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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic Heritage Month encompasses the rich cultural heritage of 21 Latin American nations. Among these flags, the primary colors of red, white, and blue collectively account for 80% of the color composition. Specifically, 17 countries feature blue
in their flags, 16 incorporate white, 15 include red, 14 showcase yellow, and 6 have green, revealing a captivating mosaic of colors that represent the diverse and vibrant tapestry of Latin American cultures.

Notably, 66% of Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua's flags are predominantly blue, while 66% of Peru's flag is characterized by the color red, further highlighting unique color traditions within this cultural celebration.

Bolivia, Mexico, and Equatorial Guinea are the only flags that feature green as a predominant color.

Treemap inspired by flagstories.co, a project by ferdio

Methodology: We identified flags from 21 countries as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, which are associated with Hispanic Heritage. We downloaded these 21 flags from Flagpedia.net and, using Python (utilizing pandas, openpyxl, and webcolors libraries), we counted the total number of pixels for each color and converted these colors to "web-safe" colors. Additionally, we excluded minor colors that comprised less than 0.05% of the flag's overall color composition.

Treemap was developed with Tableau Software Desktop and edited with Adobe Illustrator.

The gastronomic world is buzzing with excitement as The World's 50 Best Restaurants unveiled its latest rankings. Peru's Central Restaurante, masterminded by the culinary virtuoso Virgilio Martinez, has claimed the coveted #1 spot, marking a historic moment as the first Latin American country to achieve this culinary pinnacle. Central Restaurant has been spearheading Peruvian gastronomy, since breaking into the top 50 in 2013 capturing the world's attention.

Since 2002, The World's 50 Best Restaurants, curated by UK media company William Reed, has been on of the definitive authorities on culinary excellence. Traditionally, the top spot has been dominated by illustrious three Michelin-starred European establishments, primarily hailing from Spain and Denmark. Notable mentions include Spain's legendary El Bulli, led by Chef Ferran Adrià, and Denmark's trailblazing Noma, helmed by the visionary René Redzepi.

The mortgage market has experienced a significant upheaval as interest rates have surged to a 21-year high. A striking comparison reveals the extent of this climb: only last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 5.45%, while in 2021, it lingered in the more favorable 3% range. This stark contrast underscores the substantial escalation in costs that has unfolded since the Federal Reserve's initiation of rate hikes. This tightening financial landscape has led to a notable decline in applications for home loan refinancing, registering a 2% drop in a week and a substantial 35% decrease compared to the same week in the previous year. A snapshot of the recent market conditions reveals that on August 15, the average rate for the 30-year fixed mortgage reached a staggering 7.26%. This figure stands as the loftiest observed since the preceding November, signifying the ongoing volatility and challenges confronting both prospective homebuyers and those seeking to manage their existing mortgages.

Threads, the new app by Instagram, achieved an impressive milestone by being downloaded one million times in just one hour. According to Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the app reached 30 million downloads within 16 hours. Threads, which aims to compete with Twitter, has become the fastest-growing app ever in less than a day. It easily surpassed ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, which took five days to reach one million downloads. Moreover, Threads is projected to surpass 100 million users within two months, a milestone that was previously achieved only by ChatGPT.

China's control over critical minerals for lithium battery production, impacts the EV industry. To avoid reliance on the scarce and challenging-to-extract minerals of nickel and copper, automakers are turning to LFP batteries, made with lithium, iron, and phosphate (LiFePo4). However, China also holds control over the importation of the critical minerals necessary for LFP batteries.

Lithium, the scarcest of the three LiFePo4 minerals, is the key for catching up to China. Australia, accounting for 47% of the world's lithium production exports the majority of it to China due to the presence of numerous lithium refining plants. Recently, Australia has invested in domestic lithium refining, opening the doors to free trade agreements
with the U.S.

Visual Capitalist

In recent years, the popularity of pickleball has skyrocketed in the United States, resulting in a surge in the number of pickleball courts across the country. Pickleball is a fun and easy-to-learn sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping pong, making it appealing to people of all ages and skill levels. As more people have discovered the joys of playing pickleball, there has been a growing demand for facilities where they can play. To meet this demand, many parks, recreation centers, and private clubs have started to install pickleball courts, sometimes even converting underutilized tennis or basketball courts. This trend shows no signs of slowing down, as more and more people are embracing pickleball as a fun and social way to stay active and enjoy the great outdoors.

All credits to MetalytIQ

Data Source: USA Pickleball Pickleheads

Visualization created with Tableau Software

The Jordan Brand is a global phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down, reaching $5.1 billion in 2022. Michael Jordan reportedly earns 5% of the brand's revenue, which means he earned $256 million in 2022 alone. This is nearly three times what he earned during his 15-year NBA career.

The Jordan Brand was created in 1984 when Nike signed Michael Jordan to a shoe deal. Jordan was a rookie star in the NBA, and Nike saw the potential to create a successful brand around him. The first Air Jordan shoes were released in 1985, and they were an instant success. The success of the Jordan Brand is due in part to Michael Jordan's iconic career as one of the greatest, if not the greatest player of all time.

The story of how Nike signed Michael Jordan and started the iconic brand is now a feature film, directed by Ben Affleck, who also plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight. The film, titled "AIR," also stars Matt Damon as Nike representative Sonny Vaccarro. It will premiere globally in theaters today, April 5.

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HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us continues to demonstrate that viewer interest tends to grow as a series reaches its season finale. Among HBO's current top 10 rated series, live and same day viewership is significantly higher for the finale compared to the season premiere for seven of the ten series. Although Euphoria's season 2 premiere had a modest national viewer total of 250,000, viewership more than doubled for the season finale. Winning Time and The White Lotus are also series that saw significant increases in viewership for the finale. Interestingly, True Detective season 2 and House of the Dragon had the highest viewership totals for the premiere episode; however, there was a decline in the final season episode.

Did HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us make you a fan of the game, or were you already a fan? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

HBO's successful adaptation of the video game has introduced a wider audience to the gripping story of Joel and Ellie's post-apocalyptic journey. Developed by Naughty Dog, the game has won multiple awards and been praised for its story, innovative gameplay, and impressive graphics.

With over 37 million copies sold worldwide as of December 2022, the game's success is also reflected in its sales figures. According to GameIndustry.biz, week over week sales have increased by as much as 322% since the HBO TV series premiere. As a result, sales for The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Remastered are moving up the charts in the US, UK, and EU. Based on early reports, it is projected that sales will reach 40 million copies by the end of the final March 12th episode. It will be interesting to see the actual sales figures in the coming weeks and the extent to which the show has impacted the game's already impressive success.

Last week, Netflix cut subscription prices in over 100 countries in hopes of maintaining subscriber growth as streaming competition continues to put pressure on the leading streaming platform. According to research by Ampere Analysis, the price drop will impact 10 million subscribers, which is approximately 4% of the company’s subscribers. Price decreases vary from county to country and on subscription plan. Countries with higher average revenue per membership such as the United States and countries in Western Europe, were not impacted by the price changes.

Netflix is aggressively targeting overseas countries to increase profitability. In recent months, Netflix stock fell nearly 5% as rivals such as Paramount+ and Disney+ have brought in new subscribers.

Notes: For this analysis, prices are for the Basic Plan. All prices were converted from local currency to USD at the current exchange rate (March 1, 2023).

On February 12, 2023, the U.S. government spent an estimated $2.1 million to shoot down and recover an alleged spy balloon over Lake Huron. The object was one of three objects identified by U.S. military intelligence as "most likely balloons" within the span of one week.

The object in question first appeared over Montana on February 11th, flying at about 20,000 feet. The following day, an E-3B Sentry aircraft and a KC-135 Stratotanker were tracked flying through Lake Huron along with two F-16 Fighting Falcons. Confirmed by the Pentagon, it took two Sidewinder missiles to bring down the object after the first F-16 missed.

The following day, the recovery of the object was underway, as a HC-130J Combat King II was tracked going to Lake Huron.
Stephen Semler, the co-founder of SecurityReform.org, conducted a case study of the costs of the February 12th balloon take-down by referring to the flight tracking data of the four aircraft involved in the take-down operations on that day, along with costs of flight per hour provided by the Government Accountability Office and the unit costs per missile from the Department of Defense Comptroller. His full analysis and methodology can be found at stephensemler.substack.com.

The popularity of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, has caught the attention of the public and major investors alike. Reportedly, Microsoft has invested $10 billion over several years in OpenAI with the hope of boosting Microsoft's Bing search engine and Edge browser.

This move by Microsoft has prompted Google to take action and introduce its own version of ChatGPT, called Bard. Google's Bard is a scaled-down version of its Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), and it was met with criticism when it gave a wrong answer in a promotional YouTube video on February 8, 2023. This resulted in Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc, losing $100 billion in market value.

Even though the majority of Google's large language model research and development is in-house through their DeepMind and Google AI division, Google has taken an interest in investing and partnering with OpenAI's competitors, Anthropic and Cohere. On February 3, 2023, Google invested $300 million in AI start-up Anthropic, taking a 10% stake in the company. Google is also reportedly investing $200 million in Cohere, a start-up co-founded by CEO Aiden Gomez, formerly of Google Brain.

The three competing AI start-ups have not only garnered the interest of Google and Microsoft but also of other investors, with Anthropic already exceeding $1 billion in funding, including Google's $300 million investment.

Check out 'Surge in Egg Prices' featured on
Visual Capitalist. Thank you for publishing our work!

Charted: U.S. Egg Prices More Than Double in 2022 How expensive have eggs gotten? This chart shows the national average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in the U.S. throughout 2022.

Update: Topo Chico has reduced its PFAS levels by half since the original study:

https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/topo-chico-cuts-pfas-levels-by-more-than-half-a4286812129/

A 2020 study conducted by Consumer Reports found trace levels of PFAS in popular sparkling water brands. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), often referred to as “forever chemicals” are a group of man-made chemicals that have been linked to a variety of health problems, including cancer, hormone disruption, and immune system dysfunction, and they can be dangerous to human health.

The levels of PFAS that are considered dangerous to human health are not well established, as the effects of exposure to these chemicals can vary greatly depending on the specific compound, the duration of exposure, and the individual's health status. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a lifetime health advisory level for two types of PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, at 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for combined exposure in drinking water. However, some studies suggest that even lower levels of exposure may be associated with adverse health effects. It is important to note that the science on PFAS is still developing and the safe levels of exposure may change as more research becomes available.

Advancements in artificial intelligence continue to play a bigger role in automating and complimenting jobs. However, based on Google search trends, the question of “will AI replace my job?” has spiked in the last two months. Interestingly, this comes at a time that OpenAI’s latest innovative chatbot, ChatGPT, was launched and taken the internet by storm.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐆𝐏𝐓. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐥𝐥-𝐄 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡. 𝐒𝐰𝐢𝐩𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐥𝐥-𝐄 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡:

"As AI advancements continue to soar, so do concerns about job security. The search for answers has never been higher, with 'will artificial intelligence replace my job?' trending on Google and ChatGPT leading the way in providing insightful responses. Stay informed and stay ahead of the game. Check out this graph inspired by a Dall-E generated graph."

The average price for eggs in the U.S. has more than doubled in 2022, reaching an all time high of $4.25 average for a dozen grade A eggs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, this increase in eggs is the highest of all grocery categories. Inflation and supply chain disruptions originating from the COVID pandemic play a small role in the increase in price, however an avian flu outbreak has resulted in the death of millions of egg laying hens in 2022. Interestingly enough, the price of chicken has declined. Chickens raised for consumption are not affected by the avian flu.

The widely popular subreddit r/dataisbeautiful has been a source of inspiration and ideas for data visualization fans and enthusiasts for years. We decided to take a look at what were the most common types of data visualizations within the top 100 upvoted posts of 2022.

Key takeaways:

Bar charts, maps, and line graphs make up 67% of the top 100 posts in 2022.
Animated graphs make up 17% of the top 100
In the top 100, Redditors u/jcceagle had 7 posts, u/latinometrics had 6 posts, and u/giteam had 5 posts

**Pie Charts include one donut chart and one sunburst chart
**Bar Charts include three stacked bar charts and one lollipop chart
**Map includes point maps, space distribution, line maps

In molecular biology, DNA is structured by two complimentary strands of nucleic acid molecules intertwined in a double helix structure. Just as the DNA that makes up our genone, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have been complimentary forces in the world of football. Throughout their careers, their rivalry to be the greatest footballer of all time, has elevated the sport to new levels of skill. As their World Cup endeavors come to end, It is only fitting that two have gone back and forth in goals scored throughout their World Cup career. When visualizing the running total of goals scored in each of their World Cups, the double helix it forms is a poetic representation of how the two legends have contributed to the DNA of the beautiful game.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced that US scientists for the first time successfully produced more energy from a nuclear fusion experiment than the laser energy used to power it. This is a major scientific breakthrough that will lead to a new source of clean, carbon zero energy. This achievement is the result of decades of hard work from scientists all over the world and several billions of dollars. The U.S. government has been funding fusion energy programs since 1954, enacting hundreds of millions of dollars every year to reach a goal of net zero energy. This chart follows the year over year funding from the U.S. government to fusion energy programs, along with the contributions made to the international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject (ITER).

It has taken 68 years and $18.8 billion ($35.8 billion when adjusted for inflation) to reach this historic milestone that will be sure to change the world as we know it.