Fair Warning - The late one with all the pets
Hello! Yes, this is very late (it's midnight Monday here...) I don't have a good excuse other than I have been stupidly busy in the last week and I forgot to carve out time to write this (:
After last week's FW, a lot of people got in touch which was unexpected but really lovely. So thank you. Worth noting you can just reply to this email if you want to message me directly.
This week I went back home for my birthday which I really needed. I got to hang out with my son (cat), nephew (dog), niece (cat), and other nephew (an actual human baby). I miss my boy a lot, and I hardly ever go back home these days, so was nice to see him. I also saw my human family too, but, you know, I can call them on the phone. Seeing the furbabies was the source of inspiration for this newsletter... LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE.
On the home front
Left-wing vs right-wing: it’s complicated — yougov.co.uk
Quite liked this in-depth look at how the notion of right-wing vs left-wing is actually quite complicated when you look at public opinion. One stat that stood out from this (there really is a lot to it) is that 43% of people who think benefits are too high also support more redistribution of wealth. Whut.
This tweet of the six ways to divide "British accents" (*sees Ireland, looks to camera*) was quite popular/controversial this week. I have the most boring, standard southern English accent and my answers are as follows: Yes, no, yes, yes, no, no.
Stats, Maps n Pix: Constituency cards — www.statsmapsnpix.com
In prep for an election (who knows, right?) Alasdair Rae made these lovely constituency cards. This blog explains why and links to everything. I reckon open data nerds will love this.
This week there was a proposal to increase the retirement age to 75 in future. I thought John Burn-Murdoch's tweet about this, where he crunched the numbers, was interesting. It's not just about life expectancy but healthy life expectancy or life without a disability which will of course affect your ability to work.
Middle-aged generation most likely to die by suicide and drug poisoning
My colleagues published this piece on Generation X (or the "Trainspotting generation"), and how they are dying by suicide or drug poisoning at a higher rate than any other age group.
Over the pond
Could Iowa State Fair attendees name the 2020 Democratic candidates? — www.washingtonpost.com
God I love this. It's like a vox pop but with data. A lot of people have no idea who the Dem candidates for 2020 are. "It's hard to differentiate a lot of white male candidates in a big field" - lady: I hear ya.
What the Yield Curve Says About When the Next Recession Could Happen
"Sustained inversions of the yield curve have preceded every recession since at least the 1960s." Scratch your economic jargon itch here.
Legal weed is linked to higher junk-food sales
This is amazing. "Research suggests marijuana really does give you the munchies." Higher sales of ice cream, biscuits, and crisps!
Odds and ends
Are Men Singing Higher in Pop Music? — pudding.cool
More great stuff from The Pudding! Love this analysis of men's voices, from Barry White (a 2 out of 10) to Pony (a 10 out of 10). No I have no idea who Pony is and yes that does seem like a silly name to me but what do I know, I am an extremely uncool person.
This is a good image-heavy report (with lots of data vis, obviously!) about how parts of Venezuela still face daily power cuts lasting up to 18 hours. I love how I always learn something from Reuters' graphics team.
This is an interactive map showing the ages of buildings in the Netherlands. I guess what stands out is how new everything outside Amsterdam is.
Freddie Starr ate my hamster (the pets bit)
(I was looking for 'famous phrases' to do with pets, and this came up and made me laugh. I don't think anyone outside the UK or anyone born after a certain year will even remember this, but I do!)
Cat Map of Britain: Where's the most cat-crazy place in the UK? — www.mirror.co.uk
I wrote this in 2015 when I worked for the Mirror and it's still one of the most fun things I've ever done. The interactive map is hosted on **Google Fusion** so that shows how old it is, really... Also the page is slightly broken now (it was meant to show the image if on mobile, and the interactive on desktop and it now just shows both).
US blizzard: Charting the snow depth - using six dogs
Also in 2015... The BBC looked at measuring the depth of snow falling across the US... using DOGS. As in, "Would you be able to see your dog once the snow fell?" 2015 was such an innocent year.
The Yorkie’s Dominance: We Analyzed Every Dog Registration in New York
The NYT went in hard on this in 2018. Proper in-depth analysis, accompanied by lovely cartoon GIFs. A third of registrations in NY are "toy dogs" which isn't surprising. But who knew there was a dog called Biggie in every New York borough? Now YOU do, dear reader!
Bad chart of the week
I was sent a pretty bad infographic type thing last week but it wasn't really a data visualisation so I haven't included it. You'll like this one though, I promise. Courtesy of r/dataisugly:
I saw a tweet recently that said so many newsletters don't remind subscribers who they are etc, so I'll add a bit about me to each one in future...
I'm Soph, I'm a data journalist from London currently loving the riverside lifestyle in Cardiff. I don't speak Welsh but I am fluent in meowing and I instinctively stop to talk to random cats in the street. I am notorious for hating pandas, and I enjoy a good map. I write this newsletter because I am nerdy about data and I love pretty data visualisations. And I want to share what I find with other people!
As always, thanks for reading this far! If you enjoyed this, please share with colleagues/friends/family/lovers - if you've been sent this, you can sign up here. You can also buy me a coffee to say 'thank you' :) or sign up to my Patreon. See you next week!