Filed under
Data Visualization
March Madness 2011
It is March, which means that March Madness is just around the corner. Last year I made a graph that showed the history of the tournament since the 64-team format was implemented. As pretty as I think the graph is, it did come with some problems, the biggest one being that it is easy to assume that each one of the four areas represents a specific region (currently named Midwest, West, East and South). Well, that is not the case.
This year, I wanted to get rid of that problem, but it was not as easy as making sure that the regions were always in the same spot because the regions are not always paired the same way (leaving aside the naming changes that have also happened.)
So here is what I decided to do for this year:
- All 4 regions are grouped into one
- Each team is shown individually – 1664 teams are shown
- Teams are arranged by date
My plan is to post a few more of these graphs over the next days and weeks but I figured that it would be good to start with the Champions. I hope you like it and find it useful when filling your bracket this year.
Bracketology - NCAA 1985 - 2009
I made this chart because I was curious to see how brackets have behaved since they started using the current 64-team format. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.
UPDATE: For 2011, I'll be posting a series of charts for March Madness. The first one is here.
Record lows/highs - Daily global average temperature of near surface layer (ch04) [Troll infested]
I found out about this site which graphs the daily global average temperatures thanks to Paul Krugman's blog.
After playing with the different options that the site gives you to create your own graphs I decided to take the data that they make available as a text file to create a different visualization. I was mainly interested in seeing the days that break previous records (high or low).
For this chart, I took the first two readings for each day and set those as the record high and low for that da. Then, I compared each new value to the records set in previous years for that particular date. I marked each new record with red or blue (for high and low, respectively).
I find the resulting chart useful and alarming (but not surprising).
A better timetable for MTA's Metro-North
As someone who lives in New York, I rely on public transportation. Every once in a while, in the form of MTA's Metro-North. When I need to consult a timetable for their trains I go to their mobile website on my iPhone. I've never liked the way their site is built but it was not until recently that the MTA made publicly available their data.
After some hours of work, I ended up with this page:
You can select a date or station by clicking on them.
You can reverse the trip by clicking the icon next to the stations.
If you are looking at today's trains, only the future trains are displayed.
You can view past trains by clicking the bar below the stations (when you are viewing today's trains)
Each train is displayed with:
Departure time on the left.
Duration of the ride displayed in text next to the departure time.
Duration of the ride displayed as a bar below the times. The length of the bar represents the duration of the ride.
10-minute intervals are marked with a lighter color.
Hour intervals are marked with a darker color.
Arrival time on the right.
The images on this post show my approach as well as MTA's mobile website.
Please note that even though I am using MTA's data, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information. Use at your own risk.
