. The Washington Post has a nice graphic that outlines the arrival and peak seasons for different pollen allergens.
Allergens of DC
Credit for the piece goes to Bonnie Berkowitz and Patterson Clark.
Happy Friday. Credit for this goes to Randall Munroe, who helps you understand how often things happen.
The frequency of things
Sometimes when you are considering moving, you want to look at some broad statistics on the area in which you want to move. In Boston, the Boston Globe has put together a neat little application that does just that. Type in two settlements in the metro area and then get a quick comparison of the two.
Comparing Boston metro cities
Credit for the piece goes to Catherine Cloutier, Andrew Tran, Russell Goldenberg, Corinne Winthrop.
President Obama has made a big deal recently about income inequality. The story in short is that the rich in the country are getting rich; the poor are getting poorer; and the people in the middle are fewer in number. Here in Chicago, this has meant that over the last few decades, many of the former middle-class neighbourhoods have been gutted of, well, the middle class. Daniel Kay Hertz has created a series of maps to show just how drastic the change has been since 1970.
Chicago’s disappearing middle class
Credit for the piece goes to Daniel Kay Hertz.