Visual representation of information

The Guardian G2 supplement has a lovely column entitled Why I love... (always written by an enthusiast), which this week took a look at Edward Tufte, a marvellous writer on the visual representation of information. His various books are well worth exploring.

And on a topical note, check out this University of Michigan page from Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman, on ways of representing the 2004 US election results. Their point is that things are not as black and white - or red and blue - as they might appear from the graphics published in the press.

Perhaps not as funny as this redrawing of the national boundaries in North America, which apparently first saw the light of day in a German-language publication in Switzerland.

And on another humorous note, in last month's Atlantic magazine (paying subscription required), Ben Birnbaum fights the red-blue divide with his Crayola Nation, a partly completed geography to be completed with a range of colours such as camouflage (waitress named Lureen), pesto (year-round family-yard-sale cluster), moss (place that could be mistaken for Canada), melon (cellar with Pilates equipment in original carton on floor behind furnace), and pineforest (courthouse with spittoons).