Terence Tao on the paradox of solving mathematical problems
Mathematician Terence Tao, a 2006 Fields Medal winner and professor at UCLA, discusses… Tags: Big Think, math, paradox, Terence Tao
Department
Design.
Creativity, aesthetics, and user experience.
Lately on the shelf
30 of 239UN votes to support map projection that accurately shows the size of Africa
Last year, the African Union pushed for wider adoption of the Equal Area… Tags: Africa, area, cartography, Guardian, projections
Estimating a much stronger than usual El Niño
For Climate.us, Emily Becker explains why it looks like El Niño is going… Tags: Climate.us, El Niño, estimation, NOAA
Form a curve, make a pot
Imagine a pottery wheel that turns clay on an axis. A potter forms… Tags: curve, Karim Douïeb, pottery
✚ Making a bunch of line charts
This week, I describe the many small choices one must make while working on a set of charts. Tags: behind the scenes
Logistics of fueling aircraft and feeding sailors with a limited supply chain
There are thousands of crew members aboard U.S. warships in the Middle East.… Tags: Iran, logistics, New York Times, war
Observable notebooks get a rewrite
Observable, known for visualization-centric notebooks to share code, restarted fresh to adjust for… Tags: notebook, Observable
India enlists 3 million people to count the full population
Due to Covid, India’s census count is overdue by five years. But they’re… Tags: Bloomberg, census, India, population
Cooling down less in the evening
The summer of 2026 will most likely be the hottest summer on record… Tags: global warming, temperature, Washington Post
Uncounted heat-related deaths
The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention count causes of death, and… Tags: Boston University, climate change, estimation, heat, mortality, NPR
Map of flood in Nepal
For the New York Times, Pablo Robles, Leanne Abraham, and Josh Holder mapped… Tags: flood, Nepal, New York Times
Darth Vader makes the case for Flock cameras
Flock Safety has been getting some hate lately, because as it turns out,… Tags: Darth Vader, Flock, privacy
A third of new webpages written with AI
It is trivial to generate bodies of text on infinite topics, so of… Tags: Internet, Pew Research, writing
Amazon shutting down Mechanical Turk
Annie Palmer for CNBC: “We regularly evaluate our programs, tools and services and… Tags: Amazon, CNBC, Mechanical Turk, shutdown
✚ Visualization tools, datasets, and resources — August 2026 roundup
Here is what happened in August. Tags: roundup
When politicians turned against data centers
For the Washington Post, Jeremy B. Merrill analyzed newsletters and social media posts… Tags: data center, politics, Washington Post
Mathematical rivers
There is a simple law from John Hack that says the length of… Tags: drainage, Quanta, rivers
Why Americans are not working
Older people are working later in life and younger people are not entering the labor force as early. Tags: labor force, work
Trustworthy data visualization
Kieran Healy, a professor of sociology at Duke University, gives an enjoyable lecture… Tags: Kieran Healy, trust
Steep rise in electric vehicle sales
For the New York Times, Mira Rojanasakul and Brad Plumer report on the… Tags: electric vehicle, New York Times
[RIDGELINE] Walking The Length of Manhattan
Ridgeline subscribers — Hi, I’m Craig Mod and this is Ridgeline, a newsletter about walking — mostly in Japan, but this time in NYC. Elsewhere: The Things Become Other Things fine art reprint is now in stock. And I’ve been using Claude to do weird blood sleuth…
How the U.S. national debt got to $40 trillion
When you spend more than you make, you get debt. For the Washington… Tags: debt, government, revenue, spending, Washington Post
✚ Seeing data from different perspectives
This week is about changing perspectives so we can find and visualize new insights. Tags: perspective
Google buys Spirit Airlines data in bankruptcy sale
Spirit Airlines went bankrupt for real this time, and Google bought the data.… Tags: Gizmodo, Google, Spirit Airlines, training
Trillions of dollars in AI spending not in the balance sheet yet
For the Wall Street Journal, Peter Rudegeair and Peter Santilli report on the… Tags: spending, technology, Wall Street Journal
Amazon buying rare books in bulk for training
Suspecting that an anonymous order of 1,000 books was headed to an AI… Tags: 404 Media, Amazon, tracking, training
August 2026
Tariff avoidance in solar manufacturing from China
To avoid heavy solar tariffs, China allegedly moved manufacturing to other countries. When… Tags: Bloomberg, China, solar, tariff
Emoji usage and age generations
For NYT’s the Upshot, Eve Washington, Larry Buchanan, and Claire Cain Miller examined… Tags: emoji, New York Times
OpenAI accidentally makes attack bots
Multiple bots exploited a vulnerability in OpenAI’s security system to gain internet access.… Tags: attack, bot, OpenAI