Data Viz Analysis - How Similar Are Your Favourite Dog Breeds?

 

The data visualization I chose to analyze is this interactive dog breed family tree by Michael Whitehead and Nick Evershed based on work done by the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The visualization works by allowing the user to select what type of dog breed they want to see and showing the similarity between it and other breeds as a number from one to one hundred when the user hovers their mouse over the image. The visualization is very clean and generally simple to view and understand, although when showing some groupings of breeds, the names and numbers overlap and become difficult to read. The image shifts very slightly when the user repeatedly clicks on the image, maybe to try to alleviate this issue, but it is uncontrollable and slow.

In addition to the image showing the number to signify the similarities, the line connecting the images also becomes wider or thinner to correspond with the number. Because most of the numbers are very low, this line is almost the exact same across the board and only draws attention when it is dramatically different, such as the line between the Norfolk Terrier and the Norwich Terrier. This effect achieves success in highlighting breeds that are very similar, but one other method that could have been used would be to make the distance between the images correspond to their similarities, so the closer the images together the more similar.

At the beginning of the article, some examples of images are shown to familiarize the viewer with the processes of the visualization. Instead of multiple examples of the same basic thing, I think it would have been interesting if it showed off, for example, which dog breeds are most similar overall. If a user wanted to follow a trail from one breed to another they would have to simply go into the list and keep track of the trail themselves. It also would have been interesting if there was a feature to allow the user to see how one breed becomes more like another, like it’s teased in the subheading of the article.

The visualization works well in the shape of a sun like this. It could have been presented as a bar graph, but would have been very long across for some of the breeds, so I think it was best presented as it is.

Perhaps one of the best parts of this visualization is the page that is displayed when the user selects the “wild” group option. This page shows a Grey Wolf all on its own in the centre, with no relatives around it. In all, the visualization allows for some fun and interesting experimentation with such a massive selection of breeds available.

Evershed, Nick. “Interactive: See How Your Favourite Dog Breeds Are Related to Each Other.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/oct/25/interactive-see-how-your-favourite-dog-breeds-are-related-to-each-other#doggraphic.

Video Final: Unfortunate Ice Schedules

You have Nothing to Fear from FaceBook

Photo by Sarah Marshall, courtesy of Flickr

Quite often I find myself reflecting on how quickly the world is moving these days. Trends come and go and what excites the world one day gets forgotten the next in a fashion that has never before been experienced. Whether you believe this to be a good thing or not, it is hard to argue that the immediate nature and availability of an internet connection in most parts of the world is at the root of the phenomenon. The vast user base of FaceBook is the most obvious example of how one person can find themselves entwined in this connection, but unlike how Shaina Garces argues in her blog post, I do not believe that the solution is an outright ban in Canada. My main disagreement with Shaina is on how best to deal with negative effects caused by misuse and overuse of the service. 

In 2009 FaceBook was blocked from use in the entire nation of China. It is very commonly believed, as stated by Investopedia in this case, that this was the result of independence radicals in the province of XinJiang using the platform to spread their message and gain supporters. The government of China reacted by blocking the site completely and it has not made a return in the decade since. While the country has replaced FaceBook with a site of their own only available there, there has been a lot of up-cry about this decision. I am usually pretty hesitant to use the word "censorship," but in this case I feel like it's appropriate: the government of China stripped its people of one of their key sources used to interact with others because of some political opposition. The main concern of the government, as expressed in this post by digital activity experts from NSDesign, is to protect itself from what it decides is harmful to its continued hold on power, which seems to be FaceBook. Would we follow in China's footsteps and isolate ourselves with a dedicated national social media app here, or would we not even bother filling the gap? Shaina presses that we should be questioning whether FaceBook "serves Canadian society," while I believe we should be questioning whether removing access to it would serve Canadian individuals. It's a slippery slope from banning one piece of social media to banning them all. 

While the majority of people that I know use FaceBook for the pleasant, time-passing aspect, there are also those that use it as an extension of their work. Many businesses in my area, especially small businesses, use FaceBook to reach a larger audience than with physical ads or to offer a spot where customers can comfortably reach out and interact with them. It works too, with many unaffiliated sources even recommending the service, such as the government of Queensland, Australia. There is a specialized branch of FaceBook that is designed to help businesses with this task, as well as numerous easily accessed blog posts and articles by people with experience on how useful it is to take advantage of. A ban of FaceBook, even if we were to replace it, would force all of these businesses to start over from scratch in building up their viewership. 

Studies such as this one weigh the positives and negatives of using FaceBook and many have come to the conclusion that the importance lies in balance. I would never make the argument that FaceBook does no harm with prolonged use, but I am of the opinion that a level of responsibility does lie with the user themselves. We should all have a personal limit to the amount of online content we consume daily especially if we or the people around us notice negative effects on our psyches and not be so quick to blame outside sources for all of our issues. 

Search Engine Optimization:
I played with the idea of using the word "dangerous" in my title, which has a higher Google Trends rating than "ban," (55 to 51) but I ended up sticking with "Fear" which is more popular than the both of them(69 in comparison). I thought that the term "social media" would have a fairly high score as well, but "FaceBook" absolutely dwarfed it (1 to 88) and everything else I tested. I was also very close to using the title "We have nothing to fear from FaceBook" until I pitted "we" against "you" on a whim and found "you" (94 to 8) to be MUCH more search-friendly. 

Freedom Of Information Request

Ashley Pocrnich

12666 72 Avenue

Surrey BC V3W 2M8

The Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

Information Access Operations

PO Box 9569

Stn Prov Govt

Victoria BC V8W 9K1


To whom it may concern,


Exercising my right under the Freedom of Information Act, I formally request that you provide me with the following information:

• The breakdown of money from the Federal Gas Tax Fund allotted to the municipalities of the City of Surrey and the Township of Langley from January of 2018 to December of 2018, and
• a list of provincially organized projects using money from the Gas Tax Fund from January of 2018 to December of 2018, if it exists.

If possible, please provide me with the information in electronic form, such as a PDF sent to the email address ashley.pocrnich@email.kpu.ca or burned onto a CD and sent to my address.

If you have any concerns about this request please contact me at (604)-889-8102 or by the email address listed above.
Please notify me when the materials are ready to be released.


Sincerely,

Ashley Pocrnich



Explanation for request:

A couple of months ago I passed my driving test to become an N driver and have since been discovering how expensive it is to drive in British Columbia. When doing research for this project, just generally looking around, I discovered that the government of Canada has a Federal Gas Tax Fund. This is where most of the money from the gas tax is squirreled away until it is annually shared out between the provinces and territories. Most if not all of the people I know that drive have expressed to me their frustration at the rising gas prices in our area, and once I realized that money was being kept in a very specific pool for the purpose of being eventually invested back into the communities I thought it was something that a lot of these people would be interested in knowing.
I remembered hearing from somewhere a long time ago that gas prices were being raised to motivate more people to purchase electric cars so we can begin to move away from the industry as a whole, and in doing research for this assignment I came across many examples where money from the Gas Tax Fund in past years had been put towards green projects and active environmentally friendly endeavors.
It was unclear everywhere I could find whether the money was always given directly to the communities or if the provincial government ran some or all of the projects themselves so I attempted to cover both possibilities in my FOI request. I was led to believe that this process is specifically taken care of by the Ministry or Transportation and Infrastructure but I believe that the address provided is for Freedom of Information Requests for the entire provincial government. It is extremely interesting to me to see how our government is working against climate change and where the money we pay in taxes goes, so this was a convenient middle ground. It certainly makes me feel at least a little bit better about the chunk of my paycheck that I say goodbye to every week to keep using my car.

(There is a manager of Information Access for the ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure listed, Mr Ken Bejcek, but it says to only contact him directly for inquiries on how to submit FOI requests and it only lists his phone number and email address. I thought it would be more accurate to address the Information Access Operations team for the government of British Columbia because from what I understood they would be the ones to receive my request.)

Relevant news articles/ information:

CBC story "B.C. premier shrugs off calls to ease gas taxes"
The Columbia Valley Pioneer story "Metro Vancouver continues to pay highest gas tax at 51 cents/litre"
BC Gov News story "B.C. communities benefit from gas tax funding"
Infrastructure Canada Federal Gas Tax Fund Allocation Table