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The Guardian
18-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Who benefits from an American brain drain; how the teals vote and the physics of urinal splashbacks
Hello and welcome to another edition of The Crunch! In this week's newsletter we have charts on the rental crisis in Australia, the decline in travellers to the US, how to stop the spread of measles, South Korean bushfires, and how to design a urinal that doesn't splash. The Coalition has run a wave of ads claiming the teal independents – who are not a political party – 'ally' with the Greens on votes in parliament. As with many things, the reality is far more complicated than this. Nick took a look at the voting records of the teals, major parties and other independents throughout the 47th parliament with a series of correlation charts. In other political news, the Guardian Australia poll averaging model now shows Labor ahead on a two-party-preferred basis after a series of positive polls this month. Josh also drew a One Big Chart to show wages haven't kept up with the rising cost of many essentials over the last three years. 1. How to solve a problem like Maria measles It's been a few years since viral charts on flatting the Covid curve, but the New York Times is back with a great interactive looking at vaccination rates and the spread of measles. We really recommend playing around with the vaccination chart a bit to get a feeling for how effective vaccination is about all of us working together, rather than just individual protection. 2. Can anyone afford to live, really? Last we checked the ABC has published at least three data stories about Australia's rental crisis in the past two weeks – and they're all bangers. Our favourite, though, is this one comparing skyrocketing rents across five capital cities. The headline 'Where in Sydney can you afford to rent?' does feel a bit like a trick question. 3. Who benefits from an American brain drain? The own goals in the US look set to continue, so the Economist has asked what country would benefit the most from an American brain drain. While we're not sure about seeing arch-rivals New Zealand do so well, it's kind of nice seeing Australia near the top of rankings that aren't just alphabetic. Sign up to The Crunch Our data journalists showcase the most important charts and dataviz from the Guardian and around the web, free every fortnight after newsletter promotion 4. Explaining South Korea's deadliest wildfires Coming from Australia, we've made and seen our fair share of bushfire maps. This one from Reuters is one of the best – especially the satellite transition at the end of it. There are also some great visuals and explanation in this story of how wind and topography feed bushfires. Special mention to another Reuters piece on how North Korea is helping Russia in its war on Ukraine. The Financial Times showed how European travellers are now avoiding the US ($) Nick and Elias published this story about the decline in Australian tourists to America The ABC also covered the same topic Bloomberg charted it by region ($) OK we're going to flat out admit that we don't have the mathematical chops to understand what's going on here. Researchers have used physics and differential equations to fix an age-old problem – urinal splashback. But even if you don't get the maths, just look at those curves. Enjoying The Crunch? If you like what you see and think you might know someone else who would enjoy it, please forward this email or send them a link to the sign up page. If you have a chart tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email
The Guardian
14-03-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Shipping pollution, under the sea – and is the love song dying?
Hello and welcome to another edition of The Crunch! This week's newsletter is going to be slightly different as the longlist for the 2024 Information Is Beautiful awards was released this week. We've trawled through the list to find our favourites. Our colleagues in the UK have released two great stories from the ocean's depths. The first is an explainer about mining the seafloor with lots of lovely visuals. This map gives you an idea of the scope of the issue: We covered seafloor mining in the Pacific way back in 2021. Scientists were already warning that we could lose marine species – even before we knew anything about them. The next story follows the 'shadow fleets' that seem to be attacking Europe's undersea internet cables, below. This story is chock full of great interactive maps and animations. I am very jealous. There is a lot of amazing work in the longlist to explore, so we really encourage you to dive in for yourself. Our gender pay gap explorer and One Big Chart on the disproportionate impact of family violence also made the cut. But here are some of the projects that jumped out at us (please note these aren't exhaustive lists, and we're trying to avoid stories that have already appeared in this newsletter – hence no AFL mullets). Shipping stuff around Africa emits a lot of pollution I'm a sucker for an illustrated story, and this is yet another brilliant one from Reuters. It's also a great example of following a counterfactual – looking at increased emissions once ships had to avoid the Suez canal after Houthi militants started attacking commercial ships. The design is lovely, as is using the Status of Liberty as a comparison for emissions. Some other favourites (in no particular order): A deep dive into what's driving up burger prices (in Australia) A gloriously illustrated history and explanation of ancient Chinese hanfu Visualising the issue of not having enough clothes – an issue I can't really relate to, but I love how extra this is The monochroming of America – someone should do this in Australia How the worldview of artificial intelligence is created (in German) Sign up to The Crunch Our data journalists showcase the most important charts and dataviz from the Guardian and around the web, free every fortnight after newsletter promotion Is the love song dying? This is typically excellent work by contributors to the Pudding, which follows the publication's formula of using data to tell a story that involves an 'aha!' moment. Here's the direct link and the IIB entry showcase. I had a lot of trouble choosing only five entries for my picks, so here are five dot points loosely grouped into themes in no particular order: This investigation into the hairstyles of people who get swooped by magpies – a natural hazard in Australia – is a) awesome and b) has a great chart made out of Lego and c) is extra amazing because it was done by an eight-year-old. I particularly loved this quote from Emma, who said: 'To show the survey results, I decided to use Lego to illustrate my data because I didn't know how to use Excel.' Nice maps: a map of forest cover of New Zealand, and a map that was specifically designed to appeal to me as it combines whisky, Scottish author Iain Banks and nice cartography. Things I liked but can't explain why: are socks really hard to knit, and five droughts that changed history. Projects involving audio: heat chords: strains of stress, and an underground journey. A series of good charts on last year, explaining why it was a year that shook the world. This chart speaks for itself – the US tariff rate on aluminium and steel imported from Canada across one day (11 March). Enjoying The Crunch? If you like what you see and think you might know someone else who would enjoy it, please forward this email or send them a link to the sign up page. If you have a chart tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email
