Tag: maps

  • Where in the United States is Your Film’s Protagonist?

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    Brendan Barry
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    It is finally Friday. And if you are in one of those areas where it is forecast to rain this weekend, you may find yourself watching a film. If you do, then xkcd has a post that will help you identify the movie by its background scenery. Personally, my favourite is the reference to the…

  • The Growth of Urban Walmarts

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today’s piece comes via my co-worker and is about the growth of urban Walmart stores. The article is from NPR and includes a nice series of small multiples of store locations in three select cities: Washington, Chicago, and Atlanta. In full disclosure, I live about two blocks from one of the urban Walmarts in Chicago. So…

  • Predicting the UK General Election Results

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    Brendan Barry
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    (To be fair, I forgot to schedule to publish this post before I left somehow.) Your humble author is still on holiday. So, today, you can enjoy a nice interactive piece from FiveThirtyEight that predicts the results of the 7 May general election. Of particular interest, the box part of the plot that shows the…

  • Sex, Drugs, and Rock Oil

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    North Dakota’s economy has been booming because of shale oil. Most of that economic growth has been centred on what was the small city of Williston, North Dakota. Economic growth often leads to population growth, however, and that can at times lead to growth in less than wholesome economic activities. The National Journal took a…

  • It’s Melting! It’s Melting!

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Spring has finally arrived. And that means that far to your humble author’s north, the sea ice in the Arctic is beginning to recede from its annual maximum coverage. However, this year’s coverage was the smallest since satellite records began in 1979. The New York Times covers the story in a nice article with two…

  • Germanwings Flight 4U 9525

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday an Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, crashed in the French Alps with no survivors. This morning, I am showing the two best graphics I have come across thus far attempting to explain just what happened. The first is from the New York Times. In a series of maps, it points…

  • The UK’s Genetic Clusters

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    Brendan Barry
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    I always enjoy the combination of two of my interests: data visualisation and genealogy. So this BBC article that references a Nature article piqued my interest. It looks at the distribution of DNA across the United Kingdom and identifies different cluster areas. The most important finding is that the Celts, i.e. the people of Scotland,…

  • Tree Maps

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Spring is the time for the blossoming of cherry trees. Philadelphia has its own cherry blossom festival, but Washington’s is even bigger. The Washington Post put together a small infographic about the the trees, the symbolism, and the reason behind the presence of Japanese trees in the capital of the United States. But, mostly I…

  • Where to Catch Foul Balls

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    Brendan Barry
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    As we established yesterday, baseball is rumbling back to life with Spring Training. That means it is time to start buying tickets for games. But if, like me, you have never caught a foul ball or home run, you may want to sit in a location where you can optimise your chances. Where is that?…

  • Ukraine Retreats from Debaltseve

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    This is a short piece—it is only really an inline map—but it illustrates fairly well why Ukraine’s loss of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine last week is kind of a big deal. Basically, the now mostly abandoned city is a transport hub linking the two quasi capitals of the Novorossiya. Credit for the piece goes to…