This blog post is mostly just a bunch of fun maps ... maps that are labeled (or mislabeled) in various ways, using fun/interesting data. I focus on the 'fun' part, but if you're not careful you might also learn a little about the various ways to add labels to maps
The rumors are true - The Graph Guy is retiring! I've been working at SAS for about 30 years, and had lots of fun stretching the limits of SAS' graphing & mapping software over the years. But I've decided to retire while I'm still young enough to pursue a lot
I hope you're all doing well, in this year of plagues and locusts! I'm sure I don't even need to mention which plague I'm talking about. But what about the locusts? Are you up on your entomological studies? Follow along, and see if you really know what locusts are... Locusts
Now that we are many months into the COVID-19 pandemic, we can start to reexamine the data and look for trends. This time, I want to explore how COVID-19 has been spreading around the US. I do this by animating a county map over time. What is animation? Are you
When an election is on the horizon, I always feel compelled to plot some data! And this time I'm plotting North Carolina's voter registration data! State Data For this graph, I downloaded several of the data snapshots from the NC State Board of Elections' website, and plotted a line showing
I can tell that my area (Wake county, NC) has a growing population, because the traffic keeps getting worse and worse. But it's a little difficult to quantitatively gauge growth by looking at traffic congestion. Therefore let's have a look at a more direct measurement - the actual population data!
North Carolina recently re-drew the congressional district boundaries for the upcoming 2020 election. Here's a copy of the new map, from the ncleg.gov website: A couple of years ago, I created an enhanced version of the 2016/18 map, and I thought I'd do the same for the new 2020 map...
I was recently reading David Mintz's excellent SESUG 2018 conference paper on Five Crazy Good Visualizations and How to Plot Them, and saw a map that caught my eye. David showed how to create a similar map, but with completely different data - I decided to try creating a map
Yesterday we had a 'special election' here in NC, to elect new members to the House of Representatives for Congressional Districts 3 and 9. The election got a lot of national news coverage, therefore I thought people might like seeing the results plotted on a map. Before I decided to
Summer is winding down, and cooler fall weather is just around the corner. You might soon be able to take a pleasant drive with the windows down, while enjoying the scenery. But where should you go? What are the most scenic roads for that drive? Read along to see a
It's that time of year again - the summer is coming to a close, and students are heading to college... And starting the clock ticking on accumulating that student loan debt! Before we get started, here's a little something to set the stage for this topic. This is a picture
Have you ever had one of those moments when something you had assumed was true all your life, turned out not to be true? I remember that happening in my high school Spanish class (taught by the wonderful Señor Shoaf), when he let us in on a little secret -
The guys over at reservations.com recently posted a really interesting idea, and a map to go along with it! They worked out an itinerary where you could spend one year traveling around the world (staying in a different place each week), and always be in a comfortable temperature around 70-75°
We just had the big July 4th holiday weekend here in the US. And as with many holidays, there was a lot of drinking. Which got me thinking/wondering ... which counties do not allow alcohol to be sold (ie, which counties are 'dry')? And it seemed like a question that
Cases of the measles have certainly been making headlines in the news recently. And with all the data at our disposal these days, it seems like we should be able to predict which areas in the US are most likely to have measles outbreaks, eh? A group of independent researchers
As the sharing economy grows, you can catch a ride on Uber, have meals delivered by Grubhub ... and even stay in someone else's house (rather than a hotel) via sites like Airbnb. And speaking of that last one, I recently read an article listing Airbnb's top 20 'wish-listed' homes
We recently had some severe storms come through North Carolina, which even spawned a tornado in Wake county (the county where I live and work). This got me wondering when and where we've had tornadoes in NC in the past ... and, of course, I had to create a map!
If you live in North Carolina, chances are you have to get your vehicle inspected each year, before you can renew your license plate. The inspection consists of a safety portion, and in some counties an emissions portion. In the past, 48 of NC's 100 counties required the emissions portion
Showing the most popular jobs in each state is interesting (as I showed in my previous two blogs 1, 2) ... but not that interesting. How about something a little more quirky?!? ... Let's determine the most disproportionately popular job in each state! Their Map I got the idea for
Using small multiples is a neat way to display a lot of information in a small amount of space. But depending on how deeply you want to analyze and scrutinize the data, you need to be careful in choosing just how small you make your small multiples. Let's look at
When I'm at a social gathering, someone always asks what type of work I do. I like to keep my social life separate from my work, therefore I usually give a vague answer such as "software" (and quickly change the topic). How vague or specific is your response? How vague
예술가들은 몇 가지 도구만으로도 멋진 그림을 그릴 수 있습니다. 물론, 물감, 색연필, 목탄 등 선호하는 도구는 저마다 다를 수 있겠지만 말이죠. SAS에서 멋진 그래프를 만드는 방법도 크게 다르지 않은데요, 오늘은 그 방법을 예를 들어 설명해보고자 합니다. SAS에서는 SAS/Graph Proc GMap을 사용하여 멋진 지도를 만들 수가 있습니다. GMap은 SAS가 지도 제작용으로 특별 개발한
For those of you who don't have SAS/Graph's Proc GMap, I recently showed how to 'fake' a variety of maps using Proc SGplot polygons. So far I've written blogs on creating: pretty maps, gradient shaded choropleth maps, and maps with markers at zip codes. And now (by special request from
Users frequently ask how to plot their data as markers on a map. There are several ways to do this using SAS software. If you're a Visual Analytics user, you can do it using a point-and-click interface. But if you're a coder, you might need a little help... In this
If you're a fan of SAS' ODS Graphics, you probably know that it does pretty much everything except geographical maps. But it's flexible enough that you can "fake it 'till you make it"! This example describes how to fake a geographical (choropleth) heat map using Proc SGplot polygons. In my
If you give an artist some tools, they can create a pretty picture. Sure, they might have a preferred tool - but they can probably do a pretty decent job no matter what you give them (paint, colored pencils, watercolor, charcoal, etc). And creating pretty graphs in SAS is no
With recent advances in quadcopters, or drones, they have become pretty capable and fun flying machines. And just about anybody can afford the entry-level models. They've recently become prevalent enough that the government has started coming up with rules, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started requiring owners to register drones that
In a previous post, I showed you how to send graphs with charttips & drilldowns in an email ... but what if you also need to send the graphs that you're drilling-down to? You guessed it - SAS also has a slick trick for doing that! When you create SAS graphs
Many people today just use their computer to play Angry Birds or post pictures of their most recent meal on Facebook ... but what would some of the great minds of the past have done with a computer?... For example, Charles Minard was creating impressive information graphics without a computer over 100 years ago,
Your biggest problem with maps used to be learning how to fold a paper road map. Today, with the advent of GPS, Google Maps, and location-specific data, the bar has been raised! ... you now need to know how to plot your data on a map! Below are several examples of different kinds
