How metal are Birmingham and the West Midlands, 50 years later?

A data investigation into Birmingham’s and the West Midlands’ heavy metal scene.

The story: https://birminghameastside.com/the-west-midlands-gave-birth-to-heavy-metal-but-50-years-on-how-metal-is-the-region-now/

The GitHub repo for the web scrapers: https://github.com/datacarvel/Brum-Rock

Scientific journals are (still) getting (more) expensive (than ever) – but the UK has an opportunity to make a statement

For quite a while now I have been submitting and managing Freedom of Information requests to more than a hundred universities in the United Kingdom.

While the issue around ever-skyrocketing costs of scholarly journals subscriptions isn’t news, I wanted to see whether, since the topic went in the mainstream, the awareness around it had any effect on what the universities are paying.

Election map: Birmingham’s new districts on top of former ones, with their past results

A screenshot of the interactive map, which you can find in the links below.

Ahead of today’s upcoming results (and previously published elsewhere), here is a map of the new wards over the former ones with their past electoral results (winning party).

See the story here for the Birmingham Eastside and here for Birmingham Live!

Additionally, here is a more detailed description of a few wards that were merged from former wards won by different parties.

Don’t believe the bus: See how Brexit is plaguing the NHS – Explainer

As time progresses, it is less and less likely that the Leave voters of 2016 will ever see the fruits of their vote if they had in mind that promise of extra weekly money for the NHS in millions.

Despite the widely publicised economy of £350 million a week that was promised for the NHS, there is close to no one left to say that this figure can be achieved anytime soon. Not even those who suggested it. And with good reasons.