Fair Warning - Inheritance tax, Nightingale, and wine
Hello! This week has been unexpectedly rubbish but I've run 10k (two lots of 5k... funny how the thought of a hot chocolate with lashings of whipped cream, AND a steak and ale pie is a source of encouragement to keep running eh... Can you imagine how far I'd run if I was promised a free Sunday roast with all the trimmings???) so I'm pretty pleased with that.
The thing I mentioned last week? Still working on it, and my plan is to send it out in next week's edition, so do stick around for that!
Non-data things that made me happy this week:
Going through a car wash. Seriously. It's unusually delightful and I don't even mind that that makes me extremely weird.
Learning that hermit crabs queue for new houses
I've started listening to podcasts while running (o no, only a matter of time before I grow a beard and start my own) and I've discovered The Science of Happiness... which is very good.
On the home front
These Are the Brexit Battlegrounds That Will Decide the U.K. Election — www.bloomberg.com
I really like this map of seats that different parties are targeting. I think what might have made it better is to draw the map as a cartogram rather than a geographical map (we are, after all, talking about political seats and not particularly concerned with geography). I find Wales quite an interesting one. I genuinely assumed it was mostly Labour.
Manifestos compared - Whoever wins Britain’s election, the state will expand
Interesting analysis of party manifestos by The Economist, which goes into spending plans in some detail. I'm just a bit confused by this u-turn from the party that has always favoured a smaller state and in fact spent the last 9 years cutting (in some cases dramatically) public spending.
Over the pond
Quiz: Which of these 2020 Democrats agrees with you most? — www.washingtonpost.com
A fun game to play with your family if you're still talking to them after Thanksgiving. Ten questions, and you find out who you agree with most. I got Cory Booker which is great because on a purely superficial level, he has a nice face and I would vote for him.
A new study assesses whether inheritance taxes boost net revenues
This is a really interesting study of states in the US. Even if some billionaires move states to avoid inheritance taxes, states would theoretically still stand to gain billions because not ALL of them would leave. Someone please do this study but for countries.
U.S. life expectancy: Americans are dying young at alarming rates
Can't say I am surprised by this; the rise of so-called 'deaths of despair' which include suicide, drug abuse, etc. "By age group, the highest relative jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 — 29 percent — has been among people age 25 to 34." Awful. Particularly infuriating since the US spends more on healthcare per capita than *any other country in the world*.
Odds and ends
Beyond Nightingale: Being a Woman in Data Visualization — medium.com
"Why is Florence Nightingale our data visualization historical token female?" As a feminist and a data vis fan I obviously really enjoyed this examination of why women (except Nightingale) are so often left out of data vis lists etc.
Climate change is forcing winemakers to move further from the equator
Who had wine on their climate change bingo card? I did not. Love how The Economist continues to surprise me.
Optimistic facts to be thankful for this Thanksgiving — www.vox.com
Ahhh these are nice. Life expectancy and literacy = up. Poverty = down.
Why Argentina Keeps Finding Itself in a Debt Crisis
Absolutely mad stats here. "Since 1950, Argentina has spent 33% of the time in recession, second in the world behind the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Bank... Tax laws have been modified 80 times since 1988, while fiscal rules changed 14 times. There have been 61 central bank chiefs in the institution’s 84 years."
If you ever wanted to watch a video about using neural networks, and counting pixels to calculate "median hair size", and figure out when we hit peak big hair, then The Pudding has you sorted.
That's all for this week. It's a bit shorter than normal due to ~time constraints~ on my end, but hopefully it's full of interesting stuff nonetheless! Remember, if you like reading Fair Warning, share the love and get your friends to subscribe (they can read past issues at their leisure!)
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