The Economist has a blog called Graphic Detail, which excels at showing complex ideas simply. Engaging, thoughtful, and often surprising. Some recent graphs:
1) High blood pressure globally, not just affluent countries
Link here
- A recent study in Lancet largely dispels the myth that high blood pressure is a rich country’s problem; it’s prevalent everywhere, especially eastern Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa
- Only in 36 countries do women outnumber men – all of those countries are in Africa
- Trends show that nutrition and a cleaner environment may be bigger factors than we first thought – it’s not just obesity and lack of exercise
2) US “Stand your ground” laws correlated to more homicides
Link here
- As background, there are 20 US states which have passed laws which allow citizens wide latitude to assertively use guns (including deadly force) for protection. That is a fancy way to say Americans can shoot you when they feel endangered
- Journal of the American Medical Association research showed that after Florida passed the law, homicides sustained a 24% jump vs. flat for the rest of the country
- The rate of “justified” homicides increased 3x
3) What the world worries about
Link here.
- The majority of the world is unhappy with their country’s progress
- The Chinese are the most optimistic and the French the most pessimistic
- Interestingly, the biggest concern varies by country (US = terrorism?)
- This angst obviously feeds into the “strong-man” populism in the US, France, Britan
4) Spreadsheet errors in genomics research papers
Link here
- Genome Biology, an scholarly journal, found that between 2005 and 2015, one-fifth (yes, let me repeat . . 1/5) of articles on genomics included excel errors in the data
- This is particularly alarming since the # of errors is increasing 15% annually
- Question: how prevalent are these problems in other data sets?
5) Piracy is less of a problem
Link here
- Pirate attacks are down globally
- Indonesia is the hot spot; Nigeria’s coast is problematic; Somalia has settled down
- Shipping companies are hiring private security guards to protect their ships and investments. leading to a rise in floating armories (fascinating story here)
6) Increasing number of “Temps” in the US
Link here
- In the US, 2.9M people (3% of workforce) are temporary workers
- Temp positions generated 10% of all new net jobs since the 2008 recession
- No surprise, the quality of these jobs is worse than full-time work; 20-25% less pay
- See the influence a large number of temps (% of total) may have on overall wages
- Temp agencies often do not offer health benefits, which inevitable fall the the public
7) Measuring global happiness
Link here
- BCG’s report called “Sustainable Economic Development Assessment” (SEDA) looks for an balanced scorecard way to measure well-being across 163 countries
- Looks like economics, investment, and sustainability; 50,000 data points
- Norway has been top of the list every year since beginning of SEDA in 2012
- Big takeaway was the correlation between happiness and the % of people over 15 years old with access to bank accounts
8) Mismanagement of opioids
Link here
- Opioids – morphine etc – are incredibly effective at easing pain
- They are cheap: $2-5 is enough to ease the discomfort of a cancer patient for a month
- In the US, millions are addicted; it cause 20,000 overdoses in 2014
- US, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe is 17% of world’s population, but consume 92% of all morphine
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