Posts tagged visualization

Google Streetview Comes to the Galapagos There are some good gigs in the world. Say, for instance, being part of the Google Streetview or Charles Darwin Foundation teams that are collecting panoramic images of Galapagos islands for inclusion in Streetview later this year. Via the Google Lat Long Blog: It’s critical that we share images with the world of this place in order to continue to study and preserve the islands’ unique biodiversity. Today we’re honored to announce, in partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD), that we’ve collected panoramic imagery of the islands with the Street View Trekker. These stunning images will be available on Google Maps later this year so people around the world can experience this remote archipelago… …Our 10-day adventure in the Galapagos was full of hiking, boating and diving around the islands (in hot and humid conditions) to capture 360-degree images of the unique wildlife and geological features of the islands with the Trekker. We captured imagery from 10 locations that were hand-selected by CDF and GNPD. We walked past giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies, navigated through steep trails and lava fields, and picked our way down the crater of an active volcano called Sierra Negra. …Life underwater in the Galapagos is just as diverse as life on land. We knew our map of the islands wouldn’t be comprehensive without exploring the ocean that surrounds them. So for the second time we teamed up with the folks at the Catlin Seaview Survey to collect underwater panoramic imagery of areas being studied by CDF and GNPD. This imagery will be used by Catlin Seaview Survey to create a visual and scientific baseline record of the marine environment surrounding the islands, allowing for any future changes to be measured and evaluated by scientists around the world. Image: Shooting a group of Sea Lions at Champion Island in Galapagos. Via Google Lat Long and Catlin Seaview Survey.

Google Streetview Comes to the Galapagos

There are some good gigs in the world. Say, for instance, being part of the Google Streetview or Charles Darwin Foundation teams that are collecting panoramic images of Galapagos islands for inclusion in Streetview later this year.

Via the Google Lat Long Blog:

It’s critical that we share images with the world of this place in order to continue to study and preserve the islands’ unique biodiversity. Today we’re honored to announce, in partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD), that we’ve collected panoramic imagery of the islands with the Street View Trekker. These stunning images will be available on Google Maps later this year so people around the world can experience this remote archipelago…

…Our 10-day adventure in the Galapagos was full of hiking, boating and diving around the islands (in hot and humid conditions) to capture 360-degree images of the unique wildlife and geological features of the islands with the Trekker. We captured imagery from 10 locations that were hand-selected by CDF and GNPD. We walked past giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies, navigated through steep trails and lava fields, and picked our way down the crater of an active volcano called Sierra Negra.

…Life underwater in the Galapagos is just as diverse as life on land. We knew our map of the islands wouldn’t be comprehensive without exploring the ocean that surrounds them. So for the second time we teamed up with the folks at the Catlin Seaview Survey to collect underwater panoramic imagery of areas being studied by CDF and GNPD. This imagery will be used by Catlin Seaview Survey to create a visual and scientific baseline record of the marine environment surrounding the islands, allowing for any future changes to be measured and evaluated by scientists around the world.

Image: Shooting a group of Sea Lions at Champion Island in Galapagos. Via Google Lat Long and Catlin Seaview Survey.

Word Association: Mapping the World Via Martin Elmer: This map was produced by running all the various countries’ “History of _____” Wikipedia article through a word cloud, then writing out the most common word to fit into the country’s boundary. The result is thousands of years of human history oversimplified into 100-some words. Image: Laconic History of The World (2012), via Map Hugger. Select to embiggen.

Word Association: Mapping the World

Via Martin Elmer:

This map was produced by running all the various countries’ “History of _____” Wikipedia article through a word cloud, then writing out the most common word to fit into the country’s boundary. The result is thousands of years of human history oversimplified into 100-some words.

Image: Laconic History of The World (2012), via Map Hugger. Select to embiggen.

The Periodic Table of Star Wars, Episodes IV, V and VI

While they don’t claim to have every character in the original trilogy, they do have the major ones.

Via etckt:

The first thing we had to think about when designing this new table of elements was the data that was to be contained on the tile. Naturally, there is the Element ID and name but what else could we include. Working through some thumbnails, we settled on the cast order, episode number and the actor’s initials.

When working through the first drafts, it was starting to look good, but wasn’t entirely what the original concept we had hoped for delivering. After much research, we were able to find one of the alphabets used in the films, Arabesh, and decided to use that for some of the ancillary data on the tile.

The coloring of the elements comes from variations on Luke and Darth Vader’s light sabers.

FJP: Be still, nerd hearts. Be still.

The Geography of a Tweet A team of researchers lead by GDELT co-creator Kalev Leetaru gained access to the Twitter decahose last October and November and examined 1.5 billion tweets from 71 million users. Among the many things they parsed from the two terabytes of data was the average physical distance between an original tweet its retweet: Some 749 miles (1205 km). For @ mentions, the average distance between one user referencing another when exact geolocation is known is 744 miles (1197 km). The paper, Mapping the Global Twitter Heartbeat: The Geography of Twitter, also includes the geographic difference between mainstream news media and news items from Twitter: Mainstream media appears to have significantly less coverage of Latin America and vastly better greater of Africa. It also covers China and Iran much more strongly, given their bans on Twitter, as well as having enhanced coverage of India and the Western half of the United States. Overall, mainstream media appears to have more even coverage, with less clustering around major cities. Image: Detail, Network map showing locations of users retweeting other users (geocoded Twitter Decahose tweets 23 October 2012 to 30 November 2012), via FirstMonday.org. Select to embiggen.

The Geography of a Tweet

A team of researchers lead by GDELT co-creator Kalev Leetaru gained access to the Twitter decahose last October and November and examined 1.5 billion tweets from 71 million users.

Among the many things they parsed from the two terabytes of data was the average physical distance between an original tweet its retweet: Some 749 miles (1205 km).

For @ mentions, the average distance between one user referencing another when exact geolocation is known is 744 miles (1197 km).

The paper, Mapping the Global Twitter Heartbeat: The Geography of Twitter, also includes the geographic difference between mainstream news media and news items from Twitter:

Mainstream media appears to have significantly less coverage of Latin America and vastly better greater of Africa. It also covers China and Iran much more strongly, given their bans on Twitter, as well as having enhanced coverage of India and the Western half of the United States. Overall, mainstream media appears to have more even coverage, with less clustering around major cities.

Image: Detail, Network map showing locations of users retweeting other users (geocoded Twitter Decahose tweets 23 October 2012 to 30 November 2012), via FirstMonday.org. Select to embiggen.

The Big Map of North American English Dialects The map and page might look like a mess, but the North American English Dialects Map is fascinating mess to go through. With English dialects throughout North America, audio samples, linguistic explanations and more, it’s a great place for language fans to spend their time.

The Big Map of North American English Dialects

The map and page might look like a mess, but the North American English Dialects Map is fascinating mess to go through.

With English dialects throughout North America, audio samples, linguistic explanations and more, it’s a great place for language fans to spend their time.

Exploring Space The BBC has created a monster infographic illustrating “every attempt to leave Earth’s orbit and reach a destination in extraterrestrial space – be it with probes, orbiters, rovers, or of course manned missions.” The graphic shows successful and failed missions, country of launch origin and type of mission (eg., fly-by, rover, actual landing). Related: How Big is Space? Image: Screenshot, detail from Spacial Awareness: Ultimate guide to exploring space, via the BBC. Select to embiggen.

Exploring Space

The BBC has created a monster infographic illustrating “every attempt to leave Earth’s orbit and reach a destination in extraterrestrial space – be it with probes, orbiters, rovers, or of course manned missions.”

The graphic shows successful and failed missions, country of launch origin and type of mission (eg., fly-by, rover, actual landing).

Related: How Big is Space?

Image: Screenshot, detail from Spacial Awareness: Ultimate guide to exploring space, via the BBC. Select to embiggen.

Only A Third of the World’s Population is Online Via Statista. Select to embiggen.

Only A Third of the World’s Population is Online

Via Statista. Select to embiggen.

How Google Glass Works By Martin Missfeldt.

How Google Glass Works

By Martin Missfeldt.

Data Journalism: From the Inbox any recommendations for training/workshops in data journalism? (also, i love this blog) — aliciee Hi there. We love that you love this blog. Here goes: Since I don’t know where you actually are I’m going to stick to mostly online resources. One place I’d start is Lynda.com which is an online training site with video-based courses that range from desktop applications like Photoshop to programming languages like Ruby. It’s subscription-based but you can pay by the month ($25) and drop it at any time. Two courses that might be of interest are Interactive Data Visualization with Processing and Up and Running with R. Also, if you’re still in school, see if it’s available to you for free. Jihii has free access to it at Columbia. One of the hard things about answering this question though is that there are various moving parts, not least of which is what tools you want to be working with. I mentioned R and Processing above, but there are also tools like Google’s Google’s Fusion Tables, Hadoop and Gephi, not to mention a whole host of others. Which, come to think of it, is probably why you’re asking about training and workshops. Figuring out where to start can be confusing. So here are some places to start: Go Through the Data Journalism Handbook. Review DataVisualization’s inspiration on tools you can use. Hit up Reddit, and head to the subreddits such as this one on visualization. Ask questions. Go to Perugia, Italy. There’s a data journalism conference going on there April 24-28… We can fantasize, right? In the offline world, take a look at Meetup and Eventbrite for events and workshops. They pop up all the time. For example, here are upcoming workshops in New York City and here are NYC Meetup groups that focus on data. So, with apologies for not being more specific on actual workshops, that’s what I got for you. Hope it helps. — Michael Have a question? Ask away. Image: Using Google Earth to visualize marine and coastal data. Via OpenEarth.

Data Journalism: From the Inbox

any recommendations for training/workshops in data journalism? (also, i love this blog) — aliciee

Hi there. We love that you love this blog. Here goes:

Since I don’t know where you actually are I’m going to stick to mostly online resources.

One place I’d start is Lynda.com which is an online training site with video-based courses that range from desktop applications like Photoshop to programming languages like Ruby. It’s subscription-based but you can pay by the month ($25) and drop it at any time. Two courses that might be of interest are Interactive Data Visualization with Processing and Up and Running with R. Also, if you’re still in school, see if it’s available to you for free. Jihii has free access to it at Columbia.

One of the hard things about answering this question though is that there are various moving parts, not least of which is what tools you want to be working with. I mentioned R and Processing above, but there are also tools like Google’s Google’s Fusion Tables, Hadoop and Gephi, not to mention a whole host of others.

Which, come to think of it, is probably why you’re asking about training and workshops. Figuring out where to start can be confusing.

So here are some places to start:

So, with apologies for not being more specific on actual workshops, that’s what I got for you. Hope it helps. — Michael

Have a question? Ask away.

Image: Using Google Earth to visualize marine and coastal data. Via OpenEarth.

Should I Use a QR Code? Via.

Should I Use a QR Code?

Via.

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011 Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740. Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it. Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles. H/T: BoingBoing.

Income Growth, or not, 1966 to 2011

Average income growth for Americans in the bottom 90% increased just $59 in real terms from the 1960s to today. For those in the top .01%, it increased $18,362,740.

Put that in a chart, represent the 90% as an inch and the bar for the top .01% would tower 4.9 miles above it.

Read more at Tax Analysts, Income Inequality: 1 Inch to 5 Miles.

H/T: BoingBoing.

If Jupiter Was as Close to Us as the Moon Via 22 Words, How the sky would look if the planets were as close as the moon. FJP: Someone needs to do a follow-up along the lines of, Chaos: What Would Happen if the Planets Were as Close as the Moon?

If Jupiter Was as Close to Us as the Moon

Via 22 Words, How the sky would look if the planets were as close as the moon.

FJP: Someone needs to do a follow-up along the lines of, Chaos: What Would Happen if the Planets Were as Close as the Moon?

The One World Observatory

This is what they’re building on top of One World Trade Center in NYC.

Visualizing George Takei Photo Sharing

When George Takei posts an image on Facebook it generally generates a lot of shares. For example, this image of Marvin the Martian, which Takei cleverly posted as “The first image has now been received from Curiosity on Mars,” has seen over 311,000 shares.

Stamen Design has looked at a few of Takei’s photo posts and visualized how they spread through the social network:

Called “Photo-sharing Explosions,” these visualizations look at the different ways that photos shared on George Takei’s Facebook page go viral once he’s posted them.

Each visualization is made up of a series of branches, starting from George. As each branch grows, re-shares split off onto their own arcs. Sometimes, these re-shares spawn a new generation of re-shares, and sometimes they explode in short-lived bursts of activity. The two different colors show gender, and each successive generation becomes lighter as time goes by. And the curves are just for snazz.

Visit Facebook Stories to see Stamen’s other Takei visualizations.