Data Vis Dispatch, August 6

The best of last week’s big and small data visualizations

Welcome back to the 154th edition of the Data Vis Dispatch! Every week, we publish a collection of the best small and large data visualizations we find, especially from news organizations — to celebrate data journalism, data visualization, simple charts, elaborate maps, and their creators.

Recurring topics this week include elections in Venezuela, immigration, and the Olympics.

It’s the Olympics! You know what that means:

Reuters: The Ancient Olympic Games, August 1

No, hang on, that’s not right. These days it’s something more like:

The Washington Post: What makes Mondo fly?, August 2
The Wall Street Journal: The Moves Powering Simone Biles’s Medal Haul at the Olympics, August 3

We saw visualizations of the events:

The Wall Street Journal: How Badly Would You Lose to an Olympian?, August 2
Krisztina Szűcs: “New chart type for #HighJump results! I’ll call this the multi-tiered cake chart,” August 5 (Tweet)

And the scoring and records:

Folha de S.Paulo: Atletismo tem 11 provas de corrida sem quebra de recordes há três Olimpíadas [Athletics has 11 events with no record for three Olympics], July 31
The New York Times: Will These Sensational Skateboarding Tricks Win Japan Olympic Gold?, July 29
Financial Times: Are the super shoes used in Olympic races distorting results?, August 2

Including some now-classic medal count charts:

The New York Times: Paris Olympics: Who Leads the Medal Count?, August 6
La Nación: Calendario de los Juegos Olímpicos [Calendar of the Olympic Games], August 1

Other charts focused on the athletes themselves:

The Wall Street Journal: How Simone Biles Rescued the U.S. Gymnastics Team and Reclaimed Olympic Gold, July 30
The Washington Post: The view from Paris: A tennis showdown for the ages at Roland Garros, August 5 Super fun series
NBC Sports: “The height Simone Biles gets on vault is that of approximately 7 goats…” August 4 (Tweet)

For elections, last week was Venezuela’s turn. In this case, of course, the official outcome doesn’t match the data:

The New York Times: Election Results Presented by Venezuela’s Opposition Suggest Maduro Lost Decisively, July 31
El País: Los resultados en Venezuela según la oposición [The results in Venezuela according to the opposition], August 4
La Nación: Estos son los verdaderos resultados de las elecciones en Venezuela, según la oposición [These are the true results of the Venezuelan elections, according to the opposition], August 1

A shaken-up U.S. presidential race is starting to hit its stride:

Bloomberg: Kamala Harris Wipes Out Trump’s Swing-State Lead in Election Dead Heat, July 30
Financial Times: Kamala Harris draws level with Donald Trump in race for the White House, July 31
Financial Times: Trump or Harris: Who will win the US presidency?, August 1
Bloomberg: Ken Griffin Is Spending Millions to Shape the New Face of the Republican Party, July 30
The Washington Post: Trump’s presidential bid has the support of only half of his Cabinet, August 3
Reuters: Biden proposes term limits, code of conduct to rein in ‘extreme’ Supreme Court, July 30

It’s been a long time since we could publish a Dispatch without a section on war and violence:

CNN: Netanyahu says ‘victory’ over Hamas is in sight. The data tells a different story, August 5
Bloomberg: Strikes on Israel’s Enemies in Tehran, Beirut Raise Tensions, July 31
Financial Times: How all-out war between Israel and its adversaries might play out, August 2
Reuters: Russia vs Ukraine: the biggest war of the fake news era, August 1
Reuters: Myanmar’s junta terrorises, then rebels burn a Rohingya town, July 31
Financial Times: Fresh violence flares after dozens of rioters arrested across England, August 4

On immigration, and the lengths people will go to get where they want to be:

Bloomberg: How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program, July 31 More great charts
The Wall Street Journal: How the U.S. and Mexico Drove Border Crossings Down in an Election Year, August 5
The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Migrants Rush to Find Way to U.S. Border Before Doors Close, August 4

And natural disasters aggravated by human activities:

Reuters: How missed warnings aggravated deadly India landslides, August 2
Tampa Bay Times: Track Tropical Storm Debby in Florida: Flooding, power outages and more, August 3
The New York Times: How Does Your State Make Electricity?, August 2
Bloomberg: Adani Unveils $213 Billion Succession Plan as Scrutiny Persists, August 5

In the last section — a massive prisoner exchange, a test of patience, and the soup dumpling:

The Wall Street Journal: Who’s Who in Russia’s Prisoner Exchange With the West, August 1
The New York Times: ‘Weird and Daunting’: 7,000 Readers Told Us How It Felt to Focus, August 1
Axios: Soup Dumpling Index: How prices compare around the world, July 31

What else we found interesting

James Dart: “0.12 seconds across them 📸 @rheathcote,” August 4 (Tweet)

Applications are open for…


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