Fair Warning - Subway journeys, Serena Williams, and summer reading

Sometimes I feel like all I really need in life is the confidence and self-assuredness of a mediocre dude and I will get by just fine.

It’s the New York Times, so obviously it’s about New York, but this is *chef’s kiss* my kinda data vis. The NYT has crunched the numbers and calculated ‘good day’, ‘bad day’ and ‘average day’ length of commutes for a journey between any two given stations.

And even more fun than that - compared it to an ‘equivalent journey’ on the Tube (not that I can really verify that, only being mildly acquainted with the NY Subway). My only gripe is that there’s no way for me to test it the other way. I’m a Londoner, I obviously want to feel better about the many many hours of my life I’ve spent on the Tube.

I read this quite differently to the way this is phrased: I read it as, a quarter of Americans don’t think they will be in a position to stop working when they reach retirement age. The angle of the article is that they are unaware of how the ‘realities of ageing’ might affect their ability to work regardless of whether they want to or not. Other stat: 56% of younger adults say they don’t feel prepared for retirement. WHO DOES??

Not sure I am on board with the moving/timeline marimekko chart because I don’t think it’s clear enough to spot the country you’re interested in, but I like that this examines the energy consumption sources of different countries such as the US and China - the biggest energy consumers in the world. Energy consumption in the UK and France are down, which surprised me.

Eight of them are in Asia. But I always find these comparisons quite interesting because they don’t take into account the average wage in the area. I remember going to Sydney (years ago admittedly) and people moaned a lot about the cost of living and minimum wage. MW was around £12 per hour, compared to UK MW, which was… about £5-6. So yes, Sydney is more expensive. But you have higher wages to maintain the same standard of living…

Wanna read a book no one else will read this summer? Why not try something like… His Vanished Star, written in 1894 and not taken out of Seattle Public Library in over a decade? Why not indeed.

I heard about What The Health when I went more plant-based with my diet last year. I was always skeptical about watching it because I feel like these kind of documentaries are a bit sketchy. Turns out I was right to be: lots of it is false, like the stupid statement that eating meat is worse than smoking. There are very good and valid reasons to go vegan without inventing more.

I like this style of visualisation that IIB has done for a few films. Others are here.

Does what it says on the tin. That Kylie Jenner, who as far as I can tell is famous because her family is famous and has never worked a day in her life, is even on the list, is somewhat insulting to everyone else.