From the monthly archives:

March 2010

Where is debt headed now?

20 March 2010
Debt levels - thumbnail image

As expected, government debt levels exhibit a marked up-swing. What is striking, however, is that the levels of household debt have not yet fallen. While US and the UK are consumers “deleveraging”, Australian households are showing no signs yet of reducing their debt.

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Symbol Soup – using tags in the Mule Stable

14 March 2010
Tags

The first time you visit the Mule Stable it can look a bit like a symbol soup, full of # symbols, @ symbols and exclamation marks. But these symbols are in fact a short-hand that can turn posting simple text messages into something a lot more powerful. In this demo video, I run through all the different types of tag symbols you can use on the Mule Stable.

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Pyramid Perversion – More Junk Charts

12 March 2010
Pyramid Chart

While it may be very tempting to use impressive-looking 3D charts to show off your data, the results can be extremely misleading. A look at a pair of “food pyramids” highlights the problem with pyramid charts.

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Who are the big carbon emitters?

4 March 2010

Earlier this week, @pureandapplied brought to my attention the emissions data that has been published by the Department of Climate Change in Australia. Their report comprises data for the 2008-09 reporting year provided to the Greenhouse and Energy Data Officer by corporations whose greenhouse gas emissions exceeded 125 kilotonnes*. A few corporations are missing from [...]

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