Alex Selby-Boothroyd
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alexselbyb.bsky.social
Alex Selby-Boothroyd
@alexselbyb.bsky.social
14K followers 1.4K following 2.1K posts
Head of data journalism at The Economist
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Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · Nov 18
Day 18 #30DayMapChallenge
I 3D-printed John Snow's 1854 cholera map of Soho. It took ages.
3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Top-down view. 3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Side view. 3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Framed, close-up. 3D-printed map of Soho in 1854. Black marks on top of the buildings represent deaths from cholera caused by infected water from the Broad Street Pump (note the missing handle!). Frame, "artful" shot.
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The best obituary I've ever read
www.economist.com/obituary/201...
Bill Millin
Bill Millin, piper at the D-Day landings, died on August 17th, aged 88
www.economist.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Alex Selby-Boothroyd
jasonforrest.bsky.social
www.linkedin.com/posts/svadat...
Where Design Meets Data: The Future of Visualization at SVA (David Rhodes) | SVA MPS Data Visualization and Communication
“Different by design.” SVA President David Rhodes discusses our 10-month MPS graduate program where scientific thinking meets visual communication to make data understandable and persuasive. Our Dat...
www.linkedin.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:31 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The kid turned 16 today, which seems unconscionable
The kid as a kid The kid as a kid with Victorian vibes The kid as a cold kid The kid as a cool kid
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Having played sax at seven weddings (and three funerals), can confirm
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/s...
Saxophones Are Taking Over Weddings (and Dividing Guests)
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:18 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Is Chuck Schumer the one that looks like a turtle or the one that looks like Grandpa Munster??
November 10, 2025 at 6:54 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
"I—then say your name—do solemnly swear..." is just perfect
amutepiggy.bsky.social alexis simpson @amutepiggy.bsky.social · 1d
I didn't catch this until i saw @intense.wiggling.me 's post but he literally says "I, then say your name, do solemnly swear" oh my GOD
acyn.bsky.social Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 1d
Trump getting booed at the Commanders game
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
That's practically just driving
bencollins.bsky.social Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 1d
Things are fine.
Flying at 8000 feet today News Captain says flying at 8000 feet (!) Newark to Savannah today instead of 34000 because of air traffic control restrictions. Everyone has to say seated including flight attendants. Never in my 40 years in flying has this happened … wondering what the view will be 😀
November 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
One of these slipping off meant Death by Fire or Ice for whoever was at the tap end
November 9, 2025 at 8:11 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Relieved we kept them to just three 😑
November 9, 2025 at 6:29 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
I hate/massively admire Doku
November 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Which one of these was Robertson guilty of?
November 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Thousands of these lil guys have sprung up in my garden. Pretty soon there won't be... a lot of space for anything else (please admire my pun restraint)
Mushrooms More mushrooms
November 9, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Alex Selby-Boothroyd
jerthorp.bsky.social
It took me about three months to get here but...

Here's a 🪶 for (nearly) every species of bird, with colors extracted from wikipedia descriptions.

10,151 species.

#dataviz #birds #data
A wheel-like visualization of bird feathers colored from wikipedia descriptions
November 4, 2025 at 1:26 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Mamdani has had a better week, UCL notwithstanding
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 2d
here we are indeed.

(additional context for fans of other sports: Arsenal is currently at the top of the Premier League)
tweet from Zohran Mamdani on 11/22/2020 saying "never thought I'd be more hopeful about socialism than arsenal and yet here we are ."
November 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Page 17 of The Mirror v page 18. Spot the deference
Story in The Mirror about Omaze winners Story in The Mirror about cruise goers
November 8, 2025 at 8:29 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Not all pie charts are bad
pbump.com Philip Bump @pbump.com · 2d
A majority of the days the government has ever been shut down, Donald Trump was president. www.howtoreadthisch.art/red-versus-b...
November 8, 2025 at 7:08 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
These Tureen tests are getting crazy
A serving set mocked up as a Turing test. Don't ask why.
November 8, 2025 at 5:58 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Big decision for my mum in the newsagents today
Photographs of some excellent Economist journalists (and me) in the back of this week's issue An exuberant cover price of £10.99
November 8, 2025 at 1:02 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The other winner of Celebrity Traitors
Google Trends chart showing a big surge in search interest for Neuroblastoma UK, the charity chosen by Celebrity Traitors winner Alan Carr
November 8, 2025 at 12:58 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
I set today's cryptic crossword for The Economist. Glad to get 2d out into the ether (that's a clue)
www.economist.com/interactive/...
Weekend cryptic crossword by The Economist. The highlighted clue reads: Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) ACROSS Overheard talk of force (6) Film debut of Perkins scared young critic. Hitchcock's overjoyed! (6) Mix and turn up the heat with this (6) Giant space for decapitated rodent to get tail removed (8) Take off face covering (don't ask) (4) Party in Pennsylvania Avenue is concerning landlord (10) Choose Rhode Island town for power source (11) You need five feet to solve this clue. So stressed! (10) Outstanding spoken verse (4) Lego firm remade cinematic feature (8) Identify internal briefing error (6) Introduction of writing instrument replacing five in six balls (6) Sounds like what's left after cooking part of pigs (6) DOWN Fit a thousand on return flight (5,3) Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) Anti-scurvy tips to aid sailors: consume oranges regularly but ignore cigars (8) Extort detective leading to fishy end (6) Cook okra, it feeds three (6) Funny, Jack's missing an eye, or something like it (6) Anger returns thanks to midge causing heat (11) Taverner, for example, scores in bars (8) Thrashed, whirled round, etc (8) Setter's team has company south of the border (6) Admire night rider (6) Lumber around, be trim (6) They're for massively restricting change (6) ACROSS Overheard talk of force (6) Film debut of Perkins scared young critic. Hitchcock's overjoyed! (6) Mix and turn up the heat with this (6) Giant space for decapitated rodent to get tail removed (8) Take off face covering (don't ask) (4) Party in Pennsylvania Avenue is concerning landlord (10) Choose Rhode Island town for power source (11) You need five feet to solve this clue. So stressed! (10) Outstanding spoken verse (4) Lego firm remade cinematic feature (8) Identify internal briefing error (6) Introduction of writing instrument replacing five in six balls (6) Sounds like what's left after cooking part of pigs (6) DOWN Fit a thousand on return flight (5,3) Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) Anti-scurvy tips to aid sailors: consume oranges regularly but ignore cigars (8) Extort detective leading to fishy end (6) Cook okra, it feeds three (6) Funny, Jack's missing an eye, or something like it (6) Anger returns thanks to midge causing heat (11) Taverner, for example, scores in bars (8) Thrashed, whirled round, etc (8) Setter's team has company south of the border (6) Admire night rider (6) Lumber around, be trim (6) They're for massively restricting change (6)
November 8, 2025 at 11:03 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 1:03 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
"Sleepy Joe"
November 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Alex Selby-Boothroyd
frogalapeche.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 8:36 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
One of my favourite charts (my only contribution was the annotation)
infobeautiful.bsky.social Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 5d
Now this is how you detect whether an election was stolen. Humans choose rounder numbers.

by @TheEconomist
A scatter plot titled "Fair and square? Russian federal elections, 2000-21" which visualizes the results of Russian federal elections. The x-axis represents voter turnout in percentage, ranging from 0 to 100%. The y-axis represents the percentage of votes for Putin, Medvedev, or the United Russia party, also ranging from 0 to 100%. Each dot on the plot represents a polling station. A cluster of dots appears in the upper right corner, indicating high voter turnout and a high percentage of votes for the specified candidates. A dashed rectangle highlights a grid-like pattern of dots at numbers ending in zero and five, with an annotation suggesting this pattern indicates potential foul play. The source is cited as Kobak and Shpilkin (2021).
November 6, 2025 at 3:37 PM