Archives for category: Maps

You’ve probably been blocking it, but elections are about three weeks away.

Pollingreport.com has been keeping an updated list of national polls, including the most recent Newsweek Iowa poll, which show Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama leading the GOP and Democratic hopefuls, respectively.

The primary dates have been shifting around quite a bit, making this election particularly confusing for the public. Though the Federal Election Commission has a chart, several news outlets have come up with better ways to display the information — and the implications of the votes.

The Washington Post created an interesting bar graph that shows the ripple effect of the earlier primary dates, as well as a national map of the primaries by state and by date.

The Los Angeles Times does their take on the national map with a more elegant timeline of votes and caucuses. The design reminds me a bit of the FEC’s presidential campaign finance map.

Pollster has a plot graph, that tracks the candidate’s poll ratings. There’s a lot of data on each graph, though, so it’s a bit messy.

Rather than tracking, the New York Times does some explaining, with a map highlighting the early states, and a date and map chart of the Democratic and Republican races.

PBS’ Online News Hour and NPR have produced an interactive map that displays data state by state using mouseovers. Click on each state and you get additional information and related stories.

Ah, flu season. Today, the New York Times reported reasons why the flu spreads more easily in winter. (WebMD ran a shorter story on the same topic in late October.)

By coincidence, the AP reported a story about flu vaccines being ruined by improper storage.

Since the flu shorts are top of mind — National Influenza Vaccination Week ended Sunday, you know — now might be a good time to think about health-related tools, such as a local map of who’s sick and where; where to get a vaccinated, who to turn to for answers and even a database on what local clinics have reported spoiled vaccines.

Just a thought.