Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
-
Read on…: I Just Want to Retire
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got goals in life. Namely to retire. So thankfully the Economist put together this infographic on retirement age across the OECD (a cool club of rich countries), specifically to look at how retirement ages have changed between 1970 and 2010 alongside life expectancy.
-
Canadian Military Spending
Read on…: Canadian Military SpendingCanada is spending more than ever on its military. The question is, to what end? Canada shares a land border with only two countries. And one of them is us… From the National Post comes an infographic looking at the rising expenditures on defence and how it currently ranks in the world. Credit for the […]
-
The (Not So) Secret Service
Read on…: The (Not So) Secret ServiceThe Secret Service screwed up not so long ago with the whole hookers in Colombia scandal. (Proof that it pays to pay.) This infographic was passed along to me by my colleague Eileen and it investigates the results of congressional hearings into the Secret Service. Credit for the piece goes to the Onion.
-
Follow the Money. And Enjoy a Donut on the Way. Or a Pie.
Read on…: Follow the Money. And Enjoy a Donut on the Way. Or a Pie.Visualising government budgets is always fun. Until you realise that you are seeing where your money is going. But now we look at Australia’s expenditures. And as I pay nothing in taxes to Australia, I get to keep my fun. This piece is doing some interesting things within the framework of the donut chart I […]
-
God Save the Queen
Read on…: God Save the QueenFor the Queen’s Jubilee I had been looking for a good infographic or two about how the United Kingdom had changed over the length of her reign, at least thus far. Alas, I found not a great deal of substantial work. This is an infographic from the Guardian that looks at quite a few single […]
-
A Nine-story Log Cabin
Read on…: A Nine-story Log CabinIt’s like a log cabin. But taller. A lot taller. The New York Times reports with an infographic on a nine-story block of flats (apartment building for us Americans) in London called the Graphite Apartments that was built almost entirely of timber. Credit for the piece goes to Mika Gröndahl.
-
The Education Gap
Read on…: The Education GapLast week, the New York Times looked at the growing education gap amongst this country’s largest metropolitan areas. The infographic, click the image below to go to the full version, is perhaps a bit more layered, nuanced, and complex than it looks at first. In about forty years, the number of adults with college degrees […]
-
Cracking Down on Unemployment Benefit Fraud (in Canada)
Read on…: Cracking Down on Unemployment Benefit Fraud (in Canada)Nobody likes people cheating the unemployment system for benefits. Especially Canadians apparently. So this is a proposal to encourage the unemployed to start working. Credit for the piece goes to Steve Murray.
-
Oh(lder) Canada
Read on…: Oh(lder) CanadaCanada is getting old. At least so the Canadian census data says. As a percentage of the population, the map made by the National Post below looks at where the old people are. Within reason, one would expect to perhaps see a more even distribution across all of Canada. However, it appears that the northern […]