Chart Porn » Culture

Avengers Visualize!

Dustin — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:57:19 +0000

Every once in a while you stumble upon an obsessive hobby niche with some really stunning visualizations. Today’s obsession: Avengers comic books and the work of Jer Thorp. It turns out that there is a massive database of comic book metadata to work with.

The covers of every Avengers issue:

Who appears in each issue, by date:

Jer goes on to look at Avengers by first appearance, sex, robot, gods, and in part II who appeared more, who created the characters, and so on. I only wish he had shared more about how he built the visualization tools.

Women in Parliament

Dustin — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:16:45 +0000

We’ve looked at female world leaders before. Here are some stats on representation (well, what is supposed to be representation).

Gay Rights

Dustin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:34:41 +0000

A nice interactive visualization of gay rights in the United States, by State. This was created by the Guardian in the UK – where, interestingly, the conservatives support gay rights.

Fashion Color Forecaster

Dustin — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:02:32 +0000

The Pimkie clothing company has come up with an interesting real-time fashion indicator: They video what people are wearing as they walk down the street in Paris, Milan, and Antwerp (supposed fashion capitals), and analyze what color pixels are moving. You can then look at the findings in real time, for yesterday, last week, or last month. Apparently, peach-ish red is huge right now in Paris. (via StoryTellingWithData)

Science Fiction to Reality Timeline

Dustin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:55:22 +0000

When scientific advances were first theorized vs when they became reality. After a close viewing I would say whoever wrote this wasn’t particularly well-read, or even a very good geek – a lot of things on both sides are just plain wrong. Great idea. Crappy execution. Anybody want to try their hand at a version that includes da Vinci, Verne, and Heinlein (just for starters).

Zombie Apocalypse Map

Dustin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:19:00 +0000

Use this interactive google-mashup-map to locate emergency supplies in the event of a zombie outbreak. This should help you not walk past guns and supplies like in that stupid Walking Dead show.

What America Buys

Dustin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:39:42 +0000

I think the change over time is the most interesting.

MEGA MILLIONS!

Dustin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:22:32 +0000

Seemed timely considering tonight’s $640million drawing: how many times numbers have been picked?

A heatmap of variations from the standard deviation:

Religion

Dustin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:19:00 +0000

It’s interesting to see this all in one place, in such detail. Anyone want to bust out a ruler and see if he calculated the areas correctly?

Generational Income Gaps (kids are screwed)

Dustin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:24:55 +0000

The FT takes an insightful look at British household disposable income by generation – examining the long held belief that each generation is better off than the previous one. That notion has been true – until the most recent one. I think putting age on the x-axis was brilliant. Anyone want to generate this for the USA?

note: some FT features require a subscription to view.

CityMaps

Dustin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:22:34 +0000

CityMaps is an interactive going out map service– something like a crowdsourced cross between google maps and yelp. Personally I found it to be a disturbing reminder of how surrounded we are by corporations and logos. For a fun game, see how many Starbucks logos you can fit in one screen – my record is eight, below. Currently available for NYC, San Francisco, and Austin.

Map of the US Melting Pot

Dustin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:11:21 +0000

Bloomberg created this interactive map of heritages according to the 2010 census. You can select any two and see how they compare across the country. It struck me a bit odd that neither “native american” nor “african american” is included – it’s probably some strange dataset problem.

Brief and Incomplete History of Yoga

Dustin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:46:08 +0000

Author: Alison Hinks.

Visualizing a Book

Dustin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:03:08 +0000

The Book Genome Project calculates a series of analytical metrics for books, such as motion, pacing, dialogue, themes, and characters. The goal is to provide tools for writers to analyze their writings, and readers to find more books they like. The project is still in it’s formative years, but I think it has a lot of potential.

Stephen Wildish

Dustin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:19:00 +0000

A number of cool diagram designs from this UK designer. File them in your inspiration rolodex under “properly balanced color combinations”. Thanks to Lisa Lisa for sending in the link!