Tasty Data Goodies

Olympic Fever

Symptoms of this infectious disease include: hyperventilation while watching Michael Phelps break record after record; headaches resulting from frequent squinting as you try to keep up with Usain Bolt in the 100M dash; and pain or discomfort knowing that female athletes, Constantina Tomescu-Dita and Dara Torres, hovering around the 40 year mark, are ten times more in shape than you'll ever be. (Any of these or may not be impacted by Beijing's air quality.)

Swivelers have definitely caught the Olympic fever!  In the last couple weeks, we have seen data sets tracking everything from the history of drug testing to Michael Phelps' gold medal tally. This chart from seancarmody tracks the total number of gold, silver, and bronze medals won by country.  Keep checking back for updates.

We would love to hear more about your favorite Olympic athletes or events!  Comment here or upload your data to Swivel.

Today's Featured Graph

When I first came across this graph, created by Seema, it slammed me over the head with its brutal symbolism. Take a moment to look at it. The tall lonely peak, at 3,000 dead, is the 9/11 towers. You've probably heard it many times that terrorism has been getting worse since the 9/11 attacks, but now you can see it in the cold statistics lines, slowly zigzagging out of control.