Which state has the highest per capita marijuana use? Who has the most horses? Deer-collisions? What about suicides? Rice production? There will be some stats on this graphic by our friends at 1bog that will not surprise you, such as the state with the largest economy or the most wind farms, but some of the stats will likely blow your mind.
If you call Connecticut home, your standard of living and economic opportunities are almost two times better than that of someone in West Virginia. That basic inequality shouldn’t be news to any American who’s spent a day outside. But rarely has it been put in such a stark visual form. The images here are screenshots from a sweeping interactive data visualization by Rosten Woo and Zachary Watson for the American Human Development Project. The infographic maps something called the American Human Development Index — a rough, one-stop measurement of quality of life across America based on things like education, life expectancy, and income — and lets you compare it to a raft of other factors, from political activity to local homicide rates. Think of it as a medical chart from the nation’s annual physical — one that reveals some serious health problems.
If you’re gay, you might want to rethink a job at ExxonMobil. Better yet, ExxonMobil might want to rethink its policy on gays. The big-oil biz tied with Philip Morris International as the lowest ranking companies in this tremendous multi-part infographic on how LGBT-friendly the top 100 Fortune 500 corporations make their workplaces. Designed by Tiffany Farrant for Meet The Boss TV, the data visualization ranks both individual businesses and entire sectors, drawing up a black-and-white picture of tolerance in corporate America today — of who has embraced LGBT diversity and who still acts like Stonewall never happened.
Proportional Representation
America needs to amend its constitution to allow for a multi-party system, implementing proportional representation.
For example, Arizona (where I live) has 8 Congressional districts.
Instead of dividing the state into gerrymandered districts where if 50.1% of the district votes for a candidate, that party wins the entire district, envision the entire state as one district.
For argument’s sake, let’s say 38% voted Republican, 38% Democrat, 12% Libertarian, and 12% Green.
3 seats would go to Republicans, 3 to Democrats, 1 to Libertarians, and 1 to Greens.
This allows for a more accurate representation of the political views of their constituents.
Now, of course, to get this amendment passed, we’d need the support of the very two-party system that would be hurt by such a change.
Illegal immigration is much more complicated issue than the usual dichotomy of “Illegal immigrants are destroying our country” versus “Illegal immigrants play a vital role in our economy.” Before we even embark on the discussion, we need to know who we’re talking about.How many illegal immigrants are there, where are they from, and how do they fit in to the economy?
Everybody might be working for the weekend, but we’re also working toward expanding our countries’ economies. Each hour we work contributes to the gross domestic product. But by how much? This is a look at the GDP per capita of the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, compared with the average numbers of hours worked in each country. While we may be working hard in America, in Luxembourg, an hour of work really means something.
SOURCE: OECD
A collaboration between GOOD and Amanda Buck.
A Gallup report issued on Tuesday underscored just how out of line we are. Gallup surveyed people in more than 100 countries in 2009 and found that religiosity was highly correlated to poverty. Richer countries in general are less religious. (via Op-Ed Columnist - Religious Outlier - NYTimes.com)
