Generative models can seem like a magic box where you plug in observed data, turn some dials, and see what the computer spits out. SpaceSheet is a simple spreadsheet interface to explore and experiment for a clearer view of the spaces between. Even if you’re not into this research area, it’s fun to click and drag things around to see what happens. Tags: generative models, images, latent space
The redacted version (pdf) of the Mueller report was released today. Here’s the thumbnailed view for a sense of the redactions. I had to do this in R real quick, or I wasn’t going to get anything done for the rest of the day. Here’s my snippet in case you’re interested: # install.packages(c("pdftools", "png")) library(pdftools) library(png) pdf_convert("mueller-report.pdf") # Dimensions of 1 page. imgwidth <- 612 imgheight <- 792 # Grid...
The welcoming nature of the data community was one of the reasons I switched to Statistics. Let's keep it that way. Read More
Julia Galef’s original map of the San Francisco “Bay Area Memespace” reworked and redesigned. Visualizing the ideas and subcultures that pervade San Francisco / Silicon Valley, and now the world. » check out the reworking » see the original graphic and commentary at JuliaGalef.com
My friend Xan found the following chart by Pew hard to understand. Why is the chart so taxing to look at? It's packing too much. I first notice the shaded areas. Shading usually signifies "look here". On this chart, the shading is highlighting the least important part of the data. Since the top line shows applicants and the bottom line admitted students, the shaded gap displays the rejections. The numbers...
Feeding off the words of John Tukey, Roger Peng proposes a search for better questions in analysis: The goal in this picture is to get to the upper right corner, where you have a high quality question and very strong evidence. In my experience, most people assume that they are starting in the bottom right corner, where the quality of the question is at its highest. In that case, the...
Notre-Dame in Paris, France was on fire. The New York Times describes what happened in a detailed yet concise information graphic. A 3-D model provides the imagery, and rotation and zooming highlight the relevant points. Tags: New York Times, Notre-Dame
For The New York Times, Sahil Chinoy on privacy and how easy it is now to automate surveillance through public video feeds: To demonstrate how easy it is to track people without their knowledge, we collected public images of people who worked near Bryant Park (available on their employers’ websites, for the most part) and ran one day of footage through Amazon’s commercial facial recognition service. Our system detected 2,750...
The team at 538 did a post-mortem of their in-season forecasts of NBA playoffs, using Bumps charts. These charts have a long history and can be traced back to Cambridge rowing. I featured them in these posts from a long time ago (link 1, link 2). Here is the Bumps chart for the NBA West Conference showing all 15 teams, and their ranking by the 538 model throughout the season. ...
