If You’re a Criminal on the Run, Don’t Use GPS

With all the new technologies we've come to rely on, it's easy to forget just how much data we're automatically logging on our own devices or some central server in …

Watching the Growth of Walmart Across America, Interactive Edition

The animated map starts slow with the first location in Arkansas in 1962 and then spreads like a wildfire. When did your nearest Walmart open?

FlowingData Cited in Forbes Magazine?

Whaaa? Cool beans. …

What Do People Want to Do With Their Lives?

43 Things is a goal-setting community where people set goals, cheer each other on, and connect with others who are trying to achieve the same thing. Even if you're not …

Our Non-ability to Misunderstand Statistics of Rare Events

Cory Doctorow from The Guardian writes about our inability to understand the statistics of rare events. We obsess so much over the near-impossible probability that something could happen that it …

Statistics is a Diverse Field With Different Paths of Study

It's a focused expertise, but statistcs can be applied to a broad range of fields that produce data.

U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 Statistical Abstract - Looking at America’s Data

The U.S. Census Bureau released their 2008 Statistical Abstract, the National Data Book, not too long ago (um, like in January). There are state rankings and data in 30 categories …

The Safest Seat to Sit In On a Plane is…

Popular Mechanics did a study on where it was safest to sit on an airplane based on all commercial jet crashes since 1971. Contrary to expert statements that "one seat …

Why Did Andy Dufresne Escape from Shawshank?

To tell a complete and meaningful story, you need to have and provide all the context.

Data and Statistics For Human Rights

Patrick Ball, a human rights statistician, finds truth in numbers while analyzing and consulting to find patterns and uncover scale in crimes against humanity. The tension started in the witness …