Charts and graphs

Are you inside the circle or outside?

The annotated map below has been lighting up the the social mediasphere in the last couple days — and for good reason. It forces those of us outside the circle (I’m looking at you, America) to ponder what the next century will really be like.


Idea of the day: A Taxpayer Receipt

Every once in awhile, you hear of an idea so blindingly obvious and inarguably wise that you wonder why in God’s name it’s still a notion and not a reality. That happened to me this morning when I heard about the Taxpayer Receipt, the brainchild of the folks at Third Way. In a brief and […]


Carl Sagan meets Everett Dirksen

The late great Carl Sagan made famous the phrase “billions and billions.” The former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen once said of U.S. federal spending, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” Now these two perspectives combine in the form of a captivating infographic called The Billion Dollar Gram.Information […]


Chart of the day: Don’t worry, use data

(Via Slate)  


You’re never too young to start being a nerd

Many of you know my fondness (Isn’t it really a strange and dangerous obsessive love? – Ed.) for charts and graphs. Turns out there’s a now an animated video — from PBS! — to hook kids on the crack cocaine of the geek set. Watch it with care. (Via KungFuGrippe, HT: David Moldawer)


Craig D = Verbal SAT + Math SAT – SAT

Craig Damrauer is an artist who has renders abstract concepts in the orderly form of equations. I know — that doesn’t make much sense. So check out a few examples of his work below or at MoreNewMath.


Nerd comic of the day

(via xkcd and Flowing Data) 


The Disunited States of America

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a terrific story about Igor Panarin, a respected Russian scholar and policy guru who’s peddling an audacious prediction:The United States of America will be no more by 2010.And it won’t be Russian missile doing us in. We’ll rot from the inside, says Panarin. (Kinda like the Soviet Union? — Ed.) […]


Bonus chart of the day: Annus horribilis in 3D

Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow (BTW, have you picked up his book, Little Brother? It’s the perfect gift for any smart, tech-savvy teen) points to the work of Berlin artist Andreas Nicholas Fischer, who has rendered financial charts as wooden sculptures.Below is a piece, fashioned from more than 150 laser-cut wood polygons, in which […]


Chart of the day: Annus horribilis for the markets

Knowing my love of charts and graphs, several readers have sent me the chart below, which shows just how dismally U.S. stock markets have performed this year. The chart, which comes from econo-whiz and must-read blogger Greg Mankiw, shows the percentage change in the S&P Index for the last 160 or so years.As you see, […]

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