18/07/08

Chart junk-ies

Though I’ve been wrestling the dreaded PowerPoint more than I’d like to recently, I haven’t posted for a while on data presentation. So I’m stealing this absolute gem that Environmental Graffiti ran under the title “World’s most expensive place to have sex” and Presentation Zen relayed under the title “When bar charts go bad”.

What I love best about this is discussion of Chart Junk that it prompted at Presentation Zen. Read. Go ahead, read. Then tell me if you think the discussion is po-faced or tongue in cheek? And how come nobody picked up on Environmental Graffiti’s true wickedness, the Misleading Headline. As a resident of Ireland who has also spent time in Shanghai, I can tell you that having sex costs exactly the same in both places. Having safe sex, though; aah, that’s a different matter….

Thanks to Peter at Apt for the tip.

This post was published on 18/07/08 in Condomania, Science.

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3 comments

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  1. Comment by Roger, 18/07/08, 02:00:

    I might be thick or slow (or both, it’s Friday…) what’s wrong with this chart but the title?

    Condoms are priced differently accross the world and happen to be more expensive in Ireland than in Shangai.

    My first reaction was that it wasn’t surprising considering the Catholic stronghold Ireland is…

    The Netherlands is a protestant country, where self-control does not require the use of condoms, hence a higher price justified by return on costs.

    England and New York would fit this model and Portugal and Poland two other deeply catholic country with Ireland too.

    I have nothing to support this but it’s Friday, so…

  2. Comment by monstermom, 18/07/08, 06:58:

    hmm…wow… never seen this before..

    Can we relate this to the birth rate then…

  3. Comment by Roger, 19/07/08, 01:00:

    You would better compare to fertility rate.
    Here is a good tool to do it:
    http://www.indexmundi.com/

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