Two Points Make a Line

Telling stories through visualized data — by Kenneth S. Reyes

The economics of tariffs

Thinking clearly about the costs and benefits of taxing imports. Plus an aside on that odd tiny cross by the Marienkirche entrance

D3/OJS

To seek another’s profit

One hundred years ago, the U.S. granted the Philippines access to its highly protected markets. What seemed like a sweet deal came with a cost

D3/OJS

In persuasion nation

Seventy years of surveys tell us that two weeks before an election, about 20% of votes are still up for grabs

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D3/OJS

The wealth detective

This year’s John Bates Clark Medal has been awarded to Gabriel Zucman, maestro of tax data and scourge of the ultra wealthy. Here is a visual retrospective of his work.

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D3/OJS

Babies and boomers

Humanity is rapidly aging everywhere except Africa

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D3/OJS

The tales we tell

Our body of folklore can say a lot about our modern-day attitudes and beliefs — for better or worse

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D3/OJS

Learning curves

Charts have been aiding — and confusing — students of economics for generations. Give them a fresh twist by adding interactivity.

D3/OJS

That’ll be ₱1 billion please

A bike lane building blitz from the pandemic era offers a glimpse into the Philippine government’s procurement process

R

D3/OJS

People as particles

Population density in cities, portrayed more vividly

D3/OJS

I just read 456 books*

*Actually my computer did, but let’s not split hairs. An exploration into NLP, dimensionality reduction, and reactive visualizations.

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D3/OJS

Telling the future is hard

A forecasting tournament put the predictive powers of social scientists to the test. They, ah, didn’t do so well.

R

ggplot

D3/OJS

The demographics of Nobel laureates

I’m starting to think there might be privileges to being old, white, and male

R

ggplot

Putin’s leverage, Putin’s folly

A newly released dataset lets us visualize the patterns of global trade on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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ggplot

The standard age

At what age are we our “standard” selves, when we are neither too young nor too old?

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ggplot

Francis is an old pope

At 86, the current supreme pontiff is making his mark as one of history’s oldest. How long can he go on?

R

ggplot

Will people care about this Oscars?

On the surprising popularity of the 2023 nominations for Best Picture

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ggplot

highcharts

Somehow, Avatar has returned

The highest grossing movie of all time got to the top gradually rather than all at once

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ggplot

Luzon’s hiking trails

Creating a stylized map of mountains using ridgelines

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ggplot

I’m gonna carry that weight

Using a massive dataset of powerlifting competitors to set my gym goals for next year

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War is over (if you want it?)

A tally of active armed conflicts as of Christmas Day, since 1946

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More on the great post-1500 migrations

Which countries have the most diverse ancestors? Which countries have the most descendants around the world today?

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highcharts

The roots of economic development

Visualizing some key results in Spolaore and Wacziarg’s 2013 survey

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highcharts

The emotional shape of novels

Using sentiment analysis, I chart the emotional highs and lows of three classic novels

R

ggplot

That FTX balance sheet

SBF shops around for investors with a balance sheet that is emphatically not GAAP

R

ggplot

Visualizing Elon Musk’s Twitter addiction

The world’s busiest billionaire finds the time to tweet at all hours of the day

R

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Should you dual wield y axes?

Points to keep in mind when resorting to a secondary axis

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Mapping the Metro Manila subway

In a fit of wishful thinking, I use Leaflet to map the Metro Manila subway as if it existed

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leaflet

Exercises in plotting WDI data

Pull the data with R instead of downloading spreadsheet after spreadsheet

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