iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

It goes to show: just because the government collects data doesn't mean it makes it easy to access, or act on. Drivers deserve to know which roads are dangerous, and why, so we can hold policymakers accountable for making them safer.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Once I mapped New Mexico, it was easy to extend nationwide. Look up your own town and the roads you drive, and what you find may surprise you. The Deadliest Mile: tedalcorn.github.io/the-deadlies...

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

You can find the most dangerous spots by crash rate, pedestrian/bicyclist involvement, or share of crashes involving alcohol.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

This stretch of Albuquerque's Central Avenue had 58 pedestrian or cyclist deaths, at a rate 117x the state average.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Once the data is assembled, the insights that fall out are glaring. This rural segment of NM-53 west of Zuni has 30x the national average fatal-crash rate. 8 of 10 crashes were single-vehicle rollovers, 6 involved alcohol, and most were after dark.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Crashes cluster where there are more cars, so I added data on annual average daily traffic for major roads, which also lets you see which have the most fatal crashes *per mile driven* — in other words, the greatest risk. I started with my home state of New Mexico.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

40,000 Americans die in on our roads every year, a public health catastrophe in slow motion, but unlike for other crises (e.g. gun violence), the US collects meticulous data on every crash, including geolocation + conditions + contributing factors.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I was trying to figure out the safest driving route from my house to the grocery store and accidentally went down a rabbit hole and built a nationwide map of 843,530 fatal car crashes since 2001. It’s kind of cool? 🤷‍♂️ tedalcorn.github.io/the-deadlies...

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

It’s always striking how the decline in alcohol consumption is covered as a business problem instead of a win for public health.

nytimes.com

Can the World Cup Help the U.S. Beer Industry Kick Its Slump?

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Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Journalism from @nytimes international articles since 2000 (n≈199,000) turned into a map. We see which topics were covered disproportionately. HT @tedalcorn

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Nora's Guide to the Galaxy @ngttg.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Yep this tracks

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Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

*stares at "home" state of Nebraska* That is accurate and depressing.

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Kathryn Corrick @kcorrick.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

This is such fascinating analysis as says much about the NYT and how this plays into the perception of each state, as much as what it says of what goes on in each state.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

For the national map I used slightly more selective criteria. The exact ranking is sensitive to whether you allow in articles that were disproportionate but from a small count of total articles, which occurs more in states with fewer total NYT articles.

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Becca @sciencelizard.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I do think that even though other states are caricatured here, NJ as viewed from NY might be the most pigeonholed

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Honored! Love what you’ve been coding up too.

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Jeff Asher @jeffasher.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Such a great use of AI. Fantastic project

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Ben 🔔🧛‍♂️🎃🦇🍬 @beninquiring.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Yeah yeah I’m aware of what you all think of us

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Jim Saksa @jimsaksa.com · 14/05/2026

Allow me, former pledge master of Penn’s 2008 Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge class and WHYY transportation reporter who now covers election administration, to take a bow.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

It’s related to a monkeypox outbreak there in 2003. An artifact of a bunch of articles written in a small state.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

You can look at articles tagged with local geographies in the state tab, you have to be on a desktop to load them, however. This is where New York lives: tedalcorn.github.io/nyt/#tab=sta...

tedalcorn.github.io

Below the Fold — A New York Times X-Ray Dashboard

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It’s not tracked as a keyword, rather as a subject. You can see trends in coverage of the main university (and many other parts of the school) on this part of the dashboard, though this tagging got discontinued in 2024: tedalcorn.github.io/nyt/#tab=sub...

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

That's all 50. The full methodology and a deeper look at how the NYT covers America are at Below The Fold: bsky.app/profile/teda...

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

WYOMING — A state covered through wildlife, plus the occasional buried treasure rumor.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

WISCONSIN — A swing state covered through its political fights (collective bargaining, voter fraud) and its hardest moments (the Rittenhouse trial, the Sikh temple shooting).

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

WEST VIRGINIA — King Coal.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

WASHINGTON — The Pacific Northwest's anxieties, cataloged: the 2020 murder hornet invasion, Hanford nuclear waste, and the Green River Killer.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

VIRGINIA — The past keeps surfacing: see the McDonnell corruption case, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and the politics of race.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

VERMONT — A small state, covered through its quiet exceptionalisms: maple syrup, heroin, and death-with-dignity.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

UTAH — A religious tradition under a magnifying glass, unlike in any other state.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

TEXAS — The border, mostly, with a side of disasters and mass shootings.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

TENNESSEE — Culture-war battles, disasters, and the Covenant School shooting.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

SOUTH DAKOTA — Three of the top five are tribal nations, plus the country's deepest physics experiment at the Sanford Underground Lab.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

SOUTH CAROLINA — Confederate flags, Savannah River plutonium, nuclear waste, and the early-state primaries.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

RHODE ISLAND — The country's smallest state covered for its biggest local stories: the 2003 Station nightclub fire (fireworks, burns), a long-running lead-paint lawsuit, and a recent shooting at Brown.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

PENNSYLVANIA — Higher education's underside, plus rail accidents and electoral fights.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

OREGON — NYT has a disproportionate focus on Portland politics, plus the natural resources of the state.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

OKLAHOMA — The 2020 McGirt ruling that restored vast reservations to tribal jurisdiction, tornado season, Juneteenth, and the state's busy death chamber all stand out.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

OHIO — Keywords for special communities often stand out, and Ohio is no exception.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NORTH DAKOTA — A state covered (mostly) for what's underground.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NORTH CAROLINA — A state covered through its purple-state fights and the storms that keep hitting its coast.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEW YORK — Readers wanna know how to get around! The operating systems of the city, covered to a degree no other state can match.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEW MEXICO — Native people, modern technologies, and natural disasters thrown in. (UFOs also scored high!)

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEW JERSEY — Covered as a commute. Tolls, casinos, property taxes, bridges and tunnels, the daily ride to somewhere else.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEW HAMPSHIRE — A state covered like a quadrennial event, for its primaries. They make up 32% of all NH coverage.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEVADA — The state's split-personality on display, from @burningman.org to Yucca Mountain.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

NEBRASKA — Open range, and what lies beneath it.

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Ted Alcorn @tedalcorn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

MONTANA — A frontier state, covered like one (with a Chinese spy balloon, shot down over Montana in 2023, for good measure).

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