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Fair Warning - Blasts, birdwatchers, and battleground states

Hello stranger! Last week I had no time to write, and last week was mad but I've brought it on myself
Fair Warning
Fair Warning - Blasts, birdwatchers, and battleground states
By Sophie Warnes • Issue #123 • View online
Hello stranger!
Last week I had no time to write, and last week was mad but I’ve brought it on myself, really. I signed up to the Miles For Refugees challenge. That means covering 72 miles (the distance refugees have to walk from Damascus to Beirut) in 30 days. I forgot that miles and kilometres are *very* different, so signed up thinking I could do that quite easily. Halfway through the week I realised I was behind, and spent the rest of it frantically rowing in the gym and running as far as I can. Anyway, 20 miles down, 52 to go!
I normally try to start this with some fun things. The single best thing I’ve seen lately is “What if WAP was done by an 80s R&B artist?” Don’t love the original, LOVE THE HELL out of this. Content Warning: obviously contains… *sniggers*… ‘fruity’ language like the original. It’s actually so exceptional I can’t even follow it with anything else. Sorry.

On the home front
The data around this is so interesting! “On the scheme’s first day food sales were up by 100% over the previous Monday… Nearly 40% of those who used the scheme had come out for the first time since venues reopened”
www.economist.com  •  Share
I love this piece about how lockdown has encouraged people to be curious about the birds they’re seeing. The RSPB has seen a huge rise in traffic to its website and its tools for identifying birds. This can only be a good thing. :) Great data and beautiful illustrations too.
www.ft.com  •  Share
Over the pond
The True Colors of America’s Political Spectrum Are Gray and Green
I was a little dismissive of this when I saw it because “duh, landscapes are generally green or grey” but the end analysis kind of makes sense. It’s basically another way of looking at urban vs rural areas and the politics of those that live there.
www.nytimes.com  •  Share
The repeal of a controversial law means previously secret allegations of misconduct have now been made public.
www.theguardian.com  •  Share
How did Americans use their coronavirus stimulus cheques?
How did Americans use their coronavirus stimulus cheques?
According to a new study, only 42% of the money given to households was actually spent. Around a third was saved.
www.economist.com  •  Share
“The recent outbreak of fires in California was caused by an extraordinary lightning barrage that hit when the state was unusually hot and dry.”
www.washingtonpost.com  •  Share
The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270
The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270
You can build your own coalition of states to play out potential outcomes of this year’s election. I am too nervous to really find it as fun as I should do.
www.nytimes.com  •  Share
Elsewhere...
Hiroshima bomb 75th Anniversary
Wow. This is an incredible, detailed history of the development of atomic bombs, which includes detailed maps of damage done to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
graphics.reuters.com  •  Share
How powerful was the Beirut blast?
How powerful was the Beirut blast?
This is an absolutely fascinating (and horrifying) comparison of the explosion in Beirut to other explosions in history — both accidental and caused by military weapons.
graphics.reuters.com  •  Share
Odds and ends
Mapping the rise and fall of witch-hunting
I thought this was super super interesting. This contains data from 43,000 witch trials in Europe from the 1300s to 1850. Most of them (3/5) happened during 1560 to 1630, known as the “Great Hunt”. Horrifying. If you’re interested in the data behind it, it lives here on GitHub.
cineprostock.com  •  Share
Films where Harrison Ford points do better than films where he does not point. WE NEED SOME REAL SCIENTISTS ON THIS, STAT.
www.reddit.com  •  Share
This is a Tableau dashboard showing all the characters in Marvel comics. I screamed when I realised that just 24.8% of them are women. Dataset here.
public.tableau.com  •  Share
Meta data
Making Internet Things, part 3: Storytelling
These guides by the Pudding are really great. I am always asked how I come up with stories and how to decide whether a thing is a story or not. For those who have asked me and found my answer wanting (sorry), this should be helpful!
pudding.cool  •  Share
I’ll be honest, I haven’t read all of this, but I *know* that this will be super useful for people who are struggling with choosing good colours for charts.
blog.datawrapper.de  •  Share
That is it. The end of this week’s issue. I hope you enjoyed; please forward to others who might enjoy it too! :) You can also buy me a coffee here, or become a Patron for Fair Warning (no extra content, unfortunately). Fair warning (ha): I don’t know how realistic a weekly edition is anymore, since I’m now mega busy. But I’ll see you next time anyway :)
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Sophie Warnes

A weekly newsletter with anywhere between 10 and 20 links about data journalism, data visualisation, and storytelling, curated by a British data journalist and nerd. Expect politics, statistics, society and culture - all through the frame of data... With a dash of whimsy.

Read more about the author at www.sophiewarnes.com.

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