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In: Science
21 Mar 2011An easy to understand chart of radiation sources and the damage they do, from xkcd.
Thanks to everyone who emailed me about it!
Ughhh. Type in your zip code and see how close you are to a nuclear plant!! There’s even a red target painted on the reactor!!! I’m primarily posting this so I have an excuse to link to this excellent article, which explains in detail what’s going on in Japan and why you shouldn’t run out to buy potassium pills and start digging a fallout shelter. I might also point out that we conducted 140+ atmospheric atomic tests in Nevada – I’m not saying that was a particularly intelligent or healthy thing to do, but let’s maintain a little perspective about fallout risks, shall we?

Look. Study. Learn. It will be on the test. (via)
$480 million of revenue. Each box is a Groupon deal. The colors identify the city. Width (price) times height (number sold) equals area (revenue). Roll over any deal to see what it was for — lots of weird stuff in there.
In: Innovative Maps Reference
18 Mar 2011I’ve praised Hipmunk’s slick airline reservation interface before. Now they’ve added hotels – and it’s awesome. Besides mapping out locations and allowing filtering on prices and amenities, you can also overlap heatmaps for food, tourism, shopping, nightlife, and “vice”. The map below is for Washington DC’s nightlife, and is pretty damn accurate.
Go chicken! I wonder why pork has such volatility? (related ethical dietary ponderings; Thanks to Patty Gaffney for the link!)
Despite media spin, the United States is a long way from getting all of the bailout money back. (via Ritholtz)
The FT has created two maps of the world’s nuclear power plants. The first is a fairly comprehensive collection of information on distribution, types, and history:
The second is an interactive googlemaps-based version which locates operating, under construction, planned, and shut down plants. (related article)
In: Culture Employment
16 Mar 2011In: Culture
15 Mar 2011OkTrends has once again produced some interesting analysis of it’s online dating data – many pretty charts analyzing why white people are so popular. The narrative and conclusions are a bit complex, so I’ll let you go read them yourself.
In: Culture
15 Mar 2011Amazing video of the wave as it moves across the Pacific.
Want to understand some of the technical aspects of the disaster?
Here’s a NYT interactive explanation of the quake itself:
A Washington Post explanation of what’s been happening at the nuclear plants:
Interactive graphs of the last 7 days of Japanese earthquakes on the left, historical comparison on the right:
And one that really brings home how much bigger this quake was than previous ones:
An addictive collection of beautiful charts, graphs, maps, and interactive data visualization toys -- on topics from around the world.