✚ Heatmaps and Defining Color Scales

With color as the visual encoding, choose the scales that allow you to see actual patterns. Tags: color, R | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Charting data that might disappear soon

The administration continues its takedown of data that it doesn’t agree with. To… Tags: government, takedown, Washington Post | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

150-year-olds probably not receiving Social Security benefits

The Department of Government Efficiency claims data in the Social Security Administration database… Tags: government, Social Security Administration, spending, Wired | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

A life documented in weeks

Coming up on 50 years old, Gina Trapani mapped out her life so… Tags: Gina Trapani, journal, life, weeks | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Open letter from former Census Bureau director

Robert Santos, who resigned last month, wrote a heartfelt open letter to Census… Tags: Census Bureau, government, Robert Santos | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

DOGE wants access to IRS taxpayer data

For the Washington Post, Jacob Bogage and Jeff Stein report: Under pressure from… Tags: DOGE, government, IRS | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Rise and fall and rise again for bitcoin

There was a moment a few years ago when cryptocurrency was mentioned everywhere… Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Financial Times | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Possible field of vision from the helicopter seat

From the outsider point of view, a path towards collision might seem obvious,… Tags: crash, helicopter, New York Times, point of view | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

✚ Designs for Missing/Changing Data

How do we visualize the data that isn't there or new estimates that arise when methodology changes? Tags: estimation, missing data | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Defense Against Dishonest Charts

This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things. | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Golphe du Mexique, 1765

After a gulf rename, I got to browsing some historical maps. Jacques Nicolas… Tags: Gulf of Mexico, history | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

How time works

Cartoonist Becky Barnicoat illustrates the passing of time over a year. Seems right:… Tags: Becky Barnicoat, comic, humor, time | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Value of government data

While government data remains in limbo, for Slate, Lizzie O’Leary highlights the sectors… Tags: government, Slate, takedown | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Try to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget

The “Department of Government Efficiency” wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal… Tags: budget, DOGE, Washington Post | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Access previous versions of government websites with GovWayback

You can use the Internet Archive to access historical versions, but GovWayback makes… Tags: archive, government, Internet Archive | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Gulf of Mexico changes to Gulf of America

The Gulf of Mexico has been renamed to the Gulf of America in… Tags: geography, Google Maps, Gulf of Mexico, rename, USGS | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Leaving out keywords in a halftime show

I missed this one last week, pre-Super Bowl, but for The Washington Post,… Tags: Kendrick Lamar, lyrics, Washington Post | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Hank Azaria on human voices and AI mimicry

Hank Azaria, who does the voices for many characters on The Simpsons, wrote… Tags: Hank Azaria, New York Times, quality, The Simpsons, voice | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Hiding data in an emoji

Messing with how emojis are encoded, Paul Butler demonstrates how one might hide… Tags: emoji, Paul Butler, secret | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Flight map shows firefighting efforts

To contain the fires in Los Angeles, aircraft flew back and forth to… Tags: Esri, firefight, flight, FlightAware, Peter Atwood, wildfire | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Federal worker resignations

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, about 65,000 federal workers have… Tags: government, New York Times, resignation | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Archiving effort to preserve Data.gov

The Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab is archiving Data.gov and making the… Tags: Data.gov, Library Innovation Lab, preservation | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

✚ Partial Data Reflections

This week, I have a new tutorial for you and then we get into using data with baggage. Tags: government, uncertainty | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Using the same four-digit PIN as others

About 1 in 10 people use the same four-digit PIN, based on an… Tags: ABC News, passcode, security | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Tracking daily federal expenditures

The Hamilton Project is tracking federal expenditures and updating daily: This data interactive… Tags: government, Hamilton Project, spending | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Download CDC data through Internet Archive

The data portal for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was… Tags: CDC, government, Internet Archive | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Geographic boundary data from Census Bureau is offline

As of this evening on February 4, 2025, the TIGER/Line shapefiles, which provide… Tags: Census Bureau, government, takedown | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Data bead bracelets

Data Beads, by Eszter Katona and Mihály Minkó, is a fun initiative that… Tags: bracelet, Eszter Katona, Mihaly Minko, physical | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

✚ Ridgeline Chart with Color Gradients

Ridgeline charts are nice to look at, and that is enough reason to make them. Use a gradient fill for extra sauce. Tags: R | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Barnes & Noble is opening new stores

I assumed that Barnes & Noble was on its way out, but I… Tags: Axios, Barnes & Noble, books, stores | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Health and climate data purge

For The Verge, Justine Calma reports on the recent takedowns. Some groups have… Tags: government, takedown, Verge | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

About 8,000 U.S. government pages taken down

The New York Times used a programmatic approach to estimate the number of… Tags: government, New York Times, takedown | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Checklist for federal data backups

In preparation for days like this, MIT Libraries has a guide for making… Tags: backup, government, MIT | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Preserving government data before it disappears completely

Groups at universities and research labs are forming to preserve data. Naseem Miller… Tags: government, preservation | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Data.cdc.gov goes offline

As of this evening on January 31, 2025, the data portal for the… Tags: CDC, health | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Census.gov is down

As of Friday, January 31, 2025 at 3:26pm PST, the U.S. Census Bureau… Tags: Census Bureau, government | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Mapping the American Airlines and Army helicopter collision

The Washington Post mapped the flight paths leading up to the collision over… Tags: crash, flight, Washington Post | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Census Bureau director resigns, 2025 edition

The Census Bureau director Robert Santos announced his resignation on Thursday: Santos —… Tags: Census Bureau, resignation, Robert Santos | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

See wind data on Mars through tele-present wind

With the art installation tele-present wind, David Bowen displays data collected by NASA’s… Tags: David Bowen, Mars, NASA, physical, wind | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

✚ Visualization Tools and Resources, January 2025 Roundup

Here are things you can use, poke at, and learn from that bubbled up this past month. Tags: roundup | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Stress of growing a human, charted

Maggie Appleton is growing a human, and as you might expect, pregnancy can… Tags: Maggie Appleton, pregnancy | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Quarter century of self-portraits

Noah Kalina has been taking a picture of himself every day for 25… Tags: Noah Kalina, selfie | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Federal programs under review

A spreadsheet of 2,600 grant and loan programs circulated to federal agencies, alongside… Tags: funding, government, Upshot | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Overrated NBA all-star votes

NBA all-star voting is mostly for the fans, which means some players can… Tags: basketball, F5, NBA, ratings | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Plain text box scores

New to me, Plain Text Sports shows box scores for the major sports… Tags: sports, text | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Cozy game about cozy games

Cozy games are casual games that give you a warm, fuzzy feeling when… Tags: cozy, game, Reuters | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Fastest-growing and most destructive fires

Using satellite data, researchers analyzed the growth rate of 60,000 fires in the… Tags: Reuters, speed, wildfire | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago

Work Cohorts

See how many people are in various work cohorts, given education, annual income, weekly hours, and commute time. Tags: commute, education, income, work | Continue reading


@flowingdata.com | 2 months ago