Tribute to Edward Tufte

One of my most valued books is The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, self-published in 1983 by Edward Tufte. It was quite revolutionary at the time, arguing that most charts and graphs were doing an inadequate job of conveying the information they contained. His beautifully produced book provided a multitude of ways to improve that, accompanied by numerous illustrations.

These sorts of graphics on our recent election (screen shots from my PC) are common now. They owe a large debt to Tufte's ideas, whether or not their creators are aware of that.

We've been hearing more news about the lingering effects of storm Sandy in northern New Jersey and around New York city, followed by snow from Athena. My middle son Raphael, who just moved to Little Silver near the north NJ coast, may still be without power and living with his inlaws (10 days after Sandy hit). Friends in Westchester County were without power for 5 1/2 days and then lost it again when snow from Athena hit. Here's a New York Times article about the effects of Athena and her wet snow. A fellow blipper captured this.