Carte Figurative… Roughly translated as Figurative map showing the drastic demise of the Napoleonic army on their way into and - with an even more striking casualty rate - out of Russia (Moscow more specifically). Starting with around 422,000 troops, the graph describes (in the beige) the number of troops continuing their invasion, while simultaneously (in black) highlighting the devastating effect the winter had on the troops and their dwindling numbers during the retreat back past the Nimean (Neman?) river. But forget the imperialist history here for a second guys - this is Tumblr after all. A quick wiki search led me to discover the importance of this graphic - not for its story telling, but as an infographic…Most notably as it “may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn”. Charles Joseph Minard, an 19th century pro at info graphics sure knew how to create a decent image, here cleanly presenting; army size, physical co-ordinates, direction, time and weather…All without a single gradient ‘live paint’ fill in sight. Read more with this great looking book; Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward Tufte. Another nice find today; Intelligence Squared - which stages and uploads Oxford Style debates on various topical issues. Yet to venture too deep into this one, I’m sure its full of gems.

Carte Figurative…

Roughly translated as Figurative map showing the drastic demise of the Napoleonic army on their way into and - with an even more striking casualty rate - out of Russia (Moscow more specifically). Starting with around 422,000 troops, the graph describes (in the beige) the number of troops continuing their invasion, while simultaneously (in black) highlighting the devastating effect the winter had on the troops and their dwindling numbers during the retreat back past the Nimean (Neman?) river.

But forget the imperialist history here for a second guys - this is Tumblr after all.

A quick wiki search led me to discover the importance of this graphic - not for its story telling, but as an infographic…Most notably as it “may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn”. Charles Joseph Minard, an 19th century pro at info graphics sure knew how to create a decent image, here cleanly presenting; army size, physical co-ordinates, direction, time and weather…All without a single gradient ‘live paint’ fill in sight.

Read more with this great looking book; Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward Tufte.

Another nice find today; Intelligence Squared - which stages and uploads Oxford Style debates on various topical issues. Yet to venture too deep into this one, I’m sure its full of gems.

4 months ago  Notes (3)
  1. smokingcinnamonsticks posted this