Tag: Mother Jones

Dude Where Did I Park My Car?

Mother Jones had a lengthy but fascinating piece on urban parking. (I mention the lengthy bit only lest you think it a quick lunch read.) While the design uses a few factettes as sidebars to the main body copy:

Sidebar factette
Sidebar factette

The more interesting piece is the illustrative comparison of a 1.5 vehicle parking space to the size of a 2-bedroom flat. This is the main and really only graphic of the whole piece. However it does a great job comparing the sizes required for humans and for vehicles. We use a lot of space for vehicles.

2 bedrooms vs 1.5 vehicles
2 bedrooms vs 1.5 vehicles

Not that I have any intention of getting rid of my car.

Credit for the piece goes to Chris Philpot.

All Fracked Up

Last week a new study revealed that the injection of wastewater from oil drilling and fracking may contribute to earthquakes. Put simply, the theory is that the wastewater injected into the ground lubricates fault lines. And when sufficiently lubricated, the resistance between sides of the fault vanishes and an earthquake is triggered to release the tension in the fault line.

Mother Jones used an animated .gif to explain just how the process of fracking works, specifically to show the wasterwater portion. I chose this piece because it is the first .gif that I have seen attempting to use the looping animation to convey information or a story, especially as an infographic. Make sure to click the image to go the Mother Jones’ article for the animated version.

Step 2 of the graphic
Step 2 of the graphic

Credit for the piece goes to Leanne Kroll and Brett Brownell.