Friday open thread: data visualisation

[dolorosa_12]

It is one day before the Australian election, and my thoughts on the matter can basically be summed up as: aarrrrgggh. I have a bad feeling about the result, but honestly, who knows?

I bring up the Australian election because it relates to the subject of today's open thread prompt: what is a cool data visualisation that you have seen recently?

Mine is this deep dive into the Australian electoral map, put out by the ABC (the state broadcaster). It does a wonderful job of explaining not only our electoral system (in particular, the fact that, due to having an independent electoral commission responsible for drawing electoral boundaries, each electorate is roughly equal in terms of the number of people, leading to a situation where, like, half of Western Australia is a single electorate, and a tiny 32-square kilometre part of inner-city Sydney is also a single electorate), but also the current state of play, where each party has its weaknesses, and where likely changes of representation are predicted to happen. It's really informative!

What about you? Any similarly cool data visualisation that you've encountered in recent times?

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Due to the subject matter, I'm not sure I'd call it "cool" - though it is, in a vacuum -- but the NYT's recent weekend interactive article on the COVID death toll in the U.S. had a very effective set of visualizations.

[dolorosa_12]

You're right that 'cool' isn't the right word to describe this, but it is an extremely effective visualisation, as you say. Thank you for sharing it.

[laurenthemself]

I'm definitely into that reimaging of the electoral map because it puts SO MUCH in perspective. I honestly hadn't thought a heap about the NT and ACT, focused as I have been on tiny shifts of electoral boundaries in my own area, and seeing that they're just these sets of two and three hexes does a lot to put Australia's population centres into context. I mean I was aware to an extent of where they were, but this really drove it home.

[dolorosa_12]

It's definitely a much better and more accurate depiction of the reality of the situation: people vote in Australia, not land, and if you colour in electoral maps based on land, you get a really distorted understanding. (And I really appreciate that your vote counts the same, whether you live in a densely populated suburb of Sydney or Melbourne, a beach town in Queensland, or a huge expanse of the outback in NT or WA. Obviously swing seats matter much more, but in terms of sheer numbers of votes, all electorates are equal.)

I knew about the NT and Canberra because I grew up in Canberra and was well aware that we only had a tiny number of seats, all of which almost invariably go to Labor. What this map really emphasised to me is that most Australian elections are decided on the basis of a handful of electorates in suburban Sydney, Brisbane, and to a lesser extent, Melbourne. And I was really surprised to note that something like a sixth of all electorates in Australia are in greater Sydney — I kind of vaguely understood that that's where a huge amount of the Australian population is concentrated, but I didn't realise it was that extreme!

[lirazel]

I'm late for this, but this one about passenger rail in the US weighs on my mind. Like, I knew. Obviously I knew! But just seeing it makes me angry, especially compared to this one from 1890.

(Also somebody reblogged the post talking about this from me and was like, "So y'all just have to take buses everywhere?" And I laughed and laughed because no. No, sweet summer child, we have to take cars everywhere.)

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that's so sad, particularly seeing them next to each other. I knew things were bad with trains in the US, but the contrast is just horrific.

The car thing makes me laugh as well — I assume that person was from Europe or Asia, where functional public transport is assumed to be the norm!

[lirazel]

I am perpetually angry about us being robbed of trains. Everybody deserves trains!

I assume that person was from Europe or Asia, where functional public transport is assumed to be the norm!

I am so jealous of people who can take if for granted!