Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral: Part Trois
On Tuesday I talked about a small article published by the New York Times that looked at the cathedral fire. I lamented that there were no immediate graphics explaining what happened. Just give me two days. Tuesday we had the BBC piece and then yesterday the New York Times published a more extensive look. As the user scrolls through the piece, a…
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The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral: Part Deux
Read on…: The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral: Part DeuxYesterday I mentioned how there were few graphics detailing the fire at Notre Dame de Paris. Just give media organisations a day. The BBC published this piece about the fire. It includes, much like the Times piece from yesterday, an illustrative diagram detailing the key locations of the fire. But the BBC piece goes a bit further and includes photo…
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The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral
Read on…: The Fire at Notre Dame CathedralThis was not what I was going to write about today, but the news of the fire that ravaged Notre Dame yesterday rightly dominated the news yesterday and this morning. However, while I found multiple articles dealing with photographic evidence of the damage, I did not see many that detailed the fire from an illustrative or diagrammatic standpoint. Thankfully, the…
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Israeli Electoral History
Read on…: Israeli Electoral HistoryOne of the important stories of last week that was not black hole related was that of the re-election of the Likud Party in Israel, a party headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This will be his fourth consecutive time as prime minister plus a fifth back in the late 1990s. Of course, he is facing an expected arrest and charges on…
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Black Holes and Revelations
Read on…: Black Holes and RevelationsOn Sunday night I went to see the English rock band Muse perform here in Philadelphia. The concert was to support their latest album, but of course they played Starlight, a song which gave us its respective album’s title: Black Holes and Revelations. Then on Wednesday, scientists announced that for the very first time, we have actually been able to…
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Carbon Taxes
Read on…: Carbon TaxesLast week the New York Times published an article about carbon taxes, looking at their adoption around the world and their effectiveness. It is a fascinating article about how different countries have chosen to implement the broad policy idea and the various forms it can take. And, most importantly, how some of those policies can end up blunting the intended effect…
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How Does the UK View Their Political Parties?
Read on…: How Does the UK View Their Political Parties?The United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union on Friday. That means there is no deal to safeguard continuity of trading arrangements, healthcare, air traffic control, security and intelligence deals, &c. Oh, and it will likely wreck the economy. No big deal, Theresa. But what do UK voters think about their leading political parties in this climate? Thankfully Politico…
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Per Sense
Read on…: Per SenseFor some levity given today is Friday, let us get to the really contentious matters of late. Is the percentage sign acceptable in text? According to the AP, it now is. Thankfully, xkcd was on it and took a look at the acceptability of various forms of expressing a percentage. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Public Transit of Yesteryear
Read on…: Public Transit of YesteryearFor my frequent readers, it will be no big surprise that I am avid supporter of public transit, especially the railways. Consequently I was delighted when I read a non-Brexit piece in the Guardian yesterday that looked at public transit systems in several cities. But it did so by comparing earlier plans or systems to those in existence today. Each…
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The Entire United States Pt 2
Read on…: The Entire United States Pt 2Yesterday I wrote about the failure in a Politico piece to include Alaska and Hawaii in a graphic depicting the “entire” United States. After I had posted it, I recalled an article I read in the Guardian that looked at the shape of the United States, using the term “logo map”. It compared what many would consider the logo map…