Coffee Spoons – Page 182 – Examining How We Measure Our Lives

French Victories in Mali

France registered several major victories over the Islamist rebels in Mali this past weekend. Most importantly, French and French-led forces have all but retaken the key cities of Gao and Timbuktu. That leaves only the major city of Kidal still in Islamist hands along with a scattering of smaller towns and villages.

As my infographic below illustrates, the combined French–Malian force struck out from central Mali along two different axes of advance: one headed towards Gao and the other towards Timbuktu. The African forces of Niger and Chad are flanking the Islamists in and around Gao while other African forces are expected to establish patrols in the cities and towns retaken by the French–Malian force.

Click for the full-size image.

Comparing the Amazon to Amazon.com

at least in terms of outflow.

Outflow of the Amazon Compared to the Outflow of Amazon.com

via xkcd of course.

The Sky Is Falling…No…Wait…It’s Just a Dream(liner)

Boeing has been having some problems with its new aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner from cracked windshields to oil leaks to perhaps most problematic battery problems. Over the course of the last week, the New York Times has published a series of small graphics to complement stories about the problems and the investigations.

The first graphic looked at the Dreamliner and where its batteries are located. Unfortunately for Boeing, the Dreamliner is critical to its success moving forward and the remainder of the graphic shows just how important.

The next day a graphic about total deaths on US airline flights supported a piece about the Dreamliner.

Then yesterday the NYT published a graphic about the specific battery type (lithium ion) and what role it played in aircraft incidents, be them cargo or passenger related.

War in Mali

Malian and French forces in Mali have begun to slowly retake cities and towns in the conflict zone and are slowly pushing into northern Mali, which has been held by the Islamists for nearly a year. My infographic for today looks at recent troop movements and the growing arsenal of French weapon platforms involved in the war.

If the conflict is highlighting anything about the French military, in my mind it is the lack of support elements in the French air force. France cannot transport, on its own, its heavier vehicles and helicopters without the assistance of its allies. The first week was largely supported by two British C-17 transport aircraft. Also of some note is the fact that despite the era of drones, France is still relying on human-piloted reconnaissance aircraft because of a lack of sufficient numbers of surveillance drones.

Click for the full-scale image.

The War in Mali continues with recent troop movements and the growing Allied arsenal depicted

Year in Review

I’ve been meaning to put this up for a little while, but since returning from holiday a few other stories popped up. The New York Times published what you could call its year in review article. It links to some of the best work done by the group in 2012, a year that included an election, the Olympics, and a few other big news stories. It’s worth a look or two or three.

When the Levee Isn’t Going to Break

Hint, when the river is at record low levels. But record low levels of water in the Mississippi also makes it difficult for ships to use the river as the critical transport corridor it is. So the Army Corps of Engineers has been working to keep the river open for ships. In this infographic the New York Times illustrates just what the Corps did.

Army Corps of Engineer work on the Mississippi

The War in Mali Continues

This morning’s graphic returns to Mali. The Malian and French forces are busy engaging the rebels at Konna and Diabaly while the rebels may be attempting to capture Banamba, only 90 miles from the capital Bamako. I also look a little bit more at the Tuaregs and then the basic timeline. That shows how much of the conflict can be traced back to the arming of the Tuaregs by Gaddafi during the Libyan Civil War and then those weapons, training, and experience returning to northern Mali at the end of that civil war.

Africa without Borders

Following up on the work that I have done on Mali over the last two days, here is a piece from Le Monde Diplomatique that looks at Africa without the borders generally imposed upon it by European colonial powers. You will note how the trouble today is happening in the area around the collapsing state and nomadic people, i.e. the area around Azawad.

Credit for the piece goes to Philippe Rekacewicz.

Operation Serval Continues

Tuesday saw no particularly startling developments in the conflict in northern Mali. The French continued to reinforce their quick reaction forces and sent their troops north to Mopti and Niono. By Tuesday night, press reports indicated that the first joint Malian–French force had left Niono to attempt to retake the town of Diabaly. My infographic below uses the slight lull to expand further upon what forces the French are bringing to bear, who else has promised support to Mali, and lastly tries to show how the rebels are not a unified fighting force. Instead the rebels are at best a temporary alliance of disparate groups with different aims. (Click the image for the larger view.)

Operation Serval

The tricky part about doing an infographic on a current event, like the conflict/war in northern Mali, is to keep the graphics updated and timely. Alas, I don’t have the necessary amount of time to do that. But, I still do want decent graphics explaining just what is happening.

With Mali, the hard part is that the Islamist/Tuareg rebellion against the democracy-overthrowing military government originally backed by the US in an attempt to beef up that military against the rebellion that then defeated that military is so far away and so foreign to much of the American public that so very much needs to be explained and be made relevant. This piece of mine doesn’t quite do that, but my infographic does attempt to show that France is now fighting a war far from its shores (and largely on its own). It also tries to highlight the fluidity of the ground war, especially around the fighting in and around Konna. Konna is the gateway to the city of Mopti which leads straight to the capital Bamako.