ASA Fellow; #rstats developer of graphical methods for categorical and multivariate data; #datavis history of data visualization; #historicaldatavis; Milestones project Web: www.datavis.ca GitHub: github.com/friendlyhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mu44qaz7xs2s#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 27, 1963 William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana Celebrate the American Negro exposition at the 1900 Paris Exposition 🎉 Du Bois' use of color was always quirky, but his choice of topics & novel graphic forms caused people to notice.28 Aug 2026 00:38 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mu44qaz7xs2shttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtzpxbibtc2m#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 25, 1867 Michael Faraday died in Hampton Court, Middlesex, England 🇬🇧 1820-1835: Graphical analysis applied to visualize natural phenomena (electric and magnetic lines of force, weather, tides) These made invisible constructs open to inspection27 Aug 2026 01:44 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtzpxbibtc2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtzepxxkws2p#mystery #fruit or nut just landed in my backyard. What is it?26 Aug 2026 22:23 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtzepxxkws2phttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtyt3eauxc2r#rstats #datavis #history New {HistData} pkg vignette: a new challenge in statistical historiography, a taxonomy of ways to re-vision historical graphics, with case studies for Minard, Perozzo, and Snow. https://friendly.github.io/HistData/articles/HistData-Challenge.html26 Aug 2026 17:07 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtyt3eauxc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtusk65rmc2t#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 24, 1803 Gregorio Fontana died in #Milan, Italy 🇮🇹 ~1750: Contributed to development of the use of polar coordinates for the representation of functions; he coined the term "polar" for this25 Aug 2026 02:47 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtusk65rmc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtrnmwgdl22z#rstats #datavis What's new in heplots 1.8.4: an expanded vignette on robust multivariate regression via robmlm(). A new example shows how *classical* covariance estimates can mask outlying/high-leverage cases, & how MCD-based distances reveal them instead. 👀 https://friendly.github.io/heplots/articles/Robust.html [contains quote post or other embedded content]23 Aug 2026 20:41 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtrnmwgdl22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtrmzcr4z22z#rstats #datavis New CRAN release: heplots 1.8.4 is out. It provides HE plots and other tools for visualizing hypothesis tests in multivariate linear models (MANOVA/MLM) plus robust methods and tests of homogeneity of covariance matrices and other goodies. https://cran.r-project.org/package=heplots23 Aug 2026 20:30 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtrmzcr4z22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtprxkpm2k2x#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 (Please join me in wishing @benbendc a happy birthday) 🎂Aug 21, 1947 Ben Shneiderman born in New York, NY, USA 🇺🇸 So MANY contributions, but my favorite is still treemaps, for space-constrained visualization of hierarchies23 Aug 2026 02:53 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtprxkpm2k2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtmfk2cqqs2g#rstats When I run `update.packages()` in R GUI, I often get LOCK file clashes for DLLs in cli/curl/digest... b/c R GUI loads these as dependencies of its own update machinery. I added a fix for this in my `update-packages.R` script. Others might find this useful. https://gist.github.com/friendly/171ed571df47abff5fcc34ea29b006a121 Aug 2026 18:33 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtmfk2cqqs2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtmczjb4ec2gWith all this stuff flying around about #AI-watermarking in @anthropic.com the interesting discussion this entails and attempts to defeat it (avoiding "delving" too deeply), it occurs to me we now have something like a Recursive (or Fractal?) Turing Test Details in ALT21 Aug 2026 17:48 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtmczjb4ec2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtkolrbhf22f#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 20, 1672 Jan de Witt died in The Hague, Netherlands (assassinated) 🇳🇱 1671: First attempt to determine scientifically the purchase price of annuities, using mortality tables ➡aspects of probability; graphs https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Projects/Daxenberger/chapter-7/21 Aug 2026 02:10 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtkolrbhf22fhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtkoe7m3mc2f#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 🎂Aug 20, 1710 Thomas Simpson born in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, 🇬🇧 Best known for eponymous Simpson's Rule for numerical integration (found 100 yrs earlier by Johannes Kepler, Keplersche Fassregel in German) [Don't confuse with Edward Simpson, of Paradox fame]21 Aug 2026 02:06 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtkoe7m3mc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtd7i7l5k223#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 🎂Aug 17, 1601 Pierre de Fermat born in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, France 🇫🇷 1637: Along with Descartes, Fermat reintroduced coordinate systems in analytic geometry; relationship established between graphed line 📈 & equation 🟰 Geometry, algebra and graphs came together 😂18 Aug 2026 02:51 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtd7i7l5k223https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mtd6r3ne3k23#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 16, 1715 Jacob Bernoulli died in Basel, Switzerland 🇨🇭 Among many things, I credit him (Acta Eruditorum,1691) with the development of the use of polar coordinates for the representation of functions 👀 JL Coolidge, Origins of Polar Coordinates, bit.ly/3U3y6b718 Aug 2026 02:38 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtd6r3ne3k23https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mt3hk5azx22gAnother W. S. Jevons gem: this 1857 hand-drawn area-proportional proto-mosaic / treemap chart shows the breakdown of population according to occupation classifications. [contains quote post or other embedded content]15 Aug 2026 00:54 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mt3hk5azx22ghttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msz4wgnzfs25I did for a while, in relation to my {vcdExtra} package. Some work on this is contained in assoc_graph() https://friendly.github.io/vcdExtra/reference/assoc_graph.html [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Aug 2026 02:38 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msz4wgnzfs25https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msz4lf2rjc25#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📊 💀Aug 13, 1882 William Stanley Jevons died in Hastings, England 🇬🇧 In 1863, he invented semi-log charts to show percent changes of commodity prices14 Aug 2026 02:32 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msz4lf2rjc25https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msywhc5pns25Nice to see some themes from my Psychology of Data Visualization course made more public friendly.github.io/6135/ [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Aug 2026 00:43 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msywhc5pns25https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msyvddmszs25This kind of milquetoast reporting from Wapo is part of the problem, also a missed headline opportunity: "In a shocking move, ICE will outfit officers..." [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Aug 2026 00:22 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msyvddmszs25https://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msytmmop622rI wasn’t expecting such a public greeting, even if a couple months late…13 Aug 2026 23:52 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msytmmop622rhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mswgarb2fk2cFed up with U.S Ambassador Pete Hoekstra dumping and trumping on 🇨🇦? A petition to the House of Commons to declare him persona non grata and request his removal as U.S. Ambassador to Canada already has >60K signatures. Join the DUMP HOEKSTRA movement: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Sign/e-753113 Aug 2026 00:47 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mswgarb2fk2chttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msu3luhzek2nBut a nice slider there... [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 Aug 2026 02:31 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msu3luhzek2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mstxu57lis2n#rstats Just for fun, I made a custom 404 page for my {vcdExtra} package. (Made a script for this, so maybe heading to other packages)12 Aug 2026 01:24 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mstxu57lis2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mstuatmaa22nThe problem is that I work on three different machines, so local .git history doesn't cut the mustard [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 Aug 2026 00:20 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mstuatmaa22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msttxldw4c2n#TodayinHistory #dataviz #Onthisday #OTD 📊 🎂Aug 11, 1401 Nicolas of Cusa born in Kus, Trier, Germany 🇩🇪 Arguably the most important German visual thinker of 15th C; diagrams as the ideal medium which to represent the highest truths. 👀https://bit.ly/4fCetO612 Aug 2026 00:15 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msttxldw4c2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3mstm5zgnws2r#rstats #CRAN seems to be on holiday -- all attempts to submit a revised package fail. Does anyone know when it re-opens?11 Aug 2026 21:55 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mstm5zgnws2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/datavisfriendly.bsky.social/post/3msrdaqp5hk2r#TodayinHistory #dataviz #Onthisday #OTD 📊 💀Aug 10, 1915 Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley died in Gallipoli, Turkey 1913: Discovery of the concept of atomic number, based largely on graphical analysis -> predicting undiscovered elements. See: bit.ly/4mzOvNn (Didn't get Nobel Prize b/c he died in WW I) https://bit.ly/4mzOvNn11 Aug 2026 00:10 +0000at://did:plc:nxtjxs4l37scbdun2i6jgon7/app.bsky.feed.post/3msrdaqp5hk2r