blog.alexbowyer.comAlex Bowyer | building the future, one idea at a time...

building the future, one idea at a time... A Day of ‘normal’ Life During COVID (Coronavirus Pandemic Day 7) Posted by Alex on 18 Mar, 2020 in COVID diaries | 0 comments Today’s Coronavirus figures: 208,421 cases, 8,273 deaths worldwide Latest at https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ . Given we are now entering a completely unprecedented time in the world, I thought I would start using this blog again, to capture a record of developments, thoughts and ideas about what is happening as the coronavirus pandemic happens, to track how it is affecing our everyday lives. I figure it may be interesting to look back at some day. The coronavirus COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and has spread rapidly through the world, being declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11th 2020 . On the 6th March, I was due to help run a research workshop in London and had to consider very seriously whether or not to go — London being the Read More Visualisation idea: Animated population movements Posted by Alex on 6 Jan, 2016 in Data & Visualisations , Ideas & Innovation | 0 comments [This isIdea dump ” post #1] One area where I’ve had a few ideas, is thinking about how useful animated maps can be for understanding change of populations, empires or societies over a period of time. Here is just one of the many examples of YouTube videos and interactive visualisations online that do this: The specific idea that occurred to me today, was that this technique could be applied to visualise the movement of people between towns and cities within a country, for example within the UK. One way I could see this working would be that, based on compiling per-town annual population statistics into a large database, you could then render a dot or circle for each town with a size proportional to its population, forming a single map for each year (which would stay on screen for a few seconds). You would then compare each town’s population to the stat for that town in the previous year and identify whether it was a gain or a loss. Of course, you would need a geolocated lat/long coordinate for each town to serve as the centre of the dot. I think a colour scale for each town’s dot something like this would be useful: dark red - red - grey - green - bright green. Grey would indicate no change”, dark red would be major loss of population since last year” and bright green would be major gain of population since last year”. You could then stitch these frames together into an animation to give a really clear visualisation as to how a country’s population is moving. Is there predominantly a move into cities, or to the country? Are influxes of population matched by losses elsewhere? (A more advanced version of this visualisation would distinguish between population growth due to immigration and internal population movements). In terms of how it would look, I imagine a single frame might look a little like the header image of this post, which is featured in a different visualisation here (though in my visualisation there would be more green and less red). Google Earth does allow timeline-based maps which change over time – perhaps the result could be created as a layer for Google Earth. Tools like this may help. Some related data for the UK can be found here . A similar project was carried out for US cities , though this focusses more on the geographic spread of the cities, whereas the idea I present is about population. Read More Clearing out my closet (of ideas) Posted by Alex on 6 Jan, 2016 in Ideas & Innovation | 1 comment My blogging over the last couple of years has pretty much stalled completely, save for the odd film review or political post. This is partly due to spending more time on social media (especially Facebook) and using that as a conduit for my random thoughts, shares and ideas – but also due to the sense, like much of society, that we are becoming increasingly busy. I just don’t seem to make time for writing thoughtful posts or articles any more. This post is a statement of intent, that I want to get back into blogging more often. I think that it’s a really useful thing for keeping my creative muscles flexed and for encouraging me to write more. So I had an idea to start the ball rolling again: Why not publish various ideas and tidbits I’ve jotted down in notes and text files over the last few years, regardless of how finished/polished they are, just as a way to get them out there? Read More Review: Wild (2014) Posted by Alex on 2 Feb, 2015 in Movie Reviews | 2 comments Tonight I watched a really beautiful film, Jean-Marc Vallée and Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s auto-biographical memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild is remarkable; Not only does the film feature some beautiful landscapes from across California and Oregon, but it manages to create a compelling and engaging drama from a fairly simple narrative: the story of one woman’s journey on foot across America as she walks the Pacific Crest Trail . I think the reason the film works so well is because it manages to reflect human nature both at large (through the weird and wonderful people she meets along the way and the experiences she has) as well as on the inside (by treating us to numerous flashbacks into Cheryl’s past, allowing us to see the tragedies and joys of her unprivileged life that have brought her to this point). Reese Witherspoon does an excellent job of conveying a damaged but strong and hopeful woman, and certainly deserves the Oscar nomination – but the writer and the director deserve the lion’s share of the credit for bringing this meandering journey to the screen in a way that makes sense. Nick Hornby’s touch is evident, he always seems to brings characters to life in a way that makes you appreciate the totality of their lives, not just the moments that we see. The internal thought vocalisations and well-timed flashbacks really help us understand Cheryl and where she has come from. And if this is typical of Vallée’s work, it makes me want to watch Dallas Buyers’ Club all the more. Wild is a film that can’t fail to move you. As Cheryl remembers the defining moments of her life it seems almost every aspect of human nature is given space for us to feel and ponder it – love, loss, missed opportunity, random chance, depression, hope, determination and family. The film made me think a lot about my own life, it made me sad for the bad things that have happened, and joyful for the good things in my life. As someone who has travelled a lot, I know that travelling is as much about the journey you make through your thoughts and memories as it is about the experiences you have on the outside, and the film manages to do justice to both aspects equally. But I think what is most impressive about this film is this: That it can bring the viewer a degree of the self-reflection Cheryl Strayed experienced on her journey, that for a couple of hours it takes you on your own little journey through the wilderness. Thoroughly recommended, the best film of the year so far, and very deserving of Oscar nominations and more. My rating: 8/10 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2-GSqPyl0 IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2305051/ Read More Scotland, you were right, the UK is broken… Posted by Alex on 16 Sep, 2014 in Articles | 0 comments …We’re sorry we didn’t notice. But please, let’s fix it together. I can understand why a lot of you who live in Scotland are cynical. You’ve been talking about independence since the ’70s, and about the referendum for more than 2 years. And suddenly, a couple of weeks before the referendum, in an apparent panic, people all over England start pleading you not to leave, sending politicians from Westminster on desperate missions of persuasion offering all kinds of promises. Where were they, you wonder? The truth is, we’ve been blind to something you realized a long time ago – that the country of...