Sam Talks About...

The inspiration for this article came from a meme I saw online saying that Flat Earthers are worried that social distancing measures will push people over the edge!  Obviously they are referring to the huge psychological and economic hardship that billions of us are facing after enduring weeks of social distancing (I am currently on week 6 of working from home). But it got me thinking, how much room do we currently have to keep up social distancing guidelines, and what countries have the most room for social distancing?  First, t o keep at least 2 metres away from the next nearest person, each person would need 4 m 2 . What would the world look like if you were to keep everyone exactly 2 metres apart? Based on a rough calculation, that would mean you could get up to a population density of 250,000 people per km 2 . The most densely populated city in the world is Manila, at  46,178 people per km 2 . So there's no need for the Flat Earthers to worry.  In fact...

In this second post in my series " Exploring my physical data ", I take  my first steps in exploring my own physical activity data.  The first hurdle in my exploration is gaining access to my own physical activity data. I don't use any smart wearables or actively track my own activity, but I've allowed Google Fit to passively track my physical activity since 2018.  Google Fit, the source of all my physical activity data Thankfully, Google has its own service, Google Takeout , that allows you to access and download pretty much all of the data they have on you in a simple and easy to use interface.  I used this guide to quickly find out how to export my Fit data, but Google Support has a really useful guide as well.  I decided to only use the daily aggregated data (ie daily steps, daily distance walked, etc.) as the info on individual activities seems a bit like overkill at this stage.  You can download your own physical activity data and ...

Like many, the social distancing guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic has left me with more free time around the house than usual. I've also found myself thinking about how important data can be in shaping our perceptions of the world.  The challenge I've given myself is to get started with making interactive data visualisations, in the form of a visual essay. These data-rich, beautiful, interactive stories are fast becoming the go-to method for effectively communicating the results of an investigation or experiment using large data sets (such as crime rates, climate science, electoral coverage).  The Pudding  have a great repository of data visualisations and a number of how-to's that I'm surely going to need down the line!  BBC News have a fantastic set of visualisations to explain the COVID-19 pandemic  that have been part of my inspiration to finally give this a go.  BBC Data Viz showing how confirmed coronavirus cases have spread up until ...