Fair Warning - Trees, national parks, and city density
Hello! There was no Fair Warning last week because, as it turned out, I had a bit of a breakdown that has been months in the making.
While I realise that a newsletter about data is maybe not the best place to discuss mental health issues, and I have written about it elsewhere before, I feel like it's so important to talk about publicly and to as many people as possible. You never know who will read, nod along in recognition, and feel less alone.
Anyway, I've been given specific instructions to do exercise every day. To that end, I've been kayaking, walked 1.5 hours to where Roald Dahl was born, and got on a bike for the first time in 15 years. Oh, and I did my first ever run with my neighbour this morning. While I feel a lot better and really proud of myself, this isn't going to *solve* much - but it's a good start to get my confidence back up.
ON TO THE DATA!
On the home front
Climate change: Tree planting rise 'needs to happen quickly' — www.bbc.co.uk
As well as not building enough houses, we are not planting enough trees. I have this weird pipe-dream that maybe one day I will buy a chunk of land somewhere and re-wild it and plant trees and create more habitat for wildlife. But, you know, money...
The pound is tumbling on fears of a no-deal Brexit
Oh really, is it.
Wow, who knew this could ever happen. I am so shocked.
This triangle type chart about housing really intrigued me. It took me a while to understand but is quite interesting once you do. If anyone knows what it should be called, let me know. I hope Neil won't mind me putting it in here:
Over the pond
Trump used words like 'invasion' and 'killer' to discuss immigrants at rallies 500 times — www.usatoday.com
I sometimes find text analysis can be a bit lacking in substance somehow, but this provides ample evidence for the notion that Trump himself is responsible for inciting hatred against immigrants. I mean, lots of us never doubted it, but it's shocking to see it written down: "Invasion" was said 19 times, "animal" 34 times, and "killer" 36 times. At 64 rallies.
Square Density: The densest square kilometers in US cities
Neat visualisation of the densest square kilometers in different cities. Thanks to Giuseppe for including this in In Other News. Wouldn't have found it otherwise :)
Detailed Maps of the Donors Powering the 2020 Democratic Campaigns — www.nytimes.com
Rather controversially in the data vis world, the maps in here don't have any legends. I don't mind though. It's interesting to see how candidates attract funding from their home states - O'Rourke in Texas, Harris in California, etc. It also breaks down the donors in major metropolitan areas. Hmm.
I really like this - beautiful visualisations of the number of overnight visitors at US national parks. I like how it's split into seasons, and type of accommodation (tent, RV, lodging, backcountry - whatever that is..) I've been lucky enough to stay in a few US national parks (in a tent) and so I guess maybe my appreciation of it is just from really positive memories!
Maps, maps, maps
Stop Using Zip Codes for Geospatial Analysis — carto.com
I thought this was quite interesting, on the original usage for zip (or post) codes, and why it's not a good way of doing geospatial analysis. Essentially, it's just an easy way of organising postal delivery routes, and not really designed to create meaningful geographical partitions.
What would the world look like if boundaries were drawn by the nearest capital? I love this. It's somehow satisfying while also being really unsettling. The whole west coast of the US would be Mexico.
How much warmer is your city? — www.bbc.co.uk
There have been a lot of pieces on climate change recently. The BBC has gone with a rotatable globe (woo) and a scrollytelling type format. It also makes good use of not just historic data, but projected temperature rises in best- and worst-case scenarios. There's more technical detail about the production of this piece over on Twitter.
Odds and ends
Inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe — graphics.reuters.com
This is so cute. That's all.
The World’s Largest Forest Has Been on Fire for Months
Feel like this is kind of a big deal and at least a little worrying: "Critics say government inaction allowed the situation to spiral out of control, blaming chronic underfunding and a 2015 decision to set up “zones of control.” Despite their name, these were effectively areas where the government wouldn’t try to control conflagrations."
Burqa bans have proliferated in Western Europe
The Netherlands has just become the fifteenth European country to implement a ban on face-coverings in public places. But public support across Europe has fallen. In Germany, it's dropped from 62% in 2016 to 54$, and in Britain, from 57% to 54%.
OK, one last thing - a map of the US, projected onto the moon. Bet you never knew you needed THAT in your life, did you?!
That's everything for this week. Thank you for reading, if you got this far. If you enjoyed it, please forward to others and encourage them to subscribe. If you REALLY enjoyed it or found it useful, please consider supporting me/Fair Warning on Patreon, or if you don't want the commitment, you can buy me a coffee which is super easy and painless. See you next week!