Tag: history

  • Show Me Some Swing

    Problems with my access to the tubes of the internets prevented me from posting this piece last week. But it’s still good and still relevant, especially in the wake of last night’s presidential debate. The New York Times and the FiveThirtyEight forecast came together to create this interactive flow chart, if you will, of the…

  • The Growth of the Non-payers of Federal Income Tax

    Today will be an unusual day in that it shall have two posts. This first post is following up on yesterday’s about the 47% of Americans who do not pay federal income tax. The Earned Income Tax Credit was created to incentivise people to work. A tax on your income, after all, does the opposite.…

  • Spies

    This infographic from the National Post is nearly a year old, however its look at global espionage in the wake of unrest in the Middle East is once again relevant. Credit for the piece goes to Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson.

  • Indo-European Language Origin

    Polonius once asked Hamlet what he was reading. Hamlet replied “Words.” I still love that scene. But, it turns out that we now have an even better idea of where our words came from. It turns out that it is more likely that our shared Indo-European languages originated not in the steppes of Russia but…

  • Missions to Mars

    Curiosity shall soon be exploring the surface of Mars seeking to understand the geological history of the planet. But in this infographic, see the cropping below, from the National Post we can see previous missions to Mars. We have not always been successful in operations in and around Mars, but our recent track record is…

  • God Save the Queen

    For the Queen’s Jubilee I had been looking for a good infographic or two about how the United Kingdom had changed over the length of her reign, at least thus far. Alas, I found not a great deal of substantial work. This is an infographic from the Guardian that looks at quite a few single…

  • New York Times Lies About Science

    In a rare infographic misstep, the New York Times published an incorrect diagram detailing the centre of the Earth. Clearly, anyone who knows anything about science knows that it is not a solid core of iron at the centre of the Earth, but dinosaurs. And I see no dinosaurs in this diagram. Credit for the…

  • Who Survived and Who Perished the Sinking of the RMS Titanic

    The anniversary of the RMS Titanic’s sinking led to a flurry of graphics related to the sinking, two of which I covered last week. Today’s is from the National Post and looks at the people onboard, most of whom died. Specifically, it breaks out the survivors and those who perished into their class—by berth not…

  • How the RMS Titanic Sank

    On 14 April 1912—that is 100 years—RMS Titanic avoided slamming bow-on into an iceberg. But her turn allowed the iceberg to slice a long gash beneath the waterline and the North Atlantic gushed into watertight compartment after watertight compartment. Several hours later over 1500 people would be dead. The BBC has published several articles about…

  • Setting the Stage for the Sinking of RMS Titanic

    Saturday will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. She struck an iceberg just before midnight—at the time the crew thought merely as a glancing blow—and within three hours she would be headed towards the seabed. By the time the survivors were all picked up, over 1500 people would die in…