Bye bye Facebook

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I deleted my Facebook account today. So maybe you'll be seeing more of me here.

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Remembering the Titanic

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Earlier this year there were a large number of ceremonies in towns small and large, up and down Ireland commemorating the loss of the Titanic 100 hundred years ago. Why? Why are some events considered worth commemorating and some lost lives special? In the next ten years there will be a number of anniversaries in Ireland. It will be interesting so see how each is commemorated. The Great War, the 1916 Rising, the foundation of the state, and the civil war, all occurred just over 90 years ago. Historically Ireland has not placed much value on those who gave their lives in the Great War. Their sacrifice was largely ignored and was in stark contrast to the mythical place that the 1916 Rising occupies in Irish culture. So what about the Titanic? How has it come to occupy such a special place in the popular culture? Perhaps because the tragedy occurred in an era of mass communication, it captured the public imagination. It was a big news story. Perhaps because some rich people died...
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Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, and Charts

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The recent Irish Government report Delivering the Smart Economy provided me with a number of great examples for a class I like to give sometimes about how poorly (often deliberately) designed charts and graphs can be misleading without actually lying. Now I can replace some of my contrived examples with real life ones. The first example Business Expenditure on R&D is unusual. It shows business expenditure on R&D by indigenous and foreign companies over the years. Bizarrely the graph codes the information with bars of three rather colours than two. The far too subtle drop shadow above the bars is meant to point out that the bars are overlaid on top of each other. At a glance it would appear as though the foreign investment is not significantly greater than the indigenous because the total areas of of their respective colours is comparable. A more honest designer would simply have used two colours and stacked them one atop the other. This (the designer might retort) would make ...
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Spencer Tunick (non) Exhibition

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The exhibition of photographs taken by Spencer Tunick last year was on recently. It was called an exhibition, but they didn't even go to the expense of making prints. The photos were projected from a PC. It is interesting that despite the huge fanfare that accompanied the taking of the photographs, the display of the photos themselves was a non-event. The artist, as far as I know, did not even put in an appearance. This suggests that my suspicions were justified. It was never about creating photographs. It was about hundreds of people getting naked in a field. The photography was a side show. I am a bit disappointed by the pictures that were displayed. I found some of Tunick's other work very interesting. The Blarney pictures are a bit twee, sort of John Hinde postcards with naked people.
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