Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
-
Read on…: The US Government Shuts Down
So the House Republicans’ Tea Party wing added several different non-budget riders centred around the Affordable Care Act (which they have labelled Obamacare) to the budget. And then the whole House Republican caucus passed it despite threats of immediate vetoes from both the Democratic Senate and the White House. The House Republicans have shut down […]
-
Zaatari Refugee Camp for Displaced Syrians
Read on…: Zaatari Refugee Camp for Displaced SyriansThe Syrian crisis is pushing people out of Syria. Unfortunately, most of the refugees are fleeing to places not wholly equipped or supplied to handle such large numbers. In this interactive piece of journalism, the BBC explores the difficulties in just one camp, Zaatari in the desert of Jordan. My favourite element is this interactive […]
-
Funding the Improbable
Read on…: Funding the ImprobableThis interactive map from the Washington Post is one part of a long-form piece that looks at NASA and the improbable tasks facing the agency. Specifically the piece looks at how NASA wants to get to Mars, but how difficult that is and how an also difficult asteroid mission is as a backup plan. Really […]
-
Protests Around the World
Read on…: Protests Around the WorldToday’s post features an animated map by a doctoral candidate at Penn State. It plots out month-by-month protests across the world. It moves a bit fast and could perhaps make use out of some guided navigation, e.g. focusing the user’s attention on specific areas at specific times, but is still an interesting view of the […]
-
How Cruise Missiles Would Strike Syria
Read on…: How Cruise Missiles Would Strike SyriaWhile we are waiting for Russian help to destroy Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons, we know that the Pentagon is still ready to strike (most likely with cruise missiles) various targets of the Syrian regime. This graphic from the Wall Street Journal explores some of the options. The interesting bit is the range of Syria’s […]
-
Foreclosing on Homes in Washington, DC
Read on…: Foreclosing on Homes in Washington, DCToday’s post comes from the Washington Post. It is a single interactive graphic, a map, that supports a long-form article about foreclosures in Washington. Credit for the piece’s graphics goes to Ted Mellnik, Emily Chow, and Laura Stanton.
-
Where’s the Wine?
Read on…: Where’s the Wine?So my wine palate is neither as refined nor sophisticated as it was before I moved to Chicago. (Oh hi, whisky.) However, wineries are springing up all over the country—and not just in California. This interactive graphic from the New York Times details the country, mapping out wineries up top and then exploring the growth […]
-
Mapping the Borders
Read on…: Mapping the BordersThis map by Dorothy Gambrell looks at US state borders formed by natural, well, borders. None of those lines drawn by a bunch of old men wearing wigs. What I really like is how those artificial borders are drawn as a thin grey line and labelled as “just some line”. Credit for the piece goes […]
-
Hunger Strikes
Read on…: Hunger StrikesGuantanamo Bay and the US military prison there almost always spark a debate. For some months now, prisoners have been staging a hunger strike. Increasingly, however, the strike is garnering attention not for itself, but for the US military’s treatment of the prisoners in force feeding them. The National Post looked at just how this […]