Chart Porn

Women on the Net

Dustin — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:02:35 +0000

I usually ignore internet-meta graphics – I just don’t find navel gazing particularly interesting. In addition I would question the reliability of self-reported gender for most of these sites.

Avengers Visualize!

Dustin — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:57:19 +0000

Every once in a while you stumble upon an obsessive hobby niche with some really stunning visualizations. Today’s obsession: Avengers comic books and the work of Jer Thorp. It turns out that there is a massive database of comic book metadata to work with.

The covers of every Avengers issue:

Who appears in each issue, by date:

Jer goes on to look at Avengers by first appearance, sex, robot, gods, and in part II who appeared more, who created the characters, and so on. I only wish he had shared more about how he built the visualization tools.

Compendium of Advanced Graphics Tools

Dustin — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:10:00 +0000

The skilled designers over at datavisualization.ch pulled together this list of preferred applications, code libraries, and tools. Dig in! I wish I had time to learn them all. Sigh.

How Would You Cut Defense?

Dustin — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:49:59 +0000

The NYT presents a list of options for you to decide how to trim defense spending. As usual, it’s not quite as easy as you might think – but I still got it up over $800 billion. I like this interactive way of educating people about budget issues.

50 Years of Government Spending

Dustin — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:35:50 +0000

I usually don’t like viewing stacked bars over time – it’s too hard to see what’s changing. This one still isn’t perfect, but the deficiencies are moderated somewhat by clear labels and only having the three columns. Content wise, it’s pretty fascinating too.

The Rise of the Filibuster

Dustin — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:23:29 +0000

To understand this chart you have to be quite the congressional procedure wonk. I think they should at least have to go back to having to talk the whole time. While standing on one foot. In uncomfortable shoes. With their mom watching.

Women in Parliament

Dustin — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:16:45 +0000

We’ve looked at female world leaders before. Here are some stats on representation (well, what is supposed to be representation).

Presentation Charts

Dustin — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:00:56 +0000

I’ve had these conversations.

Repetitive Tasks

Dustin — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:58:03 +0000

Yep. This pretty much describes my career. Progress is the result of a lazy man finding an easier way of doing things.

Gay Rights

Dustin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:34:41 +0000

A nice interactive visualization of gay rights in the United States, by State. This was created by the Guardian in the UK – where, interestingly, the conservatives support gay rights.

Why Do I Feel Thirsty?

Dustin — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:10:00 +0000

This visualization shows the size of a sphere that would contain all of the Earth’s water compared to the size of the Earth. Yikes! That’s a lot of dirt and rock!

Thanks to D. Cramer for emailing me the link!

Fashion Color Forecaster

Dustin — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:02:32 +0000

The Pimkie clothing company has come up with an interesting real-time fashion indicator: They video what people are wearing as they walk down the street in Paris, Milan, and Antwerp (supposed fashion capitals), and analyze what color pixels are moving. You can then look at the findings in real time, for yesterday, last week, or last month. Apparently, peach-ish red is huge right now in Paris. (via StoryTellingWithData)

Fortune 500

Dustin — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:06:21 +0000

The 2012 Fortune 500 is out (which basically rates companies by revenue). I like this presentation of sales vs profits:

There in also a charting of the Top 10 that let’s you take a look at revenue vs profits:

What Makes it Worth While

Dustin — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:04:28 +0000

I receive so many emails full of marketing-speak and copies of horrible link-bait infoposters I almost overlooked the below email from a fan:

Dear Dustin

I’m a teacher in Kenya. We struggle to get textbooks and our internet is very slow, but I wanted to thank you for your wonderful site which enables me to share brilliant graphics and thought provoking data with my students. Out here in Sub saharan Africa we sometimes feel a bit peripheral to what is going on in the rest of the world, but your images help our kids to feel in touch (and save busy teachers a lot of time trawling through the net)

Thanks again

It feels so good to know my work here is accomplishing more than providing fodder for snarky graphic designers and bloggers.

Update: Scale of the Universe

Dustin — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:24:54 +0000

Cary and Michael Huang have updated their zoomable scale of everything (first seen in 2010). The graphics are nicer and smoother, they’ve replaced the annotations with a scale in the corner, and everything can be clicked on for popup detail. Thankfully, they also now let you turn off the dreadful music. Thanks to Shrub for sending me the link!