My latest visual piece for The Guardian, The Billion Pound O Gram, is a British cousin of The Billion Dollar Gram. It reveals the scale of the budget deficit in the centre of the British economy. SPOILER: It’s a big one..
I’m really loving this guy’s visualization style. And the esoteric subjects too. I’ve got a bunch of esoteria visualized in my book. Sadly, for me, I think Michael does a better job.
Spook! Many of the ancient ‘wonders of the world’ are apparently on the same latitude.
A key idea in the current Mayan 2012 end-of-the-world meme is that December 21st, 2012 coincides with the end of the Precession of the Equinox, a 26,000 galactic cycle. Hmmmmmm…
What would a Monday morning be without some Mayan mind mank?
Check out his Photostream on Flickr. Let me know if you find any other cool visualizers.
The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
I notice these days that I can spend hours at my computer, in a cloud. A swampy blur of digital activity, smeared across various activities and media and software.
Emailing, writing, tweeting, designing, browsing, taking calls, Skyping, Facebooking, RSS Feeding – all blurred into a single technological trance.
I seem to switch randomly from one to the other. But actually is there a subtle hierarchy in this cloud? Do I prefer some distractions over others? I think so.
In this diagram, each level in this hierarchy trumps the next.
So, if you get a new msg on Facebook, but your landline rings, you’ll take the landline call. You might have a spasmodic moment of ‘uh? wadd I do’. But, usually, you’ll take the call.
Similarly, if you get a new SMS whilst opening a new online dating message, you’ll be hard pressed not to read that SMS. It’ll take a great force of will. You may attempt to do both simultaneously. But if you really observe yourself closely, one will take priority – even if it’s only by milliseconds. The SMS will win your attention.
And so on up the chart…
(I understand this post reveals much about my pitiful life. There’s no need to say that in the comments, thanks.)
But if I’ve missed any distractions, feel free to suggest them. I realise AIM and MS Messenger introduce a whole universe of distraction. I don’t go there. I have enough distractions.
Billions spent on this. Billions spent on that. What does it all look like? Hopefully The Billion Dollar Gram will help.
This image arose out of a frustration with the reporting of billion dollar amounts in the media. That is, they’re reported as self-evident facts, when, in fact, they’re mind-boggling and near incomprehensible without context. But they can start to be understood visually and relatively, IMHO.
(This is one of the first images I created for my book. So a lot of the figures are from 2006/07. I’ve also visually cheated slightly here and there to make everything fit)
I hoping this will be a “living image” that I’ll keep updating all the time. So if you find any interesting, juicy or eye-popping billions, please comment below (with a source). Let’s see how high we can make this image!
Sizes of movie monsters compared. I thought they missed out The Blob though. The Blob got pretty big towards the end.
Movie Monster Comparison Chart
[via Geek Tyrant via FFffffound ]
A round-up and mash-up of data on fatal plane accidents. Cross-referencing the data (unscientifically) reveals the statistically most dangerous flights to take.
UPDATE 15th August: Visitors pointed out a serious error in this diagram relating to the number of fatal accidents by airline. I’ve fixed this now. Thanks to all who pointed it out.
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Great Visualizers: Stefanie Posavec
I’ve long been an admirer of London-based data artist, Stefanie Posavec. So, when I started working on the Information Is Beautiful book, she was the first person I sought out for collaboration. By happy coincidence she lived around the corner from me.
The result is the awesome (and controversial) Left vs Right concept map.
Now available as a limited edition poster!
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