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Visualizing Disease Outbreaks: A Question of Scale?

Vaccinations are a hot-button issue right now as measles outbreaks crop up throughout the United States. Measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and polio are all deadly diseases that can be easily prevented with vaccines. Outbreaks of these diseases have been occurring worldwide for a long time, but outbreaks have been increasing in the U.S. while going down in other countries, according to the video below:

Read More »Visualizing Disease Outbreaks: A Question of Scale?

Using Cartograms as a Visualization Tool: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Fertility Rates

Cartogram of the world based on population size.
Cartogram of the world based on population size.

Cartograms are spatial depictions that rely on quantitative attributes other than area to size their units. The most common cartograms show the world, and distort it by population or by wealth, but any geographic entity can be transformed into a cartogram. Because they force us to view the map in unfamiliar ways, cartograms provide dramatic visual portrayals of geographic, political, and socio-economic relationships. A look at a cartogram of the world based on population (above) quickly shows the potentially dominant places of India and China in Asia with respect to Russia and the significance of Korea and Japan as well.

The world sized by Gross National Product (GDP).
The world sized by Gross National Product (GDP).

Quite a different picture is presented by the world sized by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Here the U.S. and Europe dominate.  China is still large,Russia is still small, and the importance of Korea and Japan is still evident.

Read More »Using Cartograms as a Visualization Tool: An Interactive Tool for Exploring Fertility Rates