Examining How We Measure Our Lives

Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation

What Will You Have

Apr 3, 2015

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by

Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Now that it’s Friday, it’s time for happy hour drinks. Well, maybe not quite yet. Let’s get through the workday first. But over at the Wall Street Journal, together with Yep, they looked at which cocktails are most popular in eight cities based on Yelp reviews. They do note that the metric is not perfect […]
Read on…: What Will You Have
Baseball’s Pace of Play and ESPN’s Pie in Their Face

Apr 2, 2015

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by

Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Baseball is my sport. I love it. Some of my favourite games are the four-hour long matches between my Red Sox and the scourge of the Earth, the Yankees. Games can take a long time for a number of reasons. But in an increasingly fast-paced world, critics argue that younger generations do not have the […]
Read on…: Baseball’s Pace of Play and ESPN’s Pie in Their Face
Sex, Drugs, and Rock Oil

Apr 1, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

North Dakota’s economy has been booming because of shale oil. Most of that economic growth has been centred on what was the small city of Williston, North Dakota. Economic growth often leads to population growth, however, and that can at times lead to growth in less than wholesome economic activities. The National Journal took a […]
Read on…: Sex, Drugs, and Rock Oil
It’s Melting! It’s Melting!

Mar 31, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Spring has finally arrived. And that means that far to your humble author’s north, the sea ice in the Arctic is beginning to recede from its annual maximum coverage. However, this year’s coverage was the smallest since satellite records began in 1979. The New York Times covers the story in a nice article with two […]
Read on…: It’s Melting! It’s Melting!
British Parliament Timeline

Mar 30, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

For those of you who don’t know, the British Parliament was dissolved today ahead of the 7 May elections. In other words, it is now election time. Last week the Economist published a small interactive piece that allows you to look at the composition of the British Parliament from 1870 through today. While many (some?) […]
Read on…: British Parliament Timeline
Yemen’s Tangled Web

Mar 26, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic, My Work

Did you see the news about Saudi Arabia bombing Yemen. Are you confused about what is going on in Yemen? And how that relates to what is going on in Iraq? And the rest of the Middle East? Well, so am I. But, I also only had time to research and work on one graphic […]
Read on…: Yemen’s Tangled Web
Germanwings Flight 4U 9525

Mar 25, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Yesterday an Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, crashed in the French Alps with no survivors. This morning, I am showing the two best graphics I have come across thus far attempting to explain just what happened. The first is from the New York Times. In a series of maps, it points […]
Read on…: Germanwings Flight 4U 9525
A Fishy Popularity Contest

Mar 24, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Pardon the title, but don’t mind the graphic. Sometimes ranking charts tell the story well. The Wall Street Journal has a graphic supporting a larger article about fish. And while I am not sure that I understand the reason behind the colours, they do make it quite clear that catfish is not nearly as popular […]
Read on…: A Fishy Popularity Contest
Lee Kuan Yew Built Modern Singapore

Mar 23, 2015

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Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Lee Kuan Yew died this weekend. He is lately responsible for designing and implementing the policies that transformed Singapore from a poor fishing village to a commercial hub. The transformation came at a price of course. Singapore enjoys limited free speech and the country is effectively a one-party state, with the one party now controlled […]
Read on…: Lee Kuan Yew Built Modern Singapore
Moon Bases

Mar 20, 2015

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by

Brendan Barry

in Infographic

Today’s post falls somewhere between just for fun and science reality. Remember moon bases? Newt Gingrich’s ridiculed comment about a habitable moon base by 2020? Well, one problem with colonies on other planets—or even interstellar transport for that matter—is radiation. The moon has no magnetosphere and no atmosphere. So it can be bombarded by both […]
Read on…: Moon Bases