Every programming tutorial ever:
"Never hard-code data"

90% of real-world datasets:
Special snowflakes that require hard-coding

I’m glad you understand!

www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/indices...

“Don’t make me think” is such a great book.

*Yeah, that intellectual labor would be from Steve Krug, the guy who wrote the book "Don't Make Me Think" back in 2000. It's the most famous and influential user-interaction design book in the world

sensible.com/dont-make-me...

*Might not be a panacea when it comes to writing prose, however 🙄

An orange camping tent lit from within, with a magnificent night-sky view of the Milky Way above. (Photo: istock)

Earth Week 2026: A time to rediscover and reconnect to the wonders of our home planet.

Follow #EarthWeekNOAA and visit noaa.gov/earthday for cool science stories, infographics, video and more

And it’s actually two separate variables stacked on top of each other! Why would you do that? 😢

www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/indices...

(Of course if it were NetCDF it would likely be the same format, just wrapped in a NetCDF header adding another layer of complexity rather than simplifying anything, but still.)

I am beginning to understand the temptation to put tabular data into NetCDF. I am working my way through my 4th unique format in 4 NOAA datasets and this one is not only

YEAR J F M A M J J A S O N D

instead of

Year Month Value

*but* it doesn't use separators, just (variable) column width!

Minimalist map of the DC metro by Massimo Vignelli. It’s all bold colors and sharp angles.

Does anyone here know about Massimo Vignelli’s original designs for the DC Metro map?

I’m trying to track down a large copy of this graphic. From: ggwash.org/view/39479/t...

But think original links have all rotted away (and are missing from the wayback machine).

#design #cartography

They also left behind libraries, universities, art museums, and national parks!

BBEdit!

www.barebones.com/products/bbe...

(Which I haven’t used in over a decade.)

Minimalist map of the DC metro by Massimo Vignelli. It’s all bold colors and sharp angles.

Does anyone here know about Massimo Vignelli’s original designs for the DC Metro map?

I’m trying to track down a large copy of this graphic. From: ggwash.org/view/39479/t...

But think original links have all rotted away (and are missing from the wayback machine).

#design #cartography

Vintage map of the city of London, showing sewers in relation to the streets and buildings.

I ❤️ the Rumsey Map Collection — search for “London Underground“ and get an 1854 map of the city’s sewers!

www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet...

#cartography #maps

(I did find multiple maps of the Tube, as well.)

Absolutely incredible.

NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone.

Watch with sound on.

One can hope.

Huh. Red Barchetta doesn’t have a chorus. I never realized that.

YYZ is all about arcing over a bustling city in the twilight.

“Wind
in my hair
shifting and drifting

mechanical music

adrenaline surge

well-weathered leather
hot metal and oil
the scented country air

sunlight on chrome
the blur of the landscape
every nerve aware”

It. Does. Not. Get. Better.

But Red Barchetta *also* exists, which is obviously the best driving song. (With an honorable mention to Sugar’s The Act We Act, but that might be a me thing.)

YYZ exists, so it’s not a cut-and-dried answer.

Jorge Luis Borges: Textos en su voz - Del Rigor de la Ciencia YouTube video by criaturasdeceniza

9/ A formal model is not a one-size-fits-all prescription. It is a map.

And you need a map most when the terrain is complicated — but a 1:1 map is useless.

Here is the great Jorge Luis Borges reading his own
Del Rigor de la Ciencia www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDA...

A grid of 26 small maps on a white background titled "The captain's logbook." The top-left area contains the subtitle and source caption. The remaining panels show seabird observation locations in the Southern Ocean for 25 individual ship observers, ordered by total observations. J. Jenkins dominates with 6583 observations (1969–1988), his panel filled densely with blue dots scattered across Antarctic and subantarctic waters. N. Cheshire has 1462 observations (1975–1983). Subsequent rows show progressively fewer observations, down to observers with only 1–4 sightings in the final row. Each map covers approximately 65–180°E longitude and 20–75°S latitude, with a muted blue ocean and soft tan land masses. Observer name, total observations, and year range are shown above each panel. Caption reads "Source: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa · Graphic: Georgios Karamanis."

This week's #TidyTuesday dataset comes from the at-sea seabird records held by Te Papa Tongarewa, built largely from the handwritten logbooks of Captain J. Jenkins, who recorded 6583 bird sightings on Southern Ocean voyages from 1969 to 1988.

Code: github.com/gkaramanis/t...

#RStats #dataviz

Hurricanes on Titan? Saturn's moon Titan may have hurricanes like Earth.

“Venus is hotter than Mercury, despite the fact that Mercury practically violates the Sun’s personal space.”

How can the study of other planets help us learn about Earth?

by Aaron Price/Weather with a Twist

creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/st...

Yes, but replace “butter” with “mayonnaise”. (I have no idea what the chemistry is, but it makes an incredible grilled cheese.)

Satellite image of a dust storm with entrained clouds in a tight counterclockwise swirl. The green Nile Delta is to the lower right.

Whoa! Look at this dust storm over Egypt & the Mediterranean earlier today: go.nasa.gov/4875n9w

🛰️🖼️

Once upon a time you needed to switch between Grand Central and Penn to get from Albany to DC.

Suburban California street under a clear blue sky.

Occupational hazard of living in the Bay Area — it is absolutely glorious outside but there’s work I really should be doing.

So based on sG from @hockeyviz.com Caps D sorted like this:

Chych 11.7
TVR 5.5
Sandin 3.4
Chisolm 0.0
Roy -0.7
Liljgren -0.7
Hutson -1.7
Mac -7.4

Remember 0 is 2nd pair. I would have guessed Hutson was higher and Roy but at least for Hutson that is a small sample size. Also TVR 👀!

#ALLCAPS

I am still trying to expand data providers’ view of what that means. They tend to serve the largest, most sophisticated users. The rest of us are an afterthought.

That might be ok for a business that wants to focus on whales, but not for a public agency.

Cartographic Design + Development Workflow Census Stamen is working on a small research project about the existing map design and development tooling landscape in advance of a talk we’re planning for State of the Map US in Madison, WI. We're interest...

Stamen is working on a research project about the existing map design & development tooling landscape: what tools people use, where there are gaps, and how workflows could be improved in the future.

If you have 10 minutes, please consider filling out our census here! forms.gle/ZWt2m2Yq3o5C...