Posts tagged visualization

Personal Analytics for Facebook

If you ever wonder about your posting history, commenting history, rate at which you do either, what time of day you’re active, who your friends are, how you interact with each other, where they’re located throughout the world, how they’re connected with each other, what type of relationships they’re in, what type of connections they have both in and outside of your network, and you’d like all this presented to you visually, do visit Wolfram Alpha and give their Personal Analytics for Facebook a spin. 

This is a Brain

This describes the brain and what’s happening. 

Submarine Cables

new-aesthetic:

“The design of our new map was inspired by antique maps and star charts, and alludes to the historic connection between submarine cables and cartography.”

Submarine Cable Map

FJP: Slate’s Will Oremus fills in some details.

At first glance, the lines appear to mirror long-proven global trade routes, with major hubs in global capitals like New York, Amsterdam, and Mumbai. But Mauldin notes that there have been no new cables across the Atlantic since 2003. The growth today is in historically under-served regions like Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Nor are all the hubs located in the big cities you’d expect. That phalanx of cables converging on Brazil, for instance, lands not in Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro but Fortaleza, simply because it’s an easier hop from the Northern Hemisphere. Another surprisingly popular destination is Djibouti, whose appeal becomes more clear when you consider the relative business-friendliness of its neighbors at the mouth of the Red Sea: Somalia, Eritrea, Yemen.

Visualizing Gun Laws State by State

The Guardian has a great interactive showing the broad variation in state gun laws.

For example, take “Shoot First” laws:

Twenty-seven states have enacted “shoot first” laws that allow a person to defend themselves in public using deadly force with no duty to retreat. Some of those states have slightly restrictive laws that only apply when a shooter is in a vehicle and others have weak laws that are defined through a combination of case law, jury decisions and statutes, and only provide shoot-first protections during criminal trials, among other circumstances.

Image: Screenshot, Gun Laws in the US — State by State showing an overview of Iowa, via The Guardian. Select to embiggen.

Observed US Temperature Change

A new report by the US Global Change Research Program explores climate change and its implications. The first draft, issued for public review, is the work of a 60-person advisory committee and 240 different authors. It draws on data from across US agencies.

Via the report (PDF):

U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few decades projected to see another 2°F to 4°F of warming in most areas. The amount of warming by the end of the century is projected to correspond closely to the cumulative global emissions of greenhouse gases up to that time: roughly 3°F to 5°F under a lower emissions scenario involving substantial reductions in emissions after 2050 (referred to as the “B1 scenario”), and 5°F to 10°F for a higher emissions scenario assuming continued increases in emissions (referred to as the “A2 scenario”)…

Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather. Increases in ocean and freshwater temperatures, frost-free days, and heavy downpours have all been documented. Sea level has risen, and there have been large reductions in snow-cover extent, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. Winter storms along the west coast and the coast of New England have increased slightly in frequency and intensity. These changes and other climatic changes have affected and will continue to affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy, and many other aspects of society.

Image: Observed US Temperature Change, via the NCADAC. “The colors on the map show temperature changes over the past 20 years in °F (1991-2011) compared to the 1901-1960 average. The bars on the graphs show the average temperature changes by decade for 1901-2011 (relative to the 1901-1960 average) for each region. The far right bar in each graph (2000s decade) includes 2011. The period from 2001 to 2011 was warmer than any previous decade in every region. (Figure source: NOAA NCDC / CICS-NC. Data from NOAA NCDC.)” Select to embiggen.

Australia Adds New Weather Map Colors to Accommodate Extreme Heat

With temperatures reaching near-record levels and forest fires raging, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has added pink and deep purple to its heat index to extend its temperature range past 50 degrees celsius (122 fahrenheit).

Via The Sydney Morning Herald:

The range now extends to 54 degrees [129.2 fahrenheit] – well above the all-time record temperature of 50.7 degrees reached on January 2, 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia – and, perhaps worringly, the forecast outlook is starting to deploy the new colours.

“The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit, said.

While recent days have seen Australian temperature maps displaying maximums ranging from 40 degrees to 48 degrees - depicted in the colour scheme as burnt orange to black – both Sunday and Monday are now showing regions likely to hit 50 degrees or more, coloured purple.

As the SMH points out: “Australia’s first six days of 2013 were all among the hottest 20 days on record in terms of average maximums, with January 7 and today likely to add to the list of peaks. That would make it four of the top 10 in a little over a week.”

Meantime, there’s rash of wildfires breaking out (map) with some small towns being “warned that it is too late to try to flee the incoming flames,” according to the Telegraph. In 2009, 173 people in Australia died during one particular period of wildfires.

In the United States, 2012 was the hottest year on record, breaking the previous yearly high by 1 degree fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Image: Screenshot, Australian Bureau of Meteorology interactive weather map. Select to embiggen.

Margin Notes

Jim Shepard, author of Love and Hydrogen and You Call That Bad, takes a close look at Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”.

Over in the Atlantic, he tries to parse O’Connor’s understanding of epiphanies, writing that at best they’re short lived:

[O’Connor] believes that we’re essentially sinners. She’s saying: Don’t think for a moment that because you’ve had a brief instant of illumination, and you suddenly see yourself with clarity, that you’re not going to transgress two days down the road.

Image: Jim Shepard’s well worn copy of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. Via The Atlantic.

Wait, Tolerate or Terminate?

The Atlantic with an important explainer to kick off the new year:

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has begun to formalize a so-called “disposition matrix” for suspected terrorists abroad: a continuously evolving database that spells out the intelligence on targets and various strategies, including contingencies, for handling them. Although the government has not spelled out the steps involved in deciding how to treat various terrorists, a look at U.S. actions in the past makes evident a rough decision tree.

Understanding these procedures is particularly important for one of the most vexing, and potentially most dangerous, categories of terrorists: U.S. citizens. Over the years, U.S. authorities have responded with astonishing variety to American nationals suspected of terrorism, from ignoring their activities to conducting lethal drone strikes. All U.S. terrorists are not created equal. And the U.S. response depends heavily on the role of allies, the degree of threat the suspect poses, and the imminence of that threat — along with other factors.

What follows is a flow chart… that takes us through the criteria and decision points that can lead to a suspect terrorist’s being ignored as a minor nuisance, being prosecuted in federal court, being held in a Pakistani prison, or being met with the business end of a Hellfire missile.

Image: Screenshot, How Obama Decides Your Fate If He Thinks You’re a Terrorist via The Atlantic. Select to embiggen… But visit to explore.