Robert Simmon

Where did the notion that time series data should be plotted as a line graph come from? Is there any validity to it? I don’t recall ever seeing it in any #datavis literature, and doesn’t even make sense for data that’s not continuous.

Behold: The US Defense Intelligence Agency has released a report on challenges to security in space, including an NEI image of China’s spaceplane from Maxar, taken in 2024.

I somehow — I’m not sure why — feel compelled to post this State Department page on the War of 1812 today. history.state.gov/milestones/1...

This new Exxon ad with Woody Harrelson goes so hard 😳😂❤️‍🔥

I am increasingly of the belief scientists just shouldn’t be allowed to design public-facing graphs or maps.

It’s interesting that early #dataviz, like early arcade & video games, had not yet settled on standardized encoding (control) schemes. This is my favorite graphic in the post.

One final(?) resource from #NACIS2026: Wada-Sanzo colors “color was not just a decorative element, but a powerful tool for communication and expression.” www.wada-sanzo-colors.com #color #dataviz

“NASA scientists can track fall color by measuring how much red, orange, and yellow forests show compared with green. Tracking the ratio over time reveals where leaves are changing and when color peaks.”

Submissions for Volume 8 of the @nacis.bsky.social Atlas of Design are now open! Printed or digital, 2D or 3D, the traditional and the unconventional – we’re interested in maps about anything, from anywhere, from anyone. Visit atlasofdesign.org for info and the link to submit your map

Watch the #SanJuanRiver near Mexican Hat, Utah go from ~700 to ~17000 cfs in this timelapse made from images at the nearby #USGS river gage location. Final frame is from this morning. A higher #flood peak of ~33,000 cfs is heading this way, moving through Farmington, NM as I type...

OMG I might need this poster. #RUSH

I say this is a dog owner: dog owners are the worst. No other group has such an unwavering conviction that the rules were written for someone else (with some other dog)

That means the rotation charts I posted about last night are available now: billmill.org/nba/rotation... , in a hopefully improved version I'm still iterating on

Hello, network, I'm looking for an adjunct to teach our interactive visualization class next semester (virtually). If you are based in the United States—unfortunately we can't hire people from other countries—design visualizations with JS+D3, etc. and are interested in teaching, send me a message.

On Thursday @godin.bsky.social will be in the Bellingcat Discord server to discuss the techniques and insights emerging from his ongoing satellite imagery analysis of changes to Gaza’s landscape over the past three years of intensified conflict. Join our live Q&A: discord.gg/bellingcat?e...

For more on the discovery, here's our NPR Science Friday conversation: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/bar...

Flows through Farmington on the San Juan - largest since the 1930s, and double the largest since Navajo Dam was completed: www.inkstain.net/2026/10/farm...

It's the same PEOPLE actually: rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/a-covid-19...

“A visualization is a magical paral- lel pipe of information and structure directly into the front of your brain.” What. A. Line.

It’s not every day you see NOAA’s HYSPLIT wind model mentioned in @nytimes.com Via @ericlipton.nytimes.com Map by @rjnskl.bsky.social #dataviz

Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Speaking of the Turbo palette (a modified rainbow that’s perceptually linear but low contrast and won’t convert to CMYK), here it’s used to map methane plumes: www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10... #NACIS2026