In preparation for my talk, i wanted to find a way to generate labels that looks like cards from an old-fashioned card catalog. I figured that there must be something like this somewhere online, but I didn't know how difficult it might be to find. I typed "card catalog" into google and this Card Catalog Generator was the fourth result, with this post called Roll Your Own Catalog Card as the fifth result.

I love when things like this happen. So, now I'm going to use this to prepare some of the graphics for my talk and, it's very meta, but I'm going to have to mention how easily I discovered it too. Thanks John Blyberg!

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

http://wordle.net/

[via Infographics News]

P.S. I'll give you a cookie if you guess what song the image tagcloud displayed above is based on :P

As infografias passaram a ser encaradas de forma diferente no online. Interactividade, animações, multimédia, tudo pode ser incorporado para uma explicação visual de informação. Alberto Cairo escreveu Infografía 2.0. Visualización interactiva de información en prensa, onde analisa e desenvolve perspectivas para o futuro da infografia. Capítulo grátis aqui.

Infographics have been looked under a different light online. Interactivity, animations, multimedia, all can be incorporated to create a visual explanation for data. Alberto Cairo wrote Infografía 2.0. Visualización interactiva de información en prensa, in which he analyzes and develops views for infographics future. Free chapter here

Unas líneas sobre los objetivos y alcance de este libro: nació como trabajo académico, por lo que su naturaleza forzosamente breve hace que muchos de los asuntos discutidos no estén desarrollados con la profundidad deseada. He intentado aportar algunas ideas que puedan guiar proyectos de investigación futuros, pero sólo a modo de pinceladas. Hay una gran carencia de trabajos sobre visualización en prensa, como evidencia el hecho de que todas las tesis doctorales sobre la disciplina en países hispanohablantes se refieran únicamente a tres autores como fuentes principales, dejando de lado la más o menos nutrida tradición teórica que se ocupa de la visualización y el diseño de información en  general y de las áreas de la ciencia cognitiva más relacionadas con ellas. Mi intención es que este texto, preliminar y limitado como es, ofrezca algunas claves inspiradoras. Un análisis más profundo de la disciplina, basado en parte en las ideas apuntadas en este estudio, tendrá que esperar por un tiempo.

Alberto Cairo , Infografía 2.0. Visualización interactiva de información en prensa

Via eCuaderno

Aside from 2001, when we were all gettin' our war on, production has largely creeped up over the years. The main effect of the war would appear to be on price -- that is the price the farmer gets, I mean look how high it gets in 2001: $301/kg! At that price I'd start growing poppies in my backyard... ;-)

The first is called TerraForm and is a short film by Johannes Brückner which simply describes globalization and the challenges it creates for humans. An incredible amount of work. Via Information Aesthetics.

The second is a series of graphical sculptures made by Joshua Callaghan. The one below depicts military spending by nation. What country do you think is on the left? Clue. Via Information Aesthetics.

[caption id="attachment_786" align="alignnone" width="545" caption="Infografia da Renascença | Renascença infographics"][/caption] [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="534" caption=""Capa" do ElPaís.com | ElPaís.com "frontpage""][/caption]

In 1980 there were zero positive tests, though later re-analysis of urine showed many suspect T/E ratios (testosterone levels). Also in the early 1990s (before the Barcelona games of 1992) EPO started to be used, with the current test only being implemented for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The low points in graph could just be periods when the testing methods weren't up to snuff, rather than athletes not doping.

That's it, I am officially addicted to Engadget stories about bad technology.  That being said, I love the motion blur some skilled Photoshop artist put on the REDFLY as the demand curve slides ever-lower.  One wonders how it doesn't disappear entirely as netbooks such as the Eee PC are getting all of the buzz these days and UMPC's become more and more affordable for the average consumer.

In case you're wondering exactly what the Celio REDFLY is and why Engadget would have been posting this lovely chart... the REDFLY debuted at $500 and for that, all it does is plug into smartphone and make your smartphone a little bit more like a computer, i.e. you get the benefit of having a bigger screen and a full-sized keyboard.  You can get a real laptop that runs a real operating system for $500, so most people thought it was pretty much a raw deal that the REDFLY ran on Windows Mobile OS.  I label this one... a DUD!!!

Original Story

With the exception of the top media companies, homebuilding industry sites have very limited resources to produce this level of quality information, leaving a vacuum of this type of content that BuildIQ could fill.

Currently BuildIQ's content is resident in only one or two BuildIQ products, course illustrations in the University, or a best practice detail in the Toolbelt, for example. To strengthen BuildIQ's brand, the company could implement a program to develop a continuing series of infographics based on current content, with a targeted marketing campaign to distribute to higher traffic websites in the homebuilding category.

We pressed on. Shortly afterwards, we arrived in a poisonous, post-apocalyptic hell - a sprawling, toxic dumping ground stretching for a mile or two. This is the final resting place for your old TV, computer or mobile phone.

Piles of cracked computer monitors sit in rancid pools of noxious green slime.

The circuit boards and innards of old PCs leak toxic mercury, beryllium and cadmium, poisoning the earth.

Underfoot, my boot crushes a cathode ray tube, releasing a puff of glass particulates around my ankles. The air is poisoned, thick with the highly toxic burning lead and plastics. My lungs begin to ache.

The reporter is describing his trip to an e-waste dump in Ghana, where computers from the west are exported to be "recycled" (video from the bbc)

They dismantle the computers for scrap parts, and metal. As you can see from the breakdown of the average computer, there is a fair bit of metal in it. More distressing though is the large amount of lead and other heavy metals. Not to mention how much of the plastic is burned off to get at the metals, which produces the toxic cloud.

Summer Games:

Winter Games:

What I want to know is: do site owners really think they're doing the average guy or gal on the street a huge favour with a load of words. Getting to grips with understanding disease and treatment options ain't that straightforward (which is why med school takes so long) and my bone of contention has long been why the hell don't we see more health infographics?

AstraZeneca has made a start (albeit naturally focussing on diseases which they make drugs for). If you've succumbed to one of the conditions below, or like me are interested in how best to help people better understand diseases and treatment options, it's worth a visit. I'd give it a six out of ten, a reasonable start, but could benefit from a Flash CS3 makeover...sorry guys!

The two big climbs of the day were about 25km in distance, which is about 8 times the length of the start of my morning commute; a climb that quite frankly hurts sometimes. I feel quite embarrassed to compare my this with the super-human efforts of the Tour cyclists, but never-the-less, that little black triangle is my pathetic little attempt at scaling the heights of the world.

I first came across Buckminster Fuller when designing a newspaper for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 for Fairfax Publications (publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald). As part of the project we wanted to include graphics which would educate and inform and provide interest for more than one age range.

One of the graphics I wanted to include was a Dymaxion projection of the earth that Buckminster Fuller drew and patented in 1946. The projection was made up of rectangles and triangles and was drawn with the minimum amount of distortion. It had not occurred to me until this point that many of the traditional projections of the earth we see in atlases distort the shapes of the continents.

The Dymaxion Projection

Unfortunately the client thought that the inclusion of the map wouldn't be appropriate for the audience (they thought maps only related to kids!), so we didn't get to use it.

The exhibition is on until September 21, 2008.

Usually when you tell people this, one of the first questions they will ask (at least in New York City) is how you found the place that you bought. Now, of course I had a real estate agent, but I had another indispensable tool: a website called StreetEasy.

I can't remember who recommended this site to me, but I have now mentioned to anyone who even remotely shows an interest in buying a place in NYC. Basically, the site pulls in listings from all the major real estate companies, and you can search them.

It has some pretty detailed search parameters, and by signing up for a free account you can save your favorite searches and even have it alert you when new properties show up that meet your criteria. You can ask it to find places that meet your criteria and are having an open house on a certain day, save these to a list, and then print out a map showing all of them. When you're looking at a property, it contextually displays other properties that are similar (in price, location, etc).

And when you find a place of interest, you can get details about the building, including what other apartments in the building have been sold in the past few years. For a small fee (I think $10 a month) you can sign up for the Insider account and find out how much those other apartments sold for. There are other benefits, but that was definitely my motivation for signing up for the premium service.

This feature probably saved me nearly $20K on my bid, because I could see the recent sale price of other apartments in the exact same configuration as mine. And when I no longer needed the premium service, they couldn't have made it easier to cancel it.

Did I mention the discussions? Neighborhood stats? Posts about the impact of construction on the view from your prospective building? No, there's too much to include here. I think this site is an incredible research tool with great data and an engaging, intuitive interface. I can't see how someone could buy a home in New York City without it.

My ubiquitous SYTYCD routine post. All that is beautiful about bodies - and choreography - is here. (Sappy, I know. But not as bad as the artist singing the song!)

It's tough to make jokes about Obama (NYT)

Someone call the A-Team...

OK, um, seriously? I thought we were going to have cupcakes for Angela's birthday at 3, but then I get there and someone has clearly put an elephant in the conference room.

Photos from Turkey's olive oil wresting matches

Muphry's Law (skip to 2nd para)

I assumed all Amish speak English. They don't. (Penn. Dutch)

The NYT has 70 blogs right now. 70!

Some guy imitates Ira Glass (well) and reads out loud a dirty post on Craigslist.

20 Questions with Mindy Kaling and a funny article she wrote about living alone.

Good sounding idea for a show on Speaking of Faith, but for me, this is all about the photo.

http://www.thingsthatmakeyougoaahh.com/

Helen Mirren, in a bikini, shaming us all

More charts and graphs about songs.

In news closer to home, the Federal Court has today declared that an Act, put forward by the NSW government to fine people $5,500 for annoying pilgrims of World Youth Day, to be invalid as there was "no intelligible boundary" on what "causes annoyance" to the pilgrims. More at the SMH.

Postmodern/kind-of-recursive/meta Google image search real life trick (what do you call this?)

Huh? Project Runway starts in a week? I don't even have cable and I feel like we should know this.

I'm not here to make friends: a montage

Red Bull photo cubes in the way on the Stone Arch Bridge: here and here

Getty and Flickr made a deal.

Linked to all over the place but I chose Andrew Sullivan for his blog title- Obese Adults in America

Some steamy stuff on SYTYCD

and  here

An article about dancing Matt

https://www.chacha.com: You text or call them with a question and they will text you back!! I'm in love.

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Pretty pretty ring.

Be an Ira Glass!

These photos of Barack and McCain are AWESOME

I keep hearing from pundits about how spend-crazy the current Conservative gov't is, but I'm not really an economist and I don't know much about money. So I made a graph of the balance of government revenue and expenses from 1993-2008, it seems easy to understand. The last time there was deficit spending was under the previous Tory gov't (1993), from that point on there has been a surplus and there are lots of other graphs on paying down the debt in the budget if you care to look. Its interesting to note how spending changed after the start of the Afghanistan war and the whole Liberal fall from grace.

But as with any hyped trend, there's the risk of oversupply -- with data visualization, the main risk is an excess of shoddy or pointless infographics that actually hinder understanding. Like using Excel's chart wizard without tweaking the god-awful presets.

And then there's GraphJam (“pop culture for people in cubicles”). The site is a raging parody of data visualization's current popularity -- GraphJam treats inforgraphics as jokes. Here's a typical example, complete with cute typo in the title:

I especially love that this graph actually made me look up the lyrics to the song. It would have been absolutely perfect if the label for the red line had read "Pink champagne on ice."

Infographics heaven.

If the embedded thing didn't work (I'm posting this from my office and that can cause some compatibility issues, the link is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o )

Wordle is a neat little tool that generates word clouds based on any text of your choosing.  The frequency with which a term appears in the text determines the size of the word in the cloud.

I copied and pasted the full text of one of my favorite novels, Sense and Sensibility, to glean greater insight as to how Jane Austen is subtly "ruining my sense of reality, and I love it!"  The results proved to be as frightening as I imagined.