Twitter

Kat Downs Mulder

Tag Archive: news

Mapping the news: Libya and Japan

The past several weeks have been full of foreign news, and we have been producing lots of graphics to explain what’s happening. I have worked on these two graphics, one about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, and one that explains what is going on in Libya.

For a full explanation of the process of creating the Japan graphic, visit the new Innovations blog at the WP (excerpted below):

Friday morning, as news of the earthquake in Japan spread, we started pulling together an interactive map that would show readers where and how events unfolded. Over the next 36 hours, we would continually expand and improve the information, design and interactivity of the map as the news of the earthquake and tsunami came in. Read more »

For Libya, we combined an event tracker with audio and video from the ground. The reports from correspondents on the ground is my favorite part.

Both graphics are done using javascript and jquery, so check them out on your tablet devices!

March 21, 2011 Information Graphics, Maps, Multimedia, , , , , , , , , , , , Read more >

Nationwide County Map

After many months talking about how we wanted to produce a nationwide county map, we finally had a project come up that called for one with a quick turnaroud — one and a half days! With a great base map by Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, I created this United States county map that shows unemployment from 2007-2009. This is an early version, so there’s a lot of improvements to make, but I think it’s a solid start, and I’m happy we turned it around as fast as we did. I used classes I created for the helicopters state map and the Virginia governor’s race map to make the build much easier.

Unemployment by county

D.C.’s unemployment rate was 12.1% in Oct. 2009 — really high. Macon County, where Franklin is, had an unemployment rate of 10.3%. We’ll keep adding to this map as time goes on, and I think it’ll be really interesting to see what happens with jobs and the economy over time.

December 3, 2009 Maps, Work, , , , , , , Read more >

Writing New Songs

1. I think the new Killers CD is good - Sam’s Town. The two tracks I like most are “Bones” and “When You Were Young” - interestingly… their singles.

2. Saw Babel. Heavy on emotion, light on depth and context.

3. Rumsfeld Resigns

And a beautiful quote from Hayden‘s song “Don’t Get Down” - please listen to it.

“Write a song
All your old ones don’t mean a thing if you don’t sing
Any new ones”

November 8, 2006 Random Thoughts, , , Read more >

Modern-Day Evolution

I heard on the radio this morning that you can actually choose the sex of your baby. Here’s an excerpt from WAMU’s Market Morning Report’s piece entitled “I’ll Have a Girl, Please”:

JENNIFER MERRILL THOMPSON: “I really, really wanted a daughter, and I knew that technology was probably the only way it was going to happen for me. And we didn’t want to keep having boy after boy. I didn’t want to have a huge family, so we were willing to spend the money to do Microsort.

It took Thompson about two years and over $12,000 to conceive Rachel using a special sperm sorting technology that’s still not widely available.

——
Richard L. Berke, assistant managing editor of the NY Times, is answering questions online this week about their front-page selections. It’s really interesting to see the way that he answers questions about bias in the Times and story selection.

AND for those of you who care, my job is great! I love it and it’s so exciting to finally be working. I love riding the train in the morning, walking downtown, all the ties and shoes and briefcases. All the business.

September 12, 2006 Videos, , , Read more >