Holiday Meat Cook Times

On Thanksgiving this year, we spatchcocked the turkey, and it cooked way too quickly. None of the delicious sides were done cooking by the time the turkey started cooling. Which seems like the opposite problem of most holiday dinners.

Inspired by this blunder, I looked at how different cooking methods affect time in the oven. All proteins are 12 pounds. Oven temperature varies.

Source data (with links to recipes): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hv-mR44oyOxE0o60NNq3EI9agD-kPNVfHHefIoiMElQ

Rainy Birthdays

It always rains on your birthday. It rained the day you were born.

My mother tells me this every September. I grew up with this concept that it just rains on my birthday, no matter where I am. This feeling continued while living in DC.

This year, I wanted to see if there was any actual truth behind this feeling.

Since 2007, 8 out of 12 of my last birthdays have been rainy. However, only a single birthday before college was rainy, so I don’t know exactly where my mother got this idea of constant rain. The data doesn’t support her comment.

I think it’s one of those things where if there was rain in the forecast, or rain on one of the surrounding days, or rain on the day that I was having a birthday party, it got generalized into “it always rains on your birthday”.

I’m still going to believe it’s likely to rain on my birthday. It’s made me fond of rain, and I always bring an umbrella or some rain boots with me on September 29th.

Source: Weather Underground historical data for September 29th

Popularity of international outlets

Preparing for international travel = researching the confusing world of international outlets.

There aren't good visuals for how widely used certain plug types are. So I made my own. Looking at what countries use what outlet types wasn’t enough, I wanted to see how population of those countries affected the popularity.

Weird facts:

• C (and E and F which are the grounded versions) is nicknamed the europlug and the most popular worldwide. C outlets are becoming illegal in favor of E and F styles which fit the same plug, but are grounded.

• D is used in India and Nepal. D plugs are among the most dangerous ones in the world because the prongs are not insulated.

• I is used mainly in China and Australia. It was easier for Australia to manufacture a plug with flat prongs, which lead to the adoption of this type.

• G is used in the UK. And lots of places that England has ruled.

• N is only used in Brazil. Where it works with types of voltage in the country, which isn’t always listed. Which is really scary and dangerous.

Data source: www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/spread-plug-types-map

Pizza types in Chicago

Visually categorizing the 10 different styles of pizza that you can find in Chicago. The styles are defined by Steve Dolinsky for his book Pizza City, USA, so don't get mad that pan pizza is not a separate type. Each pie has different layers, as well as a pie shape and a slice style.

Spreadsheet of the data

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Tavern Style or Chicago Style Thin

Stuffed Pizza

Regular Thin Crust Pizza

Sicilian Style Pizza

Artisan Pizza Pie

Detroit Style Pizza

Neapolitan Pizza

Roman Style Pizza

New York Style Slice

Flower dot plot

Wedding budgeting + DayDohViz. Purple roses are totally below expected range and pink are somewhere in the range. 

Data from Brides.com and my wedding spreadsheet

Long roller coasters

Visualizing 7 different aspects of the 5 longest roller coasters in the United States. The style of this visual is inspired by Georgia Lupi and how she layers different aspects of data and information to create unique compositions. 

CFPB changed with the leadership

Actions and communications of the CFPB changed with the leadership. Slopegraph or parallel coordinate chart made to reflect before and after the leadership change.

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Too much play-doh

This #daydohviz project had taken over my life. And part of my living room. I live in 700 sq ft with my partner, a 50 lb dog and FIVE AND A HALF POUNDS of Play-Doh.

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Mold-a-rama

I have gone into a deep rabbit hole with Mold-A-Rama data. If you did not grow up with Mold-A-Rama, it's a machine that creates a souvenir plastic toy IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN EYES. Commonly found at zoos and museums.

117 currently operating machines that were made in the 1960's. Operated by 2 companies: Mold-A-Rama in Chicago (mold-a-rama.com) and Mold-A-Matic in Florida (replicationdevices.com) Chicago: 27 Florida: 35 There are some privately owned that aren't in this count.

What you don't get from images is the retro novelty, smell, feel or experiance of these. They smell like melted plastic, are hot to the touch, and you can peel away the warm plastic with a fingernail. @WBEZCuriousCity has a great a story: interactive.wbez.org/curiouscity/moldarama

So what are the molds of? You mostly get odd colored plastic figurines of animals.

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There's a surprising amount of Mold-A-Rama/Matic molds of Santa.

The most popular shape is the gorilla which can be found at 9 different locations. Gorillas in the coveted green color reside at the Lincoln Park Zoo and the San Antonio Zoo.

Some of the more bizarre non organic molds

There's a lot of giraffe molds, including a purple version at the Central Florida Zoo.

When are Babies Born?

Inspired by the visualization "Why Are so Many Babies Born around 8:00 A.M.?" I played with the 3d form to create a different version of the visualization. 

Original: blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/why-are-so-many-babies-born-around-8-00-a-m

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Play-Doh smell

The smell of Play-Doh is now trademarked. https://mashable.com/2018/05/19/hasbro-play-doh-smell-trademark … Maybe it smells like vanilla and cherry, but mostly it smells like childhood memories to me.

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New dog, so expensive

Costs over time of new dog ownership over the first 2 months. Dog-doh-viz!

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Total costs by category of dog ownership over the first 2 months

Behind the scenes, the making of the bar graph.

Estimated future monthly costs

detail view

Dog participation

Data visualization survey

Visualizing some of the results of the 2017 data visualization survey that went around twitter. Data: github.com/emeeks/data_visualization_survey/tree/master/data

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Financial waterfall

April got EXPENSIVE. Waterfall graph of some of the biggest expenditures and income for the month.

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Cost of Play-Doh

Visualization of the cost of making replacement white and yellow play doh. Way more cost effective, but I’m not loving the consistency.

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Dumpling tour

Dumpling adventure in Flushing, New York visualized. This is how the day went. Projected and actual dumpling consumption. And everything we ate over the course of the day.

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What happened to women in Computer Science?

In honor of #InternationalChartDay, my favorite #dataviz from @NPR. From 2014, but still holds up. The title and message are clear. Super simple, but effective.

Original: npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding 

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The good and the bad

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Today sucks. This is why. At least the left half of this Cartesian coordinate plot will disappear by tomorrow. In the meantime I can make my feelings into play-doh and graph them as a way of processing

Instacart costs

Is Instacart worth it? It’s about $35 more expensive for my average grocery run, but saves 45 minutes of time.

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I love liquids

I love liquids. The size of the dot is the amount I want to drink. The proximity to the top is my enjoyment level. Ok, now I’m going to go get a drink.

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