Tag: charting

  • Just a Thought About a Thing That’s Been Nipping at Me

    Just a Thought About a Thing That’s Been Nipping at Me

    The democratisation of design tools ostensibly allows people to create high-quality graphics. But I think we can all admit to ourselves we see a lot of work that…misses its mark. As a general rule, I do not often post work here by untrained designers. My peers and I have the benefit of education and experience…

  • The Phoenix Rises from the Charcoal

    The Phoenix Rises from the Charcoal

    To be clear, climate change is real. We know humanity drives the bulk of it via emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gasses, e.g. methane. Electricity generation plays a significant role in the total output, though not all means of generating power are equal. Wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear, for example, produce no carbon emissions.…

  • Tarnished Linings

    Tarnished Linings

    Last month the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ordered Philadelphia’s public transit system, SEPTA, to inspect the backbone of its commuter rail service, Regional Rail: all 225 Silverliner IV railcars. The Silverliner IV fleet, aged over 50 years, suffered a series of fires this summer and the NTSB investigators wanted them inspected by the end…

  • It’s Raining Drones

    It’s Raining Drones

    Last Friday the BBC published an article about the US’ resumption of supplying military assistance to Ukraine in its defence of Russia’s invasion. But in that article, the author referenced the increased intensity of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine over that week. To show the intensity, the BBC included this graphic, which incorporates…

  • A Warming Climate Floods All Rivers

    A Warming Climate Floods All Rivers

    Last weekend, the United States’ 4th of July holiday weekend, the remnants of a tropical system inundated a central Texas river valley with months’ worth of rain in just a few short hours. The result? The tragic loss of over 100 lives (and authorities are still searching for missing people). Debate rages about why the…

  • My Irish Heritage

    My Irish Heritage

    This week began with Saint Patrick’s Day, a day that here in the States celebrates Ireland and Irish heritage. And I have an abundance of that. As we saw in a post earlier this year about some new genetic ancestry results, Ireland accounts for approximately 2/3 of my ancestry. But as many of my readers…

  • Three-dimensional Charts Are Back, Baby

    Three-dimensional Charts Are Back, Baby

    I thought three-dimensional charts died back in the 2010s. Alas, here we are in 2024 and I have to discuss one once again. have been following the Titan Inquiry this week and the opening presentation included this gem of data visualisation. To be fair, I do not know how many designers, let alone specialist information…

  • To X or Not to X

    To X or Not to X

    As it happens, the Latino culture largely remains x’ed out on using the term Latinx, according to a new survey from Pew Research. The issue of supplanting Latino/Latina with Latinx as a gender neutral replacement—or as a complementary alternative—emerged in the general discourse in that oh-so-fun year of 2020 when everything went well. One common…

  • No Matter What You Say, I’m Still Me

    No Matter What You Say, I’m Still Me

    As many long-time readers know, I was long ago bitten by the genealogy bug and that included me taking several DNA tests. The real value remains in the genetic matches, less so the ethnicity estimates. But the estimates are fun, I’ll give you that. Every so often the companies update their analysis of the DNA…

  • Climate Conscientious and Cheaper Cars

    Sometimes in the course of my work I stumble across graphics and work that I previously missed. In this case I was seeking a post about one of my favourite infographics, but it turned out I’ve never posted about it and so I will have to rectify that someday. However in my searching, I came…