You know that when even your recently-graduated-from-college brother is talking about a TED talk on data visualization that it's going to be good. It's taken me an embarrassingly long time to watch this. But I'm glad that I finally did.

Aaron Koblin's flight patterns visual is breathtaking to watch by itself; hearing his description of the project and what jumps out to him in the resulting visual is intriguing. His other projects are equally engaging. I believe also that this is good demonstration of the value of narration on motion graphics - the context that would otherwise be missing is often what makes the visual truly compelling. The burst in Amsterdam text traffic wouldn't mean as much if you didn't know it was new years. Also, who knew collecting drawn sheep could be so interesting? Guess you'll have to watch (if you haven't already) to find out what I'm talking about.

Nat, if you're reading this - you'll enjoy Le Petit Prince reference.

Jill, if you're reading - you'll be interested in the Johnny Cash Project

Enjoy!