Day

One of the best examples of interactive data presentation, as published by the New York Times. It compresses a vast array of data on how people use their day into a visually rich graph, which clicking allows you isolate and explore. Take a look at the comparison between black and white eating through the day, for example - and how having one child means you work more, it seems. Fascinating stuff.

Dialect

Assembled and published by the British Library a record of England's regional dialects makes fascinating listening. A Google map allows easy connection to the range of sounds and vocabulary of our people. The north has a noticeably denser concentration of flags, perhaps indicating the persistent, distinctive and subtly different intonations of our northern industrial towns, it seems.

Data

From Flowing Data comes an innovative and beautiful way of representing complex data. Like all graphs, it works because it converts the information from the numbers into visual form. The difference in the ribbon diagrams is in the ability to present multi-dimensional numeric values clearly. The example of hair colour preference is a good example, and all is clearly explained. Very clever.

Optimism

From an abandoned property in Wood Street, Liverpool, a strangely satisfying graph, complete with X- and Y-axis subdivisions.

The person who was given the job of boarding up the windows it seems couldn't be bothered to cut the timbers to the right length, especially as they were so close to being right. The job they are doing is simple - to make bill-posting too awkward to be worthwhile. Graffiti is erased in white to the extent of the highest batten.

Anyhow, the good news is that the graph appears to be based on an optimistic dataset, despite economic, empirical and visual evidence to the contrary. I guess that's Liverpool.

Gallup

I've just come across gallup.com. I didn't realise they had a daily publication of all of their polls, which despite its US leaning provides a kind of FTSE index of our collective mood. It also covers 'hot topics', providing the digested data direct, with less media mediation...