Contrarian reader Ken Clare thinks Contrarian's standards slipped with our post of a chart comparing US food subsidies: Edward Tufte, the “Galileo of Graphics” you introduced us to back in June, refers to images like these as “chartjunk." I haven’t taken the time to measure the images you copied (from a committee of physicians who may have had a passing relationship with math sometime in their pasts), but the subsidies pyramid eyeballs closer to a 100-to-1 ratio than the 75-to-25 ratio it is labeled. Update: A Diligent Reader award goes to Contrarian's insomniac friend Alistair Watt, who spent time with a ruler and...

13 March, 2010

This comparison, from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, is, of course, based on U.S. farm subsidies and U.S. dietary guidelines. Any data geeks out there want to take a stab at Canadian pyramids?...

10 March, 2010

OK, it's not really trompe-l'œil. It's an actual, three-dimensional lamp standard at 6th Avenue and Cambie Street, Vancouver. The Cossette ad agency wrapped the pole in brown vinyl, affixing an out-sized carafe at the top and a giant cup at the bottom. The result: an eye-catching ad for McDonald's coffee giveaway promotion. Don't try this in Halifax, where it's illegal to advertise on poles, except for the anatomically correct poles city fathers (and mothers!) set aside for that purpose. Hattip: Bessy N. ...

22 September, 2009