Interactive Archive:

The Economist has updated their annual Big Mac Index.

…based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries. For example, the average price of a Big Mac in America in January 2014 was $4.62; in China it was only $2.74 at market exchange rates. So the “raw” Big Mac index says that the yuan was undervalued by 41% at that time. Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible.

Interesting footnotes: India’s Maharaja Mac is made out of chicken.

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According to this Harvard study, on average people today are just as likely to be better off than our parents than the generation 50 years ago was. I wonder if they adjusted incomes for debt? (I’m too lazy to check).

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I’m not sure why it took the Washington Post six months longer than the NYT to do an article and map about this. NYT’s interactive map/chart combo helps grasp what they’re measuring:

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Ok, I lied. It’s really only updated every three hours – but it’s still pretty awesome. You can zoom in and rotate the globe to see whichever hemisphere you’re interested in.

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You can even change the map projection used:

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Ok, I doubt many people really give a shit about the scenic breakdown of the six Rocky movies, but the implementation of this interactive graphic is pretty impressive. The real time scanning of the entire movies is very cool, and the whole think is snappy and responsive. Well done.

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An interactive map showing the range of radio stations in the United States.

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I tried to find a version of this including commercial stations, but the best was maps of coverage areas for single stations from radio-locator.com.

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Nicely done. I suspect some people might think that London is given credit for more than it deserves.

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I have to given them credit, although this is essentially still just linkbait content-wise, the animated presentation of the information is innovative and really does keep your attention. Well done. This almost needs a new name: storygraphic?

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An absurdly detailed map of Brooklyn color-coded by the age of the buildings.

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A clever animation of how the bikes move around throughout the day.  You have to watch it on slow to really get a feeling of what’s going on.

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Meteorite fireballs witnessed from 1913. I’m not sure what is gained by putting this on a map. Also, since this is just eyewitness accounts, it suffers from population density bias.

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Is the American dream still alive? Can you work hard and raise your income level? Well, it kinda depends on where you live. The NYT has a couple of nice interactive tools who exploring the results of a study of the issue. (via FlowingData)

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A wonderful interactive timeline of legislation, rulings, and events related to domestic surveillance in the United States. You can drill down into each event for an explanation, and links to primary sources (like the full text of legislation, etc).

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