For a little while now I have been wondering about just how the emission cheating system worked for Volkswagen. Thankfully the AFP put together a graphic illustrating how their diesel engine process works. It gets me partially to the level of understanding for which I am looking. But even though I now understand how the diesel engine works, I am confused about where the cheating device fits into the process.
Credit for the piece goes to the AFP graphics team.
I attended a dinner on Monday where the topic of Millennials arose. While most of the evening is not germane to this post, I did recall Wait But Why’s piece on why Millennials are unhappy on the way back to my flat. So here you go, a look at the Millennials and why we are unhappy. Bonus: we have unicorns and rainbows.
Credit for the piece goes to Tim Urban.
Today marks the final start of the year for Rich Hill of the Boston Red Sox. It’s also only his fourth start of the year. He was signed as depth as attrition left an empty spot in the rotation. In his three starts, however, he has given up only three runs in 23 innings while striking out 30 and walking only two. How does he do it? Over at Baseball Prospectus they took a look at Hill’s curveball and the deception he generates from his arm slot and the location of his fastball. They show this by a comparison graphic. I’ve added the names of the two players, but otherwise the graphic is unaltered.
If I am lucky, I can catch this last Hill start at the pub tonight.
Credit for the piece goes to Baseball Savant.
But not for the reasons you might think. This video from Vox looks at the notion that expensive wines taste better. And it turns out they do. Sort of. In terms of the design of the piece, it uses some nice charts and motion graphics to make its point. Plus, it includes snippets from Sideways, notably: “I’m not drinking any fucking Merlot.” Classic.
Credit for the piece goes to Joss Fong, Anand Katakam, Joe Posner, and the Vox.com staff.
Like the title said, it’s about time I took you all to school…by which I mean university scorecards from the US Department of Education. I used my alma mater, the University of the Arts, to show the design here. Basically you have several sections key to understanding a university from the student body to the financials to the graduates’ prospects.
Credit for the piece goes to the US Department of Education.
Last night we experienced a total lunar eclipse here in Chicago. Unfortunately, significant cloud cover meant that much of the event went unseen. That was unfortunate, because eclipses are fantastic. To explain it we have this piece from the BBC.
And for those were either unable to see it or did not know about it, here is one of the photos I took.
Credit for the diagram goes to the BBC graphics department.
Credit for the photo is mine.
In the wake of Volkswagen, this piece from xkcd seemed appropriate this Friday.
Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
By now you should all know that I am a sucker for small multiples. They are a great way of separating out noise and letting each object be seen for its own. You should also know that I am a sucker for things industrial, e.g. nuclear power. So when you put the two together like NPR did earlier this month, well, I am going to be a huge fan.
Credit for the piece goes to Alyson Hurt.
If you guys have not yet figured out, I am a baseball guy. But that is pretty much my only sport. And so maybe you can help explain to me just what is going on in today’s piece from the Boston Globe. I think it is attempting to explain hockey formations for the Boston Bruins.
Credit for the piece goes to Joe Moore.
With Xi Jinping visiting the United States the BBC published an article looking at China’s changes over the years. In general, I don’t like the article—why are they using pigs to look at pork consumption? My general dislike aside, they do have a map that plots urban centres with more than one million people and how that map has changed since 1970 and will change out to 2030.
I probably would not have used that terrain map as the background as blue-green circles on the green coast are a bit difficult to read. A lost opportunity of a sort—assuming it is possible at all—is to use a satellite image of China for each year and overlay the circles on that. One can only imagine that China’s urbanisation has gone together with drastic changes to the landscape.
Credit for the piece goes to the BBC graphics department.
