Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Mapping Migrant Deaths
Yesterday we looked at a map of coal plants, with the dots sized by capacity. Today, we have a similar approach in a much smaller graphic about a much different topic. The BBC published this map yesterday in the context of an article about a report of the EU contacting Australia in regards to its […]
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The Coal Century
Read on…: The Coal CenturyThe other day I misread a poster on the road that “The Cool Century” for “The Coal Century”. That is the origin of today’s title. The origin of today’s piece, however, is Bloomberg, which looked at the impact of some new environmental regulations on the coal industry vis-a-vis dozens of coal power plants. Basically, you […]
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Foul Balls at Fenway
Read on…: Foul Balls at FenwayHappy Friday, everyone. Foul balls are the souvenirs of fortune at baseball games. (Home runs as well I suppose.) You can’t buy them, you can only hope to be one of the lucky few who catch one. So the Boston Globe ran an article with an integrated interactive piece that told the story of a […]
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Battle of Mons Graupius
Read on…: Battle of Mons GraupiusI just finished reading Tacitus’ account of his father-in-law Agricola. Agricola is the Roman—more likely from a family of Romanised Gauls—general who conquered Great Britain for Rome. His crowning victory was the Battle of Mons Graupius. It should all be taken with a grain of salt, because there are no other corroborating sources—to my knowledge. […]
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Context for the Baltimore Riots
Read on…: Context for the Baltimore RiotsBaltimore is going crazy, if you haven’t heard. So the LA Times put together a set of maps putting the riots in context. They look at the racial makeups of the neighbourhoods with the violence along with median income and education. Credit for the piece goes to Jon Schleuss, Kyle Kim, and the LA Times […]
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Nepal’s Earthquake
Read on…: Nepal’s EarthquakeIf you missed it this weekend, Nepal suffered both loss of life and significant damage from an earthquake Saturday morning. The Washington Post quickly had a graphic up that explored the story. Credit for the piece goes to Bonnie Berkowitz, Darla Cameron, Samuel Granados, Richard Johnson, Laris Karklis, and Gene Thorp.
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The Internet in the Middle East and Arab World
Read on…: The Internet in the Middle East and Arab WorldKeeping with the unplanned theme of this week, i.e. things going on in the Middle East and Arab world, let’s take a look at another piece of work from Spiegel. Unfortunately, this one is not so much in English. The graphics, yes, the supporting context, no. There are seven of them, this looks at what […]
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Organising and Structuring ISIS
Read on…: Organising and Structuring ISISYesterday we looked at the Russian sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran. Let’s stay in the Middle East and look at one of the forces that Iran—among many others, the US included—is fighting: ISIS, or Islamic State. We all know it from its ruthless, zealous, brutal application of Islamic law to the territories it […]
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S-300 Surface-to-Air Missiles for Iran
Read on…: S-300 Surface-to-Air Missiles for IranRussia has agreed to complete its years-old sale of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran. What does this mean? Well, it does not make Iran’s airspace invulnerable, but it will be a significant upgrade with the potential to deter Israel from launching an air raid against Iranian nuclear sites. In a nice, illustrated piece the […]