Paying Federal Employees

The Washington Post put together this infographic looking at paydays for federal employees who will still be working during the shutdown, e.g. military service personnel. Of course, if the shutdown drags on, the paychecks for those still working would be delayed.

Paying essential personnel
Paying essential personnel

Credit for the piece goes to Lisa Rein and Todd Lindeman.

The US Government Shuts Down

So the House Republicans’ Tea Party wing added several different non-budget riders centred around the Affordable Care Act (which they have labelled Obamacare) to the budget. And then the whole House Republican caucus passed it despite threats of immediate vetoes from both the Democratic Senate and the White House. The House Republicans have shut down the US government because of their refusal to remove non-budget legislation from the budget. This after the Affordable Care Act was deemed to be constitutional. After 42 separate votes on scrapping it. After the 2012 elections where the Democrats, who ran on keeping the Affordable Care Act, won more votes than Republicans, who ran on scrapping it. But, it gets even more zany than that as this fantastic infographic shows the pinball-like refusal of the Tea Party to remove the Affordable Care Act knowing well in advance that the Senate Democrats were not going to allow the rider.

The back and forth
The back and forth

Credit for the piece goes to Karen Yourish and Archie Tse.

Funding the Improbable

This interactive map from the Washington Post is one part of a long-form piece that looks at NASA and the improbable tasks facing the agency. Specifically the piece looks at how NASA wants to get to Mars, but how difficult that is and how an also difficult asteroid mission is as a backup plan.

Funding the improbable
Funding the improbable

Really fantastic is about all I can say.

Credit for the piece goes to Joel Achenbach, Alberto Cuadra, Kennedy Elliott, Rebecca Rolfe, and Ricky Carioti.

How Cruise Missiles Would Strike Syria

While we are waiting for Russian help to destroy Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons, we know that the Pentagon is still ready to strike (most likely with cruise missiles) various targets of the Syrian regime. This graphic from the Wall Street Journal explores some of the options. The interesting bit is the range of Syria’s anti-ship missiles. Because for those of you who do not recall the Israel–Lebanon war of 2006, Hezbollah (known to be aiding the Syrian regime) surprised some by scoring a hit on an Israeli warship with a less-advanced missile than in the Syrian arsenal.

Pentagon plans
Pentagon plans

This is only one of several different graphics from that page. Different graphics look at elements of the conflict, including the refugees, timeline of the regime’s actions, &c.

Credit for the piece goes to the Wall Street Journal graphics department.

Paying a Bribe

Some say bribes grease the wheels of business. But if that is the case, where are the greasiest wheels? This interactive piece from the BBC showcases an interesting story. It maps who has paid bribes and the value thereof. Then it looks at corruption in the different sectors of the country and which is perceived to be the most corrupt.

A look at bribery
A look at bribery

Aesthetically this is not the finest piece. Some of the most interesting countries to view are in Africa and Southeast Asia, i.e. geographies near the equator. Unfortunately the designers here chose a map projection that emphasises Siberia and Arctic Canada at the expense of those very countries. Also, where did Greenland go? I know that the ice is melting, but I don’t think it’s melted that quickly. Furthermore, if the user clicks the “List” option, he or she is presented only with a list of geographies. None of them are selectable nor do they encode data. So why is the list there?

In short, the interface is a bit clunky and strangely designed. Line lengths are too long and it looks ugly. But, there are two interesting things going on here worth noting. First the legend here actually does not just show the range for the choropleth, but it also encodes the number of countries that fall within that range.  

Second, by clicking on a particular bin for the legend, the map filters for the selection. I think that from a design perspective, a lighter grey and a lighter stroke outline would have made the filtering a bit more prominent, but the idea is interesting. Unfortunately, I found no way of easily returning to an all-bin view of the map.

A piece for the BBC that misses a few, but also hits a few.

Credit for the piece goes to the BBC graphics team.

Foreclosing on Homes in Washington, DC

Today’s post comes from the Washington Post. It is a single interactive graphic, a map, that supports a long-form article about foreclosures in Washington.

DC foreclosure map
DC foreclosure map

Credit for the piece’s graphics goes to Ted Mellnik, Emily Chow, and Laura Stanton.

Where’s the Wine?

So my wine palate is neither as refined nor sophisticated as it was before I moved to Chicago. (Oh hi, whisky.) However, wineries are springing up all over the country—and not just in California. This interactive graphic from the New York Times details the country, mapping out wineries up top and then exploring the growth in several key states near the bottom. In particular, note the chart for the number of wineries in California that runs down the right-hand side.

Map of US wineries
Map of US wineries

Credit for the piece goes to Kevin Schaul, Tim Wallace, and Adrienne Carter.

Mapping the Borders

This map by Dorothy Gambrell looks at US state borders formed by natural, well, borders. None of those lines drawn by a bunch of old men wearing wigs. What I really like is how those artificial borders are drawn as a thin grey line and labelled as “just some line”.

Map of borders
Map of borders

Credit for the piece goes to Dorothy Gambrell.

Hunger Strikes

Guantanamo Bay and the US military prison there almost always spark a debate. For some months now, prisoners have been staging a hunger strike. Increasingly, however, the strike is garnering attention not for itself, but for the US military’s treatment of the prisoners in force feeding them. The National Post looked at just how this is being done in this infographic. Pay particular attention to the illustration of the tube, which is drawn to actual size.

Force feeding Guantanamo's striking prisoners
Force feeding Guantanamo’s striking prisoners

Credit for the piece goes to Andrew Barr, Mike Faille, and Richard Johnson.

My/Your Dialect

Joshua Katz from North Carolina State University has created an interactive version of the dialect survey maps first perhaps popularised several years ago. Katz has also created an interactive map that looks at a city’s dialect and maps its areas of similarity and difference. An interesting extension of the original survey data, however, is the ability to take the survey yourself and see where your dialect fits. There are two versions, a 25-question survey and a 140-question survey.

The screenshot below is my result from the 25-question version. And it fits me fairly well since I spent most of my years in the suburbs of Philadelphia but every summer in South Jersey (and quite a bit of time in Allentown). Click the map to take the quiz for yourself. Feel free to reply and share your results.

Clearly I am Philadelphia raised
Clearly I am Philadelphia raised

From the technical side, for those wondering, this is a piece that is done in Shiny, the interactive version of R.

Credit for the piece goes to Joshua Katz.