Global arms transactions, visualized in interactive map

ARMSFLOW.org is a data visualization project that shows international arms transactions between 1950 and 2006. The site (a big ole Java applet) was created by Jeffrey Warren of Vestal Design, based on data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Link, via monochrom blog.

[#1 posted by James David , February 1, 2008 5:50 PM]

This is an amazing datavisualization. They Rule is a similar one that links up the corporations that produce the ammunition with other powerful leaders... pretty interesting to see the who's who of that world. Also, I noticed that fans of the Armsflow project can lend their support by funding server costs. (Look for the "CLICK HERE" link at the end of the write-up.)

[#2 posted by dainel , February 1, 2008 5:55 PM]

I'm pretty sure, those arms from the US to Australia / Taiwan / Japan flew across the Pacific. This will remove some of the red lines over Europe and makes some of the lines clearer.

[#3 posted by naggs , February 1, 2008 5:58 PM]

we're #1!(?)

[#4 posted by searconflex , February 1, 2008 6:11 PM]

Confused by Canada's lines being drawn to Yellowknife... of all places?

[#5 posted by Brok Enlish , February 1, 2008 9:10 PM]

this is art. sublime!
brokenglish.blogspot.com

[#6 posted by Dustin Driver , February 1, 2008 9:52 PM]

@#4 Yeah, Yellowknife? A remote place for arms trading? A manufacturing center, perhaps?

[#7 posted by RyanH , February 1, 2008 10:04 PM]

It looks like they just picked a middle point for each country and that's where the lines run to. Or rather, they defined the geography and let the program decide what the middle point was. As long as you include Alaska and all the northern islands in the Canada land mass, the spot the lines are running to looks to be right smack dab in the middle if you chopped it in half north/south and east/west. The other countries look similar. The line for Mexico actually terminates in the ocean.

[#8 posted by Domster , February 1, 2008 10:50 PM]

@#4 New Zealand's arms, meanwhile, seem to have been dumped in the ocean a few hundred kilometres off the East coast.

[#9 posted by Takuan , February 1, 2008 10:54 PM]

bloody kiwis, just can't trust them. Remember the bloke that built a GPS controlled jet powered cruise missile in his garage?

[#10 posted by mshaneen , February 2, 2008 12:59 AM]

makes me think of the artist Mark Lombardi's work

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lombardi

[#11 posted by James David , February 2, 2008 8:42 AM]

@#10 Thanks, I'd never heard of Mark Lombardi before... interesting stuff!

[#12 posted by alexsanmiguel , February 2, 2008 5:13 PM]

Thanks,but do not see links to Mexico and Central America ...

[#13 posted by zjmna , February 3, 2008 8:58 AM]

Cool, although the 2D flat world is a little misleading... lies and damned lies, I guess... I would like to see the same information represented in 3 dimensions, but I guess I'm just being picky...