Fair Warning - Issue #74
Hello! I am back in the UK! Paris was great; I saw lots of bones. This week I learned that dogs poop in alignment with the Earth's magnetic field. Can't quite believe someone actually came up with this hypothesis and tested it, but there you go.
Song of the week - Water Guns. I had never heard of it until I had to learn it with my choir for our performance on Saturday.
On the home front
Benefits spending: Five charts on the UK's £100bn bill — www.bbc.co.uk
Most people who are receiving benefits are in work - wage growth has been appalling if not non-existent in most sectors.
Which occupations are at highest risk of being automated?
New methodology and data on the occupations at risk of being automated in England. Women and young people are more likely to be in these roles. Full disclosure: This is a project I've been working on for the last couple of months. Includes the very first ONS chatbot which I am very proud of!
Over the pond
L.A. promised more housing for homeless people — but some neighborhoods are way behind — www.latimes.com
This is a pretty straight forward data-led investigation, but it's interesting that in my mind this kind of goes back to the idea of journalism giving a voice to those who don't have one, and speaking truth to power/holding power accountable. A year ago politicians promised more housing for homeless people, but progress is slow, and the unequal distribution of new housing is entrenching economic segregation between districts.
How Does Your State Make Electricity?
There’s been a major shift in how America makes electricity over the past two decades. I like this but not a huge fan of the dropdown box forcing you to scroll down the page (I'd expected the chart below to just change state, but maybe there's a good reason for this).
Similar to the celebrity version, this gives you the sound of someone's name and asks you to spell them. They are all NBA players. I tried one and gave up because I haven't a hope in hell of getting any of these right.
Donald Trump's inaugural address to the nation was the angriest/most negative when comparing across presidents going as far back as Reagan. I had never heard of the Microsoft Emotion API before, so I'm pretty impressed by this. Also nice visualisation/use of feathers.
Odds and ends
Economic growth does not guarantee rising happiness — www.economist.com
This is interesting on the link - or not - between happiness and GDP per capita. "Economic downturns are reliable sources of temporary misery" but GDP growth doesn't.
If there was a theme to this week in data vis, it's racing bar charts. I don't want to go into it too much because hmmm bandwagon, but here are a few... I like this cities race by John Burn-Murdoch. Then there's GDP per head for regions. Amount spent on each Premier League squad. Baby names in the UK.
Change to 737 MAX controls may have imperiled planes
If ever you wanted to scare yourself by reading about the ins and outs of plane safety controls then by all means...
Sonification: turning the yield curve into music
I wasn't sure where to put this, but if you are a massive nerd like me, you'll want to spend eight minutes watching this video by Alan Smith of the FT, making the yield curve into sound. Hilariously the top notes are almost out of my range of hearing so I can't really fully appreciate it, but it's cool right?
I thought this was cute (source):
Notes: 1) Yes, it's a Monday and not a Sunday - I have been appallingly busy and I'm still waiting for some much-needed free time. 2) I've decided to get rid of the custom subject for this newsletter as that part is often the last thing I do and is weirdly time consuming and I hate it. Let me know if you feel particularly strongly about it either way!
That’s it for this week! If you are enjoying reading Fair Warning, please forward it to people who would also like it, encourage friends to subscribe to it, buy me a coffee to say thanks, or support Fair Warning on Patreon if you’re so inclined. I’m on Twitter @SophieWarnes.