Turn the American Presidential Debates into Abstract Data Structures

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:00:00 PDT

You can watch the American presidential debates and allow Barack Obama and John McCain to move you emotionally, or you can convert what they say into easily-analyzed data structures. C-SPAN's awesomely wonky graphic designers have created several easy ways for you to analyze as objectively as possible which candidate spoke the longest, interrupted the most, and used the word "taxes" more often. At left, you can see their word frequency chart, looking at which words were used most and when. We also have part of an elaborate chart showing which candidate grandstanded the most on various topics.

The beauty part of the chart below is that if you go to C-SPAN's website it lays out each debate like this, and you can easily mouse through it and click through quickly to videos and transcripts backing up the chart's claims. I'm telling you, this is pure information crack.

Keywords in the Debate and Timeline [via Information Aesthetics]

Ride the MagLev Train from One Fake Place to Another

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:11:43 PDT

U.S. President Bush has authorized construction companies to use $45 million in federal money to construct a maglev train between two amusement parks: Disneyland and Las Vegas. It will be the first levitating train in the U.S., zooming along at up to 300 mph, though the Bush Administration's choice of route is somewhat odd. A trainline on that exact route was canceled in 1997 due to lack of interest from riders. Maybe the levitation thing will get people interested again — they can fling themselves around in mad teacups at Disneyland in the morning, levitate to Vegas in the afternoon, and gamble their life savings away in the evening. I love the future. [AP via Slashdot]

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Turn the American Presidential Debates into Abstract Data Structures

Ride the MagLev Train from One Fake Place to Another