2026-03-05 02:31:38
The New York Times mapped the traffic difference at the Strait of Hormuz, before and after the attacks on Iran.
Every day, around 80 oil and gas tankers typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway off Iran’s southern coast that carries a fifth of the world’s oil and a significant amount of natural gas.
On Monday, just two oil and gas tankers appear to have crossed the strait, according to a New York Times analysis of shipping activity from Kpler, an industry data firm. On Tuesday, one tanker passed through.
This uses the same data as the Zeit map, except the NYT comparison with moving dots looks more like an ant farm.
Tags: New York Times, ships, traffic, war
2026-03-05 01:34:29
Normally there is a steady flow of ships through the strait, but when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, many ships docked and traffic stalled on February 28. For Die Zeit, Gregor Aisch and Zacharias Zacharakis report on the stoppage with an animated map.
The data comes from Kpler Marine Traffic, which shows ship locations in real-time around the world.
2026-03-04 16:38:17
With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian drone flights every month, countries have had to dramatically shift their strategies. Financial Times illustrates how things are different.
Kyiv claims Moscow suffered 35,000 losses in December alone. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said there was now a “clear price” for every kilometre of extra land seized on the Donetsk front: 156 Russian soldiers.
The pressure of aerial surveillance has also lengthened rotations. Infantry, as well as drone, anti-tank and mortar operators, remain in position for extended periods, because relief movements are so dangerous.
There are countless stories of troops spending months dug in at forward posts.
Tags: drone, Financial Times, Ukraine, war
2026-03-04 02:37:13
In celebration of the lunar new year, many people release a lantern into the night sky on the last day of festivities. Taiwan Data Stories made a fun interactive that lets you customize and release your own lantern.
One of the festival’s most iconic traditions is the release of sky lanterns (天燈), especially in Pingxi (平溪) in New Taipei City. As evening falls, thousands of glowing lanterns drift into the night sky, each inscribed with handwritten wishes for the year ahead. In the Year of the Horse, many lanterns feature the character 「馬」, reflecting the horse’s cultural associations with vitality, speed, endurance, and forward momentum.
I hope next year they turn this into a community interactive that shows everyone’s lanterns and hopes floating around.
A decade and a half ago, there used to be a site called 43 Things where people listed their goals in life. I made a now defunct interactive that showed goals floating by as people entered new items. It was calming to watch so much hope move across the screen.
Tags: lantern, Lunar New Year, Taiwan Data Stories
2026-03-03 18:37:40
For Businessweek, Cecilia D’Anastasio, Olivia Solon, and Leon Yin analyzed the unusual luck of streamers while gambling on Stake. The rapper Drake and streamer Adin Ross in particular seemed to have relatively high win rates, which isn’t that weird on its own, but is a lot more weird when compared to other streamers.
There were a lot of words in this article that I did not know initially. I am now more in tune with modern times. Thank you, Businessweek.
Really, I’m just here for the data, beeswarm chart made of stars, and the spinning callout to read more. Find the authors’ methodology here.
Tags: Bloomberg, cryptocurrency, gambling, luck, Stake
2026-03-02 18:54:43
Imagine points for each piece on a chessboard. They move to x-y positions and then upwards for each move. Santiago Ortiz used this scheme to visualize famous chess matches. The above represents the second game between Garry Kasparov versus Deep Blue in 1997.
Tags: chess, Santiago Ortiz
