Gravity was released recently. You know, that film about a station in space that gets hit by something and drama ensues. The Washington Post has this fantastic infographic that illustrates how the station was built over the past 15 years. Scroll down the page and watch the station deconstruct itself into its initial Russian power module. Fantastic.
Credit for the piece goes to Alberto Cuadra and Katie Park.
So the House Republicans’ Tea Party wing added several different non-budget riders centred around the Affordable Care Act (which they have labelled Obamacare) to the budget. And then the whole House Republican caucus passed it despite threats of immediate vetoes from both the Democratic Senate and the White House. The House Republicans have shut down the US government because of their refusal to remove non-budget legislation from the budget. This after the Affordable Care Act was deemed to be constitutional. After 42 separate votes on scrapping it. After the 2012 elections where the Democrats, who ran on keeping the Affordable Care Act, won more votes than Republicans, who ran on scrapping it. But, it gets even more zany than that as this fantastic infographic shows the pinball-like refusal of the Tea Party to remove the Affordable Care Act knowing well in advance that the Senate Democrats were not going to allow the rider.
Credit for the piece goes to Karen Yourish and Archie Tse.
The Syrian crisis is pushing people out of Syria. Unfortunately, most of the refugees are fleeing to places not wholly equipped or supplied to handle such large numbers. In this interactive piece of journalism, the BBC explores the difficulties in just one camp, Zaatari in the desert of Jordan.
My favourite element is this interactive map. It uses four satellite photographs taken at a few months interval and compares the growth of the camp; the growth is striking. The piece contains a diagrammatic view of the camp, identifying key areas, e.g. education areas, as well as a comparison to a new refugee camp named Azraq to host the overflow population. Fortunately, that camp is being designed with the lessons learned from Zaatari.
Credit for the piece goes to the BBC graphics team.
This interactive map from the Washington Post is one part of a long-form piece that looks at NASA and the improbable tasks facing the agency. Specifically the piece looks at how NASA wants to get to Mars, but how difficult that is and how an also difficult asteroid mission is as a backup plan.
Really fantastic is about all I can say.
Credit for the piece goes to Joel Achenbach, Alberto Cuadra, Kennedy Elliott, Rebecca Rolfe, and Ricky Carioti.
While we are waiting for Russian help to destroy Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons, we know that the Pentagon is still ready to strike (most likely with cruise missiles) various targets of the Syrian regime. This graphic from the Wall Street Journal explores some of the options. The interesting bit is the range of Syria’s anti-ship missiles. Because for those of you who do not recall the Israel–Lebanon war of 2006, Hezbollah (known to be aiding the Syrian regime) surprised some by scoring a hit on an Israeli warship with a less-advanced missile than in the Syrian arsenal.
This is only one of several different graphics from that page. Different graphics look at elements of the conflict, including the refugees, timeline of the regime’s actions, &c.
Credit for the piece goes to the Wall Street Journal graphics department.
Guantanamo Bay and the US military prison there almost always spark a debate. For some months now, prisoners have been staging a hunger strike. Increasingly, however, the strike is garnering attention not for itself, but for the US military’s treatment of the prisoners in force feeding them. The National Post looked at just how this is being done in this infographic. Pay particular attention to the illustration of the tube, which is drawn to actual size.
Credit for the piece goes to Andrew Barr, Mike Faille, and Richard Johnson.
Last week NASA announced that last year, Voyager 1 left the Solar System about 25 August 2012. A lot of the graphics that were published to support that story chronicled the distance travelled by that probe. However, this excellent graphic by the Los Angeles Times instead looks at how NASA determined through the data returned that Voyager had left the Solar System.
The piece does a really good job of setting up the story in illustrating the instrument packaged used to collect the data. Moving down the piece, it shows locations and the different environments and then how those environments differ in electron density. Lastly it looks at how NASA interpolated the date from the data collected. A really solid piece.
Credit for the piece goes to Monte Morin, Doug Stevens, and Anthony Pesce.
Normally this would be a Friday post. But, for those of you fellow Red Sox fans who happen to live near enough to Fenway to go catch a game, Wednesday night is Dollar Beard Night. This graphic by the Red Sox details the different types of beards worn by Red Sox players this year. It’s like the bunch of idiots of 2004.
Wednesday night if you show up to Fenway with a beard, you can get a $1 ticket for Dollar Beard Night. Hence why posting this Friday would do you fellow Red Sox fans no good.
Credit for the piece goes to the Red Sox.
For those of you who read this blog in Chicago know very well that the Red Line, Chicago’s busiest subway line, is undergoing major construction as the transit authority rebuilds much of the line. But what exactly does that entail?
Earlier this year the Chicago Tribune looked at that and with a series of illustrations, explained the different steps of the process. This first section details the steps taken to rip up the rails.
Credit for the piece goes to Jemal R. Brinson and Kyle Bentle.
…it’s an Aeroscraft! This interactive, diagrammatic infographic from the Los Angeles Times explains just how the aeroscraft is part zeppelin, part plane, and part chopper.
Credit for the piece goes to Raoul Ranoa and Anthony Pesce.
