Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Recapping the Boston Marathon Bombing
After the capture this weekend of the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, the Washington Post published an interactive piece that looked at the entirety of the story. It captured the bombing, looked at the investigation, then the manhunt, and finally the capture of one of the suspects. The piece incorporated static diagrams along […]
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The Universe Keeps Getting Bigger
Read on…: The Universe Keeps Getting BiggerThe Kepler observatory is responsible for finding Earth-like planets in distant solar systems. It was launched only in 2009, but has been incredibly successful. Earlier this week scientists announced the discovery of Kepler 62, a star system that has five planets. Two of those planets exist within the Goldilocks zone, where conditions are just right […]
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The Boston Marathon Bombing in More Detail
Read on…: The Boston Marathon Bombing in More DetailToday’s post comes from the New York Times and offers more detail on the twin terror bombings Monday. While the topic is surely gruesome, the interactive graphic is clean without the inclusion of photos or videos of the violence. It focuses on the facts without the fanfare or sensationalism to which we are accustomed from […]
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Boston Marathon
Read on…: Boston MarathonToday’s post comes from the Boston Globe and maps the locations of the bomb sites along the Boston Marathon route yesterday. Credit for the piece goes to the Globe Staff.
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How Dragonflies Hunt
Read on…: How Dragonflies HuntToday’s post is certainly smaller, but it’s always interesting to see how infographics and information design can help us better understand science and nature. This is a piece from the New York Times that illustrates how a dragonfly hunts its prey, fruit flies. Instead of flying straight at the fruit fly, the dragonfly plots a […]
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North American Transit Map
Read on…: North American Transit MapWrapping up this week of map-themed work, we have xkcd. He created an integrated map of North America’s subway systems from Vancouver to Chicago to Philadelphia to Washington to Mexico City. I only wish I could take the Red Line from Belmont and transfer to the Market–Frankford near West Trenton. Because I could then take […]
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Cartograms
Read on…: CartogramsContinuing this week’s map theme, we have an example of a cartogram from the New York Times. This piece supplements an article about how some manufacturing companies are starting to look away from China as a place for their facilities. There are two maps, the first (not shown here) looks at economic output overall. The […]
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Waste Water Disposal Wells
Read on…: Waste Water Disposal WellsToday’s map comes from the Texas Tribune out of Austin, Texas. The map displays the location of disposal wells, i.e. the sites where the waste water from fracking and related drilling operations are dumped. Firstly, the map hints that the fracking industry is not spread equally across the state. But secondly, the map does this […]