A report on the UnderConsideration blog outlines a fascinating experiment called Dear Lulu. From the blog coverage:

This past July, fourteen students attended a two-day workshop at Germany's Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences with Prof. Frank Philippin and London-based designer James Goggin. The brief, as explained by Goggin:

"My plan for the workshop is to investigate the visible and tangible parameters of graphic design — type specimens, halftone screens and, in particular, colour tests and calibration charts — and make a book of our own self-produced tests which we will send to print on Friday afternoon using the online print-on-demand system Lulu. The book project will therefore act as a colour/type/pattern test of the very system with which it is produced. "Print-on-demand" is an increasingly important production system which can serve to make us designers rethink the impact our profession has on the environment and to question the often wasteful print volumes and production methods requested of us by our clients. Graphic designers, and especially students, have a chance to use and subvert these relatively new (and fairly cheap) technological systems to our advantage."

The result of the workshop is Dear Lulu, a fantastic and imaginative resource that puts digital printing to the test through a Do-It-Yourself presentation that fits right in with philosophy of print on demand that makes it such an alluring proposition for designers looking to publish with little financial risk and with pretty decent results in return.

The report is not only a fascinating analysis of how far Print on Demand has come, but also a great tool for evaluating printers in general, as the output of the process is a book designed to stress the capabilities of any printer. As Amrita Chandra wrote on twitter in response to my post there, "what is great is you can send the book to other printers for comparison."

Food for thought for research firms: what if the output of a research firm were not just a report but a tool for putting a company's own systems through its paces, evaluating against the standards outlined in the report?

In what has to be the most under whelming unveiling yet — and a bad case of stolen thunder — for one of the largest retailers in the world, Walmart (unhyphenated as a single word from now on) just uploaded a formal, band-aid of a press release to their web site confirming the logo change that surfaced over the weekend when The Wall Street Journal reported that the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development had received documents from Walmart with the intent of opening a prototype store there. An artist rendering on those documents showed a new sign over the facade of the proposed store.

Artist rendering of the new signage. All I can say, though, is "Really? This is the best Walmart can do when it comes to renderings?" Oy.

As a reason of why the logo change, the reports on newspapers all allude to Walmart's continued evolution and progression from its less-than-glamorous reputation and image as an invasive retailer with less-than-desirable employment and environmental practices. And the evasive press release does little to explain anything:

But what really matters is what happens out there in the stores. This update to the logo is simply a reflection of the refresh taking place inside our stores and our renewed sense of purpose to help people save money so they can live better.

So with no reasoning or no explanation of what the new star burst stands for, or why the decision to change to a single word, all we have to go by is the logo that replaces the 16-year-old sans serif that was as thick and heavy as the beige boxes it adorned for so long. The new logo is rumored to have been designed by New York-based Lippincott — and I will happily amend this as soon as there is more information available. The change to title case helps humanize Walmart with a name that reads more like John, Albert, Sarah or Wilbur; it really looks very different and sets a different tone. The wordmark is nice and friendly and has enough customization to feel more proprietary than out-of-the-box. The new icon, however, is very questionable. It reflects technology start-up or telecommunications company before it does discount retailing that will make anyone live better. Sure, it might represent a flower or a sun, but the execution is too modern and cold to be seen as a natural element.

The new store environment and applications of the logo will define how good this can be and if the whole package supports this initial tease. I remain skeptical yet optimistic, but not too much. To leave you with some inspiration, here are Walmarts' logos over the years, picked from this page — do note the tuscan-faced logo of the 1960s, wow.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed over the last three days about this logo.

By Brady Forrest

UK-based non-profit MySociety teamed up with Stamen Design to develop some innovative time-travel maps. The snapshot of the map that you see above shows where you can live in London with a commute between 30 to 60 minutes where the median house price is over £230, 000. As you adjust the sliders, the map changes in realtime letting you adjust the commute times from 0 up to 90 minutes and the housing price from 0 to £990,00. The Department of Transportation, who requested the work, is the map's center (and basis for the commute times).

You can try out the map after the jump. They also made dynamic maps with the Olympic Stadium and the BBC as the center.

These maps are an update of Chris Lightfoot's 2006 Time Travel project. The focus of that project was how to present commute time data (see a static commute map of London with contour lines at half-hour intervals to the right). This version (2007) they focused on making them interactive. The mapping data comes from Open Street Map (converted from the Ordinance Survey data used in 2006) .

MySociety is a tech-centric non-profit that focuses on making websites for the civic good and teaching others about the internet. Some of their previous projects have had a more political bent to them. TheyWorkForYou was their first project. It's a searchable site that provides British citizens a way to find out what is happening in the parliament. Their most recent site, FixMyStreet, provides neighborhoods with tools to discuss local problems.

To generate the maps MySociety screen scraped the Transport Direct website. At first they would query for the routes at each public transport stop. With this method Cardiff took 4 hours and 15 minutes to generate. Next they tried parallel screen scraping and got the time to generate Cardiff down to 45 minutes. They estimate that with a better algorithm they can get it down to 15 minutes. 15 minutes is a long time to wait for a map.

In the future they want to make these maps generated on the fly for users. This would require direct access to the data (Google Maps, MySociety estimates, with their lightning fast routing servers and direct access to the data would only take 2 minutes to generate Cardiff). To achieve this MySociety is considering building a client app or getting dedicated servers from Transport Direct (as this was a government-sponsored project anything is possible).

Time is a difficult thing to represent on maps, but will become more common in the future. Should it be a loop? (Like the Stamen project Trulia Hindsight, where 20th century housing data is shown (Radar post)) Or should it be sliders? (Like this project) Or more like a video? (Google Earth lets you "play" your GPS tracks.) We'll explore this more at Where 2.0.

strength of character

A n exceptionally hectic week meant foregoing the usual mid-week post. Hopefully back to normal now, and I can finish the next instalment of the Type History series, Why Type Matters, and more. OK, sit back, relax and enjoy. First up is some beautifully photographed found type collected by Richard Roche:

My favourite letter is a. There’s so much scope for creativity with this first letter of the alphabet. I particularly like the lowercase a in Marat, so I decided to cut one from sticky-back vinyl and put it on my front door.

My scalpel work doesn’t really do it justice, but it’s still nice to come home to.

Jon Tan has written a great article on The Paragraph in Web Typography & Design. Well worth a read. Well researched, and plenty of practical examples.

New Type

Exemplar designed by Göran Söderström has been brewing for quite some time. Now it’s available for public consumption:

Well worth printing out the Exemplar PDF specimen.

Really like this illustration:

Be sure to check out T. Lobe’s Flickr for more type goodness.

Rub me down

A great piece by Steven Heller for Design Observer: a homage to rub-down lettering.

Some great Letraset ‘collage’ from Christopher Palazzo:

Last week I mentioned Gemma O’Brien’s post on Body Type. Here’s the making of video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz3lXu3VxVg

This made me smile. Simon Pascal Klein’s lunch. I should try this with Japanese alphabet spaghetti.

Some lovely stationery from Mr Boddigton:

Via Design Sponge.

While you’re waiting for the grand opening of the iLT t-shirt shop (coming soon, I promise), you might like to try this one on for size:

Thanks to Vivien. And from the people that brought you the Huge Type Looks Sweet t-shirt, here’s the punctuation t:

Sunday Links

The H&FJ Favicon

Ink This, Face Lift Showcase—via TypeForYou

Type t-shirts—David Airey

Alphabet Soup Word generator

For All Seasons—animated type

Typographic Illustration

Dot Grid Book—via Inspirationbit

Remembering How Many Cups in a Gallon

Oded Ezer’s typographic landscape populated with Hebrew letters:

http://www.vimeo.com/1070309

via John D Berry

Type Tip

When setting a word in italic that trails with an apostrophe-s (possessive s), make sure to set the apostrophe and the s, not in italic, but in roman.

Love at first sight

I’ve fallen for a typeface that hasn’t even been published yet. It’s Skolar by David Březina, designed for scholarly journals. Low contrast, serifs that aren’t shy, and some beautifully shaped counters.

It has an odd, quirky italic, but the more I look at it, the more I like it; and it’s a beautiful accompaniment to the roman. It should hit the streets later this year. When it does, I’ll be sure to let you know. I’m at the front of the queue!

For iLT’s wonderful Spanish readers, there’s a great article on the making of Relato Serif from Emtype. I wonder if there’s an English translation of this article somewhere? (a terribly unsubtle hint). Also some iLT articles in Español—in case you missed them.

Kris Sowersby recently reviewed FF Balance by the late, great Evert Bloemsma. I’ve since found this nice interview with Evert Bloemsma on Jon Coltz’s web site. They talk about the wonderful FF Avance.

Today’s Types

FF Kievit by Mike Abbink:

and FB Californian. California Oldstyle was Originally designed by Goudy in 1938. Carol Twombly later digitized the roman; David Berlow added italic and small caps; Jane Patterson did the bold, and In 1999, assisted by Richard Lipton & Jill Pichotta, Berlow designed the black, text, and display weights:

This specimen taken from the free David Berlow Type Specimens PDF.

Crossword Competition—Vol. 2

With the huge success of the first iLT crossword, I’ve decided to make it a fairly regular feature. I’ll also try to compose some easier (concise) versions.

One correct entry will be drawn at random and will win a license for Stefan Hattenbach’s wonderful Anziano. She comes with some particularly lovely small caps, an elegant italic, and some exquisite ornaments.

Even if you don’t win it, I suggest you add Anziano to your type library. Many thanks to Stefan for offering this generous prize.

Almost forgot the actual crossword! Just click here to get started.

Hope that you can enjoy trying to solve it, and that you learn something about type at the same time. If you can’t answer all the clues, then don’t worry—just have a go.

And Finally…

I’m quite far behind responding to emails, so please be patient if you have mailed me. Rest assured, I do read every mail, and I’ll do my level best to get back to you.

Next up is part five of the Type History series. More interviews, prizes, type reviews, and lots more type goodness coming your way soon.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week.

Thank you for subscribing to iLT!

Support iLT: buy fonts from FontFont.

Sunday Type: paragraph type

In which our hero ponders the Internet's underwear, the oxymoronic nature of social software, and that not only should you not hate the playa but you shouldn't even hate the game.

It must be a weekend, the interwebs have their panties in a bunch again. This time it's about the Wikipedia entry for _why the lucky stiff, one of the major Ruby hackers. For the backstory, see Deletionist Morons by Tim Bray. In short: Wikipedia editors want to delete _why's entry because he doesn't pass Wikipedia's Notability test.

Social software is a funny old thing, isn't it? On the one hand, we have the word "social" with its overtones of informality, emotion, and all those black turtleneck wearing arts graduates. Then we have the word "software" with its harmonics of precision, logical thought, and Aspies with intravenous caffeine. In fact, when you think of "software" you probably think of people who could easily be described as "antisocial". Is it any wonder, then, that the product of the two doesn't exactly mesh well with our view of the world?

Having read Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, I now know that Wikipedia is social software. Not the reading part, but the editing. There's a human process for humans to follow, whereby the humans use the software to debate (something humans do, not software) and arrive at a decision. This is a human, social, process ... not a software one. A lot of the rancour comes from misunderstanding this.

Perhaps an analogy to another social process would help. Wikipedia is like an open source software project where the great unwashed submit patches, the committers choose which to apply, and the core team make executive decisions when needed. There's no piece of code that determines worthiness to be committed to the source tree. Instead, there are people with judgement and human flaws in the way. The Linux kernel shouldn't grow e-mail protocol stacks, web server hacks, and a built-in relational database just because someone submits the patches. The project's committers are there to keep the software project on track. So too with Wikipedia.

Hating the humans or even hating the filtering process is a waste of time and energy. The deletionists and the inclusionists both have a role to play. Wikipedia has a lot of things that it is not and the humans are there to keep the project on track. Those who want to delete and want to keep are doing their bit, just as others did by creating a page for _why in the first place.

The creators of any piece of social software must carefully choose where to punch holes in pure computational deterministic perfection to let human attributes like intelligence or taste shine through. Their choices define the project. This "you want X, I want Y, we'll go back and forth citing Wikipedian principles and external sources until a decision emerges or must be made by an administrator" process isn't Wikipedia's weakness, or even its strength, it is Wikipedia.

In social software as in software projects, the human filters sometimes make poor decisions; you can't have the flexibility and intelligence of humans without their flaws. Using Wikipedia but becoming enraged when your favourite marginal entry is deleted is like going to an art gallery but being enraged that you saw something there you didn't like. It's a big waste of time and energy that could better be spent working on this patch I've got to add a relational database to the Linux kernel ....

Zackary is frustrated with the kind of commercial browsers that we have. For a six-year old autistic kid, it has too many options available that causes him to howl in frustration.

His grandfather, John LeSieur, was so annoyed with the situation that he decided to build his grandson his own browser– the Zac Browser for Autistic Children.

With the Zac Browser, there are no confusing choices for autistic kids to make. Kids are presented with hand-picked choices from free websites. There are no keyboard controls. Other distractions like advertisements are blocked.

The Zac Browser is now being distributed for free.

To the millions of Fair visitors, assembled from the many nations of the world, we bid a hearty welcome. During more than four years we have labored mightily to provide you with the great spectacle which you now see. The talents and genius of many men and women - architects, designers, artists, engineers, industrialists, businessmen, civic leaders, and educators - have been assembled to give graphic demonstration to the dream of a better "World of Tomorrow:" that world which you and I and our millions of fellow citizens can build from the best of the tools available to us today. We show you here in the New York World's Fair the best industrial techniques, social ideas and services, the most advanced scientific discoveries. And at the same time we convey to you the picture of the interdependence of man on man, class on class, nation on nation. We tell you of the immediate necessity of enlightened and harmonious cooperation to preserve and save the best of our modern civilization. We seek to achieve orderly progress in a world of peace; and toward this end many competent critics have already noted marked progress.

The completed Fair is a living, eloquent tribute to the men and women who planned, built and operate it - to the executives and many members of a loyal and talented staff. Tribute to each and every one who worked to translate a vision into a pulsing reality.

This is your Fair, built for you and dedicated to you. You will find it a never ceasing source of wonder. We feel that it will delight you and instruct you. But in the midst of all the color, and rhythm, and music and festivity you cannot fail to receive that more serious message: how you and I and all of us can actively contribute, both for ourselves and for our communities, toward that better "World of Tomorrow" to which we all look forward.

With this brief but cordial message we present you to your Fair.

Orgoo is an e-mail/IM integration service that, like goo, sticks together all your different mail accounts, contacts, and IM buddies onto one page. Back when the site debuted, Pete called it: “Meebo meets Netvibes meets social networking on steroids.” If you struggle with managing your Hotmail, AOL, and GMail accounts along with their individual instant messaging providers, then Orgoo might be the right service for you.

Although there are already ways to forward different accounts to one comprehensive e-mail, such as Outlook, and there’s tools like Trillian, Adium and Pidgin that integrate IM accounts, it has never been easier to see your mail, contacts, and IM friends in one place.

After signing up for Orgoo, it only takes three steps to input different accounts from services like AOL, MSN, Google, Yahoo! and more. Orgoo also supports POP, IMAP, and .Mac accounts, and you can also import contacts from Plaxo and Linked In. Orgoo is still in private Beta, so for now only paid Yahoo Mail Plus, Hotmail Premium and Windows Live Plus accounts are supported, but standard accounts are coming soon

The Orgoo interface somewhat eerily resembles the light blue layout of Google Docs. There are three columns, one for mail folders, one for messages, and one for the IM buddy list. It does not offer any spectacular mail features besides the promise of all e-mail in one inbox, instant reply to emails with IM, stored conversations in the Chat and IM Logs, and a calendar (which has not yet been released). However, there are two chat features that are exciting: free SMS texting and Video Chat.

Just like the oTxt widget that they developed, Orgoo offers the option of sending and receiving SMS text messages to any one of your contacts from your computer. Even better, you can now create your own video chat rooms and invite your friends to talk. There’s also no need to signup for an Orgoo account - you can jump right in straight from the home page.

Orgoo is still testing its services, listening to feedback, and tweaking features, but overall it could be a hit with those who have their slimy internet fingerprints spread all over, who accounts with every major service.

For those of you who are still not convinced, some of the features Orgoo promises to provide in the future include: SocialLink to get all the updates happening on yours and your friend’s profiles on any of the social networks, open API’s so developers can build on top of Orgoo’s integrated communications platform, and a Video Chat Widget.

Interested in trying Orgoo? 500 Mashable readers get Beta invites to test it out by following this link.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Orgoo Releases oTxt - Free SMS Messaging for MySpace

in 99 words

At a pre-set time every day, stand in a circle. One at a time, briefly describe new information the team should know.

Some teams use Scrum's formal variant, answering three questions: "What did I do yesterday?", "What will I do today?", "What problems are preventing me from making progress?" This formality is not required; use it if it's helpful, ignore it if not.

Be brief. Thirty seconds per person is usually enough. Discuss details later, in small group discussions.

Don't let the stand-up stifle communication. Talk about issues as they appear--don't wait for the stand-up.

as haiku

Overwatered, drowned--
students, uncomprehending,
did what they were told

Inside This Section

• Stand-Up Meetings
• How to Hold a Daily Stand-Up Meeting
• Be Brief
• Questions
  • Can people outside the team attend the stand-up?
  • Participants are being too brief. What should we do?
  • People are always late to the meeting. Can we treat them to parking-lot therapy?
  • We don't sit together. Can we still have stand-up meetings?
• Results
• Contraindications
• Alternatives
• Further Reading

Commentary

Back in the 40's, the story goes, American troops landed on a remote island. The natives of the island had never seen modern civilization before, and were amazed by the men and materials Allied forces brought by the island. They watched the troops set up an airstrip and a tower, don headphones, and call great metal birds filled with valuable Cargo down from the heavens. When the bird landed, shares of the Cargo were distributed to all of the islanders, bringing prosperity and comfort.

One day, the troops left, and the great metal birds stopped arriving. Missing their Cargo, the islanders made their own airstrip out of woven bamboo. They constructed a tall platform, placed their chief on the platform, and had him don coconuts carved to look like headphones. But no matter how hard they tried, the great metal birds never returned.

Decades later, researchers found the island. The natives still donned coconut headphones and called to the heavens... to no avail. They named the islanders' odd religion a Cargo Cult.^*

^*I first saw this story in the writings of Richard Feynman. Wikipedia says it's based in reality. Steve McConnell has also riffed on this subject.

Cargo Cult Agile

The tragedy of the cargo cult is its adherence to the superficial, outward signs of some idea combined with ignorance of how that idea actually works. In the story, the islanders replicated all the elements of cargo drops--the airstrip, the controller, the headphones--but didn't understand where the airplanes actually came from.

I see the same tragedy occurring with Agile. Many of the teams I know have adopted just two aspects of agile development: stand-up meetings and biweekly planning sessions. Nothing else.

But you know what? Stand-ups are one of the least important aspects of agile development. In a way, they're an admission of failure.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. A bit. But consider this: one of the values of Agile is communication and collaboration. The daily stand-up meeting exists to promote communication. But if the team really collaborated well, would it be necessary? Your team really should be sitting together, pairing, and sharing ownership of their work. If they're really doing that... really doing it... the stand-up doesn't add much value.

So I see these Cargo Cult Agile teams following the rituals of agile development without understanding the underlying ideas. They have a daily stand-up meeting, but they don't collaborate. They plan every two weeks, but they don't deliver.

It's probably inevitable that teams water down and misunderstand agile development. It's unfortunate, though--and a little ironic--that a set of methods created to reduce meetings and waste is being abused to increase them. Cargo Cult Agile teams often go from a weekly one-hour meeting to daily half-hour meetings. This is not an improvement.

Stand-up meetings are a neat tool, but they're hardly the core of agile development. Beware Cargo Cult Agile. Don't use stand-up meetings to avoid real communication and collaboration.

Comments

1. Too much of the stuff that is diligently thrown in recycling boxes isn’t recycled. Many of the plastics (other than yogurt and margarine tubs, juice and laundry detergent containers) are sent to the dump as opposed to be recycled. And most, if not all, the glass isn’t recycled because the different colored-glass is mixed together, which makes it useless other than being used for doing things such as building roads.

2. There’s too much emphasis on recycling as opposed to re-use. Remember when you had to take your pop and milk bottles back to the store for a deposit. Most of those bottles were re-used as opposed to trucked to a sorting facility where an army of pickers has to go through it all.

3. There’s still way too much that isn’t recycled at all or that much. Styrofoam, for example, still goes right into the garbage even though manufacturers continue to pump out mountains of it every day. It should also be easier to recycle plastic. Think of all the plastic bags that could be used again if there they were collected as opposed to thrown into the garbage after a single use.

4. The energy, cost and time involved to recycle often outweighs the benefits. Think, for example, of all the fuel burned as trucks prowl around collecting household recycling. How efficient or environmentally friendly is that?

Technorati Tags: Recycling

by Royce Carroll, Jeff Lewis, James Lo, Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole, and Howard Rosenthal

Senator Obama is at most marginally more liberal than Senator Clinton but the difference is negligible. The two are essentially identical ideologically based upon our DW-NOMINATE scores estimated from all roll call votes cast in Congresses 1 - 110 (through the 1 ^st Session of the 110 ^th , 2007). (The House and Senate were scaled together simultaneously using the 630 members who served in both Chambers.) Clinton and Obama have served together since 2005 (Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004 and Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2000, so they have only overlapped for 3 years).

The two are by no means the most liberal Democrats in Congress. There are a total of 286 Democrats in the 110 ^th House and Senate (counting replacements). There are 88 members to Obama’s left — 8 Senators and 80 Representatives. The 8 Senators are Feingold ( D -WI), Whitehouse ( D -RI), Sanders ( I -VT), Boxer ( D -CA), Kennedy ( D -MA), Brown ( D -OH), Lautenberg ( D -NJ), and Levin ( D -MI). Between Obama and Clinton are 8 members — one Senator, Akaka ( D -HI) — and 7 Represenatives. To Clinton’s right there are 188 Democrats — 40 Senators and 148 Representatives. There is no overlap of the two political parties. They are completely separated ideologically .

In the 110 ^th Congress the first dimension DW-NOMINATE scores for Democrats range from -0.771 (Lee D -CA-9) to 0.015 (Taylor D -MS-4) with a mean of -0.370. The Republican mean was 0.473.

The smoothed histogram below shows the distributions for both political parties in the 110 ^th (2007) House and Senate. The smoothed histograms give a more accurate perspective about the relative liberalness of Senators Clinton and Obama. In particular, Senator Obama is located at -0.436 and Senator Clinton at -0.427, placing them just to the left of the average Democrat. Senator John McCain and President George W. Bush are shown on the Republican side (President Bush can be placed on the dimension using Congressional Quarterly Presidential Support roll calls).

Combining the two Chambers shows even more clearly the fact that Senators Clinton and Obama are essentially identical ideologically with a substantial number of Democrats to their left. Senator McCain is in the left wing of the Republican Party and President Bush is on the conservative edge of his Party.

Below is an enlargement of the Democratic Party showing a variety of important Democrats over the past 20 years. The late Senator Wellstone ( D -MN) was the most liberal Senator since the end of World War II. His position is just to the left of Senator Feingold ( D -WI). Former Senator Nunn ( D -GA) was a highly influential moderate during his period of service in the Senate. Senator Kennedy ( D -MA) is just to the left of Speaker Pelosi ( D -CA). Finally, Senator Lieberman ( D -CT) is relatively moderate based upon his voting with the Republicans on national security and Iraq-related issues.

Because DW-NOMINATE scores are comparable over time, especially within stable Party Systems, we can compare Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain to members of their respective parties in past Congresses. The figure below compares the ideological distributions of the members of Congress for three Congresses over the past 40 years — the 90 ^th (1967-68), the 100 ^th (1987-88), and the 110 ^th (2007). In each Congress we show the positions of Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain and President George W. Bush for reference.

During the past 40 years the political parties have steadily diverged ideologically to the point that they are further apart than at any time since the end of Reconstruction. This polarization is clearly evident in the figure. Forty years ago Senator McCain at 0.329 would have been to the right of the Republican mean at 0.246. Twenty years later in the 100 ^th Congress McCain would have been slightly left of the Republican mean at 0.339. By 2007 the Republican mean had shifted all the way out to 0.473 and President Bush at 0.758 was now within the Republican Caucus. Senators Clinton and Obama would have been very liberal forty years ago in the 90 ^th Congress when the Democratic Party mean was -0.264. By the 100 ^th Congress the Democratic Party mean was -0.299 and by 2007 it had moved all the way out to -0.370.

Below is a two-dimensional plot of the 110 ^th Senate along with the bootstrapped standard errors . This image from the bootstrapped DW-NOMINATE scaling of Senates 1 - 110 . The gray cross hairs are 95% confidence limits around the estimated positions. If the correlation between the dimensions was greater than 0.30 the 95% confidence ellipse is shown. The positions of Senators Obama and Clinton are shown as flashing black D s. In the graph that follows this one we omit the confidence limits for clarity.

Senators Obama and Clinton are clearly representative of their fellow Senate Democrats. They are to the left of the mean on the first dimension but by no means are they outliers. In constrast, Senator McCain is a clear outlier in the Republican Party. His position down low on the second dimension indicates that he defects on a number of roll calls and votes with the Democrats.

The animation below shows the House and Senate from the 97th (1981-82) to the 110th (2007) in a split image format. McCain won election to the House in 1982 and served in the 98th and 99th (1983-86) Houses before he was elected to the Senate in 1986. His position in the House is shown with a black M . We altered DW-NOMINATE to allow a separate position to be estimated for every Congress McCain served in (see our Technical Issues page for all the information about estimation issues and how the graphs were constructed.) Consequently the black M hops around. This shows how erratic a legislator’s voting behavior is. Note that the black M appears in the Senate graph beginning with the 100th Senate.

Similarly, Senator Clinton’s position in the 107th to the 110th (2001 - 07) Senates is shown with a black C and Senator Obama’s position in the 109th and 110th (2005 - 07) Senates is shown with a black O .

Relative to Clinton and Obama Senator McCain is very erratic in his voting behavior. In the House McCain was right in the middle of the Republican caucus and when he entered the Senate in the 100th Senate he continued to be in the middle of the Senate Republican caucus. However, beginning with the 103rd (1993 - 94) Senate McCain begins moving to the exterior of the Republican caucus and then oscillates back in forth at the lower periphery of the Senate Republicans. In contrast Clinton and Obama are relatively stable but in the 110th (2007) they both move to the left.

During their 3 year service together Senators Obama and Clinton had the opportunity to vote 654 times during the 109 ^th Senate (2005-06) and 442 times during the first session of the 110 ^th Senate (2007). In the 109 ^th Senate they both were present and voted on 618 of 654 roll calls. On these 618 roll calls where they both voted they voted for the same alternative 576 times and voted opposite of one another 42 times. During 2007 they both were present and voted on 267 of 442 roll calls and voted opposite of one another 10 times.

The roll calls on which they disagreed are shown below. The first column is the number of the roll call (a sequence from 1 to the total number for the Congress; 1 - 654 or 1 - 442). The second column is how Senator Clinton voted and the third column is how Senator Obama voted. Following their votes is the text of the roll call description as posted on the Senate Web Site . Note that the date of the vote is given first, followed by a description with the division on the roll call at then end.

    9 N Y  2005-02-10,1,9,S. 5,On Passage of the Bill,Passed,S. 5; Class Action Fairness Act of 2005,72,26
   20 Y N  2005-03-03,1,20,S. 256,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 31,Rejected,Dayton Amdt. No. 31.; To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent.,24,74
   85 Y N  2005-04-06,1,85,S. 600,On the Motion to Table S.Amdt. 284,Agreed to,Motion To Table Dorgan Amdt. No. 284; To prohibit funds from being used for television broadcasting to Cuba.,65,35
   94 Y N  2005-04-13,1,94,H.R. 1268,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 372,Agreed to,”Cornyn Amdt. No. 372; To express the sense of the Senate that Congress should not delay enactment of critical appropriations necessary to ensure the well-being of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces fighting in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, by attempting to conduct a debate about immigration reform while the supplemental appropriations bill is pending on the floor of the United States Senate.”,61,38
  112 N Y  2005-04-28,1,112,H.R. 3,On the Motion,Agreed to,Motion to Recess Until 2:00 p.m. Today; SAFETEA-LU,98,1
  136 N Y  2005-06-14,1,136,PN202,On the Nomination,Confirmed,”Confirmation Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah, to be U.S. Circuit Judge”,73,24
  138 N Y  2005-06-15,1,138,H.R. 6,On the Motion to Table S.Amdt. 782,Agreed to,Motion to Table Schumer Amdt. No. 782; To strike the reliable fuels subtitle of the amendment.,69,28
  139 N Y  2005-06-15,1,139,H.R. 6,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 779,Agreed to,”Domenici Amdt. No. 779, As Modified; To eliminate methyl tertiary butyl ether from the United States fuel supply, to increase production and use of renewable fuel, and to increase the Nation’s energy independence.”,70,26
  144 Y N  2005-06-21,1,144,H.R. 6,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 817,Agreed to,Hagel Amdt. No. 817; To provide for the conduct of activities that promote the adoption of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas intensity in the United States and in developing countries and to provide credit-based financial assistance and investment protection for projects that employ advanced climate technologies or systems in the United States.,66,29
  157 N Y  2005-06-23,1,157,H.R. 6,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 902,Rejected,”Durbin Amdt. No. 902; To amend title 49, United States Code, to improve the system for enhancing automobile fuel efficiency, and for other purposes.”,28,67
  160 Y N  2005-06-28,1,160,H.R. 2361,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1003,Rejected,”Coburn Amdt. No. 1003; To require conference report inclusion of limitations, directives, and earmarks.”,33,59
  194 N Y  2005-07-19,1,194,H.R. 3057,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1294,Rejected,”Dorgan Amdt. No. 1294; To provide that no funds may be made available to provide television broadcasting to Cuba, to increase by $21,100,000 the amount appropriated to the Peace Corps, and to reduce by the same amount the amount appropriated under title I to the Broadcasting Board of Governors for broadcasting to Cuba.”,33,66
  212 N Y  2005-07-29,1,212,H.R. 6,On the Motion,Agreed to,Motion To Waive CBA Re: Conference Report To Accompany H. R. 6; Energy Policy Act of 2005,71,29
  213 N Y  2005-07-29,1,213,H.R. 6,On the Conference Report,Agreed to,Conference Report H. R. 6; Energy Policy Act of 2005,74,26
  232 Y N  2005-09-15,1,232,H.R. 2862,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 1665,Rejected,Dorgan Amdt. No. 1665; To prohibit weakening any law that provides safeguards from unfair foreign trade practices.,39,60
  253 Y N  2005-10-06,1,253,H.R. 2863,On the Motion to Table S.Amdt. 2005,Agreed to,Motion to Table Coburn Amdt. No. 2005; To curtail waste under the Department of Defense web-based travel system.,65,32
  293 Y N  2005-11-03,1,293,S. 1932,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 2370,Rejected,McCain Amdt. No. 2370; To move forward the date on which the transition to digital television is to occur.,30,69
  304 N Y  2005-11-07,1,304,S. 1042,On the Amendment S.Amdt. 2423,Rejected,”Allard Amdt. No. 2423; To authorize a program to provide health, medical, and life insurance benefits to workers at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Colorado, who would otherwise fail to qualify for such benefits because of an early physical completion d