Then, along comes ProPublica to give me renewed faith in the power of data visualization by connecting it with your life through Facebook. I recently left the service, but this is one of the best integrations that I’ve seen. Using the Facebook API, ProPublica pulls your high school and then automatically compares it to the other schools in your area. Suddenly, data has all the emotional punch of a high school football rivalry as you scan from Columbia River to Fort Vancouver to Hudson Bay. This is Big Data made personal, not through whizbang graphics but through demonstrated and automatic relevance.

—

Alexis Madrigal smartly argues for personalized data visualization as a way to use people’s “social graphs” to better understand the news.

I couldn’t agree more. The goal of news, at its most basic, has always been how to help people understand the world that they live in. While Google, Facebook and Twitter seem most interested in using people’s networks to sell them more crap, it’s great to see more high-minded uses.

The Big Picture has a bunch of amazing, and moving, photos of the history of the Space Shuttle.

bestrooftalkever:

…CONSTANT-LY 

Of course, not all browsers currently in popular use (ahem, Internet Explorer) support the “pushState” function yet. Older browsers will continue to use hash-based URLs, and if hash-based links are shared with modern browsers, they’ll be transparently upgraded to the “pushState” version of the URL.

—The new Backbone release includes support for “pushState”, which lets browsers dynamically update URLs without forcing a page refresh and without using hacky hashes or hashbangs. And, it even does the right thing when fed a hashed URL, the exact opposite of what seems to be en vogue these days. Bravo.

Working in a café sucks. People are always peeping at your screen and it’s dirty and the wireless is dodgy and there’s some skank with a productive cough one table over who keeps yapping loudly on her cell phone to somebody named Andréas who you’re pretty sure is her ecstasy dealer and you have to pee and you can’t get up because somebody will steal your laptop and the bathroom is fucking rank anyway because it’s a coffee shop and everybody’s poopin’ and, oh! I really, really need an office!

—Mat Honan has some etiquette tips on working in a café. If you decide you really want to…

Pro Publica has built an incredibly impressive app for comparing public school districts

“ProPublica analyzed new data from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights along with other federal education data to examine whether states provide students equal access to programs — such as Advanced Placement or higher-level math and sciences classes — that researchers say will help them later in life. We found that in some states, high-poverty schools are less likely than wealthier schools to have students enrolled those programs.”

Really excellent work. This is what news organizations should be doing more and more of. Don’t forget to donate and support Pro Publica.

Is it worse for a child to see pornography or graphic violence?

Slate tries to offer some insight on the dangers of exposing kids to sex and violence, in light of this week’s supreme court ruling. This may end up being one of those unknowable things since researchers are willing to sit a kid down in front of a violent video game for the purpose of research, not so much for porn.

Also, Slate may have already won best headline of the year.

Google releases Swiffy, a tool to convert SWF files into HTML5, SVG, JavaScript and CSS

This is stunning, technically, but it’s certainly telling that two of the examples are converting ads from Flash

American McCarver. Your Sports Blog.

If I was the kinda guy who was really into sports, I’d be all over American McCarver. As someone who is, at best, a casual baseball and college basketball fan, I still love it. Sharp design and smart writing from some of the best out there.

Longshot Issue #2

Even being kicked around by Les Moonves won’t stop Mat Honan from putting out another Longshot magazine. Bless his soul.