this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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If you live in europe, please check in with your elderly neighbours. Hot temperatures can be deadly for old people

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 96 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

What a horrendous color map.

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

Why the fuck is there white between red and red?

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

It goes red-black-white-red. And since temperatures rarely jumps 5°c without gradient, the map will have black and gray area surrounding any white that represents +13, and white will surround and red that represents +18°.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

White = -8, 0, and 13.5-ish

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 0 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

I've just realised that this is saying that the UK is warmer than France. Because despite the term being white hot it's actually decided that red is hotter than white. Why didn't they just go from white being cold to red been hot?

[–] ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 hours ago

I think they had to extend the scale in a hurry.

[–] starik@lemmy.today 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I might be the only one who doesn’t mind the color scheme. For the temperature range on the map, the only colors that don’t fit into the typical blue-to-red gradient are the green for really cold, which makes the coldest anomalies really pop, and the white for really hot. I get the complaints about white being used for both normal average temperature and for extreme heat, but it’s easy to tell which is which by the neighboring colors, and it almost looks as if France got so hot that it got a third degree burn, which chars the flesh, nerves included, and no longer feels like anything - thus insensate white.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

Exactly what I was thinking. There are 3 different off-white colors that indicate vastly different temperature variants. This map is incredibly ambiguous. Which white zones are -8° below average, roughly the same as average, or 13° above average?

[–] ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 hours ago

It's clear enough to me.

Could you try instead telling me the general message you get from the map?

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 15 hours ago

The neighbouring colors are different though, so since it's not going to jump from +10 to -8 you can unequivocally tell. Honestly I think I hate this less than having 8 shades of slightly different red

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 3 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I get it,it is still interpreatable. but still a poor colorbar choice.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Do you honestly believe that someone like Joe Rogan could actually understand a graph with this much ambiguity?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

If comprehension by Joe Rogan is the standard I think we might as well just give up now.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

Just a map with “hot as fuck bro!” printed across it.

Maybe some flames at the hottest spot.

Also, fuck that moron.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago

Like I don't have time to get into it cus I'm at work, but their use of hue is a non-function the color space.

[–] Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

So MAYBE, and I'm pulling this out of my ass with no background here, but expectation is temperature doesn't jump, but flows as a gradient. Using France as the start, we've white fading to dark greys then reds, which is the hottest of the three white possibilities. As going hotter then that gets pink again, the top end is white in France. We then decrease down the scale until we get those. green pockets. Light green/white touching green would signify the lower of the three white temps. Not a great map, but perhaps it's an understood practice with the field. After all, how do you convert a quantitative scale into qualitative data. You can't really just number everything (people have shit attention spans and they'll gloss over immediately. Anybody who's delivered technical data to management can attest to that lol) Color works well for that, but has a limited useful spectrum. Getting too specific in a single spectrum muddies the graphic (what's the exact color over Lisbon here? This kinda salmony guy? So 8? Or closer to 9?)

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

So there is a lot of work on this in color theory, and you can go deep into this.. Here are a few chapters on the matter: https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/maps/chapter/9-2/ , https://courses.ems.psu.edu/geog486/node/876 , and this part in particular https://courses.ems.psu.edu/geog486/node/877

Basically, their use of brightness within hue bins makes this a non-function. Notice how its gets whiter closer to 0 and closer to 13. If two values of Y can get plugged into a function and they both return 0 for the expected X term, thats a non-function.

Temperature, or rather, difference in temperature from expected, which is whats being plotted here, is about divergence from normal.

To fix this map, pick a divergent color scheme, center 0, then create bins at either a specific interval or at quantile intervals.

Something like this: https://colorbrewer2.org/#type=diverging&scheme=RdYlBu&n=11

[–] Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

While I do appreciate the information on better infographic creation, the example map has such a small range comparably. There's over 30 values, not to mention the shades in-between values. I think a two color gradient would end up being very smooth at this scale. Sorta looks to generally drop in temperature as you go east here, nice red to blue fade.

Expanding the color palette does give more room for distinction, but that's seemingly how they got where they did.

To be fair, from my friends who've actually had color theory and graphic design classes, STEM folks tend to do a poor job of communicating well.

So eh. Maybe it's pointless for me to argue against it.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

To be fair, from my friends who’ve actually had color theory and graphic design classes, STEM folks tend to do a poor job of communicating well.

it's a way of thinking about your audience, i think. when i worked in accounting and had to present to and teach accountants: simple formatted tables, stuff that looks like excel, it didn't need to be bright or colorful. it just needed to have colors that were unobtrusive. i'm working in music now and if my seminars don't have showmanship (and if i use powerpoint at all) i'm hosed. different audiences have completely different styles that they are used to communicating with, and if you adapt to that you're going to have more success

so like, i'm sure the STEM folk are fine at communicating within their field. outside? well, a few of my uncles were engineers. does it show?