I'm partial to all things food and drink related, so naturally my eyes light up when they're combined with charts. Fabio Rex illustrates what makes the perfect drink in a set of pie charts and annotated glasses. Below, Rex describes the perfect Mojito and above are breakdowns via pie chart of various other drinks.
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DeviantArt user dehahs, who seems to enjoy making graphics based on fiction (see here and here), classifies kills by main character Dexter of the popular Showtime series of the same name. Each kill is color-coded by type and weapon used is provided. Estimated number of deaths caused by killee is also provided on bottom by red dots. It's kind of gruesome, but any Dexter fan will appreciate this.
[DeviantArt via datavis]
Foursquare has a look at their usage in 2010. I bet you were sitting there wondering how many peopled named Wendy checked in at Wendy's during the year. It was 224, but there was only one mayor of Wendy's named Wendy. What I really want to know though is if people named Wendy are more drawn to Wendy's than non-Wendy's. Or number of Nathans who eat too many hot dogs. Either-or.
[foursquare via Waxy]
It's Friday. You might need this vintage-looking guide on how to play beer pong by Mel Marcelo. Remember not to use a lawnmower, a skull, or a toaster, and you should be okay. Safety first.
In their most recent video (below) to their "State of..." series, JESS3 takes a look at the State of Wikipedia:
The State of Wikipedia not only explores the rich history and inner-workings of the web-based encyclopedia, but it's also a celebration of its 10th anniversary. With more than 17 million articles in over 270 languages, Wikipedia has undoubtedly become one of the most visited and relied upon sites on the web today.
It's really light on the data and kind of fluffy, but Jimmy Wales narrates, so it's worth it to watch just for that. For some reason I expected him to have a grittier voice. It must be the beard.
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Starbucks recently announced their next size up from 591-milliliter Venti: the Trenta. It's 916 milliliters, which happens to be slightly more than the average capacity of the human stomach, as illustrated by Andrew Barr for The National Post.
I don't know why everyone's getting their panties in a bundle though. If it's too big for you, then don't buy it. Besides, 7-Eleven has Starbucks beat with their line of Big Gulp drinks ranging from 0.59 to 1.9 liters.
I'm thirsty.
When you invest in stocks, it's not just what you invest in, but also when you put the money in and when you get it out. The New York Times explains with this grid diagram:
This chart at right shows annualized returns for the S.& P. 500 for every starting year and every ending year since 1920 — nearly 4,000 combinations in all. Read across the chart to see how money invested in a given year performed, depending on when it was withdrawn.
Darker red represents greater loss while darker green represents the greater gains. Tan color indicates more modest gains.
The method probably isn't new, but it's the first time I've seen it. I like it. I've only seen those "what if" calculators where you enter a value to see how it would've paid off. That only lets you see one scenario at a time. This type of chart lets you see multiple time spans at once.
National Geographic argues a need for balance across the world population in the latest motion graphic video. As is usually the case with these, the video hits you with a lot of aggregate percentages and averages, but it's well-produced and good enough to make you care.
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Inception was a complex film, so there was understandably some confusion over the levels and who was where. A couple of flowcharts tried to explain, but there was still some debate. So here is the flowchart to trump all other Inception flowcharts. It's by Christopher Nolan himself. Any questions?
[In Contention via Waxy]
You've most likely seen a couple of views of the universe to provide a sense of scale. Main point: you're tiny. Here's another video. This one focuses on star sizes. it starts with our solar system and then moves up to VY Canis Majoris, the largest known star in the universe. The video was actually made last year, but still fun to watch. It's got a few drops of dramatic music in there, too.
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Brett Coffman and Juan Thomassie for USA Today have a look at how college coaches from the top 25 teams ranked other teams. You can look at it from two directions. You can look at the data by team, and see what all the other coaches ranked a team, along with rank by week. You can also see the data by individual coach to see his top 25 rankings. Albeit the latter view isn't very useful unless you have a specific coach in mind. [USA Today | Thanks, Kevin]
You might think this is a joke, but this is serious business. From Laura Noren, a PhD candidate in sociology, the axes of public peeing:
This was something I used to help me think through the two main axes that determine peeing behavior – biological and social control. Urination is a biological function that has been subjected to a great degree of social control. Unfortunately, urban design has not kept pace with the demand for clean, easily accessible public restrooms for humans. And there has been no attempt to create any kind of system to deal with canine urine. In most cities it is illegal for humans to pee in public but both legal and widely accepted for dogs to pee where ever they like (in New York, they cannot pee on the grass in parks).
It seems the only solution is to let people go wherever they want, as the dogs do.
I don't get soap operas. People get married, divorced, evil twins show up, babies are born, people are shot, and every now and then someone becomes the hostage of an ex-lover. It's too complex for my simple mind. Luckily, here's a video that explains all of the relationships in the Bold and the Beautiful, from 1987 up to present.
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In this interactive, USA Today guesses your age, based on what influenced you as a teenager:
The year you were born partly determines what generation you belong to, but so do your cultural experiences. The chart below shows the offset from birth years to one's teenage years — when people are most influenced by the world around them — and the music, movies, TV, news, fashion, technology, toys and sports of those eras.
Simple and entertaining. I took the quiz twice, and it was different each time. It was one year off both times, so dead on when you take the average. What generation do you belong to?
Not pleased with how the government is handling the budget and deficit? Fine. You fix it. The New York Times provides a budget puzzle:
Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.
Choose wisely.
[New York Times via @mrflip]
In what seems to have become an expectation during all major events, a Twitter tracker from the New York Times shows you what candidates are getting the most and least buzz. Each circle represents tweets from a candidate, retweets, and tweets direct at, colored appropriately by party. Press play and they grow and shrink over time. Select a specific candidate(s) to see the specific breakdowns.
Millions of people leave their work computer on every day, thus wasting lots and lots of energy through the night when no one is there. In this animated infographic, Nigel Upchurch describes what it means when you leave your computer on. As with most of these types of things, the numbers are a bit simplistic. Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch and well-designed. And well, it kind of makes me want to make sure I turn off my computer at night.
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Neil Irwin and Alicia Parlapiano of The Washington Post report with this interactive graphic on why it doesn't feel like we're in a recovery:
The nation’s economic woes boil down to this. Compared with a healthy economy, about 7 million working-age people and 5 percent of the nation’s industrial capacity are sitting idle, not producing what they could. The economy is growing again, but at a rate — less than 2 percent in recent months — that’s too slow to keep up with a population that keeps increasing and workers who keep getting more efficient.
A step-by-step guide explains the output gap, the difference between potential and actual output.
[The Washington Post via @hfairfield]
Do you know who you'll be voting for this year? It can be tough deciding with all of the different issues and candidates. The commercials on TV don't exactly help all that much either. VoteEasy, brought to you by Project Vote Smart and developed by Portland-based design firm Periscopic, helps you make an educated decision. Input the issues that matter to you, like abortion, public healthcare, or capital punishment, and VoteEasy will show you the candidates who best match your ideals in your area.
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Airlines have been merging, going out of business, and growing since forever. Karl Russell for The New York Times shows just how much change there's been during the past few decades:
The deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 led to a wave of mergers that continues to this day. But even as the legacy carriers have been consolidating and growing, they have been losing market share to low-cost carriers. Two of them, SouthWest and AirTran, have just agreed to merge and carried the most passengers in 2009 combined.
The thickness of each flow represents the share of passengers during a given year forming a blockish Sankey diagram. Brown flows are those that were absorbed by a larger airline.
It looks like anyone who's not JetBlue, Southwest, or Alaska Airlines can only survive with mergers. I wonder why. [New York Times]
Data PointsFlowingData explores how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better — mainly through data visualization.
As for me, I'm Nathan Yau, and I have a PhD in statistics, with a background in eating.
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