Some of you will remember that a few months ago this blog mentioned Errol Morris’s New York Times article about two famous old photographs, both of which show the same stretch of road on the Crimean peninsula. One photograph shows the road covered with cannonballs, with additional cannonballs strewn around the ground on both sides of the road; the other shows the road clear of cannonballs. As Morris discusses, it has long been assumed that the photo with the clear road — the “off the road” picture — was taken first, and that the photographer and his crew then moved a bunch of cannonballs onto the road to take the “on” picture. In his article, Morris questioned whether this ordering was in fact correct.
As Morris discusses in another article, the traditional wisdom was in fact correct: “Off” came first. This can be determined pretty conclusively by looking at the cannonballs that are lying around on the ground: many of them have shifted position slightly, and in every case they are slightly farther downhill in the On photo than in the Off photo. The only story that makes sense is that the Off photo was taken, and then these cannonballs were disturbed (presumably by the photographer and his team
Before the answer was known for sure, Morris asked his readers to send in their opinions and reasons. In a new article, Morris summarizes the reasons, using some of the worst statistical graphics I have seen in 2007 (it’s worth taking a look). And he likes them (the graphics, I mean)!
If anyone would like to make a better display, here are Morris’ data. (Sorry, he doesn’t really discuss what the reasons mean, so you’ll just have to work with what’s here). The first line is a header line; subsequent lines give the reason, the number of people who cited this reason in describing why they think “On” came first, and the number who cited this reason in describing why “Off” came first. (“Off” is the right answer).
Reason,On,Off
Shadow,149,23
Gravity,3,5
# and Position,155,75
Camera/Exposure,20,10
Topography/Climate,33,17
Character/Artistic,20,37
Ball Properties,17,8
Practical Concerns,60,25
Shelling,10,30
Rocks,13,19
Physics,2,2
somehow, i have a feeling those didn't come out of the graphics department.
Errol Morris is my hero, but . . . sheesh!
Errol was a hero to most…
Seriously, though, Errol is the best, but colorful pie charts?
Whenever I am faced with data in pairs, male/female, yes/no, on/off, I immediately think tornado graph :-)
Nice, I actually like the spineplot for this.
I could be way off, but I tried normalizing each distribution and then compared the features. Maybe I could win the award for (worst use of statistics to make a graph to improve (the worst graph of 2007) of 2007).
graph and <a />explanation.
People seem to assume they know how to make statistical charts, when they have no training. In this area, people may not even know that there is training available.
What do others here think of Naomi Robbins book on graphics? I think it would make a good gift to every journalist.