Tag: charting

  • Less Pie for Fewer Less Fortunate Foreigners

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Foreign aid is the ‘soft’ power of a country vis-a-vis the ‘hard’ power of military force. Think blankets with ‘from the USA’ during earthquake relief in Kashmir instead of Abrams tanks in Kandahar. Some also goes to building infrastructure and increasing the standard of living for those in emerging countries. If you boost the income,…

  • The Greek Tragedy

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Euro…yeah, that pesky bugger and all of the complications it is causing for the European Union at the moment. In July, the BBC released this animation explaining the Greek debt crisis. It’s worth a check, though some of the graphics could use improvement…like the one using scaled buildings in a bar chart. Critically for…

  • Back in the USSR

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    Brendan Barry
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    So, those of you a little bit older than me—not to date myself—probably remember the evil Reds of Soviet Russia. Some my age do as well. Younger than me, it’s probably all ancient history. And so for those of you who forget, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was, if I am to simplify, a…

  • Tracking This Hurricane Season

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    Brendan Barry
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    Living in Chicago, hurricane season means rather little. Perhaps at worst the city would see a major rain system moving up from Texas or the Gulf Coast. But, from all my time living on the East Coast makes hurricane season a bit more meaningful if now just as an outside observer. The Weather Channel has…

  • Farewell to the Space Shuttle

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    As most of us know, the final space shuttle mission lifted off on Friday. Appropriately, the New York Times created an infographic for the news stories accompanying the mission that details the history of the entire shuttle program’s flights. If you are a space-y kind of guy like me, it’s worth a look.

  • Year of the Tornado

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    2011 appears to be the year of the tornado, with killer tornados roaming from Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and small towns in the deep South now to Joplin, Missouri. The latter now holds the record for being the most deadly, 117 confirmed deaths, in US-recorded history. The New York Times, in its coverage of the aftermath—and the…

  • (Insert 1/1000 Airplane Jokes Here)

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Airlines merge. (As do many other companies, but those companies are not the focus of this post.) And often the mergers are complex. Lamentably, one cannot simply merge logos and be done. Here is looking at you, UAL Corporation (United Air Lines) + Continental Airlines Inc.= United Continental Holdings Co.—not that I particularly care for…

  • Updating Minard

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday, Chartporn posted a link to an OkCupid post about sex, specifically charts of sex. And yes, they are quite interesting and worth checking out. But, I enjoyed the humour at the outset, where they noted the brilliance of the pie chart as a modern chart form that can replace the classic Minard chart about…

  • Royal Wedding Genealogy

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    If you have not heard, somebody in Britain is getting married…and of course that means explorations of royal blood lines and, well, non-royal bloodlines. So the BBC put together a small piece on Kate Middleton’s ancestry. So for those of you with any interest in charting family lines, here you go. The piece has some…

  • Finnish Election Results

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Finland held an election that was worth watching because of the rise of a nationalist party whose name translates to True Finns. The leader of the True Finns was interviewed and at the end he reassured all watching that they “are not extremists. So you can sleep safely.” For Europe, the issue is their opposition…