Measuring pop music’s falsetto usage

Vox and Matt Daniels delved into falsetto in pop music over the years. Is falsetto a big trend now compared to the rest of the history? The process of finding the answer, noisy data and all, was just as interesting as the answer itself.

Tags: , , ,

Why some Asian accents swap Ls and Rs

Vox delves into why Ls and Rs often get replaced by Asian speakers using English as a second language. Some sounds aren’t prevalent in other languages, and it’s not the same across all Asian languages.

Tags: , ,

Segregation compared during work and at home

Based on commuting data from the Census Bureau, researchers Matthew Hall, John Iceland, and Youngmin Yi tracked segregation during the day and night. Alvin Chang for Vox mapped their results:

They found that when white people go to work, they are around only slightly more people of color than when they’re in their home neighborhoods. But for everyone else, going to work means being exposed to many more white people — and far fewer people of their own race.

Browse the map to see the results for your own city.

It appears that the 3-D map is making a small comeback (Thanks, Matt Daniels), to the delight of some and perhaps to the chagrin of others. I’m ready for it. I wonder when data graphic résumés are coming.

Tags: , ,

Pinball isn’t random

Pinball feels like a game of chance that is uncontrollable from any angle. In typical Vox fashion, the video explains the game and its predictability.

Tags: ,

Challenges ahead for the Census count

The 2020 Census is coming up quick, but there’s still a lot up in the air. There’s no director, the bureau has to adjust to budget cuts, and a new digital system that promises to save money hasn’t been fully tested (because of lower funding). Exciting. Alvin Chang for Vox explains in more detail — with cartoons.

Tags: , ,

Color profiles of every Game of Thrones episode

As the final episode of Game of Thrones nears, Kavya Sukumar for Vox looked at the colors used in each episode. More relevant if you’ve seen the show, the wideout view makes it easy to pick out themes and events so that you can reminisce about all the characters who died.

Tags: , ,

Hidden oil patterns on bowling lanes

This explainer video by Vox on the oil patterns on bowling lanes was oddly fascinating. The varying degrees of oil can change a professional bowler’s strategy as a tournament progresses.

I kind of want to be a professional bowler now. This whole data thing is probably a fad anyways.

Tags: , ,

Physical demo of how all maps are wrong

We’ve seen many one-off projects that show the distortions you get when you project a map. There’s just no avoiding them, when you convert a 3-D object onto a two-dimensional plane. Vox demonstrates and explains with an inflatable globe.

Tags: ,

Immigration history

Immigration stepper

American immigration history is chock full of policies and restrictions, and you can see the effects in the distribution of immigrants into this country over the years. Alvin Chang for Vox steps you through the major policy shifts since 1820.

The graphic above shows how these policies affect who enters the country. It shows 200 years of legal immigration into the United States — and how different policies and international dynamics affect the patterns of who gets let in. Migration into the United States has ebbed and flowed in tandem with who policymakers believe ought to be allowed refuge and who doesn't qualify.

Tags: ,

Sometimes the y-axis doesn’t start at zero, and it’s fine

It's true. Sometimes it's okay for the y-axis to start at a non-zero value, which is why Johnny Harris and Matthew Yglesias for Vox tell people to shut up about the y-axis.

The video might seem contradictory to what I said about bar chart baselines, but we basically say the same thing. The context must match the visual, charts that don't use length as the visual encoding can start at non-zero baselines, and take a second before you sputter a knee-jerk reaction.

Tags: ,