andrew van dam
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andrewvandam.bsky.social
andrew van dam
@andrewvandam.bsky.social
14K followers 1.9K following 200 posts
data columnist washington post
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andrewvandam.bsky.social
that's such a goofy claim!! i can't see any contortion of the data that would justify it?
fred graph of gas prices showing they're not even at their lowest level this year.
September 14, 2025 at 1:25 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terva_L...!
tar lion!
August 13, 2025 at 2:55 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
Fear changed to loathing. “The DOGE team wasn’t what I expected,” says a current government employee who’s interacted with Farritor and other core members of DOGE. “Marketed as tech geniuses, yet they could barely keep up with basic tasks. In reality, they were overconfident, drunk on power and utterly clueless. They giggled and asked me how my day was going—right as they hit the keys to obliterate nearly a decade of my work. There wasn’t even a flicker of understanding or care. It wasn’t just the loss that gutted me. It was the audacity of their casual cruelty.”
August 1, 2025 at 3:43 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
i think they kinda did investigate? but the early reports are that dedicated, hardworking public servants made sure the offices were staffed around the clock despite being shorthanded

www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...
It posed the latest test for a beleaguered Weather Service corps that has endured a season of dangerous storms and floods while facing major upheaval in their offices. The forecasting office in Jackson, Kentucky, is four meteorologists short of what agency officials have deemed ideal staffing — a 31 percent vacancy rate that makes 24/7 operations impossible, according to the union that represents Weather Service staff. Making up for cuts would require moving shifts around. It was an all-hands-on-deck situation in the Jackson office on Friday night. 🌱 Follow Climate & environment “We saw the risk many days ago. We were already planning how we would staff days in advance,” said Christian Cassell, one of the office’s lead meteorologists. By Thursday, the staff had set up a schedule to stagger shifts Friday “knowing we were looking at a nearly full day of a threat of severe weather,” he said. “I’m glad to say we were very well staffed for the entirety of the event,” Cassell said.
May 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
I met a lady in Uzbekistan who got one of those! she was legitimately (and deservedly) proud!!
The Order of Maternal Glory (Russian: Орден «Материнская слава», romanized: Orden "Materinskaya slava") was a Soviet civilian award commemorating mothers with a substantial number of children, created on 8 July 1944 by Joseph Stalin and established with a decision of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Its status was confirmed by the Soviet's decision of 18 August 1944 and later modified by 16 September 1947, 28 May 1973 and 28 May 1980 decisions. It was awarded on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR through decrees of local Soviet presidencies.[1] Classes The order was divided into three classes: first, second and third class. It was conferred to: First class: mothers bearing and raising nine children. Second class: mothers bearing and raising eight children. Third class: mothers bearing and raising seven children. The order was conferred upon the first birthday of the last child, provided that the other children necessary to reach the qualifying number (natural or adopted) remained alive.
April 22, 2025 at 3:18 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
i think the answer's here, in this (super fun) art museum ranking? all it takes is one billionaire and suddenly you've got one of the nation's best art museums in northwest arkansas. rich people love art, especially contemporary art! (gift link: wapo.st/3RsGBYJ)
There was deep skepticism when the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2011. A spending spree, including a glamorous bespoke building by architect Moshe Safdie and the acquisition of major works by key American artists, was funded by the museum’s founder, Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The Walmart connection, the Midwestern location and the assumption that the museum would be more celebratory than critical raised doubts. But the museum is thoroughly professional, innovative, open-minded and adventurous. It hosted the 2018 American debut of a major exhibition of Black Power artists and has been as keenly attentive to contemporary art and culture issues as it is to the longer arc of American art. — Kennicott
April 22, 2025 at 3:13 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
incredible. also this photo credit??
Was the photo really taken by valerii zaluzhnyi, one of the main protagonists in the story and someone who seems to be in the photograph?? did he use a timer? am I misreading the credit?
March 31, 2025 at 7:35 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
another chart just for fun!
A line chart using ATUS to show that pet ownership has grown fastest among the young, married folks without children
March 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
not sure how we'll really tell, but the quick-n-lazy answer is always to look at google trends. we really do see a drop in Amazon topic searches on the 28th relative to the previous 7 days, but I didn't dig deep enough to see if that was unusual!
simple google trends of Amazon (topic, not keyword) searches, showing Feb 28 being much lower than the previous six days.
March 1, 2025 at 5:28 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
petition to bring back the original 17 counties of colorado
map of colorado with 17 wildly impractical counties, half of them in a tiny unpopulated area of the Rockies
February 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
in the past two weeks, something changed

for the first time since Feb. 2020, searches for the flu overtook searches for covid 19

is that symbolic? can we say the pandemic phase is over and we're endemic now?

trends.google.com/trends/explo...
Google trends chart showing searches for the Influenza topic overtaking searches for the covid-19 topic in the last two weeks Longer-run google trends chart showing searches for the Influenza topic overtaking searches for the covid-19 topic in the last two weeks Google Trends map showing that since december 1, covid 19 searches were tops in northern and mountain states, while flu searches ruled the South and West.
January 3, 2025 at 1:20 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
i hadnt thought of this book in at least two decades... there's something comforting about the fact that it's been quietly churning through biz bros in the background, holding its place in the discourse this entire time

ps: seriously, who moved my horse

books.google.com/ngrams/graph...
line chart from google ngram showing use of "who moved my cheese" in books rose rapidly at the end of the 1990s and stayed at that level. who moved my horse peaked in 1955 or so and dropped very fast.
December 6, 2024 at 5:20 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
Biden's apology for "boarding schools" got all the headlines

but nobody noticed the quiet progress he made in Indian country by prioritizing Native Americans in his signature policies -- nobody but the great @robmaxim.bsky.social and glencora haskins, that is!

www.brookings.edu/articles/pre...
However, while the deceptively benign name of “boarding school” may conjure images of bucolic campuses and ivy-covered buildings for most Americans, these institutions were instead designed as tools of assimilation and cultural genocide toward Native nations. This mission was codified in 1819 with the passage of the assimilation-focused Civilization Fund Act, which empowered the executive branch to “in every case where he shall judge improvement in the habits and condition of such Indians practicable…employ capable persons of good moral character” and introduce to any tribe adjoining a frontier settlement the “arts of civilization.” The boarding schools were a key tool for advancing the assimilation mission. In many cases, Native American children were kidnapped from their homes and held as hostages in federal “schools,” where they were forced to take new “white” names, forbidden from speaking Native languages, and prohibited from taking part in any Native cultural practices. Policymakers should also prioritize improving data about Native American students and giving tribes better access to data on their own citizens. Data on Native American students and individuals currently suffers from a variety of shortcomings. In some cases, unreliable sample sizes in government surveys make drawing statistically significant conclusions about Native populations impossible. In other cases, the data is incomplete. For example, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the federal government’s higher education database, does not disaggregate any information on Native American students who are either Latino or Hispanic or multiracial, who combined account for over 75% of all Native Americans. Nor does it collect any data on student tribal affiliation. These decisions make it impossible for researchers and tribes themselves to get a fuller picture of the successes and challenges for Native American students in higher education. Policymakers should increase funding to improve the presence of Native American people in government surveys, and leverage new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget to improve data collection practices about Native American students in education data. Policymakers can complement these efforts with steps such as funding investments into developing greater in-house data capacity for tribes; working with tribes to develop appropriate systems to make gathering, analyzing, and reporting data more efficient; developing a federal framework to protect tribal data sovereignty; and providing greater funding for digital literacy in tribal communities.
December 5, 2024 at 4:00 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
PA's 2nd smallest borough, behind only the one that's actively on fire, is just called "S.N.P.J."

It stands for Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota. The Slovene National Benefit Society formed it because they were tired of being part of a town that banned liquor sales on Sunday!

what a town
S.N.P.J. is a borough in western Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the borough had a population of 15.[3] It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. S.N.P.J. stands for "Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota" (Slovene National Benefit Society), a fraternal society and financial co-operative based in North Fayette, Pennsylvania. The society applied to have their 500-acre (200 ha) recreation center in western Pennsylvania designated as a separate municipality in 1977. The S.N.P.J. borough was created so that the society could, among other things, get its own liquor license. North Beaver Township, the municipality in which the center was originally located, restricted the sale of alcohol on Sundays (blue law). S.N.P.J. once had the distinction of being the least-populated borough in the state (but not municipality; East Fork Road District, population 14, was less populous) until a mine fire beneath Centralia made that borough unsafe to live in. wikipedia map of its location on the far western edge of pennsylvania
November 24, 2024 at 5:38 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
for all you complaining about all the other people complaining about "sportsball" or whatever: remember when there's no algo, complaining maybe doesn't juice engagement as much!

if you see something obnoxious, add it to the ol' mute list and move on with your life
mute list including "sportsball" and "michael how much could it" and "echo chamber" and "repost with" i shoulda also added "it's me, I'm the problem, it's me"
November 24, 2024 at 2:44 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
On November six, searches for "Donald Trump age" hit an all time record

They were higher than searches for "Joe Biden age" have even been

Seems like you'd maybe have wanted that information a day earlier though??
A screenshot of Google train showing a sharp spike in searches for Donald Trump age on November 6th A screenshot of Google trends showing searches for Donald Trump age recently outpaced any searches for biden's age that have ever happened
November 8, 2024 at 5:50 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
The great @dhmontgomery.com swoops in at the last minute with some hot scoops about the American electorate!

Harris wins big with Prince Harry and Pulp Fiction fans while Trump has the edge among people who have seen a UFO and among Braveheart lovers

I expect betting markets to adjust accordingly
Early risers and UFO-seers lean Trump, while seat belt-wearers and Prince Harry fans lean Harris In November 2024, who do you plan to vote for in the presidential election? (% supporting Trump minus % supporting Harris among each group of Americans, relative to the Trump lead among all registered voters) Are fans of selected Best Picture nominees or winners more pro-Trump or pro-Harris than the U.S. as a whole? In November 2024, who do you plan to vote for in the presidential election? (% supporting Trump minus % supporting Harris among people who "love" each film, relative to the Trump lead among all registered voters)
November 5, 2024 at 4:26 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
Heroic Turtle Dials Most of 911
October 1, 2024 at 5:54 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
this is the kind of question I've made a career out of taking way too seriously! I'm not sure, but I think the old-school walmarts are a department store, according to the North America Industry Classification System, while the superstores with groceries are "warehouse clubs and supercenters"?
naics dfinition for department stores naics dfinition for warehouse clubs and supercenters naics tree for retail!
July 28, 2024 at 2:45 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
amazing chart. I'm an impartial journalist, but I'll say that I always love it, aesthetically, when two lines cross.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
A line chart comparing NRA's membership dues and legal fees. One grew rapidly and remains high, at around $40 million. The other is falling rapidly, and now sits at $83 million. You can guess which is which!
February 5, 2024 at 2:39 AM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
why did it take me so dang long to see this killer chart from @carsonology.bsky.social and Hannah Zakharenko?!

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
area chart of emmy nominations showing the fall of broadcast, the rise and fall of cable, the rapid rise of streaming and the endurance of hbo.
January 16, 2024 at 5:01 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
i'm just a data dork, but i am not convinced you get to try to front-run a story on social media and also complain you didn't get enough time to comment??

www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/...
While Ackman hasn’t raised factual issues with the articles, he has claimed that the outlet didn’t give him and his wife enough time to comment on the second story, about Wikipedia plagiarism, with a space of roughly two hours on late Friday afternoon between when his spokesman was asked for comment and when the story was published. But Ackman first went public with the Wikipedia allegations roughly an hour before the story was published by posting on social media about the impending article, which may have affected Business Insider’s publication schedule.
January 8, 2024 at 4:44 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
they already did
December 21, 2023 at 6:32 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
silent night is easily the most-covered song of all time, according to luis melgar. the mania peaked in 2010 and 2011, and it seems like the fever is finally breaking

thttps://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2023/12/08/silent-night-covers/
“Silent Night” covers, by year of release
December 8, 2023 at 6:37 PM
andrewvandam.bsky.social
my ridiculously talented graphics friends ul visualized the human toll of the war in Gaza

please click through, no amount of screenshots can do it justice!

www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

gift link:

wapo.st/47t2E7F
Monthly average child casualties in conflicts, a bar chart showing Gaza is far worse than Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen or Iraq (albeit for a much shorter time frame)
November 13, 2023 at 5:06 PM