You’ve heard of “random acts of kindness,” right? Well, I’m a big fan of an emerging form of journalism that I call “random facts for the mindless.”
That sounds critical, but it’s not meant to be. This stuff is right down my alley.
There are several statistics-laden websites — FiveThirtyEight, Vox and Upshot, to name three — that are devoted to making complicated things simple. I love grazing in these vast pastures of charts, maps and statistics.
FiveThirtyEight is a website started by former New York Times statistician Nate Silver; Vox bills itself as a “general interest news site for the 21st century”; and Upshot is the new stat-driven landing page of The New York Times.
Prepare to be dazzled.