Fair Warning: Maps, NRA-funded reps, and faulty forecasts
Hello!
You are not going mad, it is not Sunday and it is not morning either. Sorry — things got a little busy at the weekend! (I sent this out Monday evening)
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Maps, maps, maps
Gizmodo has an interesting story about how Google Maps is not helping women who are seeking abortions in the US. There’s been a fascinating tussle between pro-choice groups and anti-abortion clinics which will basically tell women to not have abortions, even if it’s what they ask for. Quite an interesting dilemma for the modern age, and — of course — all related to data.
Isochrone maps are making a comeback! That’s what Atlas Obscura (one of my favourite websites to find cool places to visit. Seriously recommend!) says. These maps help people to see how far they can get in a certain amount of time. It’s an interesting one — the most common isochrone map I see is one related to housing and commuting. “I want to have a commute of less than 30 minutes — where should I live?”
The BBC wrote an interesting article — with maps! — about how the bus network in Britain is shrinking. The theory is that this is due to a couple of factors — commercial companies being picky and risk-averse about creating new routes or servicing unpopular ones; and local authorities cutting spending on public transport. Wales has seen the largest drop in coverage, which explains why it used to take me 1.5 hours to go the 10 miles from home to work.
I definitely mentioned it at the time — a court ruled that Pennsylvania’s congressional district map was unconstitutional and needed to be redrawn in time for the 2018 mid-term elections. Well, the Supreme Court (in PA) just issued the new one. Here’s the original (left) next to the new one (right). Those districts look a lot fairer now (more detail here):
Mass shootings: A turning point?
I get the sense that the US might just be at a tipping point when it comes to gun control and creating sensible laws to prevent tragedies from happening. In the light of the mass shooting at a high school in Florida last week, the New York Times has created one of the best and most provocative data visualisations I’ve seen. I defy you to scroll through and not feel angry or emotional about it. That is the power of great data viz.
The Washington Post is also going in hard, but on the NRA-donations angle. Have your representatives in Congress been given money by the NRA? Shocking stuff — Texas is obviously well ahead of everyone else, but I didn’t realise it was so widely spread. Some reps have taken mere thousands, but that doesn’t bode well for those people who so desperately want change.
Also relevant — this chart about gun ownership in each generation, from Patrick Egan on Twitter, which suggests that younger generations will be the ones who force the change:
Bits and bobs
The Economist has created an interactive index which shows you house prices around the world. It says, “house prices appear to be on an unsustainable path in Australia, Canada and New Zealand”. Intriguing.
Some guy got annoyed that the weather was wrong so he made this “forecast in hindsight” thing which takes forecasts and uses real-time weather data to see if they were right or not. That’s dedication for you! :)
FiveThirtyEight says the Mueller investigation is moving “really freaking fast” since 13 Russian nationals were indicted on Friday. I like the way this chart contextualises other scandals and investigations:
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, please forward it to people, encourage friends to subscribe to it, or buy me a coffee to show your appreciation. I’m on Twitter @SophieWarnes.
