When the Walls Fell
Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: When the Walls Fell
Back in September I wrote about the siege of el-Fasher in Sudan, wherein the town and its government defenders faced the paramilitary rebel forces, the Rapid Support Force (RSF). At the time the RSF besiegers were constructing a wall to encircle the town and cut residents and defending forces off from resupply and reinforcements. At […]
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Tarnished Linings
Read on…: Tarnished LiningsLast month the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ordered Philadelphia’s public transit system, SEPTA, to inspect the backbone of its commuter rail service, Regional Rail: all 225 Silverliner IV railcars. The Silverliner IV fleet, aged over 50 years, suffered a series of fires this summer and the NTSB investigators wanted them inspected by the end […]
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Philadelphia Blue Jays
Read on…: Philadelphia Blue JaysLast weekend one of my good mates and I went out watch Game 7 of the World Series, wherein the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays for Major League Baseball’s championship. Whilst we watched, I pointed out that the Jays’ pitcher at the moment hailed from a suburb of Philadelphia. He was well […]
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Boy, Does That Stink
Read on…: Boy, Does That Stink(Editor’s note, i.e. my post-publish edit: The subject matter, not the work.) Last week the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about the volume of sewage discharged into the region’s waterways over nearly a decade. It cited a report from Penn Environment, which claimed 12.7 billion tons of sewage enter the Delaware River’s watershed. I clicked […]
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Where’s the Tin Can?
Read on…: Where’s the Tin Can?After a few weeks away for some much needed R&R, I returned to Philadelphia and began catching up on the news I missed over the last few weeks. (I generally try to make a point and stay away from news, social media, e-mail, &c.) One story I see still active is the US threatening Venezuela. […]
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Revisiting My 2025 Red Sox Predictions
Read on…: Revisiting My 2025 Red Sox PredictionsBack in March I posted my predictions for the 2025 Boston Red Sox on my social media feeds. I chose not to post it here, because the images had no real data visualisation and the only real information graphic was my prediction of the playoffs via a bracket. I did, however, write about how the […]
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Pick Your Pizza
Read on…: Pick Your PizzaAs many longtime readers know, I lived in Chicago for eight years. I probably had Chicago-style pizza fewer than eight times in my life. I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and for the last nine years I have lived in central Philadelphia, where pizza is very much a different thing. And in my life […]
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Palestine. The Newest Country in the World?
Read on…: Palestine. The Newest Country in the World?One of the most debated questions one could ask at pub trivia: How many countries are there in the world? To start, the question cannot be answered completely. What is a country? What is a state? What is a nation? Define recognition. Whose definition? When I worked at Euromonitor International I had to edit a […]
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Pour One Out—For Your Liver
Read on…: Pour One Out—For Your LiverLast month Vox published an article about the trend in America wherein people are drinking less alcohol. They cited a Gallup poll conducted since 1939 and which reported only 54% of Americans reported partaking in America’s national tipple—except for that brief dalliance with Prohibition—making this the least-drinking society since, well, at least 1939. Vox charted […]
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Sharing a Coastline Between Friends
Read on…: Sharing a Coastline Between FriendsAnother week has ended. Another weekend begins. I saw this a little while ago and flagged it for myself to share on a just for fun Friday. And since I posted a few things this week I figured I would share this as well. It is remarkable it took the similarity of the two coastlines […]