Byline, from Timetric

It isn’t often when the entire world is staring at one room, and one discussion, and one subject. But now is one of those times.

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc.

— Front page leader in the Guardian and 55 other global newspapers, yesterday.

Today, in response to the email hacking incident at the Climatic Research Unit in Norwich, the Met Office have released underlying climate (surface temperature) data for 1729 weather stations — a subset of the data used in calculating HadCRUT3, one of the major datasets used in monitoring climate change.

We’ve just finished converting and uploading this data. Here it is — global surface temperature data.

We’re eager to see what you all make of this. Leave us a comment if you’ve found something interesting.

This is Data of the Day from Timetric. Suggest data you’d like to see here!

The wonderfully-named Jennifer 8. Lee, of the New York Times, has managed (via a Freedom of Information request) to get data on just how the popularity of names have changed over time in NYC. We couldn’t pass that up, so we’ve uploaded this data on baby names in New York to Timetric — both the total popularity of names from 1920 to the present, and the same data broken down by ethnic group from 1990 to now.

Of course, the first thing I did was to check out how team Timetric’s names compared. I’m Andrew, and my co-conspirators are Dan and Toby:

Turns out Toby isn’t that popular a name. In fact, though it’s definitely a boys’ name in Britain, it’s more popular for girls in New York:

Definitely won’t be making any wisecracks about that!

Some names have risen and fallen over time. Comparing my name with my sister’s;

her name’s been getting less popular since the ’70s. Sandra was especially popular just after World War II, though: I wonder why.

The ethnic data is fascinating, too. As Jennifer pointed out on CityRoom:

The baby name cognoscenti note that Jayden’s rise is remarkable since there has historically been less innovation with boys names. Unlike girls names — Lisa, Jennifer, Madison and Ashley have risen and fallen within decades — the top boys names tend to be timeless, with Biblical or kingly flavors.

Nationwide, Jayden ranked only 11th last year, according to Social Security Administration data — respectable, but not a blockbuster.

The difference? New York’s demographic mix.

Here’s the evidence:

Daniel’s the opposite – much more popular among white parents:

All the data’s on Timetric — we’d love to see what patterns you find in it.

This is Data of the Day from Timetric. Suggest data you’d like to see here!