Author: Brendan Barry

  • Is it Getting Warmer in Here?

    Yes, yes it is. This map from the Washington Post looks at global temperature change since 1901. The article it supports is about how scientists are now all but certain mankind is responsible for global warming. Personally I prefer the term climate change because global warming sounds as if everything warms and as this map shows,…

  • Say What?

    This map comes from the Washington Post and it uses the American Community Survey to explore languages spoken by Americans at home other than English. I got stuck (in a good way) on the seemingly random counties of German speakers. After I poked around a bit, I found one where almost 50% of the county…

  • Bloomberg’s New York

    For those of you who read this blog and are not from New York, Mayor Bloomberg is done later this year; he is not running for reelection. So now is the time for retrospective and plaudits for the long-serving mayor. The New York Times published a piece this weekend examining how all of Bloomberg’s changes…

  • Coffee Pie Charts

    Fear not, this graphic makes about as much sense as the title. The concept is actually a worthwhile exploration of the variation in caffeine across cups of coffee from different cafes and coffee shops. But, this visualisation fails at showing it. Remember, pie charts show the piece amongst the whole. What is the whole in…

  • 3D Movie Success

    Today’s graphic comes from Thomson Reuters. It charts the success of 3D movies that have been released and how long those movies stayed in the theatres. Credit for the piece goes to S. Scarr, G. Cabrera, and K. Pong.

  • Consumer Spending by Store Type

    Today’s post is a small interactive from the Wall Street Journal that allows the user to explore consumer spending not by category of spending, but rather the type of store in which they are spending, e.g. grocery retailers. Consumer spending is a fairly important measure of the US economy since so much of our economy…

  • Road Kill

    Driving can be dangerous. But perhaps most so in the developing world. The Pulitzer Center created this interactive map to allow users to explore just how dangerous driving can be. Little windows provide details on countries the user rolls over. This data looks at deaths per 100,000 people, killer/victims, and lastly a rating of law…

  • Space Weather

    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…

  • Doctor Who?

    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…

  • US Life Expectancy

    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…