1801 newsletter: Sex works, superfast 5G and the age-old gun problem
ProPublica released a font that is made up of lots of tiny people (I’m not joking), to make it easier to create pictograms. The Guardian’s Mobile Innovation Label continues with “smarticles” — a format provides information for readers depending on when they last visited. The UK Statistics Authority has published an updated Code of Practice for Statistics, in collaboration with Full Fact. A study of data visualisation in Scandinavian newsrooms found that data is “used to an increasing extent and in a variety of forms in order to shape audiences’ awareness of the world.” So anyway, if you like what ya see then please tell other people about it. Here’s the link to subscribe.
TROLL TWEETS — link
Yes, it has been done plenty. But this is an excellent analysis of Russian bots and 221,641of their tweets by the Wall Street Journal. It turns out that our slavic brothers and sisters had been testing how much fake news they could get Americans to believe back in 2014 and 2015, using fabricated stories about contaminated water, terrorist attacks and a chemical-plant explosion. Retrospective is 20:20, and we know how much now: a lot. Separate websites, Wikipedia, Tumblr and even memes were used in this complex cyberwar, dissected here very well.
STATE SLIVERS — link
After victory over Isis in Iraq and Syria, however limited that may be, the next step was always going to be where the terrorist group would turn up next. Fears have always been that they would filter across to Iran, but a study by the Soufan Center and the Global Strategy Network tracked 5,600 fighters that returned to their home countries. It’s visualised by The Washington Post as an exquisite sort of Sankey diagram imposed onto a globe, bearing no little resemblance to a squid. Another great grid lower down shows the comparison between those who’ve left and returned.
ROHINGYA RELOCATION — link
Some of the most important and difficult stories are the ones that run for a long time. For that reason, I’ve got to applaud Reuters Graphics for their continued coverage of the Rohingya crisis — coverage that has certainly reduced across other outlets. The latest — and controversial — idea is to transform a wild, remote island called Bhasan Char into a camp to relocate 100,000 refugees. Reuters uses satellite imagery to explore this island, which formed less than 20 years ago and floods during the monsoon season. They go into great detail, showing how the living quarters will 3.6 square metres per person — just above the UN’s emergency minimum of 3.5.
GUN VOTIN’ — link
“We know what will happen next,” read the Boston Globe’s front page after the recent school shooting in Florida. It was only last year when a Las Vegas shooter killed 58 people in what was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. It’s happened too many times without any changed. Ultimately it is the decision of the people in power: politicians. NPR has visualised the way that members of Congress have voted for each state, from Nebraska to New Jersey, and also the Democrat/Republican vote on key bits of gun legislation. Interesting grids also show when representatives voted against their party.
FIFTH ELEMENT — link
In what became known as Moore’s law, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed in 1965 that processing power for computers double every two years. And the arrival of 5G will be stunning new evidence of such progression. Tages Anzeiger, a Swiss newspaper, reports that it will be rolled out in some parts of Switzerland later in 2018 — with speeds of up to 3.2GB per second. They’ve built a small interactive that packs real punch, showing in real-time how long it would take to download an 800mb film using 5G, 4G, 3G, EDGE and GPRS. Oh, GPRS. It’s a great way of getting the point across, but also a reminder not all readers have superfast connections.
FOOD4THOUGHT
I was like a kid in a candy shop buying these.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. Please tell me if there’s something cool you’ve done or have seen that I should check out.
Follow me on Twitter. Email me: peter.g.yeung@gmail.com. Sign your chess team up, sign your masseuse up! And please spread the word because I can’t expand without you, dear reader. Here is the email subscription link.
