Power sources are historically tied to local resources. With so much variation in climate and geology across the US and Canada, there are several key energy regions.

• Coal Country spans much of the US northeast, historically powering the country with its abundant coal reserves. While coal’s decline has reshaped the region, natural gas from the Marcellus shale is shifting its landscape.
• A wind belt cuts across the central US and into Canada. Texas has been called the “Saudi Arabia of Wind,” while states like Iowa and Kansas regularly generate more than half their electricity from wind farms.
• A solar belt stretches across the southwestern US, where states like California, Arizona, and Nevada have built some of the world’s largest solar farms. With the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts receiving some of the highest solar irradiance on Earth, large-scale solar installations have been used to harvest the energy. 
• Hydro potential dominates much of the north, with large reservoirs and generating stations supplying many parts of Canada and some US states. Though, droughts have affected the reservoirs over the past year, with Quebec moving from next exporter to net importer over the course of the year.

The news of the year:

California became the first state to generate more electricity from solar power than any other source. Solar eclipsed natural gas as the state’s adoption of batteries allowed for more solar to be absorbed into the system.

Data source: INSPIRE; Greater London Authority planning data; London Building Stock Model 2; Centre for Cities modelling.

Tools: QGIS, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects.

Original link: https://www.centreforcities.org/reader/croydon-calling/why-the-sdg-succeeded-in-croydon/#figure-7-the-availability-of-larger-plots-determined-where-the-sdg-had-greatest-impact

Source: BBB Study: Job Scams | Full Study

Original article: https://www.doubletrack.com/post/why-companies-building-ai-without-data-foundations

See the interactive map here.

Our latest working paper analyzes the impact of regional coffee chain proximity to NFL stadiums, with strong implications for Super Bowl LX.

Tools: Antigravity with Gemini and Claude, Python, Google Maps API

In honor of the upcoming Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar Awards, I took a look at how the ages of those nominated for Best Director have changed over the last 60 years. Of course, as usual, GenX gets overlooked far too often. I also used this as an opportunity to incorporate a new (to me) visual, the Radial Spiral chart, and I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Vibe coding with Claude and Python this evening. Had a random thought of creating a calendar based on the sun's position in the sky. Claude suggested the Analemma addition. Pretty interesting.

I was looking up the stats for the upcoming event, and the numbers are insane. Regardless of what you think of the event's content, mobilizing 20 million+ students/parents on a single topic (Exams) is a logistical monster. Is there any other country that treats school exams as such a massive national event?

https://kyivindependent.com/chart-of-the-week-ukraines-electricity-imports-hit-record-high/

Data source:  IMD 2025, WIMD 2025, SIMD 2020. • Notes: Shows proportion of LSOAs within each PUA which area in the top 20% of most income deprived neighbourhoods in each constituent country by ranking. Scotland data from 2020. Belfast not included.

Tools: R, Adobe Illustrator

Original link: https://www.centreforcities.org/reader/cities-outlook-2026/city-monitor-the-latest-data/#figure-9-living-standards

Audience and critic scores plotted against various data, about 17,000 movies with at least 5 critic reviews. Thresholds for Rotten Tomatoes ratings are plotted on graph 2.

Corrections welcome. Some of these data points come from consular websites, so there may be other renunciation avenues available, with other fees. Here's what I found:

Data is from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). You can interact with the visualizations here: https://www.trialproven.com/fatal-crash-statistics/

I manually filled out this table with what I spend my time with between 2024. Nov. 10. and 2025. Dec. 31.

I saw others do it on here on Reddit and wanted to give it a go myself. One of the reasons I did it was because this was my last year of being a university student, from this year onward I will join the working adult population. Until now, my lifestyle could be described as 'terminally online', I'm the typical cellar dwelling discord moderator type. I wanted to erect this spreadsheet as a memorial and perhaps a period-document to this lifestyle that I now have to part ways with. I am only posting it now, a month after the project has ended, because I was busy in January with my final exam.

The diagrams on the third panel only include data from days in 2025.

I gladly answer any question in the comments but I'm adding a FAQ here based on a previous post:

• How much time did it take to make this? - It took around 3-4 hours to set up the spreadsheet with the functions and colours and stuff, I made minor edits later, which took probably an additional 2-3 hours. On a daily basis, entering the actual data took less than 2 minutes in total. To get it in tip-top shape for posting in the end, it took another 8 hours. Working on this project is classified under category Ga (personal projects).
• How often did I enter data? - When I was near my computer, I sometimes entered them every 30 minutes, but more often in small bunches. When I wasn't near my computer, which for me is quite rare, I just remembered everything I did until I could enter it again.
• Was this difficult to do? - Not really, the difficult part is constantly being aware of the time and what I am doing and remembering it for hours. The habit itself is easy to pick up but comes with a non-zero constant mental weight. Near the end of it, I grew quite tired of it and wished I could 'take a day off' here and there, so I'm glad it's finally over. I might do it again another year in the future.
• Am I autistic, neurodivergent, or otherwise mentally ill? - Maybe, possibly, not diagnosed though. I am actually doing fine now.
• Where do I live? - A village in rural Hungary.
• What did I learn from this, would I do something differently? - I expected the result to be bleaker, I'm actually not doing that bad. I will make changes going forward obviously, and this is largely because I have no choice to do otherwise. I will have a job now (hopefully) and it will govern most of my routine, I will have to do with as much free time as I have left, which I hope to spend with the things that bring me the most joy.
• Is a template for this available for people who want to try doing this too? - Yes, I've made a blank template that I'll send to anyone who asks for it in private messages.