“The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” — Commonly attributed to Joseph Stalin.
We’ve passed through Memorial Day and various World War 2 anniversaries, not the least of which for us, of course, is the June 6, 1944, landing on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.
Screenshot from Neil Halloran’s “The Fallen of World War II.”
We’ve heard the big numbers again. Seen the last few old men who fought get awards, heard their stories and paid our respects. But as we go on into our future, World War II and its tens of millions of dead slides farther and father into the past, out of our collective memories, our daily lives.
“World War II … was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it’s the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways: all sorts of technological commonplaces, from computers to radar to nuclear power, date back to some secret World War II military project or another; the most efficient military systems became the model for the bureaucratic structures of postwar white-collar corporations; even the current landscape of America owes its existence to the war, since the fantastic profusion of suburban development that began in the late 1940s was essentially underwritten by the federal government as one vast World War II veterans’ benefit. (Before the war there were 3 suburban shopping centers in the U.S.; ten years after it ended there were 3,000.)”
— Lee Sandlin in “Losing the War”
But so what … new conflicts have our attention, recent war dead our sorrow and current service members our honor.
Enter big-data-story-teller Neil Halloran and his amazing, humbling visualization of World War II war dead, civilian and military: “The Fallen of World War II.” You can see some of the highlights in the gallery below, watch just the video (at bottom of story) or go to his project page for an interactive version.
While Halloran totals the war dead at 70 million, Wikipedia still has it at 61 million. Whatever the absolute number is, the number of killed continues to climb as the West gets a better reckoning of how many died on the Eastern Front between Germany, Poland and Russia. That section is probably the most powerful moment in his presentation.
What’s so important about this visualization isn’t just that it’s gripping story telling and powerful reminder … but also what it says about the decades since World War II. (See last slide in above gallery.) Basically, we’re living in an unparalleled period of “peace” (some say we wage war today more with our economy than our military with nearly as devastating effects … but that’s another topic).
In fact, the vast majority of humans live in a time of peace. Those out front dying and fighting across the globe can’t be overlooked, and Americans fighting in our wide-flung wars and skirmishes say we’re too disconnected from their service.
But there is no other way. If just 10 percent of Americans deemed “available” for service — say, 140 million — were in some branch of the military right now, that would be a standing military of roughly 14 million. Currently, the U.S. struggles to afford all the hardware and personnel expenses of an active military of 1.4 million and 850,000 reserve. There’s just no way for anything like even one percent of all 314 million Americans to have direct military experience.
The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.
So, more people are living without the direct threat of death by military conflict than ever, according to Halloran’s data video. Basically, Halloran’s video is a lesson in how to tell a positive story using the vast numbers of war dead.
Addendum: Gut checks
Data visualizations rarely tell a “story,” because data doesn’t speak to causes or motives or the why of an event. That’s where all the debate is, that’s where all the personal stories and all the guessing about motives goes on. But big data visualizations can act as a gut check to our assumptions about events or what is really going on all-around us.
In America, we most often tell our stories based on what happened recently, today or yesterday, and/or based on what we want to see happen. In that way we are very fortunate since the future is where we will live.
But, the downside is that we misjudge the actions of others whose cultures have undergone such powerful shocks and crippling wars (watch that video and you suddenly see Russia in a new light) that their stories and motives stem from events eighty, a hundred or a thousand years in the past.
If you want at least some understand for what’s driving Russian aggression and what drove Russian isolationism and obstructionism during the Cold War, again Halloran’s data visualization will give you a new perspective.
But since we in the U.S. are present- and future-oriented, we see each death or conflict magnified by the present ubiquitous news coverage and talking heads guessing at what those things might spiral into. Our politicians fan these flames vigorously by declaring we live in a state of chaos and danger with a future of decline and violent death almost certain for every single one of us … unless he or she is elected …
“So if watching the news doesn’t make us feel hopeful about where things are heading, watching the numbers might,” Halloran says in his video.
And that’s a powerful gut check. Sure we have problems, but nothing compared to a world at war. And, if we can continue down this general path we’re on and react with our minds, science and hopes instead of fear-driven military smashing of things and people (… and, of course, tackle climate change) well, it’s possible we can in fact live in a world much better than any humans before us and the scarifies of World War II will be truly honored.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JDJzAp
“The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” — Commonly attributed to Joseph Stalin.
We’ve passed through Memorial Day and various World War 2 anniversaries, not the least of which for us, of course, is the June 6, 1944, landing on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.
Screenshot from Neil Halloran’s “The Fallen of World War II.”
We’ve heard the big numbers again. Seen the last few old men who fought get awards, heard their stories and paid our respects. But as we go on into our future, World War II and its tens of millions of dead slides farther and father into the past, out of our collective memories, our daily lives.
“World War II … was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it’s the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways: all sorts of technological commonplaces, from computers to radar to nuclear power, date back to some secret World War II military project or another; the most efficient military systems became the model for the bureaucratic structures of postwar white-collar corporations; even the current landscape of America owes its existence to the war, since the fantastic profusion of suburban development that began in the late 1940s was essentially underwritten by the federal government as one vast World War II veterans’ benefit. (Before the war there were 3 suburban shopping centers in the U.S.; ten years after it ended there were 3,000.)”
— Lee Sandlin in “Losing the War”
But so what … new conflicts have our attention, recent war dead our sorrow and current service members our honor.
Enter big-data-story-teller Neil Halloran and his amazing, humbling visualization of World War II war dead, civilian and military: “The Fallen of World War II.” You can see some of the highlights in the gallery below, watch just the video (at bottom of story) or go to his project page for an interactive version.
While Halloran totals the war dead at 70 million, Wikipedia still has it at 61 million. Whatever the absolute number is, the number of killed continues to climb as the West gets a better reckoning of how many died on the Eastern Front between Germany, Poland and Russia. That section is probably the most powerful moment in his presentation.
What’s so important about this visualization isn’t just that it’s gripping story telling and powerful reminder … but also what it says about the decades since World War II. (See last slide in above gallery.) Basically, we’re living in an unparalleled period of “peace” (some say we wage war today more with our economy than our military with nearly as devastating effects … but that’s another topic).
In fact, the vast majority of humans live in a time of peace. Those out front dying and fighting across the globe can’t be overlooked, and Americans fighting in our wide-flung wars and skirmishes say we’re too disconnected from their service.
But there is no other way. If just 10 percent of Americans deemed “available” for service — say, 140 million — were in some branch of the military right now, that would be a standing military of roughly 14 million. Currently, the U.S. struggles to afford all the hardware and personnel expenses of an active military of 1.4 million and 850,000 reserve. There’s just no way for anything like even one percent of all 314 million Americans to have direct military experience.
The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.
So, more people are living without the direct threat of death by military conflict than ever, according to Halloran’s data video. Basically, Halloran’s video is a lesson in how to tell a positive story using the vast numbers of war dead.
Addendum: Gut checks
Data visualizations rarely tell a “story,” because data doesn’t speak to causes or motives or the why of an event. That’s where all the debate is, that’s where all the personal stories and all the guessing about motives goes on. But big data visualizations can act as a gut check to our assumptions about events or what is really going on all-around us.
In America, we most often tell our stories based on what happened recently, today or yesterday, and/or based on what we want to see happen. In that way we are very fortunate since the future is where we will live.
But, the downside is that we misjudge the actions of others whose cultures have undergone such powerful shocks and crippling wars (watch that video and you suddenly see Russia in a new light) that their stories and motives stem from events eighty, a hundred or a thousand years in the past.
If you want at least some understand for what’s driving Russian aggression and what drove Russian isolationism and obstructionism during the Cold War, again Halloran’s data visualization will give you a new perspective.
But since we in the U.S. are present- and future-oriented, we see each death or conflict magnified by the present ubiquitous news coverage and talking heads guessing at what those things might spiral into. Our politicians fan these flames vigorously by declaring we live in a state of chaos and danger with a future of decline and violent death almost certain for every single one of us … unless he or she is elected …
“So if watching the news doesn’t make us feel hopeful about where things are heading, watching the numbers might,” Halloran says in his video.
And that’s a powerful gut check. Sure we have problems, but nothing compared to a world at war. And, if we can continue down this general path we’re on and react with our minds, science and hopes instead of fear-driven military smashing of things and people (… and, of course, tackle climate change) well, it’s possible we can in fact live in a world much better than any humans before us and the scarifies of World War II will be truly honored.
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.
from The Big Science Blog http://ift.tt/1JDJzAp
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