2025-02-17 20:32:51
Robert Santos, who resigned last month, wrote a heartfelt open letter to Census Bureau workers:
Now, a transition of administrations has occurred as part of our republic’s democratic process. Uncertainty and stress abound. Events are unfolding rapidly. Families are suffering. As a nascent former director, please know that I feel your pain. And in all honestly, stormy weather lies ahead. Yet, the Census Bureau’s mission remains as a beacon of hope.
During my service, I saw that the Bureau’s career staff benefit from four sources of strength. First is your intense dedication to mission. You are leaders in providing quality statistical data about our nation’s people and economy and do this exceptionally well. Each staff person makes their unique contribution towards the mission. Our country needs that more than ever. Second are the Bureau’s organizational values of scientific integrity, objectivity, transparency and independence. These are powerful tools to guide decision making. Third is your profound resilience. You demonstrated to the world that a quality decennial census could be conducted in the midst of a deadly global pandemic. That resilience remains with you, and you’ll again need to draw upon it. Lastly, you have each other. The bonds of colleagueship run deep at the Bureau and are a great source of strength. Beyond these, please understand that there are many, many communities of external stakeholders (me included) who actively advocate for you and the federal statistical community. Stakeholders represent a robust source of strength, and I pray they provide a measure of comfort in these challenging times.
Tags: Census Bureau, government, Robert Santos
2025-02-17 15:22:44
For the Washington Post, Jacob Bogage and Jeff Stein report:
Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give officials from DOGE — which stands for Department of Government Efficiency — broad access to tax-agency systems, property and datasets. Among them is the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS, which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts — including personal identification numbers — and bank information. It also lets them enter and adjust transaction data and automatically generate notices, collection documents and other records.
Tags: DOGE, government, IRS
2025-02-15 02:59:37
There was a moment a few years ago when cryptocurrency was mentioned everywhere you went. Then it faded for a while. But now it’s kind of back. With the new administration, Financial Times (paywalled) charted bitcoin’s fluctuations. They used a scrolly format that shows a fixed window of time as you go. I like the small thumbnail that keeps you oriented in the timeline.
Tags: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Financial Times
2025-02-14 21:31:54
From the outsider point of view, a path towards collision might seem obvious, but things look different from a pilot’s point of view at night. The New York Times built a 3-D model to visualize what the Black Hawk pilots might have seen before the crash with a commercial plane.
The Times analysis also indicates that the pilots’ view of the ground and river below would not have drastically changed to offer a visual cue that their helicopter had temporarily drifted into an unsafe path, above the authorized altitude in this area. Whether the Black Hawk’s instruments gave the pilots any indication that they were flying higher than authorized is unclear.
The maps and animation, just short of a flight simulator game, illustrate why the reasons for the crash aren’t so obvious.
Tags: crash, helicopter, New York Times, point of view
2025-02-14 03:30:44
This is the Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members on the finer points of making charts and how we visualize data honestly and usefully. A lot of data has gone missing in the past couple weeks, which is a recurring challenge in many analyses and visualization projects. How do we visualize the data that isn’t there or new estimates that arise when methodology changes?
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
2025-02-14 01:31:29
Charts are a window into the world. When done right, we gain an understanding of who we are, where we are, and how we can become better versions of ourselves. However, when done wrong, in the absence of truth, charts can be harmful.
This is a guide to protect ourselves and to preserve what is good about turning data into visual things.
We start with chart anatomy; then we look at how small changes can shift a point of view; this takes us to misleading chart varieties; and we finish with reading data and next steps.
Tags: honesty, lies, misleading