Two part interactive toy from AP. The first one takes you on a cool animated walk through the 5 point Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale, simulating the amount of damage along the way. The second maps out the path and category of every hurricane from 1851-2009.

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ooops: Missed one, though it’s separate from the others… It includes a map of the empty homes in Florida (from foreclosures, amongst other causes) and animates the types of different types of damage a hurricane can cause (click along the top):

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A completely arbitrary list of modern comforts, showing how cheap many things are that we take for granted. (noticeably absent: heating, which has obviously done nothing but go up in price)

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This one from Kiplinger. Pretty standard stuff – a color-coded summary and charts for each of six components. Uses a pretty weak (but easy to understand) recovery threshold: “When at least three of the six indicators go fully positive — with a check mark from us — it’s more than likely that the recession has ended.” The "watch for" section of each indicator are interesting.

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Not really a graphic (though there is a slideshow version), Kiplinger lists 10 Quirky Economic Indicators, from movie attendance to alligators and mosquitoes.

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The article is more interesting than the graphic.

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Many states are modifying their unemployment benefit laws, some in connection to the recession and some to take advantage of federal stimulus money. Related NYT blog post.

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Colorful presentation of how much exercise you have to do after eating certain foods. Spotted by DataViz

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In honor of World Refugee Day (which was Saturday). Roll-overs provide additional detail.

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CHANGES in global food prices are affecting some countries much more than others. Despite a big fall from peaks in 2008, food-price inflation remains high in places such as Kenya and Russia. In China, however, falling international commodity prices have been passed on to consumers faster.

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THE oil market is behaving like a bucking bronco again, and politicians are once more blaming speculators for careening prices. It is difficult to assemble a definitive explanation for the rally: a weak dollar helps oil prices, but evidence for improving supply and demand remains thin. Positions held on NYMEX, the New York commodities exchange, have indeed soared.

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Have a nice weekend everyone.

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Homicide data cut, chopped, sorted, and mapped in all kinds of interesting ways (especially if you live in NYC). Supposedly will be updated regularly. Related article. Hat-tip to Information aesthetics for the find.

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I wish I could find a larger version of this. seems to be lacking a scale too. Strangemaps noticed a few other problems – check out the comments.

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