Two Cool Visualization Examples

I’m always looking for great examples of data visualization and I’ve recently come across two that I found on the blog Strange Maps:

1.)  The first shows the distribution of different names for soft drinks across the U.S.  As “pop” drinkers from the Midwest, we still find it strange that New Yorkers say “soda” and even stranger when they don’t even know what “pop” is!

2.)  The second is a really good example of how visualization tools can capture change over both time and space.  The New York Times has a nice graphic that shows how countries have fared with respect to Olympic medals over time.

The Pausch Legacy

I suppose that most people have already seen the Randy Pausch videos, but since they are so great I felt it couldn’t hurt to be redundant.  Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and recently passed away.  Since his diagnosis he has built an amazing web presence by sharing his experiences and inspiring others to live life to the fullest.  The NYTimes compiled a list of his various web sites and online lectures and they are well worth exploring.  There are a lot of good professors who know a particular substantive area well and can communicate effectively with students; but the truly great professors, like Pausch, are those who aren’t afraid to show their humanity and  can connect emotionally as well as intellectually.