We have received a few good submissions for the InfoVis Theory Workshop at VisWeek, but we're looking for some more. We are therefore opening submissions again, with a new, final deadline: September 13, 2010. If you couldn't make the first deadline, this is your chance.

It's nice to see an idea evolve and get picked up by other people. Which is why I'm excited to have spotted the first third-party implementation of Parallel Sets in the wild: a (Windows-only) program called Knowledge Blocks that allows you to visually piece together a query and show the results in a table or a Parallel Sets display.

Theoretical research is a tough sell, and not just in computer science. Not only are we expected to produce things we can demo, it's also hard to tell beforehand what exactly the results will be. But that is exactly why we need to do research: because we don't know. Applied research is obviously important, but the current trend towards only applied work is worrying.

What is the key difference between a visualization and a data-based infographic? The visualization is created by a program that can be applied to many datasets, the infographic is hand-crafted for a particular dataset. It's obvious, which is why it's so hard to figure out.

Direct multi-touch interaction is all the rage right now on mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. Apple is working on a lesser-known variation that is just as useful, but used in their less glamorous laptop computers. The latest development has been their Magic Trackpad, which brings that type of interaction (with some new twists) to the desktop.

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The first episode of season 4 of Mad Men opens with Don Draper being interviewed by a journalist. He doesn't tell him anything that's of interest and then dodges the question Who is Don Draper? by claiming that he was taught as a child not to talk about himself. Scientists do an equally terrible job at communication, and for many of the same reasons. Cornelia Dean's book Am I Making Myself Clear? offers fascinating insights into both journalism and science, and provides concrete ideas for how to do better.