Nolan Chart

by Jeff

Image text: Also in the right quadrant are NFPA-compliant chemical manufacturers and Sir Charles Wheatstone. Sharing the top with the internet libertarians are Nate Silver and several politically-active kite designers.

The Nolan Chart (from nolanchart.com) is a visual representation of the political spectrum that measures not only liberal vs conservative tendencies but also libertarian and statist tendencies.  In this comic, it is taken to a different end.  One one side are both Democrats and Republicans and on the other side is baseball fans.  In the typical Nolan Chart, Libertarians are in the top quadrant, but in this one "Internet Libertarians" take the spot because they love the Nolan Charts (that are found online) and have a lot of political opinions.

In the image text, NFPA-compliant chemical manufacturers are mentioned because of this diamond-shaped diagram:

Sir Charles Wheatstone was the inventor of the Wheatstone bridge, which is also diamond-shaped.

And lastly, the image text references Nate Silver, who previously worked for Baseball Prospectus and now writes a data-driven political blog called Five Thirty Eight for the New York Times.  He is both a lover of diamond-shaped diagrams and has political opinions.