A Data Visualization Newsletter

Rapid urbanization in China has long fueled an appetite for sand, which is needed to make glass, concrete and other construction materials. For two decades, much of that sand has come from Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake located in the eastern province of Jiangxi. Ravaged by sand mining, the lake now faces a biodiversity crisis that leaves many conservationists worried.

Republicans are facing an unwelcome tradeoff. Do they redraw political maps to maximize gains in the upcoming midterms, even if it hampers their long-term prospects? Or do they draw more future-proof districts, even if it allows Democrats to hold the House in 2022? As suburbs and exurbs shift more towards Democrats, Republican reps will likely have to choose between those two scenarios as they wage contentious redistricting battles.

Wildfires are growing in size and frequency due to climate change, which raises the risk of property damage even outside high-risk areas. But there are ways to protect our homes from the threat, experts say. In this article, The Washington Post walks us through key alterations and upgrades that can help your home from catching fire.

For the last decade, Sheryl Sandberg has been seen as Mark Zuckerberg’s #2 at Facebook. But a review of Facebook’s annual employee lists by The Wall Street Journal suggests that her influence may be slightly waning. The percent of Facebook staff reporting to up her has declined from 43% to 31% since 2014, as Facebook has leaned heavily into growing its product, analytics, marketing, and advertising teams.

As data viz practitioners, we’ve seen many “chart taxonomies” — basically long lists of different chart types intended to help you decide which is best for your use case. These can be helpful as a starting point; but as Elijah Meeks argues in this Medium article, they can also hinder you in a number of ways. This is a good read for those who often get stuck looking for the “right chart”.