Back in October I posted line charts illustrating Herman Cain’s rise in popularity among GOP — and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s descent after some unsteady debate performances. Yesterday Google released its 2011 “zeitgeist” report, which visualizes worldwide searches during the last year, allowing a... Read more →

The Sunlight Foundation this week released a new-and-improved service that allows users to compare words uttered by members of the U.S. Congress:  For every day Congress is in session, Capitol Words visualizes the most frequently used words in the Congressional Record, giving you an at-a-glanc... Read more →

Does this mean Santa isn’t real? Via The Atlantic:  There are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world who celebrate Christmas on December 25th. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christm... Read more →

Love this from Bloomberg Businessweek:  Correlation may not imply causation, but it sure can help us insinuate it. Read more →

Data source: Wikipedia Read more →

Last night Robert Griffin III became the first Baylor football player to win the Heisman Trophy, the college game’s highest honor. Griiffin was the 76th player to receive the award — and the 28th quarterback — since the tradition began in 1936. The winner is selected from ballots cast by hundre... Read more →

Genius, via @zachwill:  Go Cowboys! Read more →

An cool timeline from ProPublica:  The chart below shows pardons granted per year from 1900-2011. Click on a bar to see the number of pardons granted and by which president. The timeline below the chart shows notable pardons. Built with Timeline Setter. Read more →

Another Sunday, another NFL viz — this one showing the growth in total receptions by the league’s top receiver each season:  Top receiver by yards:  Data Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com Read more →

A few weeks ago I got pummeled on Twitter for questioning the need for layaway, which was being touted heavily at the time by Wal-Mart. I was persuaded by arguments that layaway doesn’t make sense in an era of big box stories that seem to have an endless supply of goods from China. It’s less im... Read more →