data visualisation

A new data-visualisation project highlights the workers who keep the internet running, from cable engineers to data-centre staff, arguing that online life depends on an often invisible workforce. The piece is drawing attention for reframing the internet as physical labour rather than an abstract cloud, and it has been widely shared and discussed.

A new data visualisation from Sheets.works highlights the small teams and individual volunteers behind critical open-source software the internet depends on, including OpenSSL, SQLite, zlib, curl, sudo, ffmpeg, Linux and core-js. The piece, being shared widely in open-source and developer circles, underscores how few maintainers keep essential infrastructure running, renewing debate about underfunding and burnout in the volunteer-run software ecosystem.

Edward Tufte's data-ink ratio, a principle urging designers to strip charts of non-essential ink, is being examined in a detailed new breakdown. The piece clarifies what the concept actually measures, corrects common misunderstandings about it, and considers how it holds up in modern data visualisation practice. Designers and analysts are debating whether the decades-old rule remains useful for today's dashboards and charts.

A new data visualisation project highlights the small group of largely unheralded individuals who maintain essential software and systems the internet quietly depends on. The project draws a direct comparison to XKCD's famous "Dependency" cartoon, which jokes that modern digital life rests on a single unsupported package maintained by one person in Nebraska. Readers are sharing it as a reminder of how fragile online infrastructure really is.

A data visualisation project called Holding Up the Internet is drawing attention for mapping the key companies and infrastructure that keep the global internet running. It highlights how much of online life depends on a small number of providers, and readers are sharing it as an eye-opening look at the internet's concentration and hidden dependencies.

A new data visualisation project called "People Holding Up the Internet" has been published by sheets.works, examining the individuals who keep the internet's infrastructure and content running. The project is drawing early attention among tech readers, with discussion centring on who the internet actually depends on and how that work is distributed.

Ipsos has published an updated set of nine charts laying out what it calls the zero-sum human economy, using survey and economic data to illustrate how gains for one group are increasingly perceived as losses for another. The visual breakdown offers a data-driven snapshot of attitudes toward competition, redistribution and economic opportunity worldwide.

A developer has expanded the Chart View functionality in a market analysis tool, while noting some hesitation about the work. They say they are not a believer in charting as a method and acknowledge many existing programs draw better charts, but argue that a picture still conveys information effectively. The update reflects an ongoing effort to improve how users visualise market data.

A data visualisation traces every NBA regular-season point since the 1946-47 season, showing how the league's career scoring record has changed hands only seven times. Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit and Wilt Chamberlain each held it, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leading for 39 years before LeBron James passed him in 2023, in his 20th season.

A new website called Awesome Dataviz has launched, ranking data visualisation libraries and tools on a daily basis using metrics drawn from GitHub, NPM, PyPI and CRAN. The launch was shared on Hacker News as a Show HN post, drawing modest engagement with a small number of points and few comments so far.

Haver Analytics has published its latest 'Charts of the Week' briefing, this edition focused on what it calls the political premium — the extra cost or volatility that markets attach to political risk. The series gathers recent data visualisations on how political developments are feeding into asset prices and economic expectations.

A new data visualisation project called 'People Holding Up the Internet' is being shared and discussed on Hacker News. The piece, hosted on sheets.works, appears to map or highlight the individuals who keep internet infrastructure running. It is gaining attention in technology and data visualisation circles.

A new website called Awesome Dataviz ranks data visualisation libraries and tools daily, drawing signals from GitHub, NPM, PyPI and CRAN. The project was shared on Hacker News by its creator, Javier Luraschi, inviting feedback from the developer community. The rankings aim to help developers and analysts discover which visualisation libraries are currently gaining traction across the main open-source package ecosystems.

Cloudflare has published a detailed account of the redesign of Radar, its internet traffic intelligence tool. The post focuses on how the team balanced technical depth with usability, making complex global internet data more accessible to a wider audience without losing the detail that analysts rely on.

A new write-up examines Edward Tufte's well-known data-ink ratio, the principle from 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' urging designers to maximise the ink devoted to data and strip away chart decoration. The piece reframes the idea as 'Tufte's Razor' and walks through what the ratio actually measures and how to apply it in practice when designing charts and visualisations.

A statistical look at NFL kicking shows how dramatically the long field goal has become ordinary: the league produced just 41 successful 50-plus-yard kicks in 1999, but 195 in 2024 alone. Tracking every kicker's career totals from that distance week by week since 1999, Matt Prater's 59th such make, in week 17 of 2020, broke the record of 58 that Sebastian Janikowski had held since 2012. Prater finished with 82.

Kepler-1314 b is a Neptune-like giant exoplanet located 463 light-years from Earth. Discovered in 2016 by NASA's Kepler telescope, it has a radius about 5.11 times that of Earth and completes an orbit in just 5.42 days. Astronomy communicators are sharing the planet's profile alongside NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets visualisation, drawing renewed attention to the Kepler mission's catalog of worlds beyond the solar system.

Climate scientist Zack Labe is sharing details of Climate Central's monthly briefing, scheduled for 14 October 2026 at 18:00 CEST and hosted on Zoom. The announcement is circulating among climate science and data visualisation communities, where Labe is well known for his climate graphics and outreach.

North Korean soldiers have been shown a short data-driven film, The Fallen of World War II, which visualises the human cost of the war, and their reactions have been filmed and shared widely online. The footage has drawn strong interest, as viewers rarely see ordinary North Korean military personnel responding to outside media, and the topic of wartime casualties has struck a chord with audiences globally.

A new website called Awesome Dataviz has launched, ranking data visualisation libraries and tools each day based on activity across GitHub, NPM, PyPI and CRAN. The launch was shared as a Show HN submission, where it drew modest early attention from the developer community, with commenters weighing in on the usefulness of daily cross-ecosystem rankings for picking charting and plotting libraries.

A new data visualisation animates every Nobel Prize awarded to an individual since 1901, ranked by the birth country of each laureate. France and Germany swapped the lead five times before 1930, and Germany was level with the United States at 35 apiece in 1949. From 1950 the US moved ahead 38-36 and has held the top position ever since.