https://project270.vote/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Project-270-Oct-26-Poll-Analysis.pdf?v=2

Source: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD

Source: https://www.horiba.com/int/scientific/resources/science-in-action/where-do-microplastics-come-from/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/125-european-cities-quality-of-life-cost/

Teachers Using AI Say It Frees Up Time for What Matters Most

3,610 players dated 15 things older than 1000 bc. 54% of their 4,301 guesses landed after 500 bc. the typical one came out about 1,500 years too late.

(how it works: you see the name and a small picture, then drop a pin on a timeline from 3000 bc to today. no starting pin, nothing to compare it with, some rounds have a one-line hint.)

who guessed: players from 73 countries. where the country is known, a third of the guesses came from the us and one in eight from the uk; i don't ask for age or gender. bronze age guesses after 500 bc: us 61%, uk 58%, germany 66%.

data: guesses from When?, a daily dating game i made on roughly.is, 18 sep to 13 oct 2026.

more visuals, source, csv and true dates (wikipedia): https://roughly.is/blog/bronze-age-guessed-too-late.html?s=reddit-charts

Source: Eurostat, air transport by aircraft model, transport coverage, type of schedule and country [AVIA_TF_ACC], passengers on board, 2025 (2019 for comparison): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/avia_tf_acc/default/table

Share = passengers on Boeing planes (737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 787 and older models) divided by all passengers on commercial flights to, from and within the country's airports. Circle size is that total. *Many passengers here are on planes the data lists only as "other". In the Baltics and Switzerland that is mostly the Airbus A220 (airBaltic, Swiss), which the dataset does not list as an Airbus, so the Airbus column understates it there. "Other planes" also covers Embraer, ATR and Dash 8.

All figures % of air passengers unless stated.

Boundaries: GISCO, © EuroGeographics.

Tools: Python (pandas, matplotlib) and Chromium for layout.

Become a tax heaven in a tax hell continent, and you will certainly thrive.

Of Note:

• Years of Life Lost: (dashed line) Calculated by taking life expectancy (13-10-0114) at a given age and multiplying by the number of deaths (13-10-0394) for that cause and age.
• Each small multiple is on a separate y scale.
• Accidents & Suicide: Dashed line sits far above solid—younger deaths cost significantly more years of potential life. Accidents seems to have gone up recently, at the same time as Intentional Self-Harm went down.
• Heart Disease: Both metrics show steady, long-term declines over two decades, in both deaths and Years of Life Lost.
• Covid Effects: Chronic Lover Raspatory Diseases saw as large drop during covid, while Chroinc Liver Diseases and Cirrhosis saw a small increase.
• Cancer: is the larges single cause of both Death and Years of Life Lost

Source: Eurostat, participation in tourism for personal purposes by age group [TOUR_DEM_TOAGE], 2025: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tour_dem_toage/default/table

Source (last column): Eurostat, inability to afford paying for one week annual holiday away from home [ILC_MDES02], 2025: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_mdes02/default/table

No night away = 100 minus the share who made at least one private trip (holiday, or visiting friends and family) with an overnight stay during 2025, in their own country or abroad. Business trips are not counted. The last column comes from a different survey and asks about the household's money, not whether anyone travelled. *Estonia 65+ low reliability; can't-afford column: Lithuania provisional, Luxembourg break in series.

All figures % of people, no night away in 2025 unless stated.

Boundaries: GISCO, © EuroGeographics.

Tools: Python (pandas, GeoPandas, matplotlib) and HTML/CSS rendered with Chromium (Playwright).

How to (maybe) turn off Russian bots | The European Correspondent

I'm building a whiteboard app for Windows called AtlasDraw. I've been at it for a while now, and I'm finally starting to be happy with where it's at. It's still a work in progress, and before I go much further I'd love some honest feedback and a few beta testers.

The idea: something that feels as quick as scribbling on paper, but can turn into a proper diagram without switching tools. Here's where it's at so far:

• Hand-drawn or clean. Every shape can be sketchy or crisp, and you can switch whenever you like.
• Arrows that stay attached. Move a box and its arrows follow. Labels can sit above, below or on the line.
• A starter kit. 150 ready-made pieces (flowcharts, software diagrams, wireframes, workshop stickers) and 26 templates.
• Effects. Drop shadows, glow, frosted glass, jelly, water, grain and gradient fills.
• Markdown in any note or label. Headings, lists, bold, code and links.
• Shapes and paths. 13 present shapes, a path tool you bend by dragging, a freehand pen and 11 arrowhead styles.

Every image in this post was made in AtlasDraw, including the illustrations in the last one.

What I'd love feedback on

• What would you use something like this for: planning, architecture diagrams, teaching, wireframes, something else?
• What's missing that would stop you using it day to day?
• Does anything in these screenshots look confusing or unnecessary?
• Any other feedback good or bad welcome.

Looking for an icon

AtlasDraw still doesn't have a proper app icon. If you're a designer and fancy having a go, I'd love to see what you come up with.

Beta testers wanted

If you're on Windows and happy to try an early build let me know. I'm still looking at the best way to actually do the beta so details will follow once its ready

Thanks for reading.

Trust in Federal Government Sinks to New Depths

Managed to get this last night on takeoff from Seattle.

Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-worlds-most-and-least-liked-countries/

put this together using 2025 US-reported UN Comtrade data, broken down by HS2 product categories

the US imported about $327.5b in goods from china and exported $106.3b back, with a goods trade deficit of roughly $221.2b

what stood out to me was how much of china's exports to the US were electronics and machinery, while aircraft and pharmaceuticals were among the larger US export categories going the other way

the figures represent customs values in USD, not quantities, domestic production or company profits. services aren't included

the bottom panels show the largest product-category trade imbalances, calculated from the import and export values in the same dataset

original data source — UN Comtrade (2025, US-reported, HS2, imports and exports):

https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?period=2025&reporterCode=842&partnerCode=156&cmdCode=AG2&flowCode=X,M&motCode=0&customsCode=C00&partner2Code=0

full HS2 breakdown and methodology:

https://corplox.com/trade/cn/us

Source: Eurostat, foreign-controlled enterprises by country of control [FATS_CTRL], persons employed and value added, 2024: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/fats_ctrl/default/table

A company counts as foreign-owned when its ultimate controlling parent is in another country; the owner named is that parent's country, ranked over every country of control in the release. Businesses means industry, construction and market services; the public sector, farming and finance are not counted. Poland's figures follow a different definition. Figures for Russian-owned companies in Cyprus are withheld as confidential; the release's totals keep them below Greece's. No figures for the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Türkiye, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania or Montenegro. The EU row is Eurostat's own EU figure.

Tools: Python (pandas) for the data, an HTML/SVG page rendered with Chromium for the chart.

I always thought the US was in a K shaped economy where the top earners are continuing to do better while those doing worse are continuing to struggle. But directionally it seems the opposite. College grads, the top 20% of earners, and the top 25% of net worth all saw declines in income between 2022-20225.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf26.pdf