A History of Balance of Power

Measured by GDP(ppp) from G9 countries.
Interesting to note that several countries are absent from this comparison. Was the Roman empire really that small?

Reference: Link

Music goosbump secret

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura."

Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good."

Chills often descend on listeners at these moments of resolution. When several appoggiaturas occur next to each other in a melody, it generates a cycle of tension and release. This provokes an even stronger reaction, and that is when the tears start to flow.

"Someone Like You," which Adele wrote with Dan Wilson, is sprinkled with ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas. In addition, during the chorus, Adele slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution, said Dr. Guhn.
To learn more about the formula for a tear-jerker, a few years ago Dr. Guhn and his colleague Marcel Zentner found musical excerpts—from Mendelssohn's "Trio for Piano" and Barber's "Adagio for Strings," for example—that reliably produce the chills and then measured the physiological reactions (heart rate, sweating, goose bumps) of listeners.

Chill-provoking passages, they found, shared at least four features. They began softly and then suddenly became loud. They included an abrupt entrance of a new "voice," either a new instrument or harmony. And they often involved an expansion of the frequencies played. In one passage from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488), for instance, the violins jump up one octave to echo the melody. Finally, all the passages contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony. Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern.

"Someone Like You" is a textbook example. "The song begins with a soft, repetitive pattern," said Dr. Guhn, while Adele keeps the notes within a narrow frequency range. The lyrics are wistful but restrained: "I heard that you're settled down, that you found a girl and you're married now." This all sets up a sentimental and melancholy mood.

When the chorus enters, Adele's voice jumps up an octave, and she belts out notes with increasing volume. The harmony shifts, and the lyrics become more dramatic: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead."

Adele, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter performed "Rolling In The Deep" from her latest album "21" at WSJ Cafe

When the music suddenly breaks from its expected pattern, our sympathetic nervous system goes on high alert; our hearts race and we start to sweat. Depending on the context, we interpret this state of arousal as positive or negative, happy or sad.


If "Someone Like You" produces such intense sadness in listeners, why is it so popular? Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

Measuring listeners' responses, Dr. Zatorre's team found that the number of goose bumps observed correlated with the amount of dopamine released, even when the music was extremely sad. The results suggest that the more emotions a song provokes—whether depressing or uplifting—the more we crave the song.


With "Someone Like You," Adele and Mr. Wilson not only crafted a perfect tear-jerker but also stumbled upon a formula for commercial success: Unleash the tears and chills with small surprises, a smoky voice and soulful lyrics, and then sit back and let the dopamine keep us coming back for more.
—Ms. Doucleff is a scientific editor at the journal Cell.

Link: Anathomy of a Tear-jerker

Moral principles - Immanual Kant

Well put on the right moral principles by Professor Sandels at Harvard University.

Links:
Harvard: http://www.justiceharvard.org/
YouTube1: http://forum-network.org/lecture/mind-your-motive-supreme-principle-morality
YouTube2: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06767B5721CF031B

1: http://www.axess.se/Tv/webbtv.aspx?id=2757 (Mind your motive or Moralens överläge)
2: http://axess.se/tv/player.aspx?id=2773

TED: Simon Sinek & Steve Jobs - Leadership by why

I first found an intersting speach from Simon Sinek today (under Most viewed on TED).


How great leaders inspire others by telling why.

On Simon's homepage was a video about purpose. You can skip to the end, where he summarise a few things about leadership in the military. It's worth hearing.


Then, I heard the speach from Steve Jobs who inspired Simon where he says follow your heart.

Steve mentioned a book 'Whole Earth Catalogue' that I wish I knew about when I was young.
I would had been a perfect, if I only had known english as today.
I like the end: Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Guide to Euro Crisis

Links: Paper link, Interactive site link

Other: What are the Wall St Protestors So Angry About, A visual about income equality in the USA

A day made of glass

Watch "A Day Made of Glass" and take a look at Corning's vision for the future with specialty glass at the heart of it.

Startup Genome - The Growth cycle of Startup companies

Since February we've amassed a dataset of over 3200 high growth technology startups. Our latest research found that the primary cause of failure is premature scaling, an affliction that 70% of startups in our dataset possess.

The difference in performance between startups that scale prematurely and startups that  scale properly is pretty striking. We found that:

 - No startup that scaled prematurely passed the 100,000 user mark.

 - 93% of startups that scale prematurely never break the $100k revenue per month threshold.

 - Startups that scale properly grow about 20 times faster than startups that scale prematurely.

Continue to read

 

Other business models

 

World GDP & Freight correlation

World GDP % change* has a strong correlation to Suez canal cargo by weight % change*

* on a year earlier.

Link: Economist

Distribution of prosperity

THE 5 percent of Americans with the highest incomes now account for 37 percent of all consumer purchases, according to the latest research from Moody’s Analytics. ...
Continue to read

...and how Taxes has changed...

Link: Tax article

Household debt to income ratio by country

Debt amount to Yearly Income ratio + Monthly Cost of debt to Monthly Income ratio (note: old data).
Link: texterity

Color name survey

Interesting map. Also split by guy/girl names.
Link: xkcd, datapointed

Chart chooser from Extreme presentations

A good idea that is worth expanding. Surpriced it was 4years since I read this blog post.
Link: extremepresentation, pdf, old post

Congressional Conversation Index (CCI)

What problems are discussed (solved)? Do you think it correlates with the annual budget (amount)?
Link: kstreetcafe

Food infographics

Interesting information
Link: foodandtechconnect

Intelligence vs Social ineptness & Human contribution

Also for Nobel prize winners?
Link: myconfinedspace

Idiagram: Problem solving or Confusion

Interactive chart.
Link: Idiagram

US - Tax alternatives (simple visualisation)

Simple visualisation of the different alternatives
Link: Washington post

Eye candy

Source: Slideshare

Sensory Mapping

An interesting way to map out an experience of positive/negative feelings across all five senses.
Source: Here

311 call in NewYork

What are the most common complaints (311 calls) and when are they made.
Source: Wired

Human Development Index - USA

Interactive map. Data from 2010-2011
Source: HDI-USA

WeatherSpark, Historical climate + forecast

The bottom slider can go back until 1973.

Link: WeatherSpark

Swim places in Europe - Interactive map

Source: The Guardian

Streamgraph

 

Also: Linear or log

Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas, just 10%

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.

The finding has implications for the study and influence of societal interactions ranging from the spread of innovations to the movement of political ideals. As an example, the ongoing events in Tunisia and Egypt appear to exhibit a similar process, according to Szymanski. "In those countries, dictators who were in power for decades were suddenly overthrown in just a few weeks."

"In general, people do not like to have an unpopular opinion and are always seeking to try locally to come to consensus. each of the individuals in the models "talked" to each other about their opinion. If the listener held the same opinions as the speaker, it reinforced the listener's belief. If the opinion was different, the listener considered it and moved on to talk to another person. If that person also held this new belief, the listener then adopted that belief.

Source: Science Daily

How do you measure wellbeing and happiness

The Office for National Statistics in UK was asked by the Prime Minister David Cameron last November to find out - or at least to work out how to find out.

After a six month-long consultation the wellbeing project came to the conclusion of a crucial difference:

* happiness is one intangible thing.

* wellbeing is - they say - measurable in the same way our economy is.

The project leader said:

It is essential that the set of measures of well-being is relevant and well-based in what matters to people, both as individuals and for the UK as a whole

So, how will they do it? The study has been split into a search for two types of indicators - subjective ones about how we feel and objective measures of things that affect our wellbeing.

On top on 4 extra questions in the Integrated Household Survey (IHS), they plan to investigate four major areas:

* Childhood

* Economy and inequality

* Health

* Work/life balance

The first results are expected back in July 2012.

Source: The Guardian

Google statistics

"I guess Google Correlate [googlelabs.com] is a dream come true for any person appreciating statistics and social science (or just likes to explore which line graphs match up). It is Google's newest addition to its already rich and powerful collection of data tools, which already include Google Data Explorer, Google Trends, Google Insights for Search, Google Fusion Tables, Google Visualization API, Google Chart API, or Google Wonder Wheel."

Link: Infosthetics

Best Expat country

The interactive, geo-located bubble world map is based on a large survey of about 4,000 expats conducted in 2010.
Link: Expat explorer

Microsoft ExcelWebApp - Online Slicer Graph

Source file: ferrero consulting

Also upgrade from Excel 2003 to Excel 2010, with an Excellent free pdf book. Learn a bit more PowerPivot, at powerpivotpro.

Difference in Pay

Does this reflect inequality or not?

24h body clock - groundbreaking discovery

A group of Cambridge scientists have successfully identified the mechanism that drives our internal 24-hour clock, or circadian rhythm. It occurs not only in human cells, but has also been found in other life forms such as algae, and has been dated back millions of years.

"The implications of this for health are manifold. We already know that disrupted clocks – for example, caused by shift-work and jet-lag – are associated with metabolic disorders such as diabetes, mental health problems and even cancer."

A second study identified a similar 24-hour rhythm in marine algae. This groundbreaking research shows that body clocks are ancient mechanisms that have stayed with us through a billion years of evolution.


Source: Gizmag, Ancient body clock discovered that helps to keep all living things on time

Försäkringskassan

Så mycket betalas ut av Försäkringskassan till andra länder. Vore intressant att ställa det i relation till hur mycket som betalas ut inom Sverige.

Källa: DN:Miljarder hamnar utomlands

Recession - Time to recover

This is an intersting graph comparing the time to recover from a recession. I think it would be equally interesting to view the opposite; Boom - Time to turn. Also it would be interesting to see how the stockmarket reacted. Their job is to know what will be known, soon.

Source: NY Times - Comparing recoveries: Job changes
Normal salary: Levels of income

State of the Union Address 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama has released his State of the Union Address of the year 2011, with Infographics - like a mixed video & ppt slide presentation.
The speach in itself is impressive but the edited version makes it is far better.
Since the best companies usually has the best leaders, when USA now has probably the best leader it is going to be very interesting to see what will happen. I sincerly hope he can keep his job long enough to change the world.

Source: information aesthetics

SlimScan - Wallet sized receipt scanner

A receipts scanner to keep a record of your daily expense.
Don't expect to scan too many receipts. Their pen version has a battery time of max 200 scanned pages and a transfer rate of  about 10pages/minute.
Links: PlanOn SlimScan, Engadget
Current price: US$119.99

Exoplanets Atlas (infographic jpg poster)

Interesting map. Even though the negative temperature scale is wrong.
Source: Wired


Updated 2013-01:

In the media

Source of picture: link

Source of picture: link

Source of picture: link

Unsorted

Analytics
https://www.openanalytics.com.sg/tour.aspx, http://www.openmeasures.com/, http://blog.analysis-one.com/

GDP/captia trends
GDP/captia trend: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/07/gdp-projections-china-us-uk-brazil
Taiwan: http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/11/taiwan_and_japan?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/breakingformation

Graphics
How to tell a story: http://infosthetics.com/archives/2011/01/research_telling_stories_with_data.html
Dataquilts: http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/11/geneaquilts.html
Media hypes: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/mountains-out-of-molehills/
School reform: http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/11/explaining_education_reform_through_interactive_infographics.html

Structures
Pyramid of needs: http://brilliantgem.blogspot.com/2007/05/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html
Pyramid of wisdom: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/data-information-knowledge-wisdom/comment-page-1/#comments
Definitions: http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm
Taxonomy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_Taxonomy
Human Development Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/mpi/

Software
Defrag only files: http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/en/index.htm
Remove in picture: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/12/27/inpaint-serial-key-free-download-to-remove-unwanted-objects-in-photo/
Map ftp drives: http://www.netdrive.net/index.html
Right clikc: http://www.moo0.com/
Academic edition of Office 2010: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/about-time-office-2010-academic-edition-microsoft-actually-listens/3560, http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/techg.aspx, http://store.digitalriver.com/store/msshus/DisplayStudentHeroRegistrationPage?resid=TAIWhwoHAi0AADaYHCgAAAAM&rests=1291670179836
Pregnancy tester: http://www.gizmag.com/duofertility-ovulation-temperature-monitoring-system/16718/

Creating Value - 4 cornerstones of Corporate finance

In this 40min video presentation, McKinsey partner Tim Koller explores the four guiding principles of corporate finance that all executives can use to home in on value creation when they make strategic decisions.
I found the 2nd part 'Core-of-value principle' and the last part of 'Best-owner principle', most interesting.

Global Property Guide

Property trends: Sweden, South Korea, ... see Data left hand side.

Most expensive appartments

Global Property Guide

Energy map

On EnergyMap.dk you can find information about the latest energy and climate related technologies, projects, solutions, cases and events. EnergyMap is the national Danish internet portal for energy and climate related solutions.

On EnergyMap Danish companies, organisations, institutions and public authorities are given the opportunity to present their work and ideas on technologies and programmes that may help combat climate change and improve energy-efficiency

PhD, what do you know

This is what you know, when you really know what you are talking about.
Source: 1, 2

Religion and GDP/capita

Interesting correlation between religion and GDP/capita.

Source: Religious Outlier

Self actualization

The questions to self actualisation (what, why, how, where, when, who, ...):
If someone don't do it for you: http://www.justspotted.com/map/
You can do it yourself: https://www.google.com/latitude

A good way to find new sites, similar to your own.

Source: ...

The World's Best Countries

Newsweek: The world's best country, New Hansa countries

Links

How to Disable, Remove or Hide IE8 Search Box

ItsHidden Free VPN Tunnel Service for Anonymous Surfing and Torrent Downloading 

Toucan - sync, backup and secure, all in one place

Smart defrag

Recorded Future

Interesting.

Source: GizMag

Kno - Dual iPad

Interesting new Pad.

Source: GizMag

World statistics - interactive time

StatPlanet looks like a Trendalyzer clone; similar categories, with ticking time scale.
It's is a free software that is very easy and intuative. As they say "StatPlanet can be downloaded as a stand-alone application and used as free educational software. It comes with up-to-date world statistics in the categories shown below."

Source: Wikipedia, Trendalyzer

Personal Finance

How much does a normal house hold spends per month.

Categories I found interesting: the 2010 report, couples with/without children and spending per age group.

The data comes from "Our data comes from the U.S. government, from anonymous and aggregated spending transactions from Citi, and from third party data providers."

Their philosophy is: "the Bundle philosophy that people can become more aware of their everyday spending and saving choices. And it’s our way of leveling the playing field for people: companies have been paying millions of dollars for this kind of data for years in order to get you to buy more stuff. Now you can see it, too, and it won't cost you anything."

Source: Information Aesthetics

Excel 2010 & PowerPivot

This will grow
* PowerPivot team blog, other
* Excel 2010 compared to 2007 and 2003
* Old Comparisons

Data visualisations

Primary Data sources
* New: The Guardian, NewYorkTimes
* Old: Information is beautiful, Information aestatics

Articles
Subway map of Human Discoveries
Top Secret America Blog
Retirement Ages in OECD countries
Time to reverse a recession
Factors that influence the Political views
Can President tame the Business Cycle?
Misery index - unemployment & fisical x
Health care spending
Time to turn of a recession
Costs of living compared
The cost of old people
The world in Oil resources and consumption
National debts of OECD countries

Scientific
Ocean heat driven vehicles
10x better heat exchanger

Feelings
Feelings Quatified (research so far, feelings in life, beauty in all), old link

Save energy with Infrared map

A good idea to make a "Infrared save energy map".
The house owner can see how well his/her property is insulated.