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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 1d

Source:

Does the news reflect what we die from?

What do Americans die from, and what do the New York Times, Washington Post, and Fox News report on?

ourworldindata.org

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 1d

This is really one of the best charts by @ourworldindata.org 📊

Amazing how much research and work goes into creating a chart like this. And it's such a good insight into society.

What Americans die from and the causes of death the US media reports on.

4 stacked bar charts. showing in short that while heart diseases and cancer constitutes 55% of the causes of death, they receive about 7% of the media coverages. Homicide is under 1% but receives between 42% and 52%. Terrorisme barely registers in the causes of death, but gets between 11% and 18%.

The first stacked bar is causes of death in the US in 2023
Heart diseases 29%
Cancer 26%
Accidents 9.5%
Stroke 6.9%
Lower respiratory diseases (6.2%)
Alzheimer's disease (4.8%)
Diabetes (4.0%)
Kidney failure (2.4%)
Liver disease (2.2%)
Suicide (2.1%)
COVID-19 (2.1%)
Influenza/Pneumonia (1.9%)
Drug overdose (1.8%)
Homicide (<1%)
Terrorism (<0.001%)

Media coverage of these causes of death in 2023 in...
New York Times
Heart disease (2.8%)
Cancer (4.1%)
Accidents (9.7%)
Suicide (3.8%)
COVID-19 (5.3%)
Drug overdose (7.5%)
Homicide (42%)
Terrorism (18%)

Washington Post
Heart disease (2.9%)
Cancer (4.7%)
Accidents (5.9%)
Suicide (3.3%)
COVID-19 (7.9%)
Drug overdose (9.5%)
Homicide (46%)
Terrorism (12%)

Fox News
Heart disease (2.3%)
Cancer (3.8%)
Accidents (6.1%)
Suicide (4.1%)
COVID-19 (6.0%)
Drug overdose (9.8%)
Homicide (52%)
Terrorism (11%)

Note: Based on the share of causes of death in the US and the share of mentions for each of the causes in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Fox News. All values are normalized to 100%, so the shares are relative to all deaths caused by the 12 most common causes + drug overdoses, homicides and terrorism. These causes account for more than 75% of deaths in the US.
A "media mention" is a published article in one of the outlets which mentions the cause (e.g. "influenza) or related keywords (e.g. "flu") least twice.
Data sources: Media mentions from Media Cloud (2025); deaths data from the US CDC (2025) and Global Terrorism Index.

Fox News

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 1d

TIL that Quark tried to buy Adobe in 1998.

Quark XPress was completely dominating the desktop publishing market in the 1990s. Then Adobe bought its competitor Aldus PageMaker in 1994 and turned it into InDesign in 1999 and the rest is history.

No giant is undefeatable.

US Report: Quark tries to buy Adobe

Quark said late Tuesday it was willing to pay a premium to acquire all or part of Adobe Systems a company more than four times its size.

www.zdnet.com

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Lapis @lapisstory.bsky.social · 3d

We're officially hard launching our Bluesky account and our Open Beta phase! But first, some introductions—

This is Lapis: an all-in-one platform that allows users to create compelling data stories that inform, engage, and inspire.

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 2d

📊 👀

Lapis @lapisstory.bsky.social · 3d

We're officially hard launching our Bluesky account and our Open Beta phase! But first, some introductions—

This is Lapis: an all-in-one platform that allows users to create compelling data stories that inform, engage, and inspire.

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 6d

Is there a better example of how the media will publish any AI hype?

The Independent @the-independent.com · 7d

Nearly a third of Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

1 in 3 Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

www.independent.co.uk

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 7d

Doesn’t seem like it. She’s very active on LinkedIn though. A good account to follow.

Valentina D'Efilippo - Design Council | LinkedIn

👋 Hi, I'm Valentina – an endlessly curious designer and storyteller. My passion?… · Experience: Design Council · Education: University of the Arts London · Location: London · 500+ connections on...

www.linkedin.com

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 8d

Truly impressive new website for Valentina D'Efilippo. 👏

The design is amazing, but also the content is fascinating for the way it describes information design to an audience of potential clients. Lots to explore and learn. 📊

apostrophe.one

Valentina D’Efilippo | Data Designer & Founder of Apostrophe One

Creative studio led by Valentina D’Efilippo. We help brands and institutions transform complex data into clear, visual stories. Explore our consulting work, educational resources, and award-winning ca...

apostrophe.one

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Amy Johnston, PhD @amydjohn.bsky.social · 8d

I am looking for a uterus-bearing person between the age of 18-24 years (inclusive) with lived experience of endometriosis to support a population-based study on this condition (led by me).

🇨🇦 Canadian resident(s) preferred!

Please re-post and share widely!

#Endometriosis #MedSky #EpiSky

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 8d

I'm excited (as in nervous) to be a speaker at the next event of On Data and Design, on October 29. 📊

Hope and dataviz. What a topic.

www.ondataanddesign.com/event

Event

On Data and Design events bring together creatives from the fields of data visualization and design. Explore innovative approaches to make complex data understandable through visual communication. Lea...

www.ondataanddesign.com

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 8d

France opened a flurry of nuclear power plants in the 1980s and 1990s, giving it low-carbon electricity ever since—

The image displays a line graph illustrating the growth of nuclear electricity generation in France from 1970 to 2024, measured in terawatt-hours (TWh). The vertical axis, ranging from 0 to 500 TWh, indicates the amount of electricity generated, while the horizontal axis represents the years.

Starting from near zero in 1970, the curve rises steeply, particularly in the 1980s, reflecting the rapid expansion of nuclear power. Key annotations highlight that the first commercial reactor was opened in 1964, and by 1980, nuclear generation was at 60 TWh. By 1990, this figure exceeded 300 TWh.

The graph shows a general upward trend until 1999, with no new plants added until the anticipated opening of the Flamanville plant in 2024. After peaking, the curve indicates a decline in generation towards the end of the period shown.

The data source is the Energy Institute and the Statistical Review of World Energy, published in 2025. The image is credited under the Creative Commons BY license.

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 9d

Microsoft of course ignores the contributions of e.g., VisiCalc ("visible calculator") in ~1978 and Lotus 1-2-3 ~1983.

The graphic extension of this idea was called Spreadplots by Forrest Young--linked and manipulable plots and tables in his ViSta ("visible statistics") software based on xlispstat

Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 9d

I would have expected more posting from the #dataviz community about the 40 years of Excel (today). It was and remains a foundational tool. (test of time IIB award perhaps?)

This list of practical tips looks amazing. All from practitioners.

techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...

Excel Turns 40: Join the Celebration! | Microsoft Community Hub

This year marks a major milestone—Microsoft Excel turns 40! In honor of four decades of innovation, we’re kicking off “40 Days of Excel”, a global community...

techcommunity.microsoft.com

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 9d

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 9d

Lots of good climate #dataviz in here, by @rachitdubey.bsky.social. 📊

Found via @visualisingdata.com

thebulletin.org/2025/07/how-...

How clear and simple data visualizations bring the climate crisis home

Climate change is a slow-moving disaster. We need graphics that capture both its pace and its impact.

thebulletin.org

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Joey Cherdarchuk - Obumbratta @obumbratta.com · Jul 16

Stem & Leaf Plot

So awesome, so rare. It’s a sideways histogram, but with all the data encoded in it. Once you know how to read it, it is quite powerful, but possibly too much information for many audiences.

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 9d

I would have expected more posting from the #dataviz community about the 40 years of Excel (today). It was and remains a foundational tool. (test of time IIB award perhaps?)

This list of practical tips looks amazing. All from practitioners.

techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/excelbl...

Excel Turns 40: Join the Celebration! | Microsoft Community Hub

This year marks a major milestone—Microsoft Excel turns 40! In honor of four decades of innovation, we’re kicking off “40 Days of Excel”, a global community...

techcommunity.microsoft.com

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 10d

Here is the result. The video will be online until Thursday.

stephanieevergreen.com/adventures-w...

The test
Heat map of evaluation criteria and instruments.

Evaluation criteria:
Accurate insight, complete sentence
Insightful chart title as a sentence
Graph correct associated data
Appropriate chart choice
Well-formatted graph
In less than 3 minutes
Data stays private
In the free version

AI tools:
Stephanie (herself, working manually)
Julius
Claude
Gemini
ChatGPT
ChartGPT
Perplexity Al
Copilot
Graphy
Graphmaker
Canva

Overall, tools perform poorly. None come out with better than 50% good rating. None create a well-formatted graph, nor do it in less than 3 minutes. The best performances appear to be on "Insightful chart title as a sentence (7/10) and Data stays private (7/10).

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 13d

I got some good news in the mail today. @hannahritchie.bsky.social

A hand holding a book: It’s not the end of the world, how can we be the first generation to build a sustainable planet, by Hannah Ritchie, deputy editor and lead research at Our world in data.

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 13d

The story just got even better: it's not Celia who took the picture, but her father who was visiting this park and snapped this pic by coincidence, not knowing that his daughter had done the graphic design work.

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 14d

Celia also wrote about how we fitted 4.5 billion years in one image, at scale.

chezvoila.com/blog/saguenay/

A data scale tested by time - Voilà:

Most of the time, the choice of scale is based on the data. Or not when the data you want to visualize are 4.5 billion years!

chezvoila.com

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 14d

You can see the illustrations in full size here.

chezvoila.com/project/sagu...

A rich ecosystem that deserves to be preserved - Voilà:

How can we promote and generate interest in the preservation of the Fjord-du-Saguenay region's heritage?

chezvoila.com

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 14d

A couple of years ago, we did a scientific illustration project for the national parks of Quebec. They were to be used by tour guides. We begged and begged but never got pictures of them in action.

That is, until one of us (Celia) went there this summer and snapped this picture. Glorious! 😍

A beaded man wearing hiking gear is standing outside next to a fence holding a cardboard with an illustration of a map of Canada covered in ice. Next to him are two more cardobards with illustrations about the fjord of Saguenay.

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Reposted by Voilà: Francis Gagnon

Jer Thorp @jerthorp.bsky.social · 16d

I had an idea yesterday about making a word search that, when solved, would be a data visualization.

So, I coded it up... and it worked!

This shows abundance of three bird species in Brooklyn Bridge Park over a year.

It feels like there are some fun possibilities here.

📊🪶

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 16d

It was high time for Jorge to create this online training. He’s really good at dataviz and he’s written an excellent book. Might just learn Portuguese for this one (and a vacation). 📊

wisevis @wisevis.com · 16d

I pre-launched a #datavis course in Portuguese (pt-pt), covering from curiosity to how-bad-bar-charts-are, and beyond. I'm not aware of more online #datavis courses here, not sure if there is no offer or no demand. If you understand Portuguese, please take a look.

www.wisevis.eu/curso-visual...

[Curso] Visualização de Dados

Curso de Visualização de Dados Bem vindo ao curso de Visualização de Dados da Wisevis. Este curso é destinado a todos os que querem explorar, analisar, e comunicar com dados de forma visual. Ao...

www.wisevis.eu

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Voilà: Francis Gagnon @chezvoila.com · 21d

Since its apparently okay to talk about music here, this episode of Song Explorer is one of the best.

It’s about the universally beloved Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, with more background than usual.

Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World

pca.st

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