U.S. National Debt

One of the most mind-blowing pieces of information out there on the Internet is the ever growing United States National Debt.  The fact that it is over 15 trillion dollars is not even the craziest part; statistically speaking, the debt goes up $100,000 every four seconds.  A petroleum engineer is lucky to make that much in a YEAR.  There are constantly updating counter clocks on the Internet that show the real time increase of the National Debt.  The counter refreshes so fast it is impossible to watch the last four digits rise from one to two to three…to zero.  For an up-to-the-millisecond debt counter, see the attached link or visit it here: http://www.usdebtclock.org/ .

What Crazy Egg's "Heatmap" Can Do for Your Website

Owning a website, do you ever wonder how many times people click on a certain link? There is already counting technology out there that will tell you, but Crazy Egg's "Heatmap" will make it much more interesting and colorful. The Heatmap makes use of eye-tracking technology to allow you, as the website designer/manager, to know exactly where your potential customers are looking within your site.

This "Heatmap" shows the eye movements as one progresses down a page

Look for the "hot" areas to determine what catches the eye and what keeps it, and determine what link, ad, etc would go best in that place. 

WeatherSpark: Weather Graphs and Charts

WeatherSpark is a new weather website that emphasizes its interactive weather graphs, charts, and maps for forecasting areas around the world. Because of the technology available today, the weather information in WeatherSpark is collected in a faster and simpler way. The main screen of WeatherSpark will show two things on each side of the screen. On the left side of the screen, there will be a map where the user can zoom in and out, displaying temperatures in the surrounding areas. The right side of the screen has a default graph that shows the fluctuation of the temperatures throughout the day and predicted temperatures of the next six days. The graph also has many features to view other weather related subjects [like precipitation, dew point, etc.]. WeatherSpark is a useful website that can allow the user to view multiple and past forecasts, obtain global warming information, compare weather for vacation planning, and use many other features for their weather related needs.

http://www.weatherspark.com/

Gas Prices Ride a Bumpy Road

Gas prices are ugly. That, we can all agree on. But compared to historical prices, especially those from 2009 to 2010. According to ZFacts.com and their nifty chart here, back in 2009 the lowest average gas price was about a buck 75. Today, the average is just a little over $3.50. Though the chart shows a slight overall decrease in prices, the ticker provided by ZFacts shows that most states have gas prices that have risen about one dollar since last year. These prices are very crazy and unpredictable, but I have faith that they will soon fall, seeing that I have to drive to work every day this upcoming summer.

Education and Training Pays (2011)

This graph is most recent look at the relationship between an adults education and how much their weekly earnings are. This chart from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a strong increase in the earnings to go along with the higher of education. It also shows how extreme the unemployment rate is in the US depending on level of education. The average unemployment rate is 8.2% and the median weekly earnings are $782. As expected the highest unemployment rate is for those who have only received a high school diploma, however on average those with a professional degree earn less money (weekly) than those with a doctorate degree.

Why steal médiocre films?

            It seems that movies that are pirated aren’t always the top sellers. In 2008 besides The Dark Night, the top ten movies pirated are much different than the top ten grossing movies of that year. Mininova.com is currently the leading resource to pirated goods also known as a bittorrent site.  Although many people think music is the most pirated good realistically its is blown out of the water by the amount of software stolen. The number is almost ten times as great as the number of music stolen today. The rankings go from highest to lowest, software, movies, and finally music. 

http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/40-useful-and-creative-infographics/

Facebook's Historic IPO: By The Numbers

The graph above gives the reader a cool visual representation of Facebook's shareholders interests. This is a pie graph. The pie has Mark Zuckerbergs head on it, depicting how Facebook revolves around his intellectual genius. Obviously, Mark Zuckerberg owns the highest individual percentage of the company. The current CEO will make an estimated $16 billion dollars off this IPO. The other largest breakdown, "Other," refers to the public shares being offered on Wall Street. However, like most IPO's, preferred private investment firms, mutual funds, and hedge funds get first chance to buy a part of Facebook.