A Date with Data — Issue 13
It’s Tuesday, and this is your weekly date with data! Here are the stories that grabbed our attention from the past week, Oct. 22— Oct. 28.
Building Hopes
Oct. 2018
What are the ten things in life that you’re most hopeful for? A new augmented reality app invites us to take a stance on what we’re optimistic about and materialize our hopes on a virtual sculpture. Created by the design studio Accurat, in collaboration with the Google News Initiative, Building Hopes app and its online version not only offer a tangible representation of our own hopes but also allow us to explore societal data and public information on the same issues. Just download the app, walk around your space, pick your hopes — in the form of stones — and get ready to dive into this data-art experience. [Learned about it via FLOWINGDATA]
Human Terrain
Oct. 2018
What if we could fly over data? In an interactive 3D map, The Pudding used population density data from the European Commission’s Global Human Settlement Layer to present us with a forest of endless bar graphs. Flying over our data-covered world, just using our browser, we can explore the population density in different parts of the world, compare side-by-side data of today with those of 1990 and 1975, and spot which neighborhoods grew or shrank. Play around and zoom in to find out more about your neighborhood, or even your block. THE PUDDING
The Chinese century is well under way
Oct. 27, 2018
With China leading the way as the world’s fastest-growing economy and most populous country, the developments that happen in China are powerful enough to shape the entire image of our world. In a series of graphs, The Economist explored how China’s extraordinary growth between 1990 and today — its GDP grew by 903 percent in that time frame— has been responsible for two thirds of the total decline of poverty and half of the overall increase in patent applications. But at what cost? The environmental burden can’t be overlooked, as China is the source of more than half of the worldwide increase of carbon dioxide emissions. THE ECONOMIST
Who Actually Listens to Halloween Music?
Oct. 25, 2018
Is there really such a thing as Halloween music? Evidently, there is, and The New York Times took it upon themselves to investigate it. Using Spotify data they pinpointed the fans, their location within the U.S., as well as how quickly they get into the Halloween spirit. They even came up with the top twenty songs of all Halloween-themed playlists in Spotify. The only answer that the data didn’t give was the “why.” Halloween music connoisseurs out there, can we pick your brains? THE NEW YORK TIMES
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
