Hello and welcome to another edition of The Crunch!<\/p>\n
In this week\u2019s packed newsletter we have charts on pay in the WNBA, record-breaking ocean heat, how the amount of ingredients is shrinking in some foods, and a chart on who marries whom. We\u2019ve also got a bird of the year update to round it out.<\/p>\n
But first a deep dive into far-right Facebook groups \u2026<\/p>\n
Our colleagues in the UK have spent a year mapping the immense<\/a> \u2013 and growing \u2013 Facebook networks \u201cwhose members trade in anti-immigrant sentiment, nativism, conspiracy and misinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n Illustration: The Guardian<\/p>\n The journalists used artificial intelligence to draw out key themes and spoke to experts about what they found. This is one of those stories where how it was reported is almost as interesting as the story itself \u2013 you can read about the methodology here<\/a>. The Guardian\u2019s principles on generative AI use are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Four charts from the fortnight<\/p>\n 1. What\u2019s in our food<\/p>\n After a years-long cost-of-living crisis we\u2019re all pretty familiar with \u201cshrinkflation\u201d. This brilliant ABC story shows<\/a> that it\u2019s not just the quantity of products like dips and jams that have been changing, but the makeup of them, too.<\/p>\n The ABC analysed the ingredients of thousands of products over a 15-month window and found many where the share of the \u201cmain\u201d ingredient had decreased. \u201cWhile some manufacturers said their changes were to improve the recipe, others said they were due to supply chain cost increases and wanting to keep the price of the product low\u201d. There\u2019s lots more detail and excellent charts here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. A gender pay grand canyon<\/p>\n The WNBA is growing rapidly and setting attendance records. Some teams are reportedly worth 30 times what they were just six years ago, according to this New York Times story<\/a>. But WNBA players aren\u2019t paid like it \u2013 the top players earn just US$250,000 a year.<\/p>\n If WNBA players were paid similarly to NBA players \u2013 who receive about 50% of their league\u2019s revenue \u2013 the top WNBA players would be making closer to US$3m a year (still orders of magnitude less than what male NBA stars are paid). There\u2019s a bunch of great charts in this story, we really recommend a deep dive<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. Illustrative illustrations<\/p>\n It was really hard to pick a graphic to highlight in this ABC story<\/a> about warming oceans around Australia. It\u2019s just chock full of beautiful illustrations like this one:<\/p>\n The crux is that ocean temperatures in June and July were the highest they\u2019ve been in over a century of data, setting up an \u201cextraordinary\u201d cyclone season, algal blooms, coral bleaching and flooding. Beyond mapping the data, there\u2019s other great illustrations in the story<\/a> explaining how these environmental processes actually work.<\/p>\n 4. Who marries whom?<\/p>\n Is it really a third chart from the ABC? Yes it is!<\/p>\n The ABC\u2019s digital story innovation team have done a deep dive into the Australian census data around religion and marriage<\/a>, in a sequel to their earlier piece looking at employment and marriage stats<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to their analysis, nearly one in three marriages are between people of different denominations or beliefs, and one in five are between people of different religions.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to The Crunch<\/p>\n Free fortnightly newsletter<\/p>\n Our data journalists showcase the most important charts and dataviz from the Guardian and around the web, free every fortnight<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Illustration: ABC<\/p>\n There are some great charts in there, like the chord chart above which shows the proportion of marriages and de facto relationships between people of different (and no) religions. You can also put in details about yourself and your partner to see how common or uncommon your relationship is, though this does sometimes show some strange results with less common demographics in the census.<\/p>\n It\u2019s bird of the year time!<\/p>\n Guardian Australia\u2019s bird of the year vote \u2013 confusingly held every second year \u2013 is now on. You can vote for the southern cassowary your favourite bird here<\/a>. Five birds get knocked out every day so remember to vote often.<\/p>\n To help you get into the bird-appreciating spirit, Josh created an illustrated guide<\/a> (and video<\/a>) on how to make your own origami bird:<\/p>\n We have also charted the first three rounds, and not surprisingly the tawny frogmouth is well ahead of the flock:<\/p>\n We also wanted to shout out our data team colleague Andy Ball who built, and runs, the whole polling system that underpins the voting. Andy and all our other colleagues involved in the poll this year have done an amazing job!<\/p>\n You can vote here<\/a>, and otherwise immerse yourself in amazing bird content here<\/a>.<\/p>\n BookmarksOff the Charts<\/p>\n To mark two years on from the 7 October attacks and Israel\u2019s response, graphic designer Valentina D\u2019Efilippo set out to create this chart, painting a dot for every life lost. After 16 hours she only managed half of the reported deaths \u2013 34,000 dots.<\/p>\n Photograph: Valentina D\u2019Efilippo<\/p>\n You can see more at D\u2019Efilippo\u2019s Instagram, including a video of the process<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our UK colleagues also published this interactive<\/a> with some of the names and stories of the more than 18,000 children who have been killed in Gaza.<\/p>\n Sign up<\/p>\n Enjoying The Crunch? If you like what you see and think you might know someone else who would enjoy it, please forward this email or send them a link to the sign up page<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you have a chart tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email.<\/p>\n If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and\/or digital subscriptions, please email customer.help@guardian.co.uk<\/p>\n