Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: The Entire United States Pt 2
Yesterday 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…
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The Entire United States
Read on…: The Entire United StatesLast month Politico published an article called the Democrats’ Dilemma. It looked at what will likely be the crux of their debate for their 2020 candidates. Go moderate or hard left? The super simple version of the argument is that do you win by persuading independents and moderate Republicans to vote Democratic? Or do you win by ginning up the…
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50 Shades of Tory Blue
Read on…: 50 Shades of Tory BlueIt is Monday, so it must be another Brexit vote day. And today we have Indicative Vote Day 2. If you recall from last week, the House of Commons wrestled control over parliamentary business away from the government and created a two-step process to try and see if any alternative to Theresa May’s Brexit plan can receive a workable, sustainable…
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Infinite Errors
Read on…: Infinite ErrorsInformation design has largely settled on a few key forms to communicate data. One is the error bar. But xkcd explores what can happen when we take error bars…to infinity. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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The Rise of White Nationalist Terrorism
Read on…: The Rise of White Nationalist TerrorismWhilst I was on holiday, a terrorist killed nearly fifty people in Christchurch, New Zealand. Except this time, he was a white man and the victims were all Muslims. Admittedly, I really did not read much about it until I returned to the States, but it clearly is not a thing I was expecting out of New Zealand. But the…
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Video Orientation Guide
Read on…: Video Orientation GuideWe made it to Friday, everybody. Although for me it, was a short week. I spent the last week on holiday in Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And that meant I took a lot of photos. And I mean a lot. But the question when taking a photo is, in which orientation should I take the shot? A few…
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Regions of German Nationalism
Read on…: Regions of German NationalismThe Economist has an interesting piece looking at the areas of support for the far-right AfD German political party, arguably a neo-fascist nationalist party. It turns out that The piece does a great job of setting the case through the demographics map at the top of the piece. It shows how the two areas where the largest AfD support experienced…
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Angry Birds? Bad Birds
Read on…: Angry Birds? Bad BirdsBaseball is almost upon us. And oh boy do the Baltimore Orioles look bad. How bad? Historically bad. FiveThirtyEight went so far as to chart the expected WAR, wins above replacement, of each position of all teams since 1973. And the expected Orioles lineup looks remarkably bad. What is nice about this graphic is the use of the medium grey…
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Why the Faces?
Read on…: Why the Faces?Stepping away from both the Brexit drama and the aircraft drama of the week, let’s look at US political drama. Specifically, the Democratic field and some of the early support for candidates and assumed-to-be candidates. This piece comes from an article about the bases of various candidates. From a data visualisation perspective it uses a scatter plot to compare the…
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All the Tabs
Read on…: All the TabsI am definitely guilty of this piece from Indexed. But it’s Friday, so I can open as many tabs as I want. Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.