Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
-
Read on…: US State Maps
I was up late watching the British general election. So forgive me for phoning this one in. But we have a great piece from xkcd that looks at those choropleth US state maps. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
-
Where the Polling Stands
Read on…: Where the Polling StandsTomorrow is the big day: the general election in the United Kingdom. If, like me, you have been following the news over the last several weeks, you know it has been punctuated by…gaffes. And what was initially considered a certainty for Prime Minister Theresa May is, well, not so much. This graph of polling data compiled by the BBC instead…
-
Rising Rate of US Drug Deaths
Read on…: Rising Rate of US Drug DeathsWhile today’s post is not an uplifting story, I did find it remarkable in its presentation. Nothing too fancy or revolutionary to be certain, but remarkable nonetheless. What was it? This morning when I picked up the Times there was a chart in black and red, above the fold, below the cover photo. The story is about the rising number…
-
Where Trump Has Travelled
Read on…: Where Trump Has TravelledOkay, not entirely. But Bloomberg put together a solid series of graphics tracking not the travels of Donald Trump, but his private aircraft. But that information can serve as a rough proxy for Trump’s travels. But the data is not complete—Russia is missing from the map though he has visited the country for business. Credit for the piece goes to Vernon…
-
The United States of Misspelled Werds
Read on…: The United States of Misspelled WerdsThe National Spelling Bee was this week and Google produced a map of the words each state seeks the most help spelling goodly. Naturally, there was a misspelling in their own graphic—unfortunately I do not have an image of that, but trust me they misspelled ninety as nintey in Maryland. Wisconsin, you need help. Credit for the piece goes to…
-
Energy Production in Pennsylvania
Read on…: Energy Production in PennsylvaniaPennsylvania was the country’s first state to operate a nuclear power plant for electricity generation and is today the second-largest nuclear-generated electricity state after Illinois. But in recent years the triple threat of the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale natural gas boom, wind power subsidies, and solar power subsidies have hit the state’s nuclear industry hard. Consequently the power company Exelon has announced…
-
Traffic Accidents in Philadelphia
Read on…: Traffic Accidents in PhiladelphiaI’m working on a set of stories and in the course of that research I came across this article from Philly.com exploring traffic accident in Philadelphia. The big draw for the piece is the heat map for Philadelphia. Of course at this scale the map is pretty much meaningless. Consequently you need to zoom in for any significant insights. This…
-
Let’s All Shake Hands
Read on…: Let’s All Shake HandsSo this isn’t exactly an infographic, but it’s still great because it let’s me links to sites with the video. It’s about Donald Trump’s handshakes. If you missed yesterday’s two between him and new French president, Emmanuel Macron, well you missed something. If you want to see the handshake, you can watch it in the video clip at the end…