For Whom the Teamsters Poll Tolls
Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: For Whom the Teamsters Poll Tolls
The Teamsters Union decided to officially endorse neither candidate in the 2024 US presidential election. Prior to their non-announcement announcement, however, the union surveyed its members and then released the polling data ahead of the announcement. Of course, the teamsters represent but a single union in a large and diverse country. More importantly, the survey results reported only the share…
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Fear the Floodwaters
Read on…: Fear the FloodwatersThis past weekend saw some flooding along the East Coast due to the Moon pulling on Earth’s water. In Boston that meant downtown flooding, including Long Wharf. The Boston Globe’s article about the flooding dwelt with more impact, causes, and long-term forecasts—none of which really warranted data visualisation or information graphics. Nonetheless, the article included a long time series examining…
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Labelling Line Charts
Read on…: Labelling Line ChartsToday I have a little post about something I noticed over the weekend: labelling line charts. It begins with a BBC article I read about the ongoing return to office mandates some companies have been rolling out over the last few years. When I look for work these days, one important factor is the office work situation and so seeing…
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Twelve-Mile Circle
Read on…: Twelve-Mile CircleAs a wee lad I grew up south of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, an old mill town situated along the banks of the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek. Drop a little stick in the Brandywine and it would float downstream until it joins the Christina River in Wilmington, Delaware and thereafter shortly into the Delaware River. Delaware has tax-free shopping and…
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The Dawn of a New Nuclear Age?
Read on…: The Dawn of a New Nuclear Age?I grew up less than 15 miles away from the Limerick Nuclear Generating Station, located on the banks of the Schuylkill River northwest of the city of Philadelphia. Our house sat on the north-facing slope of the Great Valley and the cooling towers of Limerick were a ridge line and river valley away from view. But on a clear day,…
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Three-dimensional Charts Are Back, Baby
Read on…: Three-dimensional Charts Are Back, BabyI thought three-dimensional charts died back in the 2010s. Alas, here we are in 2024 and I have to discuss one once again. have been following the Titan Inquiry this week and the opening presentation included this gem of data visualisation. To be fair, I do not know how many designers, let alone specialist information designers, the US Coast Guard…
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To X or Not to X
Read on…: To X or Not to XAs it happens, the Latino culture largely remains x’ed out on using the term Latinx, according to a new survey from Pew Research. The issue of supplanting Latino/Latina with Latinx as a gender neutral replacement—or as a complementary alternative—emerged in the general discourse in that oh-so-fun year of 2020 when everything went well. One common argument I have heard is…
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Life Aboard the International Space Station
Read on…: Life Aboard the International Space StationThis weekend I read a neat little article from the BBC about astronauts’ lives aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This comes on the heels of two NASA astronauts being left on the station due to some uncertainty about their Boeing spacecraft’s safety. The article featured a number of annotated photographs and illustrations, but this was my favourite. The designers…
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248 Years Later, Philadelphia’s Still Hosting Debates
Read on…: 248 Years Later, Philadelphia’s Still Hosting DebatesFor those of you living under a rock, 2024 is a presidential election year in the United States and the campaign for the November election truly kicks off post-Labour Day. And post-Labour Day here we are. Tonight features a presidential debate between the two candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. Harris looks to be the first…
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Electric Throat Share
Read on…: Electric Throat ShareFor the last few weeks I have been working on my portfolio site as I update things. (Note to self, do not wait another 15 years before embarking upon such an update.) At the University of the Arts (requiescat in pace), I took an information design class wherein I spent a semester learning about the electricity generation market in the…