Tag: information design

  • Rating Scale

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    Brendan Barry
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    This week is almost over and so instead of a graphic about unemployment numbers, let’s look at a piece from xkcd that provides us all with a new rating scale. Because, let’s be honest, we all at some point are going to need to rate 2020 come December. And while we still have almost five…

  • Flood Stages of the Schuylkill

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    Brendan Barry
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    Hurricane Isaias ran up the East Coast of the United States then the Hudson River Valley before entering Canada. Before it left the US, however, it dumped some record-setting amounts of rain in Philadelphia and across the region. And in times of heavy rains, the lower-lying areas of the city (and suburbs like Upper Darby…

  • Big Bar Chart Better

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today isn’t a Friday, but I want to take a quick look at something that made me laugh aloud—literally LOL—whilst simultaneously cringe. Not surprisingly it has to do with Trump and data/facts. This all stems from an interview Axios’ Jonathan Swan conducted with President Trump on 28 July and that was released yesterday. I haven’t…

  • Covid-19 Update

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    Brendan Barry
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    As I mentioned last week, I am going to try using my blog here for the weekly update on the five states people have asked me to explore. And for the second week in a row, we are basically seeing numbers down compared to previous days. But given that numbers are generally lower on the…

  • What Will the Next Recovery Look Like?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Earlier this morning, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its US 2nd quarter GDP figures and the news…isn’t great. On an annualised basis, we saw -32.9% growth. That’s pretty bad. Like Great Depression level bad. I’ve posted on the social media how bad this current recession is and how nobody in the workforce today worked…

  • All the Little Spacecraft

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    Brendan Barry
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    Early tomorrow morning, weather permitting, NASA’s Perseverance rover will blast off from Cape Canaveral on a six-plus month trip to Mars. There, hopefully it will land successfully and join all the rovers that have come before. And so this piece from the New York Times feels appropriate. It’s a great illustration of all the spacecraft…

  • African Descent in African Americans

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    Brendan Barry
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    A study published last week explores the long-lasting impact of the Atlantic triangle trade of slaves on the genetic makeup of present day African Americans. Genetic genealogy can break down many of what we genealogists call brick walls, where paper records and official documentation prevent researchers from moving any further back in time. In American…

  • Sunday’s Covid Numbers

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    Brendan Barry
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    I do not want this blog to become a permanent Covid-19 data site. So in my push to resume posting last week, I tried to keep to from posting the numbers and instead focused on discussing how the data is displayed. But I hear from quite a few people via comments, DMs, emails, and text…

  • Corona’s Moment in Your Life

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    Brendan Barry
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    Earlier this week I was on the social medias when I came across a graphic some people were sharing that was meant to be inspirational. It had a giant circle and then a small black pixel that represented “this moment”. Of course, how you define the moment is entirely subjective. But it made me wonder,…

  • The Vaxx Path

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today we look at a wee graphic from the BBC examining the current state of Covid-19 vaccines. None have been approved, but 163 are on the path to approval. This falls into the category of not everything has to be super complex. Each vaccine is shown as a discrete unit, a small square. For me…