Examining How We Measure Our Lives

Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation

  • On Sunday Germany went to the polls. Angela Merkel won a fourth term, but the anti-immigrant nationalist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), won nearly 13% of the vote. That places a nationalist party in the German parliament for the first time since World War II. A lot of the graphics I saw were straight-up bar charts of the final vote share.…

    Read on…: German Election Results

  • C’mon. You knew I was not going to let that one slip by. President Trump, in a meeting with African leaders, twice name-dropped Nambia and in one mention held it up as having a nearly self-sufficient healthcare system. Funny thing to mention as the US is on the brink of eviscerating its healthcare system. But I digress. The point is…

    Read on…: Nambia

  • I meant to post this yesterday, but accidentally saved it as a draft. So let’s try this again. Yesterday the New York Times published a print piece that explored how the Cassidy-Graham bill would change the healthcare system. This would, of course, be another attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. And like previous efforts, this bill would do real damage…

    Read on…: The Cassidy-Graham Healthcare Bill

  • For years the Rohingya people, largely Muslim, in Burma (also known as Myanmar) have faced persecution from the majority Buddhist Burmese to the point that they are not considered citizens. Over the last several weeks, the Burmese government has reacted to assaults against civil authorities by armed Rohingya groups by burning villages wholesale. Burma denies it, occasionally going so far as…

    Read on…: Burning Out the Rohingya

  • Today’s post is a sad post, hence why I did not run with it on Friday. But on Friday, we bid adieu to the little space probe that could, Cassini. This piece is not terribly heavy on the information design, but it does include one diagram—so it counts. The BBC put together a piece reflecting on the Cassini mission, including…

    Read on…: Farewell, Cassini

  • Over the last several weeks we dealt with the impact of a few hurricanes from H to K, i.e. Harvey, Irma, Jose, and Katia. Now that the Atlantic basin has quieted a wee bit, it is time we get back to the lighter side of things. So we turn to xkcd and its look at ensemble models, often used to try…

    Read on…: All the Crazy Models

  • But to be honest, it never really went anywhere. As you know, your humble author visited Boston this past weekend and got to see two games of his Red Sox against Tampa Bay. Tampa, of course, is not the rivalry to which I am referring, but things were heated back in the days when Maddon managed Tampa. No, I am…

    Read on…: The Best Rivalry Is Back

  • Colin Kaepernick is a contentious figure in American football because of the protests he started against the US national anthem. While other protesting players remain on teams and play, Kaepernick remains unsigned despite what some say is a talent above other players. And as the American football season just began, this article from the Washington Post caught my attention. Some of…

    Read on…: Colin Kaepernick

  • One of the stories I am interested to work on visualising in that mythical land of free time is a comparison of potential host cities for Amazon’s recently announced HQ2, a second corporate headquarters. In the meantime, I read this piece from the Times that attempted to decide for them. I have some qualms with it, first that it excludes other…

    Read on…: Where to Site Amazon’s HQ2

  • Like many Americans I followed the story of Hurricane Irma over the weekend. One of my favourite pieces of reporting was this article from the Washington Post. It did a really nice job of visually comparing Irma to some recent and more historic storms, such as 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. It can be difficult to truly compare hurricanes, sometimes they are…

    Read on…: How Big Was Irma?