Edward Tufte Appointed To Help Track and Explain Stimulus Funds

President Obama recently announced several appointments to the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, including data visualization expert Edward Tufte, author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. The purpose of the panel is to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose aim is "To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information." Tufte said on his website, "I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary."

Comments

didja follow the link in my comment?

[circletimessquare]

jackass

Re:didja follow the link in my comment?

[spun]

Pft, you didn't make it clear in your comment that the graph was not by Tufte. Anyone following the link will see that it's by Minard, but this is Slashdot. "Following the link," "reading the story" and even "reading the summary" are not common practices here.

my link reproduces exactly what you say

[circletimessquare]

in your comment, complete with the comment by tufte about menard's graph verbatim

the old joke about no one on slashdot following the link is not some sort of technical specification that must be understood and adhered to, its a mea culpa that slashdot readers, like you, suck

but, gee, thanks for reducing the comment thread to an inept braindead echo chamber

Re:my link reproduces exactly what you say

[spun]

Get off your fucking high horse you anti social misfit. If I want to be pedantic I'm going to be pedantic and whiny little bitches like you sure aren't going to stop me.

"My link reproduces..." yeah, yeah, whatever. Put it in the comment. Woulda taken you five extra seconds to write "Just take one of the most famous graphs, by Charles Minard..."

But the real issue here is that your attempt at cleverness falls totally fucking flat. You do realize that in that graph, time reverses for the lower line, right? Time goes right to left for the retreat, dumbass. Meaning, 'obfuscation by entrenched special interests' is going DOWN over time, is that what you are trying to say? Idiot.

God damn you are clueless. Every time you get it in your head to fuck with me, I make you look like an idiot. Why do you continue to insist on playing that game, when you know you will lose, every single time.

could you do me a favor?

[circletimessquare]

currently you have me listed as a friend

could you update that and remove that status?

thanks

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Re:could you do me a favor?

[spun]

You could just mark me as a foe. But I do actually like you when you aren't being whiny. Grow a thicker skin, man, this is the Internet.