NYT does a great job of pushing the limits in infovis, but they don't always hit the mark. This vis seems to show an approximate fixed scale on the y-axis, which is good. It means the differences in heights between the blobs are relevant. The fact that they layout multiple charts along the y-axis seems acceptable, in fact it allows for quick comparison between graphs. However, the x-axis is unlabeled and unclear. It seems to roughly represent time, but has no origin. One can sort of deduce approximate time but without a clear label I can't dive deeper into the information. This seems to be the failing of many info visualizations I come across these days. They either optimize for the "quick glace" or the "in-depth analysis" when you can get a happy medium by usually just tweaking one or two aspects of the display (in this case I would argue a labeled x-axis).