Fair Warning - Dogs, death, and taxes
Hello! It's been so long since I last sent one of these! I was in eastern Europe for a couple of weeks and the trip was somewhat more adventurous than I had been bargaining for - I ended up visiting hospitals in Transnistria, Ukraine and Moldova. There's a blog with photos here - I'm biased but I'd like to think it's an interesting read! I didn't think I would come back as an expert on rabies AND be able to understand Cyrillic, but there you go.
I also went to the exclusion zone near Chernobyl which was... phenomenal. We stood 200 metres from the sarcophagus which was the weirdest feeling, and of course, we snuck into some of the buildings in Pripyat. I'll write about that later.
First, some non-data links that I thought were interesting:
This week's Fair Warning will be a bit longer; sorry in advance.
On the home front
Ye Olde Mad-Lib Pub Crawl Generator — pudding.cool
This is really cool. I've often wondered about pub name data because basically every village you go to in the country has a pub with a reference to royalty or a lion! Some 339 of them are called The Red Lion, and if you were to travel to every single one, it would be a 5,000 mile long pub crawl...
Revealed: The digital divide between our politicians
Sky did some analysis of who follows who on Twitter when it comes to current MPs. Current PM Boris Johnson "even follows his successor Theresa May - but she does not reciprocate."
Some nice graphics from John Burn-Murdoch at the FT on this one although you may need to subscribe to be able to read. I mainly like the heatstrip graphic which shows how mortality rates for those under 40 has decreased dramatically, thanks to the prevention and cure of communicable diseases.
Over the pond
The Most Detailed Map of Auto Emissions in America — www.nytimes.com
This article lets you pick a specific metro area and see how emissions have changed over time. Mostly due to people driving more. I love the detailed map
Steps of Trump Impeachment 2019: How the Process Works
Nice diagram of how impeachment (as a process) works. Not really sure the Senate will have the numbers for it - assuming the House votes to impeach.
35 Years Of American Death — projects.fivethirtyeight.com
This is a couple of years old but quite fascinating. The map shows estimated mortality rates by county, from 1980 to now. Personally the speed is a bit too quick for me, but I think the HIV/AIDS map was really interesting.
The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You
Warren Buffet was right after all this time! "The overall tax rate on the richest 400 households last year was only 23 percent".
Where, when and how to find the best fall colors across the United States — www.washingtonpost.com
It's fall (ahem, Autumn)! This has a lovely map showing you where the most colourful leaves can be found. Never heard of a "leaf peeper" before - you learn something new every day huh.
This is a weird and mad investigation by BuzzFeed.
Elsewhere...
Do safe-injection sites work? — www.economist.com
Super interesting data-driven map and article about 'safe-injection sites' which allow drug addicts to keep using but in safe spaces, where they are less likely to overdose, and are able to use clean needles.
India is running out of water — graphics.reuters.com
There's not enough surface water in India, and many areas are using more groundwater than they actually have. Worrying.
Odds and ends
Where do adoptable dogs in your state come from? — pudding.cool
This piece looks at where dogs across the US were imported from - state to state. Dogs are more in demand in the north of the US, so southern states export more dogs. Interesting! Full dataset and R code available here.
Alcohol firms promote moderate drinking, but it would ruin them
Interesting. The alcohol industry wants to help people drink within guidelines (ie under 14 units a week), but "people would need to pay 22-98% more per drink to make up for the revenue loss that such a steep drop in consumption would cause".
How much fuel a Saturn V burned per second... in elephants. No, I don't really get it either but it's kind of cool, maybe? Maybe?
Stats of the week
It has been an inspiring couple of weeks in the sporting world. I started running a couple of months ago so I feel like I understand it a bit more now. Eliud Kipchoge just became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours.
To put this into context: There are 1,704 parkruns in the world. Kiphoge's slowest 5km split of 14:14 would set a course record at... 1,693 of them. And another: Only five of the 51,363,611 parkruns ever completed have been faster than his target pace. Incredible. 🤯
Bad chart of the week
I tend to assume that the purpose of data vis is to make things easier for people to understand - "a picture is worth a thousand words", right?
On that basis, this fails, because I still don't understand why it's sliced this way or why the heights are different given that the US and Australia are both 59%:
That's it for this week. As always, thanks for subscribing and reading - if you enjoyed it, please forward to others or encourage them to subscribe.
You can also buy me a coffee or sign up as a Patron as a thank-you.