Global Integration. The Bad Kind.
Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Global Integration. The Bad Kind.
I was hoping to post this yesterday, but as you will see momentarily, it is very much still a work-in-progress. Earlier this week, Ukraine sank an Iranian freighter in the Caspian Sea—a pugnacious though innocuous sounding sentence. Of course, Ukraine battles Russia in its eastern oblasts whilst Iran battles the United States and Israel in and around the Persian Gulf…
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Judging a Magazine by Its Cover
Read on…: Judging a Magazine by Its CoverTechnically a newspaper, the Economist has been part of my weekly read since the early- to mid-2000s—my late high school and early university days. (It helped I worked in book shops through those years so could read it gently and replace it on the shelf.) This blog focuses mostly on information design, although I always leave myself the space to…
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Rook(ie) Goal?
Read on…: Rook(ie) Goal?The World Cup ended last weekend and I will likely be taking a look at some World Cup related graphics in the coming weeks. But before we do, we can start with this one from xkcd. Happy weekend, all. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Smoke Here, Smoke There, Smoke Was (Almost) Everywhere
Read on…: Smoke Here, Smoke There, Smoke Was (Almost) EverywhereFriday I wrote about an interactive air quality web application I designed for my website after seeing a similar type of dynamically generated graphic in my local rag, the Philadelphia Inquirer. I did not have a lot of time to finish the project, and so it lacked the planned overview page, where I intended to show the air quality conditions…
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Is It Always Smoky in Philadelphia?
Read on…: Is It Always Smoky in Philadelphia?Yesterday I wrote about a Philadelphia Inquirer article, which included an interactive display showing different monitoring stations around the Philadelphia area cataloguing just how bad the Minnesota/Canadian wildfire smoke is in the region. I noted during my piece that it was unclear if the little bars were actually recording the AQI values or just a generic bar indicating the category…
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I Prefer My Smoke in My Scotch
Read on…: I Prefer My Smoke in My ScotchAnother July day, another heatwave in Philadelphia. But this time we have the added bonus of Canadian wildfire smoke—apparently we call them wildfires and not forest fires now? Just last summer the US administration pointed the finger at Canada for not doing more to prevent and contain these wildfires, but I would humbly suggest that perhaps our efforts to reopen…
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My First Half of Music (Streams)
Read on…: My First Half of Music (Streams)Because I am headed out of town for several days, today is basically this week’s Friday post—just for fun. Last week I looked at my musical tastes via the vinyl. Today I look at the digital streams of music. This is far less surprising and arguably more representative of my tastes more broadly. Unlike records, which I need to physically…
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Just a Wee Bit Warm
Read on…: Just a Wee Bit WarmThis past weekend was a hot one in Philadelphia (and many other places across the eastern United States). As we enter July, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article examining climate change’s impact on summer temperatures. Spoiler: it’s hotter. The article included two interactive line charts. The first one plotted the average high temperature of July for each year since 1940.…
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My First Half of Music (Records)
Read on…: My First Half of Music (Records)Two Christmases ago, my mother gifted me a record player. Ever since I have been slowly buying records—and then listening to them. And over the last year I have been recording those record plays and with 2026 now half over, I decided to run the numbers and see where I am at. As context, my YouTube Music annual wrap had…