info: http://www.google.com/ideas/projects/arms-visualization/ link to site: http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/armsglobe/ github: https://github.com/dataarts/armsglobe
Looks like it has been updated for 2011 data here as well as a new weapon type 'unclassified'
edit: almost forgot, here's a great writeup by Michael Chang on the project http://mflux.tumblr.com/post/28367579774/armstradeviz
The relationship between Thailand and Europe, and say .. Australia and Europe, over the last 2 decades, to my naive thinking, really shows details of clear product demand/response according to world incidents.
It'd be interesting to be able to overlay War/Conflict Data on top, body-count stats, and a few other relevant data of the world, to see how all this is tied to a market reality.
Perhaps we, the people, need to do our own data-mining.
We actually have hard data on this, thanks to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Instant_Criminal_Backg...), we're going on something like 30+ months where each month's sales are greater than the same month's a year previously. I can get details, or e.g. check out the NSSF's reporting on this (the real gun manufacturer's association).
It is hard to tell where the lines lead, so I need to rotate the globe. Also for European nations, it is very messy because some of the countries are tiny and all trade with each other. There is also no way to see arms trade over time, which would have been quite useful since the data has a time-series.
Very pretty looking 3D graphic though.
It is nice as a demonstration on how the web may look like in 3 years, but personally I prefer tables and graphs when viewing statistics. Has anyone seen a link to a “classic” view?
The utter ruthlessness of Fast and Furious is also telling.
You're also ignoring what I think is the most fundamental thing: anyone who makes a habit of balancing their checkbook can predict that things are going to get ugly when we can no long have "trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see", and that we're clearly going to be on our own as that plays out?
How about HUD's Section 8 policy that among other things moves criminals out of the central cities into formerly peaceful areas, which is now slated for a big expansion?
Another thing, related to the above, a steadily graying population, etc., is that ever more states have shall issue concealed carry regimes. Since Obama was elected Iowa and Wisconsin have joined them, with Illinois (!) in a few months; that'll make 43 out of 50 states, way more than 2/3rds the population.
You're demonstrably wrong about "no one's going to take our guns" when it comes to slave states like New York and California that have confiscated them in recent memory, and in the latter's case is poised to do another round, but in general correct ... because in most of the US we won't tolerate it, one way or another. Keep pushing, though, if you want a second Civil War with the half or so of the nation that's "the fanatical right wing".