Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: #MeToo After One Year
One year on and the #meToo movement continues to upend the political, economic, and cultural landscape of the United States. And a few days ago the New York Times published a piece on all the stories they have collected. From a data visualisation standpoint, this is a fairly simple piece. It takes 201 men (and […]
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The Saudi Assassination Squad
Read on…: The Saudi Assassination SquadYesterday we looked at the importance of arms deals from the US and UK to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the brutal murder and assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist who sometimes wrote critically of the Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) regime. But what about the actual murder itself? What do we know? […]
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Arms Sales for Saudi Arabia and Head Removals for Journalists
Read on…: Arms Sales for Saudi Arabia and Head Removals for JournalistsYeah, guess where I am going with that title… If you have been living under a rock, Saudi Arabia barbarically murdered/assassinated a Washington Post journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey about three weeks ago. The journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was a Saudi citizen and US resident living around Washington from where he reported on […]
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Phone Calls
Read on…: Phone CallsIt’s Friday, everybody, and that means we all made it to the end of the week. As a millennial, I was surprised to learn that my mobile can actually be used to make telephonic calls. Phone calls, as they are often known, are like direct messages or text messages, but made without cat gifs or […]
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The New Longest Flight
Read on…: The New Longest FlightYou might recall that back in March I wrote about the use of spherical maps to show great circles. This helps illustrate the actual routes that aircraft take in flight. (Yes, actual flight plans deviate based on routes, weather, traffic, &c.) At the time I wrote about how there was a soon-to-be Singapore–New York route. […]
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Mapping All the Buildings
Read on…: Mapping All the BuildingsI wish I had more for this post. Saturday morning’s New York Times was delivered with this on the front page, above the fold. It promised a special section including graphics that showed every building in the United States with a pullout poster of a large major city. I have been through my Sunday paper […]
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First Florence, Now Michael
Read on…: First Florence, Now MichaelYou may recall a few weeks ago there was a hurricane named Florence that slammed into the Carolina before stalling and dumping voluminous amounts of rain that inundated inland communities in addition to the damage by the storm surge in the coastal communities. At the time I wrote about a New York Times piece that […]
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Europe is More than the Big States
Read on…: Europe is More than the Big StatesFirst, I want to start with a housekeeping note. Your author will be travelling for work and then a short autumn holiday. And so while I may be able to sneak a post or two in, I generally would not expect anything until next Friday, 12 October. But let’s end this string of posts with […]
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Calendars
Read on…: CalendarsThroughout recorded history, calendars have profoundly impacted the development of human society. They allowed us to mark the rain or flood seasons to prepare for planting or reaping crops along the banks of rivers like the Nile. Calendars allowed us to account for the seasons and create the mythologies around them. We also have calendars […]
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Millennials Are the Worst
Read on…: Millennials Are the WorstHappy Friday, everybody. We made it to week’s end. But wouldn’t you know it? Millennials are still terrible. Admittedly this piece is over a year old, but I could not remember ever seeing it before. If you do not recall, last year there was a debate about the spending habits of millennials and why they are not […]