Time for less work and more play.

By Engaging Data, this interactive map shows various splits of the United States with the condition that each division has the same population:

This visualization lets you divide the US into 1,2,3,4,5,8 and 10 different segments with equal population and across different dimensions. The divisions are made using counties as the building blocks (of which there are 3143 in the US). There are numerous different ways to make the divisions. This lets you make the divisions by different types of geographic directions and divisions by population density.

It appears China wants to impose a blockade around Taiwan with ships, submarines, and airplanes. The New York Times mapped the possibility and how it could disrupt life in and around the island.

We tend to celebrate the wins in sports and often forget about or don’t see the climb that athletes take to get to the top. Artur Galocha and Adrian Blanco, for The Washington Post, look back at Serena Williams’ winning career, focusing on who or what she had to compete against from age 15 to 40.

They start with a wideout view that shows Williams’ full career. Then they zoom in to notable career milestones where past competitors fade in and out of the picture. Years and age run along the same axis, and annotation points to key wins.

The timeline view is simple and static, but it is well-made.

The contents of this diagram is not in my scope, but it is a very big, detailed diagram of metabolic pathways. Many steps, many arrows.

Researchers Xiaofan Liang and Clio Andris estimated the percentage of restaurants that are chains and independent to identify “McCities”:

These high chainness McCities are prevalent in the Midwestern and the Southeastern United States. Independent restaurants were associated with dense pedestrian-friendly environments, highly educated populations, wealthy populations, racially diverse neighborhoods, and tourist areas. Low chainness was also associated with East and West Coast cities.

Check out the interactive map here.

My only criticism is that they used a rainbow color scale instead of using a single hue or a diverging color scale that breaks at half.

Introduction to Probability for Data Science is a free-to-download book by Purdue statistics professor Stanley H. Chan:

We need a book that balances the theory and practice. We need a book that provides insights and not just theorems and proofs. We need a book that motivates the students, telling them why probability is so essential to their work. We need a book that highlights the impacts of the subject. From over than half a decade of teaching the course, I have distilled what I believe to be the core of probabilistic methods. I put the book in the context of data science, to emphasize the inseparability between data (computing) and probability (theory) in our time.

Download a free PDF copy or buy a physical copy.

Here’s the good stuff for August.

Meteorologist Greg Dutra was delivering the daily weather news for ABC Chicago and accidentally discovered that his map was interactive when he touched the screen:

This wasn’t in the training manual! @TBrownABC7 @valwarnertv and I go OFF THE RAILS when I discovered the TV is a touch screen while on-air on @ABC7Chicago 😂 pic.twitter.com/almrdxqz3d

— Greg Dutra (@DutraWeather) August 4, 2022

It’s good, wholesome joy from a data display, in case you forgot what that looks like.

With a fun view of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tristan Guillevin walks through a network of characters and movies from 2008 through 2012. Each white-filled circle represents a movie, and each black-filled circle represents a character, connected to the movie he or she appeared in.

See also the 3-D network by The Straits Times from a few years back that goes into more depth with interactions between characters.

When the FBI switched to a new data collection system, which relies on local police departments to report their numbers, about 40% of agencies didn’t switch over. The Marshall Project made an interactive to see who’s reporting data in your state:

Many criminologists fear the missing data means the nation would not get reliable crime data for years to come. If a local police department did not report crime data to the FBI, it would also mean scholars, policy makers and the public cannot compare what’s happening with crime in their community with other places.

It’s getting hot in cities around the world, each city with its own set of problems. The Washington Post combined all the problems into one fictional city called Meltsville. There are travel delays because the road is melting, bridges are cracking from heat expansion, and it’s generally a hard place to live.

Highlighting research by Xingying Huang and Daniel L. Swain, who studied “plausible worst case scenario” extreme storm sequences, The New York Times provides a glimpse of what that might look like in California. There are maps, there are charts, and there is an augmented reality view to put rain in your living room.

If you’ve eaten at a restaurant lately, you might have noticed a substantially higher bill than you’re used to. You’d be right to assume that it’s because of things like inflation and pandemic-induced prices, but you might not realize how much the cost of ingredients, labor, and a new takeout business model has gone up for restaurants. Priya Krishna and Umi Syam, for The New York Times, redesigned a single receipt to show a more detailed breakdown.

The receipt presentation and color-coded scrolling are tops. It’s a well-made table that works with the copy to highlight items.

Communicate to fewer people to reach more.

Dominic Royé mapped river discharge in Europe over the past few months:

A single map for the worst #drought in 500 years in Europe. The river discharge anomaly based on reanalysis data from June to August 12 2022, shows an average negative anomaly of -29%, even reaching less than -62% at some points. #rstats #dataviz pic.twitter.com/LSGMfS52Lm

— Dr. Dominic Royé (@dr_xeo) August 14, 2022

This climate change thing seems real.

Reuters goes with the radar chart to show gas supplies, as European countries prepare for the winter and possibly no gas from Russia. The circular shape shows the annual cycle, the gray shows the previous five-year average, and the blue shows the current year’s supply.

While reading this NYT article, by Jodi Kantor and Arya Sundaram, on the drawbacks of activity and time tracking for work, the article itself tracks your reading behavior. You see counters for the time you spend reading and scrolling, clicks, keystrokes, idle time, and active time. It comes complete with snippy comments and a final grade — and a bitter taste for productivity tracking.

Davey Alba and Jack Gillum, for Bloomberg, found that Google Maps commonly points people to crisis pregnancy centers, non-medical locations that encourage women to follow through with pregnancy, when they search for “abortion clinic”.