Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Your State’s Highest Paid Public Employee
Read on…: Your State’s Highest Paid Public EmployeeThis choropleth map comes from Deadspin and it looks at each state’s highest paid public employee. As you can probably imagine since the graphic comes from Deadspin, most states pay their highest wages to sports coaches. Ten states pay somebody other than a sports coach. And five of those are in the Mid-Atlantic/New England area. […]
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More Cicadian Rhythms
Read on…: More Cicadian RhythmsOn Tuesday I shared with you some work by Jonathan Corum at the New York Times on the 17-year cicadas now starting to emerge back east. (And as I recall from my childhood, I assure you that they are quite loud.) Today we look at an illustration of the cicada life cycle via the Washington […]
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Cicadian Rhythm
Read on…: Cicadian RhythmCicadas are loud. And while some are around every year, there is at least one species that lives for up to seventeen years. They mate every seventeen years. In 2013 we are witnessing the emergence of Brood II, one of the numerous clusters that are synchronised to each other. But when and where have other […]
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Improving Efficiency
Read on…: Improving EfficiencyToday’s post comes from xkcd. It looks at how much time can be spent improving efficiency before you become an inefficient efficiency person. It is important to note that this is over a five year span. And while I do not know about my readers, I can barely stick doing one thing for more than […]
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Comparing Medical Cost Comparisons
Read on…: Comparing Medical Cost ComparisonsYesterday both the New York Times and the Washington Post published fascinating pieces looking at the difference in the cost of medical procedures. But each took a different approach. I want to start with the New York Times, which focused at the hospital level because the data is available at that level of granularity. They […]
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The Gap in University Admissions
Read on…: The Gap in University AdmissionsThe New York Times has recently done good work with interactive infographics that weave a narrative through their chosen form of data visualisation. I covered one such work back in February that looked at girls in science. Today, a similarly structured piece looks at university admissions and graduation rates for ethnic minorities. Navigation in the […]
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Where in the Solar System is Carmen Sandiego?
Read on…: Where in the Solar System is Carmen Sandiego?Today’s post is a location map that comes from Nasa. What locations? Those of its various spacecraft, such as Rosetta and Cassini. Humanity is all over the solar system. Admittedly, I think the map could be cleaner and clearer, but that the subject matter can be mapped is still just pretty cool. Credit for the […]