Reader Jack S. sent over this chart (link): The first problem readers encounter with this image is "What is MMI?" I like to think of any presentation as a set of tearout pages. Even if the image is part of...
Reader Jack S. sent over this chart (link): The first problem readers encounter with this image is "What is MMI?" I like to think of any presentation as a set of tearout pages. Even if the image is part of...
Felix Salmon hates the 401(k), and he explains his reasoning here. His strongest argument is the data, which shows that the first generation of retirees who grew up with these individual retirement savings accounts find themselves with meager retirement savings (average: $120,000, excluding those with zero). I have always disliked 401(k), and here are some reasons: I hate the myth of individual control. These accounts (just like health savings accounts…
Nick C. on Twitter sent us to the following chart of salaries in Major League Soccer. (link) This chart is hosted at Tableau, which is one of the modern visualization software suites. It appears to be a user submission. Alas,...
Medical researchers are somehow allowed to get away with statistical murder. It upsets me to read the article in Forbes titled "Pet Owners May Have Lower Risk For Heart Disease." (link) This article takes the form of many other similar articles that purport to find an association between some risk factor and a common disease. Note they always use the weasel word "may". If you see this word, and immediately…
On the Junk Charts blog (link), I discussed some charts from the NYT graphics team (@nytgraphics) for a feature on the NFL draft. In the second part of the behind-the-scenes blog post, they discussed how they visualized work by some economists. This is how the research was summarized: "across all players and positions, teams only picked a player better than the person who went next at that position 52 percent…
There is a tendency when producing dashboards to go for the cutesy-cutesy. Reader Daniel L. came across an attempt by Facebook to document its data center metrics (link). They chose this circular, spiraling design: Notice that the lines of equal...
Mammograms continue to be an emotional and controversial topic. I blogged about it some time ago. (link) Felix Salmon, whose blog should be daily reading, praises an article by Peggy Orenstein called "Our Feel Good War on Breast Cancer", NYT Magazine (link). Salmon's blog provides a quick summary; Orenstein's article is very long. Orenstein's point of view has particular weight because she was diagnosed at an early age, and was…
This post is long over-due. I have been meaning to write about this blog for a long time but never got around to it. It's like the email response you postponed because you want to think before you fire it...
The Economist imitates USA Today, but without the whimsy. Joe D. submitted this via Twitter. (link)
