Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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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.
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Similar Airspeed Patterns
Read on…: Similar Airspeed PatternsYesterday we looked at the isolation of the US and Canada in keeping the Boeing 737 Max aircraft in the air. Later that day, both countries grounded those aircraft. Today in the print edition of the New York Times the front page used significant space to chart the vertical speed of the two crashed aircraft. It uses the same scale…
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Demanding the Impossible
Read on…: Demanding the ImpossibleThe key problem in the Brexit deal remains what to do with the Irish border. In essence, the UK faces the same trilemma it has since the beginning. It wants three things it cannot have at the same time: exiting the EU single market and customs union, so it can create a free and independent trade policy; no hard border…
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Another Week, Another Brexit Vote
Read on…: Another Week, Another Brexit VoteYet again, we are poised to watch the British House of Commons this week as it votes on several key pieces of Brexit-related legislation. In short, MPs are set to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Again. Basically the same one that MPs rejected by a historic margin last month. The question is will they vote against it…
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Basic Statistics
Read on…: Basic StatisticsHappy Friday, everybody. We made it to the end of the week. And so now we have xkcd going all back to school and teaching us all simple statistics. For those unfamiliar with statistics, that’s not at all how it works. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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The Long and Winding Road
Read on…: The Long and Winding RoadThis Washington Post piece caught my eye earlier this week. It takes a look back at all the departures from the Trump administration, which has been beset by one of the highest turnover rates of all time. What I like about the piece is how it classifies personnel by whether or not they require Senate confirmation. For example, Ryan Zinke…
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The Uneven Rebound of Manufacturing
Read on…: The Uneven Rebound of ManufacturingAdmittedly, 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 was headed I only had…
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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 history and found that they…