Data Dive · Rung 2 · What's Reported · 2.1

Complaints, and the catalogue

Two datasets that are not about what their names say.

Runs in 30 minutes · everything you need is on this page · no network, no accounts, nothing for the students to open

2.1→ next · ← back · esc leaves0 / 5

First

Where the rats are

Rodent complaints to New York 311, 2024what residents reported - NOT where rats arecomplaints filedboroughcomplaints filed7,55015,099015,099Brooklyn10,203Manhattan7,213Queens5,963Bronx1,247Staten Island

New York City rodent complaints by borough, 2024

The chart cannot tell you. It tells you which borough calls.

AskWhich borough has the most rats?
2.1 · Complaints, and the catalogue→ next · ← back · esc leaves1 / 5

Then

Earthquakes per decade -- and its own control

Southern California earthquakes recorded per decadeUSGS ANSS catalogue, 1900-2024earthquakes recordeddecadeM3 and above1,6223,24301,9001,9301,9601,9902,020

Southern California, M3 and above, 1900-2024

15
in the 1920s
751
in the 1930s
50x
in ten years
AskDid fifty times more earthquakes happen in the 1930s?
2.1 · Complaints, and the catalogue→ next · ← back · esc leaves2 / 5

The reveal

Now add the big ones

Southern California earthquakes recorded per decadeUSGS ANSS catalogue, 1900-2024 - the second line is the controlearthquakes recordeddecadeM3 and aboveM5 and above -- the control1,6223,24301,9001,9301,9601,9902,020

The second line is M5 and above -- felt across the basin, counted in 1905 as surely as in 2005

The control line barely moves: 10, then 10. The M3 line goes from 15 to 751.

Caltech's seismic network arrived in the 1930s. The ground did not change. The instruments did.

2.1 · Complaints, and the catalogue→ next · ← back · esc leaves3 / 5

The harder question

The 1990s spike too. Is that instruments as well?

No. The control spikes with it — 40 large earthquakes. Landers in 1992, Northridge in 1994, and their aftershocks.

Two spikes in one chart. One is an instrument, one is the Earth, and the only way to tell them apart is the line somebody thought to include.

The three questions
  1. What was actually measured, and when was it recorded?
  2. Which spike is the Earth and which is us?
  3. If you saw a rat on your street, would you call 311? Would your neighbours?
2.1 · Complaints, and the catalogue→ next · ← back · esc leaves4 / 5

After the dive

The shapes on this page, in the library’s own words

the bar

Bar length is the value, so it only means anything measured from zero. Start the axis anywhere else and the lengths stop matching the numbers.

What it leaves outOrder is a choice. Sorted by size it is a ranking; sorted by name it is a lookup; and the same bars say different things in each.
the line

Follow it left to right. A dashed part is a guess about the future, not something anyone saw.

What it leaves outThe line implies every point between the dots, and nobody measured those. Where you start and stop it decides what the trend looks like.

library · ladder · dives · the pool · this dive’s worksheet

2.1→ next · ← back · esc leaves5 / 5