Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Smoking in the US
Today’s piece comes from the New York Times. It fits within a broader article about smoking in the United States. The map is a choropleth that compares the smoking rate across counties and states in 1996 and 2012. However, as the article talks about how difficult it has been to decrease the smoking rates among […]
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The Scale of Searching for MH370
Read on…: The Scale of Searching for MH370Search authorities may have finally found the missing Malaysian Airlines flight in the southern Indian Ocean. The Washington Post created this great interactive piece to give you a sense of scale of just how difficult it has been to find the aircraft. Credit for the piece goes to Richard Johnson and Denise Lu.
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Distinctive Artists by State
Read on…: Distinctive Artists by StateThis Friday’s post comes from Business Insider. And it looks at the distinctive artists by state. And no, I have no idea who Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are. Credit for the piece goes to Paul Lamere.
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Income vs. Life Expectancy
Read on…: Income vs. Life ExpectancyToday’s post comes via the New York Times. It’s a simple concept, but shown clearly in this collection of scatter plots. Growth in income for many counties has meant a growth in life expectancy. Unfortunately, not all counties are prospering and so the gap between rich and poor, and therefore the long-lived and shorter-lived, has […]
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Venn Diagrams
Read on…: Venn DiagramsSeth Meyers debuted his new show last month. And in the debut he used Venn diagrams to tell jokes. And while I was going to poke fun at Arizona, the opportunity for the joke disappeared a few weeks ago. So instead, I will take the time to show another. The setup: The punchline: Credit for […]
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Maps Being Useful
Read on…: Maps Being UsefulI often rail against the use of maps. I often hear “They’re pretty!” or “They’re colourful!” or “But I really do know where Guatemala is!” or “I can see my house!”. They’re often just a crutch, unless you can use them to show an actual geographic distribution. Thankfully from Quartz we get a series of […]