Category: Creative visualizations

how to present information – good stretching ideas on how to communicate other than with just text

Growth in world population

Our World in Data, the web site of Max Roser, visualizes data in amazing ways. Check out this graph of world population:

“World Population over the last 12,000 years and UN projection until 2100” by Our World in Data is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.  The graphs which follow are derived from this information and are licensed for use by others under the same CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Very cool. The dramatic expansion in the number of people is amazing.

The graph includes projections through 2100. I pulled out the projections and developed the following graph:

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“Currency and the Collapse of the Roman Empire” infographic

Silver Roman denarius. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Silver Roman denarius. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Telling the tale of the collapse of the Roman Empire is a challenge even in a full length book. Presenting one slice of the story in an easily read and understood infographic is even more of a challenge.

The Money Project is a blog run by Visual Capitalist which focuses on illustrating complex ideas. Their infographic Currency and the Collapse of the Roman Empire does a great job of describing how debasement of the currency and the resulting inflation made trade more difficult which in turn contributed to the collapse.

Oh, used with permission of Visual Capitalist.

A great story with many lessons to be learned for anyone willing to think for a while:

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How did we get to the place where we can ask “Why Does 1% of History Have 99% of the Wealth”?

Why we are so much better off than 200 years ago? Explained in 3 minutes. Check out the video by Prof. Dierdre McCloskey:

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0nsKBx77EQ&feature=player_embedded]

 

Here’s my 200 word summary:

Until 1800, the average person made the inflation-adjusted equivalent to $3 a day. It’s been that way for thousands of years. Starting in 1800, a graph of average income looks like a hockey stick, going almost straight up after being flat for thousands of years.

Why?

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A Christmas wish list – “An End to Quantitative Easing”

All I want for Christmas….

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PhgGixOLn_Q]

 

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update.)

A few of the many funny lines –

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2 animated cartoons illustrate the ease of making cartoons

To show how easy it is to create visual material, I’m posting some things I created.  It is surprisingly easy to create content with today’s tools when you have just a little skill and a fun idea.

Previously posted airplane videos here and here.

Here are two animated cartoons that tell the story in visual form that I previously told in print form:

Bank reconciliations and offering count procedures:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qeibzgSemY]

Good procedures protect from false accusations:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KESsI04-XY]

How I made the videos and the time needed to make them

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4,000 years of history in 1 chart – superb visualization

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Think you could map out the history of the world over the last 4,000 years, showing the relative power of all the major governments and people groups, and then put all that info into one chart?

John B. Sparks did just that back in 1931. His five-foot-long chart can be seen at Slate – The Entire History of the World – Really, All of It – Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart.

Very cool to look at the ebb and flow of the people groups discussed in the Old and New Testament – the Egyptians giving way to the Babylonians and Assyrians. Then the Persians and Greeks and Romans. Then the Ottoman Turks, then British & other European powers. The map stops in 1931, at the start of the Great Depression and between the two world wars.

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Quantitative Easing and other performance enhancing drugs

There was a big on-air confessional a while back. Something about bicycles.  Here’s another interview that got overshadowed by that big one. Or perhaps it is an educational cartoon. I’m not sure.

Bernanke to Oprah:  ‘I’ve Been Doping for Years’.

This cartoon gives a superb explanation in 12 minutes of a major factor about how we got into our current economic mess.

The format is an imaginary interview with the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, as he confesses to long-term doping of the economy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=orh64vypKwU]

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Value and satisfaction are defined by the consumer

Here is the first entry in the current year Economics Music Video Contest from Fayetteville State University.

Big books shows value is determined by the consumer.

Do you want to make a fortune? Figure out what consumers want and provide it.

Check this out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjiT5tt-WVpqPX1roEXtp8kttcHYVEv4g&feature=player_embedded&v=aAHR8NEpnP8]

link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjiT5tt-WVpqPX1roEXtp8kttcHYVEv4g&feature=player_embedded&v=aAHR8NEpnP8

A couple of fun lines: Continue reading “Value and satisfaction are defined by the consumer”

Rap to explain “Demand meets supply at the equilibrium price”

That quote in the title of this post is one of the great lines from the winning video in the Fayetteville State University video competition last year. The topic was supply and demand.

The video is “Whatever You Like” from a team of students at Fayetteville State University.

Check this out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=PLjiT5tt-WVpry7lKtSQjOJ_rjC1_pgeOL&v=BO2cimsoBa0]

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Timelapse view of drilling a well

Very cool video from Marathon Oil. Their description:

This timelapse video shows the drilling and fracking of a typical Marathon Oil well in the Eagle Ford, Texas. It was captured in the summer of 2012.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6_j7UkuzJTU#t=47s]

link if needed:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6_j7UkuzJTU#t=47s

Hat tip – Carpe Diem

“Deck the Halls with Macro Follies” – Economists sing your favorite holiday carols

(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Remember the rapping economists we saw here and here?  They’re back!

Just in time for Christmas, EconStories imagines their fantasy Christmas album featuring the classic hits from Keynes, Hayek, and other renown singers you know and love.

Enjoy the greatest collection of economic hits ever aggregated.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=7uKnd6IEiO0#t=41s]

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What critical information do the anti-fracking illustrations leave out?

Check out the previous illustrations of fracking I’ve mentioned here and here.

Then go search for illustrations that are critical of fracking. Ask yourself what critical information is missing.

I was going to link to specific examples, but there are so many it is hard to choose. Also, pointing out flagrant omissions and clever distortions from people’s videos tends to get them irritated.  I’m not interested in a flame war.

There seem to be two common problems.

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More illustrations of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Previous posts show superb illustrations of fracking here and here.   I browsed the ‘net and found a few more illustrations that are good:

Here is an illustration of the fracking process. Notice that the ground water is usually 100’ to 500’ below the surface. The horizontal run is usually 1 or 1.5 miles down. There’s  thousands of feet of hard granite that isolates the ground water at 500’. Notice the mile of rock in the illustration between the fracking level and ground water.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qm7e553S7fg#t=277s]

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This is what progress look like – 1 electronic gadget in 2010 does the work of 14 electronic gadgets in 1980

(cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

Check out these two pictures showing 1980 and 2010 electronics tools:  Worth a thousand words.

One tool in 2010 does the work of 14 (by my count) in 1980.  Can you begin to guess the cost reduction, even without discounting for inflation?  How about the weight reduction or portability increase?

From Café Hayek, of course. This is the type of thing I talk about at my other blog, Outrun Change.