The Tusk had one of those “Holy Moley!” moments with the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis this weekend. Not a new paper, or even an entire show on a global communication platform, but rather a massive compilation of hard publication and communication data on the YDIH — and associated analysis framework — rolled out to the world by an anonymous digital angel.
On Friday night a new account popped up on Twitter, called “YDIH data”:
Huge thanks to @Marc_Young_90 and @CosmicTusk for their work in creating “The Bib”! What would have taken years has been achieved in just a few months…https://t.co/dWhgBxceGb pic.twitter.com/FBi3ejFfGG
— YDIH data (@YDIH_data) December 17, 2021
I had a vague understanding of Wikidata, and none really of “Scholia.” But, just as the Tusk did Friday night, please click below to explore an extraordinary trove of information and associated tools put to work by YDIH data:
Now, admittedly, data visualizations like the one above and many others behind your click are kinda geeky. But geeky can be useful for insights you just can’t get by scanning an Excel sheet.
More practically, our angel has compiled data on many, many items of popular interest regarding our subject — like a developing list of EVERY SINGLE PRESS ARTICLE over the last two decades, every podcast on the subject, and even who is active on Twitter.
And since all of this is “Wiki,” it can grow and become more comprehensive and accurate with the passage of time. Scholia and Wikidata purportedly do not experience nearly the degree of rank intellectual mischief and ideological brawling so common to Wikipedia.
The data is the data (or so we can pray).
Marc Young and other members of the Comet Research Group are just beginning to dig in with the new tools. But our first impression is that, as the old joke goes: “Take a good look around” at the current format of The Bib. All these newly manipulable data tables can be embedded directly into HTML for all websites, so expect a new generation of YDIH information to be displayed here at the Tusk and elsewhere in 2022.
And, of course, for all of you data obsessives who read the Tusk, please wade into the platform yourselves and improve this wonderful, mutual, global project. Adding an article here or there, or an obscure paper now missed, is a way for anyone, anywhere, to help out the research for free.
Thank you anonymous digital angel for this wonderful Christmas present. 👏👏👏😇🎄