Naked Data

All the data you can eat

Finally

So black your eyes just slide off it

In all the crazy goings on last month, we completely forgot the 42nd birthday of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was first broadcast on 8 March 1978. An incredible oversight, partly redeemed by this story from the University of Birmingham, where researchers have discovered ways of extract...

a week ago

Rebuilding the world anew (and in Minecraft)

What happens after the Apocalypse? Why, we make a new world, one full of hope, dreams and built upon the learnings that made the last one go so horribly wrong. And we do it in Minecraft, of course. Leastways, that seems to be the aim behind this astonishing project to replicate the Earth in 1:1 s...

a week ago

Dataviz has definitely gone mainstream

This chart of charts is doing the rounds on WhatsApp today. We have no idea of the image's provenance, but in a world where dire dataviz are leaping out of every corner right now, these stacked bar charts are just what we need. (Confused? Number 20 is Star Trek.)

13 days ago

The world while social distancing

Thank you, Terrible Maps (see Naked Data passim).

13 days ago

Is Myst still shit?

Maybe not the most pressing question of the year so far, but one answered in incredible detail by the inimitable John Walker of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, whose righteous anger is once more awakened during a playthrough of the 1990s "videogame" "Myst". A good read even if you actually like Myst, and t...

a month ago

A smelly supercharger

Described by New Scientist (paywall) as the "world's stinkiest fruit" - yet also considered a delicacy in some regions - the durian could be powering your electronic devices soon, apparently. Turns out the rather fruity fruit can act as a supercapacitor, storing energy as static electricity. Beat...

a month ago

Not the strong silent type?

Is Geralt as taciturn as you think? Apparently not. Ol' closed lips has considerably more lines than any other character in Netflix' The Witcher, even if his most common one is "Hmm". How do we know? Because Markus Rene Pae has crunched the script numbers here. Best to wait for season two and con...

2 months ago

Riffing on the riffle

The visualisations have a bit of the Windows Solitaire victory screen about them, nevertheless, this look at what happens when you shuffle a deck of cards using different techniques is awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFF_ZUBZzHY

5 months ago

Prehistoric uber-crocs bestrode SA

Zimbabwe's current president is famously nicknamed for a toothy amphibian because of his political agility and cunning, but South Africa used to be ruled by literal crocodiles which stood on two feet and fought dinosaurs. Roar! According to a study published by a Wits team: ‘Rauisuchians’ are non...

6 months ago

The last Thomas Cook flight

The final flights by collapsing travel agency Thomas Cook are elegantly visualised by Bloomberg, including the very last one from Orlando to Manchester. But the visualisation doesn't tell the story of what happened aboard: A Scottish woman (named as Ashleigh MacLennan on Twitter) did a whip-round...

Jason Norwood-Young

6 months ago

Moaning about moaners

It's good to know that there's one thing people still trust less than the news: each other. According to the editor of the Barnsley Chronicle, reader comments now garner more complaints on his site than actual articles do. Andrew Harrod, who edits the Barnsley Chronicle, says the highest percenta...

6 months ago

CfA scoops WAN-IFRA prize

Congratulations to Code for Africa, which has been awarded a gong by WAN-IFRA at the African Digital Media Awards for its work on land ownership across the continent. Land reform is a hugely important topic, but the lack of actual data about land ownership is often missed in the debates on the su...

6 months ago

Ig Nobel: Celebrating the best of the worst of science

The annual Ig Nobel Awards has once again celebrated a number of "worthy" discoveries in science, including why left nuts run hotter; the invention of a dish washer for soiled babies; and why wombats make cubed poops. Winners receive a staggering ten-trillion dollar prize (Zim dollars), and the s...

Jason Norwood-Young

6 months ago

Pick a window cause your leaving

You can tell a lot about a Jo'burger by what they call their buddies -- "Cuzzies" from the East, "Chommies" from the South, "Bros" (Central), "Brus" (Foreigner from Slaapstad or Dirtbin), or "Boets" (the North). And finally, the boets are getting some much-needed recognition of their unique cultu...

Jason Norwood-Young

7 months ago