Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
-
Read on…: Surveying Sentiment
How do you feel about the economy? The New York Times has posted an interesting interactive visualisation detailing the sentiment expressed by participants—defaulting to the most recent 100—answering several questions on the state of the economy. As a survey, this is—and it is framed as such—an unscientific sampling of trending opinions of only those who […]
-
Less Pie for Fewer Less Fortunate Foreigners
Read on…: Less Pie for Fewer Less Fortunate ForeignersForeign aid is the ‘soft’ power of a country vis-a-vis the ‘hard’ power of military force. Think blankets with ‘from the USA’ during earthquake relief in Kashmir instead of Abrams tanks in Kandahar. Some also goes to building infrastructure and increasing the standard of living for those in emerging countries. If you boost the income, […]
-
The Greek Tragedy
Read on…: The Greek TragedyThe Euro…yeah, that pesky bugger and all of the complications it is causing for the European Union at the moment. In July, the BBC released this animation explaining the Greek debt crisis. It’s worth a check, though some of the graphics could use improvement…like the one using scaled buildings in a bar chart. Critically for […]
-
Glaciers Aren’t So Slow After All…
Read on…: Glaciers Aren’t So Slow After All…Antarctica is a continent way down at the southern end of the world. It is covered almost entirely by glaciers. But glaciers move, and NASA and the University of California unveiled a map looking at the speed of the glaciers’ movements. Along with it, an interesting little video showing the tributaries to the glacial flow. […]
-
Back in the USSR
Read on…: Back in the USSRSo, those of you a little bit older than me—not to date myself—probably remember the evil Reds of Soviet Russia. Some my age do as well. Younger than me, it’s probably all ancient history. And so for those of you who forget, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was, if I am to simplify, a […]
-
Tracking This Hurricane Season
Read on…: Tracking This Hurricane SeasonLiving in Chicago, hurricane season means rather little. Perhaps at worst the city would see a major rain system moving up from Texas or the Gulf Coast. But, from all my time living on the East Coast makes hurricane season a bit more meaningful if now just as an outside observer. The Weather Channel has […]
-
Credit Rating Distribution
Read on…: Credit Rating DistributionA small graphic from the New York Times, this supports an article about the rarity of a credit rating of AAA in S&P 500 companies. I don’t quite know about the colour, nor do I know about the efficiency of using squares to represent the units that could be used in a bar chart, but […]
-
Farewell to the Space Shuttle
Read on…: Farewell to the Space ShuttleAs most of us know, the final space shuttle mission lifted off on Friday. Appropriately, the New York Times created an infographic for the news stories accompanying the mission that details the history of the entire shuttle program’s flights. If you are a space-y kind of guy like me, it’s worth a look.
-
The Failure of Watertight Bulkheads
Read on…: The Failure of Watertight BulkheadsRMS Titanic launched 100 years ago today in Belfast, where the anniversary was marked all these years later and the BBC covered it. In a related article, the BBC looked at why people celebrate a ship that had such a brief and tragic history, in which there was this small little graphic illustrating the failure […]
-
The West Bank Archipelago
Read on…: The West Bank ArchipelagoThis post is about an older work from Le Monde, the link to which I now forget. However, given all the talk these days about Israel and Palestine and 1967 borders, I figured it may well be advantageous to remind all that the borders likely will not be those of 1967, for the sheer fact […]