Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Irish Abortion Referendum
Read on…: Irish Abortion ReferendumOn Saturday Ireland announced the results of a referendum on changing its constitution to remove Article 8, which had made abortion illegal except in the case of risk of death to the mother. And that was it, none of the usual rape or incest clauses. I want to look at a little coverage of the results and we will start…
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Lunar Observations
Read on…: Lunar ObservationsMonday night I was doing some work outside and when I turned around to head inside I was struck by the brilliance of an object in the night sky. I had seen the Moon rise earlier in the evening, but this was far to the east. It was identifiable as a dot, not just a speck in the night sky.…
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A Wetter Midwest
Read on…: A Wetter MidwestHere in Philadelphia, I think yesterday was the first day it had not rained in over a week. Not that everyday was a drenching storm, but at least showers passed through along with some downpours and definitely grey skies. But what about my old home, Chicago? Well, FiveThirtyEight turned to a longer-term look and examined how over the century the…
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Gun Control Legislation
Read on…: Gun Control LegislationBack in March I posted about a great graphic from the New York Times editorial board they made in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Saturday morning, the day after Friday’s Santa Fe, Texas school shooting, I was reading the paper and found the updated graphic. Yeah, almost nothing has changed. Congress passed and the president signed an…
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Study Up
Read on…: Study UpIt’s Friday, everybody. We made it. So now go and hit the books this weekend and study up. Thanks to xkcd, we know a little bit more about areas of research. I just am wondering where design is. Or economics. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Turning the Midwest Red
Read on…: Turning the Midwest RedContinuing with election-y stuff, I want to share a fascinating map from the Washington Post. The article came out last week, and it is actually incredibly light in terms of data visualisation. By my count, there were only two maps. The article’s focus is on interviews with Trump voters in 2016 and how their opinions of the president have changed…
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Pennsylvania Primary Night
Read on…: Pennsylvania Primary NightSurprise, surprise. This morning we just take a quick little peak at some of the data visualisation from the Pennsylvania primary races yesterday. Nothing is terribly revolutionary, just well done from the Washington Post, Politico, and the New York Times. But let’s start with my district, which was super exciting. Moving on. Each of the three I chose to highlight…
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Tracking the Women Running for Office
Read on…: Tracking the Women Running for OfficeYesterday we talked about a static graphic from the New York Times that ran front and centre on the, well, front page. Whilst writing the piece, I recalled a piece from Politico that I have been lazily following, as in I bookmarked to write about another time. And suddenly today seemed as good as any other day. After all, this…
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Women Running for Congress
Read on…: Women Running for CongressIf you haven’t heard by now, this year is a US Congressional midterm election year meaning that eligible American citizens will be voting for their local representative and 1/3 of the states will be selecting their senator. But perhaps because yesterday was Mother’s Day in the States, the New York Times ran a front-page, above-the-fold piece on the number of…