Archive for April, 2009

DailyViz Archives

Legalizing Marijuana

20.Apr.2009

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According to recent polls, an increasing number of Americans favor legalizing marijuana—41% (CBS/NYT), 44% (Gallup, below). This is a drastic increase from 12% in 1969 and 24% in 1979.

Nate Silver hypothesizes that the shift is due to the large number of people under 55 who have used marijuana in their lifetimes. He presents the following data from a 2007 survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:

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Google Predicts Flu Outbreaks

19.Apr.2009

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Using certain search terms, Google Flu Trends is able to predict flu activity in specific areas up to two weeks ahead of CDC data. Google explains its method here and in Nature.

Google Flu Trends

Canterbury Tales Revisited

18.Apr.2009

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NPR’s five-part The New Canterbury Tales finds Rob Gifford retracing Chaucer’s steps, walking the 60 miles from London to Canterbury, to give a snapshot of Britain in the early 21st century.

Revising the Road to Canterbury

High-Speed Rail Plan

17.Apr.2009

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President Obama unveiled a plan yesterday to build high-speed passenger rail lines in 10 regions. The plan includes an initial investment of $8 billion in stimulus funding, plus $1 billion from the federal budget each near for the next five years.

A map of the proposed lines is below. Why regional, you might wonder. Here’s what Joseph Sussman, an external adviser to the Department  of Transportation and professor at MIT, told GOOD last week:

I’m not talking about a national network of high-speed rail, because our country is just too darn big for that to be useful. When I say national I mean that we can develop these clusters of high-speed rail. It’s not only the Northeast corridor. There are opportunities in Florida, in the Texas triangle, Chicago, and in the Pacific Northwest. And it could have significant long-term impacts economically as well as environmentally.

Sussman, it should be noted, thinks that he stimulus spending on a national rail system is still too small.

Death and Taxes

16.Apr.2009

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WallStats has resurfaced with a great visualization of the 2009 U.S. budget. This poster has been sent to over 50 members of congress, hundreds of schools, CEO’s, government directors, and thousands of tax payers and everyday citizens both in the United States and all over the world. Click the picture below for a static image, or check out the interactive version. (The bottom right corner has a total budget breakdown.)

Cuts to Public Transit

15.Apr.2009

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GOOD has a new feature on cuts to public transit as part of its Transportation issue. Unfortunately, the size of the line indicates the ridership of the system, not the size of the cuts (as one might have expected). So basically, this is just a visual chart of which systems are undergoing job losses, service cuts, and fare increases. Transportation for America’s spreadsheet on changes has a bit more information.

Australia, The Global Canary

14.Apr.2009

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A new interactive map by the LA Times shows the effects of climate change expected in Australia.

Climate change down under
Most notably, Australians can expect a spreading desert, shrinking rain forest, withering barrier reef, and an increase in mosquito-borne illness stretching all the way down to Sydney. A local described the effects of the decade-long drought as:

Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It’s devastation,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men — big, strong grown men. We’re holding on by the skin of our teeth. It’s desperate times.

It’s worth noting that Australia gets 80% of its energy from coal and has the largest per capita CO2 emissions. Apparently there’s more important things to focus on, like nationwide broadband.

Web Trend Map 2008

13.Apr.2009

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Here’s a look back at Information Architects’ 2008 Web Trend Map. The 2009 map is due to come out this week, and I’ll have an update when it does. Both maps place the 300 most successful and influential websites on the greater Tokyo train map. Stations correspond to websites and lines correspond to larger trends (e.g. social networks, CSS, video).

The food chain

12.Apr.2009

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One more, for zombie Jesus.

Zombie Defense 101

11.Apr.2009

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I’ve got zombies on my brain.

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