Robert has worked at SAS for over a quarter century, and his specialty is customizing graphs and maps - adding those little extra touches that help them answer your questions at a glance. His educational background is in Computer Science, and he holds a BS, MS, and PhD from NC State University.
With talk of tariffs in the news lately, I'm sure everyone is curious about possible ways to bypass them. One possible loophole is using the foreign-trade zones (FTZs) in the US. What are FTZs, and where are they located? Read along and find out!... The Foreign-Trade Zone act was passed in
Why do people donate money to politicians and political parties? Sometimes it's because they agree with the platform, but sometimes it might be for potential financial benefits. When it comes to large donations from Fortune 500 companies, I suspect the latter! And since politics has been in the news a
According to a recent Bloomberg article, this year the United States passed Hong Kong and Singapore to become the country with the world's most competitive economy! They say, "The U.S. dethroned Hong Kong to retake first place among the world's most competitive economies, thanks to faster economic growth and a
Have you ever tried to plot data on a map of Antarctica ... and been thoroughly frustrated or confused? If you're that person, or even a seasoned map maker wanting to hone your skills, then this blog post is for you! But first, here is a picture to get you
Poverty. It's a bit difficult to define who lives in poverty - I guess it's a relative thing, and depends on the standard of living of the people around you. Today we're going to take a look at the child poverty rates in several 'rich' countries (such as the United
It looks like we've finally recovered from the Great Recession, and there are even claims of record-low unemployment in several U.S. states. Of course claims like that make my data-radar go off, and I wanted to see the numbers for myself. And it's a great excuse for me to create
Have you ever lied about your age? When you were younger, perhaps you exaggerated your age to watch an R-rated movie, buy cigarettes, get into a night club, or drink alcohol? And when people reach their 30s or 40s, they might subtract a few years when people ask their age.
How old was the oldest person in your family, or the oldest person you personally know? And how do they compare to the oldest people in the world? ... Perhaps you can easily make the comparison, with this cool graph! But before we get started, here's a picture of my
How many planets are there in our solar system? The answer hasn't always been 9 ... er, I mean 8 (sorry Pluto!). The count has changed throughout history as we got a better understanding of astronomy, discovered new planets, and redefined what a 'planet' is. Wouldn't it be helpful to
Plastic pollution in the oceans is becoming a huge problem. And, as with any problem, finding the solution starts with identifying the source of the problem. A recent study estimated that 95% of the plastic pollution in our oceans comes from 10 rivers - let's put some visual analytics to
