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January 4, 2015 1:47 PM   Subscribe

 
Interesting data but so many of these are just poorly designed.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:09 PM on January 4, 2015


Wow. The fairness vs freedom party platform graph provides a compelling argument for the "Richard Nixon was the last great liberal president" idea. Also, another neat indicator of the current GOP's decent into gibbering madness.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:12 PM on January 4, 2015


Yeah both Nixon and Saint Reagan would be hounded out of today's GOP as liberal stooges.

They'd both fit right in as conservative Democrats though.
posted by localroger at 2:25 PM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm not sure how much party platform rhetoric can be counted as a barometer of the actual policies and actions of public officials, though. I wouldn't be surprised if party platforms often emphasize counterintuitive ideals and even contradict the methods of administration the party really embraces – for the same reason that Democrats are often loudly proclaiming that they're tough on crime, or promising they'll lower taxes, or saying they're for military strength, etc. Party platforms have never been a roadmap to governance; they've always been a campaign tool for convincing voters to put checkmarks next to their candidates.
posted by koeselitz at 2:29 PM on January 4, 2015


So Spain hates itself. Someone needs to go tell them they're great and it doesn't matter what other people think, the key is to love yourself.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:38 PM on January 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Happy little trees indeed.
posted by Hactar at 2:46 PM on January 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Survey shows at least 87% of these charts are terrible.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:25 PM on January 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


Maybe my standards have been lowered by wtfviz but I'd say less than half are terrible.

The Centre of Gravity of the Stanley Cup isn't terrible in its design, but it's a ridiculous thing to measure.
posted by RobotHero at 4:23 PM on January 4, 2015


Yeah, for the most part, these are really well designed. I'm still not sure why 538 only does static visualizations, but they're still mostly solid. If occasionally silly.
posted by graphnerd at 4:56 PM on January 4, 2015


The Paintings of Bob Ross. Yes that is good.
posted by zinon at 5:29 PM on January 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


The Paintings of Bob Ross. Yes that is good.

With a discussion of conditional probability!

What is the probability, given that Ross painted a happy tree, that he then painted a friend for that tree?

There’s a 93 percent chance that Ross paints a second tree given that he has painted a first.

posted by damayanti at 7:22 PM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Today I learned that Greece hates the shit out of Germany, and that NFL teams with a 0/0 win/loss record have a 39% chance of going to the playoffs.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:29 PM on January 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


Mr.Encyclopedia: " NFL teams with a 0/0 win/loss record have a 39% chance of going to the playoffs."

It's based on records from 1990 to 2013. But there were fewer teams in 1990 so the odds were slightly higher then than they are now. With the current number of teams you'd expect 37.5% chance of making the playoffs. (if my math is correct)
posted by RobotHero at 7:50 PM on January 4, 2015


The Centre of Gravity of the Stanley Cup isn't terrible in its design, but it's a ridiculous thing to measure.

And yet fascinating how it seems to follow the coastline of the Bruce peninsula for a good part of it, even if it is purely coincidental.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:40 PM on January 4, 2015


This page was entirely worth scrolling to the bottom, because at the bottom was Bob Ross, who is apparently the reason statistics were invented.
posted by asperity at 11:24 PM on January 4, 2015


I call foul on the Bob Ross graph because I didn't see any instances of "Happy little birds."
posted by halfbuckaroo at 2:59 AM on January 5, 2015


Man, everyone hates greece. The germany/greece mutual self loathing is interesting historically because the Greek 'royal family' is actually German.
posted by empath at 9:59 AM on January 5, 2015


Most interestingly, the French like the English more than the French like themselves.
posted by biffa at 7:16 AM on January 6, 2015


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