Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: The US Abortion Rate
If you have heard enough about the Affordable Care Act, well, you could be listening to the desire to defund Planned Parenthood. Because, while that organisation cannot use any federal funding for abortions, it is the nation’s largest provider of that service. So if you follow that logic, you must strip all federal funds from the organisation. Yeah, it makes…
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Get Ready Folks
Read on…: Get Ready FolksWell have we got an interesting week this week. Friday begins Trump Time. So hold onto your Twitter accounts, folks. But before we get there, I wanted to do a short week of some data-driven graphics that take a look at the state of things. Instead of what I had intended for today, let us take a look at a…
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Piece, Larsen C
Read on…: Piece, Larsen CWhen I was in high school in 2002, it was big news when one of the three Larsen ice shelves in Antarctica, Larsen B, collapsed. And then when I was at university, the band British Sea Power wrote a song titled “Oh Larsen B” that I have always enjoyed. Now Larsen B was not the first Larsen ice shelf to collapse.…
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All the Eggs
Read on…: All the EggsWe made it to Friday, everyone. Huzzah. This is based off absolutely one of my favourite infographics out there—Charles Joseph Minard’s map of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. For those unfamiliar with it, he tracks the size of the French army as it invades Russia and gets thinned out along the way. Yes, some are to battles. But, the bottom of…
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How Did Obamacare Change Our Healthcare?
Read on…: How Did Obamacare Change Our Healthcare?We are counting down the days until President Obama steps aside. And shortly thereafter his signature work, the Affordable Care Act, may be repealed. But looking back, what is the legacy of the first few years under Obamacare? Besides the obvious death panels, of course. Well FiveThirtyEight took a look. And in this graphic, we see simple line charts. But…
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Diversity in the 115th Congress
Read on…: Diversity in the 115th CongressWell, we have arrived at 2017. We all know the big political story in the executive branch. But we also saw elections in the legislative branch. But how different will the 115th Congress look from the 114th? The Wall Street Journal took a look at that in an article. The article’s graphic does a nice job showing the two different…
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Philadelphia’s Growth Since the 1940s
Read on…: Philadelphia’s Growth Since the 1940sI stumbled upon this article last night on philly.curbed.com that takes a look at the growth and slowdown in said growth in Philadelphia. For the purposes of this blog, that included an animated .gif that showed the expansion in the metro area since the 1940s. My quibble with the piece is that the lighter blue loses out to the darker.…
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The Trump Organisation Organisation Chart
Read on…: The Trump Organisation Organisation ChartWell Christmas is over so now for some of us, it’s time to go back to work. Those of you enjoying your time off through the new year, well…enjoy it. Today’s piece is from the New York Times and explores the structure of Donald Trump’s organisation. A second graphic within the piece then details just what the various parts of…
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An Arctic Heatwave
Read on…: An Arctic HeatwaveSince Christmas was just yesterday, I figured this would be an appropriate way to start the week. The North Pole is sweltering. It’s melting. But, seriously, the scientists are “very confident” that the heatwave is linked to anthropogenic climate change. Their models cannot replicate their observations without adding an anthropogenic signal. Anthropogenic? That’s just a fancy-sounding word for man-made. Credit…
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The United States of Blank
Read on…: The United States of BlankWell, you made it to the Christmas holidays. First, some housekeeping, my posting next week might be a bit sporadic. Not that it hasn’t been sporadic the last few months. Second, it’s a Friday, so let’s take a look at that federal republic of states we talked about yesterday. According to xkcd, of course. Credit for the piece goes to…