Lori Palen

Kudos to the art director at the WSJ who chose a center-line distribution to make it look like a sperm instead of a more traditional baseline distribution, which would have looked like a normal chart.

Should have used orange for the dots though.

I give it a 9-out-of-10

Although I will say that fledgling American Robins are pretty damn adorable…like grumpy little old men! 😊

Me neither!

Book Review: Book From the Ground—From Point to Point - Data Soapbox Strictly speaking, Book From the Ground: From Point to Point (BFG) is unrelated to research communication. Loosey-goosey speaking, I learned about it in a work-related book (Joyful Infographics by Nig...

In this week's blog post, an only-peripherally-work-related review of a uniquely awesome book. For all the current and former 28-year-old single office workers in the crowd! datasoapbox.com/book-review-...

When possible, use simple and familiar data visualization techniques. Complex data visualizations can be visually appealing, but they can also be more difficult to understand. If a visualization gets overly complex, consider alternate chart types for the sake of understanding.

Lessons From My Grade School Writing - Data Soapbox As I’ve mentioned previously, when I was a kid, I liked to write. Recently, I was reflecting on the quality and kinds of writing I did as a kid, and I realized that some lessons I learned back then th...

What lessons from YOUR grade school days do you still use in your job? I talk about three of mine in my latest blog post: datasoapbox.com/lessons-from...

Important information about screen readers!

A Quick Journal Graph Revamp - Data Soapbox Recently, a colleague asked if I could provide examples of good data visualizations to share with an academic research center. Thanks to widespread education and evangelism, there are many good (or, a...

Over recent years, charts and graphs in data reports have improved a LOT. But graphs in academic journals are still pretty rough. Here's my take on the two ways to improve them: datasoapbox.com/quick-journa...

Book Review: Making with Data - Data Soapbox If you’ve been around Ye Olde Blog for a while, you may have seen me geek out about data art. So, when I heard about Making with Data (MWD), I had to check it out.* MWD features more than 25 physical ...

What's a data object, and why are they innovative as hell?! Check out today's blog post! datasoapbox.com/book-review-... Edited by @cybunk.bsky.social @tnagel.bsky.social Lora Oehlberg & Wesley Willett, featuring projects by @dietoff.bsky.social @flowingdata.com @kimsauve.bsky.social & many others!

Did You Work on a Terminated NIH Grant? ProPublica Wants to Hear From You. The National Institutes of Health is canceling grants that are seen as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities. We want to hear from researchers who have been affected.

Related to our previous post- if you had a grant terminated, Pro Publica wants to hear from you. Your work was funded because it was good, important science meant to help Americans. Reach out, and make your voice heard.

www.propublica.org/getinvolved/...

This is the first I've seen it (and it didn't show up when I was doing similar work last week)!

Color picker window indicating whether text and background have good color contrast

OMG, did Office implement a color accessibility checker in the past week?!?!

Meet Lori Palen - Bold Journey Magazine We recently connected with Lori Palen and have shared our conversation below. Lori, so many

Thanks for the feature, @boldjourney.com.web.brid.gy! boldjourney.com/meet-lori-pa...

Episode 19 Season 7: Cooling Paints, Anger Management, and Dr. Lori Palen with Data Soap Box - The Science Pawdcast Innovations in science are making daily life better through passive cooling paint and insights into pet interactions. In the Science News section we explore technologies that could transform how ...

Thanks so much to @bunsenbernerbmd.bsky.social (and Dad Guy, Jason) for having me on the latest episode of the Science Pawdcast! Check it out to learn more about some cool paint, furry strategies to prevent work rage, and science communication! bunsenbernerbmd.buzzsprout.com/413041/episo...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I am once again pitching my romantic comedy:

- two academics start dating
- discover they are each other's terrible reviewer
- hijinks ensue

Working title: Love is Double-Blind

And yay, W&M!! 💚💛

Small dog sleeping with his front half on a desk and back half on a lap

Office assistant dozing on the job…

Yes! But one important thing to keep in mind is that, for scientists outside academia (and some within it), defunding = unemployment. It isn’t fair to expect scientists to forge ahead for the greater good when they can’t feed their families.

Among others, my 10-year-old needle-hater is going to be pissed!

I hope this comes to the US soon!

Why Met Gala looks have gotten bigger and bolder A look back at red carpet pictures from the mid-1990s to 2024 shows how exaggerated outfits have become a hallmark of the event.

Dataviz + fashion? Love!! from @reuters.com www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

For presentations, Garr Reynolds uses the analogy of a bento box. If you eat one, you’re left (pleasantly) about 80% full…rather than eating so much that you need to unbutton your pants! 😁

It is a little weird to me countries aren’t more aggressively, formally trying to take advantage of the U.S. science brain drain. Once in a lifetime opportunity to buy low on Non-Dumbass Americans with PhDs who just wanna look into microscopes and quietly cure ass cancer as our country eats shit.

Projected presentation slide on creating effective graphical abstracts

A medical skeleton hanging in the corner of a classroom

I enjoyed workshopping with students from UNC’s Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine (CiTEM) today! Pretty sure it was my first time with a skeleton in the audience. 💀

I agree, I really love Kitchen Garden Revival! Beautiful and practical. Groundbreaking Food Gardens and Starter Vegetable Gardens also offer great-looking options!

Congressional baseball shooting - Wikipedia

Yeah, that wasn’t enough either: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congres...

Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.

Ugh, it’s bad enough that they’re fostering hate and ignorance here in the US…why the hell are they bringing their show on the road?!?!