A few weeks ago the Washington Post published a graphic that explained how space weather can have significant impacts on Earth. This is more of an illustrated diagram and less of a data visualisation piece, but it still worth a read. Why? Because, if scientists are correct, the sun’s magnetic poles should soon finish a polarity reversal. And that creates the potential for some stormy space weather.
Credit for the piece goes to Bonnie Berkowitz and Alberto Cuadra.
I don’t often link to FlowingData because I figure that most of my audience is already looking there. But, sometimes, Nathan’s work is just that good. And sometimes the subject matter is just so fantastic that I have no other choice. (It doesn’t hurt that I was looking to do something like this over the weekend.)
Last weekend, the BBC announced that Peter Capaldi will succeed Matt Smith as the actor behind the lead role in the British science fiction show Doctor Who. The show celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year—quite a feat for a television show from what I gather—as it is enjoying popularity not just in the United Kingdom but now increasingly across the world. But in those 50 years, 11 other actors have held the lead role and Nathan plots out when they had the role . And who.
Credit for the piece goes to Nathan Yau.
Earlier this summer I looked at a graphic by Thomson Reuters that compared life expectancy changes across the world from 1990 to 2011. Last month, the Washington Post published an interactive graphic that explores life expectancy (along with obesity and physical activity) across the United States from 1985 to 2010.
What I really enjoy about the piece is that each toggle for the health condition, i.e. life expectancy, obesity, physical activity, the text beneath swaps out to explain what the story is. Context is key. But then the ability to flip between the actuals and the growth for both men and women allows the user to really explore the data. And to see that growth or lack thereof is not even across the sexes.
From the design side, a minor point worth noting is the use of different colour palettes based on the mapped metric. The actual values (with the greater range) use a darker green-blue and tint that down whereas the growth values (all of three conditions) are in a different palette. Here it works, though I am more accustomed in similar pieces to seeing the swapping of palettes for changes in the mapped metric.
Beneath the big map, however, are two components also well worth the user’s attention. Perhaps deceptively simple, two sets of line charts, they add (again) context to the data. For example, while it is great to see life expectancy in the United States improving, when you compare that to the rest of the developed world, we are falling behind.
Overall a solid piece.
Credit for the piece goes to Patterson Clark, Kennedy Elliott, and Katie Park.
Today is the odd day where I don’t have an actual graphic to share, but rather one of those abstract theory wishy washy brainheady thinky things. It’s an article in Fast Co. that discusses an essay written by Kim Rees and Dino Citraro wherein they define the concept of digital poster. Think big, vertical, scrolly infographics.
Sometimes maps just do not carry the visual weight of the potential impact of climate change, specifically rising tides. Swathes of blue over city maps from high altitude are intellectual exercises. Who works where? Where do I live? But when you can begin to see familiar buildings and sites swallowed up by a modest rise in the sea level, the hope is that people feel the impact.
My guess is that was the intention of the Boston Globe in this piece, which lets you explore a bit of an underwater Boston waterfront.
Credit for the piece goes to Chiqui Esteban.
At lunch, I felt inspired enough to create a quick chart that looks at some urban population statistics.
A caveat about the data, it comes from the Census Bureau’s tables on the top-100 cities. So until a city appeared on that list, I did not chart it. The exceptions are 2000 and 2010, where I pulled directly from those census results. Mostly because it was lunch and I needed to be quick about it.
Hint, US Census Bureau, make your interface more friendly.
Credit for this goes to me.
Major League Baseball is set to suspend Alex Rodriguez this morning—if the news reports are true. That will all but end the season for Rodriguez, though he could well play through his appeal so you never really know. But what does this mean for the Yankees and their offense?
The New York Times put together an interactive scatter plot charting the annual salary against the number of hits (roughly a measure of offensive production throughout the year) with benchmark lines for the league average of both. First, the user can see the team averages.
At the team-level, one can see that, roughly speaking, the more money a team pays to hitters, the more productive the team. Production it should be noted, does not necessarily equal wins. Look at the Angels, who have some of the most hits, but are in fourth place (out of five) and in a difficult place to make the playoffs.
But then the user can switch to the top-10 paid hitters on each team. (Four presets are offered beneath the piece, but click on a player from any team and his compatriots will appear.) You can see how the Yankees are hitting poorly in comparison to the Red Sox. (The only reason the Yankees are not truly awful is because their pitching has not been horrible.)
So if Rodriguez is suspended for this year and next, maybe they can use his salary for next year to buy a one-year free agent that isn’t at the bottom right of the this chart.
Credit for the piece goes to Mike Bostock and Joe Ward.
Happy Friday, everyone. Today’s post comes via colleagues of mine in London, who shared with me the Guardian’s selection of 16 useless infographics. They are shit infographics. Well, at least one is. Check them out and you’ll understand.
Credit for the selection goes to Mona Chalabi. Credit for each infographic belongs to the infographic’s respective designer.
Today’s piece is a map from the Economist. It looks at the state of nuclear energy across the world. Slovakia caught my eye because when I recently traveled across that country I glimpsed from my train the massive complex near (I think) Trnava. Apparently those are also some of the youngest reactors out there.
Credit for the piece goes to O.M. and L.P.
A map? Again? I know. But trust me, this one is interesting. For those of you who do not know, Boston’s Thomas Menino is not running for reelection this year. By the time he leaves office, he will have been the mayor of Boston for over twenty years and so this year is the first open election in a long, long time.
So what’s better than graphics for election-related data? Graphics with a medieval/Renaissance/fiefdom aesthetic, that’s what. With a little bit of fun, the Boston Globe mapped out the local areas of strength for the 12 candidates for mayor. The residence of each is denoted by a castle keep while areas of strength, location of donors, and key voting areas are signified in different colours. And the map’s background? Well, you can see for yourself.
Credit for the piece goes to Alvin Chang, Andrew Ryan, Javier Zarracina, and Matt Carroll.
