Tag: Before and after test

• Does Parliament notice disasters, and whose?

  

  I counted, month by month, how often the House of Commons named the places of 64 UK disasters between 1910 and 2020. Attention jumps to 10 times its usual level in the month of a disaster and mostly fades within the year. Bigger death tolls bring more attention, but less than in proportion.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Before and after test, Britain, Hansard, Natural hazards, Parliament, Public attention, Twentieth century, UK, weather and climate

• Do by-elections make Parliament listen?

  

  I followed 366 UK by-elections through a century of Hansard. Around polling day the Commons mentions the town 4.0 times as often as similar towns, and a year later still 1.9 times. Before 1945, no detectable rise.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Before and after test, Britain, elections, Hansard, Parliament, Present day, Public attention, Twentieth century, UK

• Do the clocks kill?

  

  Every spring and autumn someone warns that the clock change brings more crashes. Across 9.1 million collisions in Great Britain since 1979, the week after the change looks like any other week.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Before and after test, Britain, Clocks and calendars, population, Present day, Roads, Seasons, Twentieth century, UK

• The half-life of fame: what happens to our attention after a notable person dies

  

  I followed the English Wikipedia articles of 16,397 people who died between 2016 and 2023. In the month of a death the typical article is read 14.9 times as much as usual; two to three years later it is back to 0.98 of its old level. People who died young keep the most.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Before and after test, Britain, Famous people, population, Present day, Public attention, technology, Wikidata, Wikipedia, World

• Did the railway invent the seaside?

  

  Britain’s seaside resorts were already growing 1.6% a year before any railway reached them. The line brought a burst in the decade it opened, and did most for resorts that had been slow before.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories

  Before and after test, Britain, Census, coast and sea, Coasts and islands, history, Leisure, railways, UK, Victorian