445: quantum of sollazzo
#445: quantum of sollazzo – 2 November 2021
The data newsletter by @puntofisso.
Hello, regular readers and welcome new ones :) This is Quantum of Sollazzo, the newsletter about all things data. I am Giuseppe Sollazzo, or @puntofisso. I’ve been sending this newsletter since 2012 to be a summary of all the articles with or about data that captured my attention over the previous week. The newsletter is and will always (well, for as long as I can keep going!) be free, but you’re welcome to become a friend via the links below.
I will give the next issue a miss due to travels, but you can expect a bit of a double whammy the week after next.
Every week I include a six-question interview with an inspiring data person. This week, I speak with Sam Joiner of the Financial Times.
And before I close this issue, congratulations to The Economist on reaching the 3-year milestone since their “Graphic Detail” charts started to appear in print. In their most recent Off The Charts newsletter, Alex reflects on three years of Graphic detail.
‘till next week,
Giuseppe @puntofisso
Six questions to...
Sam Joiner
Sam is Visual Stories Editor at the Financial Times
What is your daily data work like and what tools do you use?
A new team combining data, design, coding and reporting skills, we're still finding our feet! But we want to have a track record of producing agenda-setting projects where visual elements play an essential role in communicating the story. In essence where the answer is shown, rather than told. These projects will be published on a regular basis and use data and visuals to provide insightful answers to the key questions of the moment, rather than the day — an important distinction which affords us the time required to craft the impactful journalism we know FT subscribers value most.
Tell me about a data project that you're proud of...
Hard to pick just one, but as a keen cyclist I'll go for the road safety project I worked on at the Times. We combined three decades of data from the national accidents database with maps of Britain’s road network to pinpoint every accident involving a cyclist in the country since 1980. It allowed us to identify the most dangerous roads and manoeuvres for cyclists (drivers turning left) and led to a string of data-driven stories. The crown jewel was our route planner, which let readers enter a start and end point and see how many crashes there had been on their journey in the last year (as well as plot the safest route from A to B).
...and a data project that someone else did and you're jealous of.
It's too easy to go for the NYT, but their recent project on the Miami Condo Collapse is a fabulous example of what you can achieve when you combine traditional and contemporary reporting techniques. It combines forensic analysis with hugely impactful visual storytelling and is truly at the cutting edge of modern journalism. But the key takeaway was the amount of groundwork that went into analysing documents and speaking to experts. It's what separates the very best data-driven projects. And a slightly more left field example to balance that choice out — this piece on how inferior women's jeans pockets are by The Pudding is great. It's a nice example of a visual essay being superior to words alone, plus I love the fact the reporters went out and measured hundreds of pockets. Not all data stories start with a computer!
If I say "dataset", you think of...
...whether it's just a sheet with numbers in it or the starting point for a great story
Give someone new to data a tip or lesson you wish you'd learned earlier.
Pick a programming language and stick with it – even when it feels like you're going backwards the lightbulb moment will come if you keep at it!
Data is or data are...
I try to steer away from it! Data analysis shows, the dataset shows…
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Topical
Biden Has Lost Support Across All Groups Of Americans — But Especially Independents And Hispanics
“Of course, it’s not that unusual for a president’s approval rating to drop over the course of the first nine months in office”, George W. Bush being the exception.
Global Trends in Fact-Checking: A Data-Driven Analysis of ClaimReview
A fact-checking researcher has published his thesis which comes with a set of interesting Tableau charts with global trends in the fact-checking space.
Berlin’s political landscapes
A brilliant interactive analysis by the Tagesspiel, originally in German, here automatically translated into English, shows a very divided city.
A new study argues that insufficient infrastructure doomed the first electric cars
“With a more robust power grid, petrol-powered cars might have been a minority”. No use crying over spilled milk, but a good lesson for our times.
The skies over the South China Sea
“What weeks of mass air force incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone say about China’s airpower”.
“The Most Sizes Ever:” How Many Bra Sizes Do The Most Popular Brands Make?
A deep dive into lingerie. Sadly, not a lot of data is created or used, but I’m putting this here in order to inspire some imaginative data journo to look at this in proper detail (like that famous data visualization of women’s pockets made by The Pudding).
(via Dr Dorothy Lobel King)
Tools & Tutorials
gramma
Gramma is a pun-tastically named command-line grammar checker.
How generative music works
An interesting presentation showing how generative music is produced and using examples from Steve Reich and Brian Eno.
Data thinking
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How Postman’s Data Team Works
An article by “Six questions” graduate Prukalpa Snakar on “how Postman’s data team set up better onboarding, infrastructure, and processes while growing 4–5x in one year“
Dataviz & Interactive
Die Duma spricht
Sadly this brilliant interactive article is only available in German and Russian, but it’s worth it.
(via Jeremy Singer-Vine’s newsletter Data Is Plural)
A heatmap for the cool fall days
“These “charts” are nothing but Datawrapper tables with the heatmap option turned on. Every day, for each species of tree, this study records the average percentage of leaves that have turned their fall color.“
AI
Missing the Point
“When AI manipulates free speech, censorship is not the solution. Better code is.“
This is a brilliant article by Lawrence Lessig.
quantum of sollazzo is supported by ProofRed’s excellent proofreading service. If you need high-quality copy editing or proofreading, head to http://proofred.co.uk. Oh, they also make really good explainer videos.
