VizWorld.com

This has been all over the news, but The Washington Post has compiled a lengthy report of Top Secret Clearances and Projects across the US Government and published the results as a collection of interactive visualization tools on their site.  Their purpose is to show how use of the Top Secret Clearance has ballooned out of control of oversight groups since the 9/11 attacks on the WTC, and the government has begun to ignore the old regulation that such work be done by government personnel and instead hire contractors.

“Top Secret America” is a project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

When it comes to national security, all too often no expense is spared and few questions are asked – with the result an enterprise so massive that nobody in government has a full understanding of it. It is, as Dana Priest and William M. Arkin have found, ubiquitous, often inefficient and mostly invisible to the people it is meant to protect and who fund it.

The visuals are a bit complicated, but effectively you can see the quantity of clearances involved, various corporate involvements, and specific functional areas (IT, Weapons, etc).  No details on the actual projects (of course), but a lot of useful information nonetheless.

Lots of people seem to be in an uproar at how many ‘Top Secret’ government functions are in the hands of ocntractors, but I don’t see it as such a big deal. Several reasons, actually:

• Hiring Government Personnel is a ‘lifetime’ gig.  While officially it’s just urban legend that government employees can’t be fired, it’s a pretty accurate one.  Hiring a government employee means planning for a 30-year gig, with full benefits and pension afterwards.  It’s not cheap.
• Most of these are short-term gigs, meaning you’ld then have to make up work for said government employee to do.  Weapons systems come and go, IT functions balloon and merge, it’s all very fluctuating.
• The US Government typically won’t pay competitive wages for such expertise for people in very high-end technical areas, particularly not for 30+ years.

All in all it’s just cheaper to hire contractors.  They’re held to the same security clearance constraints as government people, and the same oversight.

But it makes for nice graphs.

Top Secret America: Who is TSA? | washingtonpost.com.

Science government, interactive, washingtonpost

What exactly is a blowout preventer, and how does it work? What were some of the flaw’s in the blowout preventer that may have caused it not to work? The Washington Post has a story and an infographic showing what a blowout preventer is, how it works, and what may have contributed to the disaster.

Click the first link below for the full image. The second link below takes you to an interactive infographic on the oil spill, and what it is affecting.

Several things were wrong with BP’s oil well, according to findings of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

via House panel: Flaws in the well.

via Interactive Graphic: Gulf Coast Oil Spill Map – The Washington Post.

Read more…

Graphics, Science infographic, oil, washingtonpost

The Washington Post has a well-made map of the Oil spill in the Gulf, showing a surprising amount of information in a small space.

Still staggering from devastating hurricanes several years ago, residents and wildlife along the Gulf Coast are threatened again, this time from a potentially catastrophic oil spill. As shown in the map below, tourism, commerce and the coastline are all at risk.

My only complaint about the map is that it is a little light on resolution.  The text is a bit difficult to read, but it’s still surprisingly well done.

via Oil Spill Map: Hard hit and waiting for another blow.

Graphics infographic, map, oil, washingtonpost

The House is still debating the new Health Care reform bill, and the Washington Post has created an interactive infographic showing how it’s going.  They first show how the individual representatives voted in the earlier November 7th vote, and then show how they are standing for this week’s vote.  They combine this with data about their campaign contributions from the healthcare industry and the amount of their constituency that is uninsured.

It’s a massive amount of information, but if you haven’t been following it closely then it’s a great way to see how your own representatives are standing.

Who’s in play: House health-care vote washingtonpost.com.

PS: I know any post about healthcare is going to bring out spammers & protestors/supporters, so please keep it civil and focused on the Infographic, not necessarily the bill.

Science health, political, washingtonpost

I found this over on FailBlog, which typically isn’t a source of great visualization material.  However, this poll result from the Washington Post has so many errors, I had to post it.

At first glance, it seems that there’s an overwhelming “yes”, as evidenced by the red bar.  But look closely at the percentages inside the bars, and you see they are both 50% .  Look closely at the legend across the bottom, and the entire legend is 50%.  What this really means is that the results (once you account for a reasonable margin of error) are essentially equal, roughly 49.9% vs 50.1%.

At a panel this week at VisWeek, “Changing the World with Visualization”, Sarah Cohen made the comment that they typically don’t label charts very well because they aren’t expected to leave the newsroom.  Evidently this one snuck out.

Online Poll Fail « FAIL Blog: Epic Fail Pictures and Videos of Owned, Pwnd and Fail Moments.

Science bad, poll, visweek, washingtonpost

The Washington Post has compiled President Obama’s personal schedule into an interesting infographic showing where he spends most of his time.  No surprise to see the largest blocks on Foreign Policy and the Economy, but you can dig deeper and see which months he spends, how many other people were involved, and more.

Every day President Obama meets with key members of his administration, Congress, foreign dignitaries, interest groups and regular citizens. Use our interactive database to track how Obama is spending his time, what issues are getting the most attention and who is influencing the debate.

They plan to continue to update the chart as the term progresses.

via Analysis | POTUS Tracker | The Washington Post.

Graphics, Science government, interactive, president, washingtonpost