David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization | Video on TED.com

-
One way of taming information overload is data visualization. Here is a video from TED that illustrates this beautifully. It does make you "see" relationships that you did not before if you just read the news. Illustrates the concept of making the invisible visible beautifully.



If you have trouble viewing the video, please click here.
David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization | Video on TED.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Splendor amid Squalor

-
Just came back from a trip to India. Visited Jaipur and Agra. Saw the Taj Mahal for the first time- and it is a gorgeous piece of work. Should be on everyone's bucket list. An example of beautiful things men are capable of creating - and that too on a grand scale. When you visit the Qutb Minar - you also see excellence and superb attention to detail in construction. And yet - these places are surrounded by squalor. It is as if  the people (and municipalities) are blind to the beauty amidst them. In Jaipur - the pink city - with its superb examples of architectural beauty .. one would think the local developers (and populace) would be inspired and would start a design renaissance .but no!  A plethora of  truly ugly buildings abound. More ugly buildings being built all the time. And these are people with money - who could afford better looking designs. You see structures with totally non functional, unfinished beams  jutting out like broken bones disfiguring a body....
Read more

Good and Evil -- two sides of the same coin?

-
Just finished reading the Shiva Trilogy by Manish - a publishing sensation in India over the last 3 years. Another highly recommended read. Perhaps a tad difficult for people who are not familiar with hindu names - to follow the different characters. What I found fascinating about the book  was how the author interweaves  philosophical discussions that are at the heart of hindu mythology and religion into the narrative. In particular the discussions about the nature of good and evil. Can all evil be banished ? And does  'good' itself generate 'evil' as a by-product? We now know that  everything considered "progress"  has "side-effects" - antibiotics , nuclear-energy, industrialization, dams , automation , fertilizers - you name it . (And to think this was in the Vedas - a few thousand years BC!) Continuing in the same vein(ie  there is never a "pure good" without "evil" by-products) -  one has to wonder if the following t...
Read more

Progress Depends on Making the Invisible , Visible (Reposted an Oldie)

-
I have a hypothesis. All progress depends on making the the invisible visible. As humans it appears that we have to be able to "see" to be able to do something about it; So many people would easily support enivronmental conservation efforts if it was easy to "see" how dirty the air is in some places or "see" how forests are disappearing - with animated before and "now" views. People would not have to "imagine" so much. They would be able to "see" it. The same would be true of many "theories" that affect our lives or our future. Does cutting taxes spur growth ? This would not(should not) be a matter of ideology - but of science if there was a way it could be "shown" whether one was true or not. Communication would be so much more effective -- if we could "see" what the other person "sees". X-Rays and Catscans improved diagnosis and treatment. They made the "invisible" visible. ...
Read more