Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: The Uneven Rebound of Manufacturing
Admittedly, I only read today’s piece because of the photograph on the Washington Post’s homepage. It featured a giant banner saying Lordstown (Ohio) was the home of the (Chevy) Cruze. Every single time I drove between Philadelphia and Chicago I would see that sign. It was also near the halfway point, so whichever way I […]
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Is Bryce Harper Another Ryan Howard?
Read on…: Is Bryce Harper Another Ryan Howard?No. Definitely not. But, the position of this article by FiveThirtyEight is that the Phillies, the Philadelphia baseball team that just made the largest guaranteed contract in North American sports, may have purchased the rights to somebody who is a few years past his prime. The author tracked the performance of similar baseball players over […]
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The Periodic Table
Read on…: The Periodic TableLast week the Economist published a fascinating read that uses one of the fundamental information design pieces there is. The piece talks about the history of organising within the field of chemistry and the most well-known…elements in it: the elements. I am, of course, referring to the Periodic Table. The piece starts actually in revolutionary […]
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What About the Magic JPEG
Read on…: What About the Magic JPEGWe made it to the end of the week, everybody. And that’s saying something. Part of my jobs over the last several years has been to work with context experts and help them tell their stories. Sometimes I have to do it through charts and graphics. When that happens, I often need data files to […]
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The Bill Barr Bifurcation
Read on…: The Bill Barr BifurcationSo today’s piece is not a revolutionary piece of information design, but it is fascinating. For two or so years now, we have all heard about the Robert Mueller investigation into potential contacts between the Trump campaign, early administration, and the administration of Russian president Vladimir Putin. To be clear, thus far, this has been […]
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Are Baseball’s Big Contracts Worth It?
Read on…: Are Baseball’s Big Contracts Worth It?On Tuesday the San Diego Padres signed Manny Machado to a guaranteed contract worth $300 million over the next ten years—though he can opt out after five years. Machado was one of two big free agents on the market, the other being Bryce Harper. One question out there is whether or not these big contracts […]
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Trump Keeps Attacking the Special Counsel
Read on…: Trump Keeps Attacking the Special CounselYesterday the New York Times published a fascinating piece looking at the data on how often President Trump has gone after the Special Counsel’s investigation. (Spoiler: over 1100 times.) It makes use of a number of curvy line charts showing the peaks of mentions of topics and people, e.g. Jeff Sessions. But my favourite element […]