datavisualization

More than half of the world’s population lives inside this circle

Even more mindblowing: said circle is mostly water. This simple but eye-opening take on global population distribution comes from redditor valeriepieris, who writes: Additional things I’ve realized: There are more Muslims in the circle than outside of it. There are more Hindus in the circle than outside of it. There are more Buddhists in the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 6

Easily the most staggering infographic you’ll see today

Get your scroll finger ready. We’re going for a really depressing ride. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay — who, as a cook, is accustomed to seeing animals slaughtered for food — once described shark-fin hunting as “without a doubt the worst act of animal cruelty [he’s] ever seen.” The practice, commonly called “finning,” contributes significantly to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 2

Curiosity is not the fastest rover on Mars

How does Curiosity compare to NASA’s other roving Martian robots? The Agency has placed a total of four robotic rovers on the Red Planet. The first, Sojourner, touched down in 1997. Twins Spirit and Opportunity came next, followed lastly by Curiosity, which landed via skycrane last August. Curiosity is obviously the biggest, and the most…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 23

How far is it to Mars?

Mars orbits the Sun at a greater distance, and takes a longer time to make a trip around the star, than Earth, and neither planet’s orbit is perfectly circular. So the distance between us and the Red Planet is constantly changing. But even at its absolutely closest, Mars is still a looong ways away. How…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 4

Here are all the ways we died in the 20th Century

We’ve talked about all the ways humans have died over the last 40 or so years, but what are the most common causes of death throughout the entire 20th Century? Over at Information is Beautiful, designer David McCandless has whipped up a stunning infographic that helps visualize the answer. Originally commissioned by the Wellcome Collection,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 20

Compare your commute time to the rest of America’s with this interactive map

How long does it take you to get to work? Five minutes? Twenty? An hour? Most of us can estimate the time we spend on our daily commute — but how does yours compare to the people in your zip code, your state, or the rest of the country? Here’s your chance to find out.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 6

An interactive map of what New Yorkers complain about, by borough

If somebody went and made kvetching an organized sport, New Yorkers would no doubt be among the game’s most preternaturally gifted bellyachers. But what, exactly, would they complain about? Driven by a desire to visualize NYC’s grievances on a city-wide scale, media artist Dietmar Offenhuber — an alumnus of MIT’s thoroughly awesome Media Lab —…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 4

This is where Chicago gets its guns

Gun laws are strict in Chicago. In fact, until 2010, there was an outright ban on handguns. But you wouldn’t know it from the number of firearms seized in crimes and unpermitted uses in 2012 (7,400 to New York City’s 3,285), to say nothing of the city’s staggering gun violence. “Not a single gun shop…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 31

NFL fans by U.S. county, according to Facebook

On the surface Facebook is a social network, but those in the know recognize that it’s actually one of the largest datasets of human trends, preferences and activity ever catalogued. One way to appreciate the vast potential of this dataset is to use the company’s new Graph Search to find people who like “shitting their…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 29

This is how far we’ve driven on other worlds

Here’s a freshly-updated infographic by SPACE.com’s Karl Tate, illustrating the distances driven by various rovers on the Moon and Mars. Tate assembled a similar infographic back in August 2012 (see below), just a few days before NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on the suface of the Red Planet. The one-ton, six-wheel drive, nuclear-powered super lab is…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 24

This interactive travel map of the Roman Empire is like Oregon Trail meets Civilization

Ever wondered how long it would take to travel from Rome to Constantinople at the peak of the Roman Empire? Or from Luna to Larissa? Or Parma to Thessalonica? This map of the Roman World created at Stanford University is awesomely realistic — all the ancient transportation lines on it actually existed 2,000 years ago.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 17

Earth’s oldest trees are almost unfathomably ancient

We can’t get enough of this stunning piece of arboreal data visualization. Created by Vienna-based graphic designer Michæl Paukner, the interwoven lines of this chart connect over 20 of the world’s oldest trees and clonal colonies to their geographic origins. Pictured above: Paukner’s chart, bookended by a photo of Old Tjikko (at left) and Sri…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Dec 11

More than half of the world’s population lives inside this circle

Easily the most staggering infographic you’ll see today

Curiosity is not the fastest rover on Mars

How far is it to Mars?

Here are all the ways we died in the 20th Century

Compare your commute time to the rest of America’s with this interactive map

An interactive map of what New Yorkers complain about, by borough

This is where Chicago gets its guns

NFL fans by U.S. county, according to Facebook

This is how far we’ve driven on other worlds

This interactive travel map of the Roman Empire is like Oregon Trail meets Civilization

Earth’s oldest trees are almost unfathomably ancient

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