Monday 16 August 2010

UK Councils spend millions on their website redesigns



Councils spending millions on website redesigns as job cuts loom

A Telegraph.co.uk interactive shows the fees for the revamps, which come on top of salaries, were criticised by campaigners who say money would be better used ensuring workable internet access for residents

One council refreshed the look of its website eight times in a decade, another paid more than thousand pounds for a spellchecker – even though most word processing software bundles this free

Blimey

Thursday 5 August 2010

Cloned cow chaos




Cloned cow chaos born of supreme champion cow from United States

From a prize winning cow in Wisconsin to Nairn near Innverness in Scotland

In today's Daily Telegraph, Gordon Rayner provides great insight into the scandal

Reconstruction (infographic) of events:

Mark Rueth, a farmer in Oxford, Wisconsin, paid £9,800 ($15,500) to Cyagra Clone, a genetics firm, to create a copy of his Holstein cow, called Vandyk-K Integrity Paradise

The clone called Vandyk-K Integrity Paradise 2 was born in 2003

To recoup his outlay, Rueth set about inseminating the clone with seamen from a prize bull, Raging Crest Dundee, and selling the frozen embryo to three farms in the UK, which in turn implanted them into surrogates

Of those born from the surrogates, three were bulls, which in turn sired 97 calves

These bulls have since been killed, and two have entered the UK food chain, which is illegal. Food derived from cloned animals or their offspring cannot be sold in EU countries without a license, which are authorised by the Food Standards Agency (FSA)

As yet, no licenses have been requested

Thanks to Conrad Quilty-Harper

Tuesday 3 August 2010

NYT Stop, Question and Frisk



NYT Stop, Question and Frisk interactive

Click here to enjoy another fantastic data interactive by the NYT

New York City’s police force, in its fight against crime, has increasingly used a strategy known as “stop, question and frisk,” which allows officers to stop someone based on a reasonable suspicion of crime. One expert has estimated New Yorkers are stopped at twice the national rate

Circles indicate the number of "stops" at each address or location in 2009 as reported by the NYPD

REAL data visualisation with meaning

Information caviar!