Data Dive

The grim mission of finding AirAsia flight QZ8501 continues off the Indonesian coast today as the officials now fear that the plane is at the bottom of the Java Sea. The crew lost contact early Sunday morning and exactly what happened remains a mystery, but Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan believes that the plane may be in the waters off Sumatra, which at 50 to 100 meters  (165 to 330 feet) deep would allow for ships to search around the clock for the 162 mostly Indonesians aboard and presumed dead. 

In the spirit of insufferable year-end lists, for this weekend’s Data Dive we’ve compiled a delightfully meta collection of other publications’ choices for the best data visualizations of 2014.

This week United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said something funny about oil’s plummeting prices. Speaking from Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Mazrouei said, “Irresponsible production from outside OPEC is behind the fall in prices. We call on all other producers to stop the increase.” This was a transparent swipe at U.S. production, which is at its highest level in decades, adding to—if not directly prompting—the glut that has caused prices to almost halve since June.

The fallout from the extensive hack of Sony Pictures continues to play out as a virtual game of cat and mouse. U.S. officials have blamed North Korea for the hack, and President Obama has vowed a response, though nature and timing of the reaction remain unclear. There has been no new action from the hackers, as they seem satisfied that their demand that “The Interview,” a comedy about the assassination of North Korean despot Kim Jong-un, has been shelved, at least for now.

With Christmas a few days away, we are in the heart of the holiday traveling season, and most people have already decided their mode of transportation after weighing expense versus convenience. On the topic of expense, earlier this month, Senator Charles Schumer called for a federal investigation into airfare prices, asking why tickets remain so expensive when gas has become so (relatively) cheap. Since fuel prices account for half of airlines’ costs and gas prices have been steadily falling, travelers should be seeing trickle-down savings, he reasoned.

The concepts of gamification and newsgames have been around for a few years, and while piling up badges and check-ins can be seen as pointless or even vain, some implementations serve a higher good. In the weekend’s Data Dive, we take a look at some games that promote giving and learning.

As the U.S. continues its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, it’s worth taking a look at how much the nation has spent on aid–and how effective it has (or hasn’t) been.

How important is the Keystone XL pipeline really?

When it comes to moving petroleum through the United States, the Keystone XL pipeline is the rock star of transportation modes, garnering an extra large share of attention from politicians, activists and the press. Just this week, Senate Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell announced that passage of a bill approving the pipeline will be his first order of business when the 114th Congress convenes in January. Opponents, meanwhile, point to environmental and safety concerns, often citing the adverse impact that the pipeline would have on climate change and  fossil fuel dependency.

As the home stretch of the holiday shopping season bears down upon us, the sheer number of options made available by the television display arms race can be enough to trigger one’s inner Grinch. Here at Data Dive we won’t tell you what to buy, but with the help of this Reuters graphic, we hope to provide a cursory peek inside the technologies that drive all of those options.

Last week the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations announced that world cereal production was expected to hit a record high in 2014, helping the worldwide stock-to-use ratio—a proxy for supply conditions—to enjoy the highest levels in over a decade.