Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Circle Charts ca. 1937
Another image from my 1930s algebra book is on pie charts, or what was then called circle charts. And while the utility of such a chart form has not changed, especially in these examples, the circle chart of the 1930s had one particular good use for students. Constructing it. Today a student plugs in numbers into a spreadsheet in Google…
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Replacing the Bay Bridge for the Long Term
Read on…: Replacing the Bay Bridge for the Long TermBridges are vital parts of infrastructure networks connecting two separate pieces of territory, but often they can be choke points. Damage to a bridge can result to isolation at worst and at best long, circuitous reroutes that add significant time to travel. In the San Francisco area authorities are building a new bridge to replace the current Bay Bridge. But…
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Picture Graphs ca. 1937
Read on…: Picture Graphs ca. 1937Among my legions of books are a few from my grandfather’s days when he was a student. After going through some photos yesterday, I realised that I had taken photos of his elementary school algebra text book. Among the first chapters was an entire section on graphing and chart types. I hope to go through these in more detail in…
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Punxsutawney Phil’s Day in the Sun
Read on…: Punxsutawney Phil’s Day in the SunGroundhog Day. It’s Punxsutawney Phil’s day in the sun. Or not. Depends upon the year. Anyway, the Philadelphia Inquirer did a small piece about the history of this famous little groundhog from remote northwestern Pennsylvania. Credit for the piece goes to Cynthia Greer.
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Housing Prices Fall Some More
Read on…: Housing Prices Fall Some MoreHouses are meant to be lived in. Which is good to know if you’re a real estate investor because the housing market in the US is still not so good. According to an article in the New York Times, we’re back to 2003 levels (on average of course) for single-family homes. Accompanying the article is an interactive chart that lets…
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Cities Split Apart
Read on…: Cities Split ApartI like maps. Ever since I was kid. This post is less of an interesting graphic, chart, or what have you, but instead to point you to an interesting opinion piece in the New York Times. Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps wrote the piece, which is about cities split apart by political boundaries.
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Florida Primary
Read on…: Florida PrimaryThe Republican primaries…they’re still going on…on the long inevitable road to Romney’s coronation. Next up is Florida, always an interesting state to watch. There are a lot of people there with a whole host of interesting demographic slices. Perhaps one of the most interesting ones, at least to the media, is the Hispanic vote. Other things to look at in…