My lovely book, Information Is Beautiful, is out in the UK (Amazon).

To celebrate, I’ve teamed up with HarperCollins to give away five signed copies.

All you have to do to enter the prize draw is become a fan on our much-neglected-but-soon-not-to-be-so-neglected Facebook fan page.

We’ll choose five members of the group at random on Monday 15th February and contact them via email. It’ll be my pleasure to write a personal message in each copy.

Here’s the link to the Facebook group. See you on there.

The Book

Information Is Beautiful is a collection of infographics, data visualisations and information designs, covering everything from pop to philosophy – all with the minimum of words. Inspired by the experience of clicking through the web, it has no chapters, no overt structure – it’s just beautifully random.

The UK version essentially the same book as the US copy, The Visual Miscellaneum. Except it’s a true hardback book and it’s printed on uncoated (matt) paper, rather than coated (shiny) paper of the American version. Personally I think it makes for a more ‘arty’ book. Plus it has *that smell*. One I’m, in fact, huffing right now.

Please note: Since the US and UK versions were printed at the same time (last year), so the first edition of the UK version has the same minor printing errors. They affect 12 of the 256 pages. Really sorry about that. I’ve uploaded an errata. It’s passworded. The password is the last word in the bottom right hand corner of page 159 of the book CASE SENSITIVE. Thank you.

Some more screenies to savour.

Link to the Facebook fan page. Order the book on Amazon.co.uk. American version here. Advert over.

The global response to the Haiti earthquake has been extraordinary and generous. But in the midst of all the reporting, it’s difficult to keep track of the numbers.

In particular, who has given what, who has dug deepest, and how the Haiti relief fund currently compares to those of other tragedies.

This is an image I created for The Guardian Datablog to visualise the international contributions to the Haiti Earthquake recovery effort as of 24th January 2010.

And the data is here for you to explore. (Thanks to Phil Wand and Jeffrey Grabell for the idea).

Here in the UK, there’s been a recent spate of harassment and even arrests of innocent photographers by police invoking anti-terrorism laws.

So we’ve compiled an easy-to-read wallet-sized infosheet of photographer legal rights here in the UK (PDF). It’s designed by David McCandless and Joe Swainson. The information is sourced directly from the UK Metropolitan Police and distilled from other bust cards out there.

Download and print the PDF, cut it out and stick it in your wallet or purse. If you’re stopped by police for taking photos, whip out the sheet and instantly check your rights.

Of course, it’s never a good plan to antagonise the politzei. We hear they’re particularly unimpressed by having ‘infosheets’ waved in their faces. If you are stopped for suspicious photography, a good response is usually something like:

“I’m an amateur photographer taking pictures for fun. Would you like to see them officer?”

NOTE: Note Saturday 23rd Jan 2010, there’s a Mass Photo Gathering in Trafalgar Square in London 12 Noon to protest photographers rights. It’s organized by PhotographerNotATerrorist.org

If you can help us with photographers rights cards for other countries, such as the US, please get in touch. Thanks!

Dating site OKCupid uses data from their members to overturn myths about what makes a successful online dating profile photo. A fascinating & funny read.

Summary:

men – mysteriously looking away from camera, unsmiling, holding an animal
women – flirting into camera, outdoors, with a hint of cleavage

They also did another great data-piece about what to say in an opening message.

[via Waxy.org]

New York-based designer Mike Deal has a great project going visualizing The Beatles.

I especially like this one. It tracks the keys of Beatles’ album tracks. You can see at a glance their poppier, more harmonic albums.

The project is an offshoot of an ongoing kaleidoscopic project at chartingthebeatles.com and on Flickr.

If it grabs you, head on over and take part. See you there!

The Great Firewall Of China.

Oops. I guess we can add a certain beautiful infographics website to that ban list.

Data here.

Update 1: There’s a more detailed, annotated version on The Guardian Datablog.

The Visual Miscellaneum sold out in North America over Christmas. Woo! Thanks to all those who bought a copy.

Thanks to my publishers HarperCollins, I now hold what could be the last five copies of the first edition.

I’d like to sign them and give away to you, lovely readers. Before this site goes all Information Is Beautiful on your ass.

To enter the prize draw, just leave a comment below.

On Saturday 16th January I’ll pick five winners at random and contact them via email.

(BTW Apols for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been working on some cool new stuff to be released v. soon).

UPDATE: Thank you for all your entries and the lovely comments. I have been blushing continuously all week. Comments are closed now. But I’ll be picking winners on Monday 18th.

Off the back of the recent Climate Skeptics vs The Consensus image, we were curious how many scientists might make up ‘The Consensus’.

The Skeptical side claims at least 31,486 dissenters in their ranks, according to the PetitionProject.org. That sounds like a lot. But is it?

Of course, not all 12 million US scientists therefore agree with ‘The Consensus’. But this puts the PetitionProject’s 31,486 signatories in some kind of context.

Our maths here is somewhat coarse. Some better data suggests the ‘consensus’ figure is around 97.5% of publishing climatologists and around 90% of all publishing scientists supporting the human-induced climate theory. See this study for more details (PDF – Doran And Zimmerman 2009)

Actually, here’s how some of it looks:

Skeptical Field

Among the climate skeptic scientists, we wondered which fields of science were most represented. We expected climate and earth sciences. But we got…

In fact, when you adjust the PetitionProject’s odd categorisation – they filed ‘chemical engineers’ as chemists and physical engineers as ‘physicists’ – the total number of engineers who signed the petition, by our reckoning, jumps to 49%

Why so many engineers?

Earth In Space

Thanks to Steve Haddock for that one. Apparently this map is secreted on Google Earth somewhere. Can anybody find a link for it? Thanks!

And on a similar theme – the undiscovered country, Antarctica, grokkable for size.

(Apols. I lost the original link for this image. If anyone knows where it comes from, please let me know so I can credit)

Mark Coleran – Visual Design for Film
An “INCOMING EMAIL” alert in 200 point text suddenly flies across your monitor. Only the movies eh? This talented dude, Mark Coleran, is responsible for many movie infographical displays. Normally you only see them fleetingly reflected in Denziel Washington’s anxious glasses. But today they are in unveiled in their full glory for a long, proper look.

Why Are Europeans White Skinned?
North Europeans are the palest humans in the world. Why? Here’s a clue: Blame Alpen. Explore this fascinating theory and nice story on skin colour.

(Thanks to Peter Ayres) Knol, “Google’s Wikipedia”, rules BTW.

Mind Mapping A Mind Map
Lunchbreath’s amusing dig at Mind Mapping (which I personally find rubbish)

There’s a bunch more hand-drawn infographical goodness on LunchBreath’s Flickr Stream.

Hmmm, strangely map themed this time. If you’re still hungry for more infographical morsels, check out the last selection.

In the meantime, if you come across any visual delights, please send them through.

A visual map of the arguments for and against human-caused global climate change.

I’m fascinated by climate deniers. How could anyone deny the climate change is happening?
What evidence is there? Surely it’s unambiguous?

Curious, I investigated the key statements made by climate denialists and sought out the counter-views, as presented by climate research scientists. The result is this image.

(This a new and updated version of the spread on Climate Skepticism from my book The Visual Miscellaneum)

Method

I researched this subject in a very particular way. I deliberately chose not speak directly to any climate experts or leading scientists in the field. I used only publicly available web sources.

Why? Because I wanted to simulate what it’s like for people trying to learn about climate change online.

My conclusion is “what a nightmare”. I was generally shocked and appalled by how difficult it was to source counter arguments. The data was often tucked away on extremely ancient or byzantine websites. The key counter arguments I often found, 16 scrolls down, on comment 342 on a far flung realclimate.org post from three years ago. And even when I found an answer, the answers were excessively jargonized or technical.

Most of the info for this image is sourced from Realclimate.org. It’s an amazing blog staffed tirelessly by some of the world’s leading climatologists.

Unfortunately, the majority of the writing on there is so scientific and so technical, it makes the website nigh on useless to the casual, curious reader.

This has got to be one of the reasons why scientists and leaders are struggling to convince sections of the populace that the threat of climate change is real. Because they’re doing such a terrible job explaining it.

(Saying all that, I would like to express my gratitude to Gavin A Schmidt, one of unsung heroes of the web IMHO. His sterling and patient replies to comments, on RealClimate.org in understandable English, have really helped this process.)

Runaway Feedback

This image was a mammoth undertaking, especially for someone like me, unschooled in climate science. So I appreciate your understanding if any errors have crept into the process. If you spot any, please get in touch and I’ll will correct them on the double.

In every case, wherever possible, I went back the original data. (I’ve included a ZIP of all the data I’ve collected plus a spreadsheet of all the sources). And all the graphs in the image are generated from the original temperature records and other data sources. Feel free to rifle through and check everything.

RealClimate.org are (now) keeping an archive of all the data – if you want even more!
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/

UPDATE 1 (12th Dec 09): There have been a few complaints about the legibility of the image. So I’ve created a version on white instead of black.