Welcome to another edition of The Crunch!
In this week’s newsletter we have charts on the prevalence of mullets in the AFL, the cost of nuclear power compared with other options, why you think the best music was released when you were a teenager, and the UK’s growing homelessness problem.
But first … what is going on with housing and immigration?
Australia’s governing party and the opposition Coalition have both promised cuts to migration in response, at least partially, to Australia’s housing crisis. But how much does immigration actually contribute to the cost of housing and rent?
In our latest datablog, we take a deep dive into the recent increases in migration and how it might be affecting rent and housing costs.
Four charts from the fortnight
1. Everything was better when you were younger
Nostalgia has a powerful hold on people’s interpretation of how good and bad things were, like society, music, and more.
The Washington Post’s latest Department of Data column is an interesting read ($) all about this phenomenon. It has a whole bunch of great charts and interviews looking at how nostalgia affects the ability of researchers to answer what might at first seem like a simple question – what decade was the best?
2. Nuclear power would be quite expensive in Australia
Electricity from nuclear power would cost Australia significantly more than generating it from solar and wind, according to the CSIRO.
The latest in our One Big Chart series compares the estimated cost of both large-scale nuclear and nuclear power from small modular reactors to electricity produced from other sources.
Nuclear power is far more expensive than electricity generated with renewables, according to the report. This is true even when factoring in the cost of building transmission and storage infrastructure to support large-scale wind and solar.
3. How annual bird migration could spread avian flu
after newsletter promotion
Scientists and government authorities have been keeping a close eye on the spread of avian influenza, AKA bird flu. Bird flu viruses are often spread by wild, migratory birds and can then also infect domesticated poultry in farms. Reuters has produced this excellent interactive map which illustrates the overlap between migratory mallards and poultry farms in North America.
4. Britain is the developed world’s worst on homelessness
John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times takes a look at the rate of homelessness in developed countries and shows how the situation in the UK has worsened dramatically over the past 15 years. Read more here ($).
Spotlight on … mapping the invasion of Rafah
Off the Charts
Business at full-forward, party at centre half-back!
It’s safe to say the mullet is back in a big way in Australia. Here, journalists with the ABC’s digital story innovation team have analysed “football’s most controversial hairstyle”, attempting to answer important questions such as “do the best players have mullets?” and more.
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