Where the Musk money flows
Elon Musk has donated $446 million for the midterm elections, because sure why… Tags: election, Elon Musk, Guardian, midterm, spending
TechDesign
FlowingData.
Nathan Yau exploring how statisticians, designers, and data scientists use data to understand the world.
Recent essays
30 of 161Increasing Trump comments on body appearance
For the Washington Sun, Andrew Van Dam and Manuela Silva note the uptick… Tags: body, Washington Sun, words
Worst Halloween candies, according to the data
What candies usually land in the throwaway pile? Tags: candy, Halloween
Policing protests in India
With more demonstrations and protests in India, Reuters charts and illustrates current tactics… Tags: India, police, protest
Cost of greed, as unbearably tall chart
Last month, the Wealth Inequality in America video by Politizane got an update… Tags: billionaires, scale, scroll, wealth
✚ Visualization tools and learning resources, October 2026 roundup
Every month, I gather tools and resources to make better charts that communicate and reveal. Here is what happened in October. Tags: roundup
Cost of college versus the return on investement
For the New York Times, Arfa Momin and Ron Lieber charted median income… Tags: college, education, income, New York Times
Finding the real center actor of Hollywood
For the Pudding, Owen Lacey analyzed the network of Hollywood actors connected by… Tags: Kevin Bacon, Owen Lacey, Pudding, separation
Why agents take unexpected routes
For the New York Times, Raj Saha and Blacki Migliozzi used mazes to… Tags: New York Times, rogue, training
Localized Wikipedia to your geographic area
Local Wikipedia, by Ed Jefferson, subsets regular Wikipedia to people, places, and things… Tags: Ed Jefferson, local, Wikipedia
Cutting the cost of tokens
On a per token basis, the cost of using LLMs from Anthropic and… Tags: Anthropic, cost, Max Woolf, OpenAI
Full 3-D scan and live body metrics for Neal’s about page
You know the about pages on every site that provide a summary of… Tags: 3-D, body, Neal Agarwal
Primer for geospatial embeddings
For Development Seed, Kiri Carini and Martha Morrissey explain what embeddings are and… Tags: Development Seed, embeddings, geospatial, guide, training
What happens to math going forward
Terence Tao has become the unofficial spokesperson for the future of mathematics. Elisabeth… Tags: math, New York Times, OpenAI, Terence Tao
When AI comes for purpose
Mathematician and Cornell professor Steven Strogatz was a guest on NYT’s Daily podcast… Tags: math, New York Times, purpose, Steven Strogatz
✚ Avoiding charts by default
This week, we switch the chart defaults to non-defaults. Tags: creativity, default
Cost of electricity from investor-owned vs. public
If your electricity provider is an investor-owned company, it’s likely you’re paying more… Tags: Bloomberg, cost, electricity
Rising to top net worth, by age
Results from the Survey of Consumer Finances were recently released, which means it is time for a rendition of seeing who has a higher net worth than you. Tags: net worth, wealth
Increasing number of shots in movies
Stephen Follows counted the number of shots in movies, from 1920 through 2025.… Tags: movies, shots, Stephen Follows
Calculation volumes for AI training
More big numbers coming in. For NYT’s the Upshot, Aatish Bhatia demonstrates the… Tags: Aatish Bhatia, calculations, scale, training, Upshot
Warming Stripes as a screensaver
This is fun, or I guess very serious depending on your point of… Tags: climate change, Georgios Karamanis, screensaver, stripes
Scale of proposed billionaire wealth tax in California
There is a proposition on the California ballot this year to impose a… Tags: billionaires, California, New York Times, Nicholas Konrad, scale, taxes
✚ Getting to know a dataset
This week, I walk through my own thinking as I poke at fresh data. Tags: analysis
Richest getting richer
This is really going to surprise you, but the wealthy people in the… Tags: rich, Wall Street Journal, wealth
People holding up the internet
In reference to the xkcd comic that illustrates the internet as a stack… Tags: Internet, open-source, sheets.works
Searchable database of the enslaved in former British colonies
The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery published a… Tags: database, Guardian, Legacies of British Slavery, slavery
Learning is the thing
Daniel Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia, argues that students should… Tags: Daniel Willingham, education, students
Decline in American social activities
Data for Progress compared social activities among American adults in 1995 against 2026.… Tags: Data for Progress, social
Interactive map of the Hebrew Bible
Torahmap by Danyel Fisher is an interactive visualization of the Hebrew Bible. Each… Tags: Danyel Fisher, Tanakh, text
Population pyramid in 3-D and over time
A population pyramid shows the age distribution of a population, usually with counts… Tags: Karim Douïeb, population, world