Keith Collins

What I do

I am a programmer, designer and data journalist at The New York Times. That means I write words as well as code, do traditional reporting and use many different tools to create news articles. On the tech side of my job, I often use some combination of Javascript, Node.js, D3.js, SVG, Canvas, WebGL and Adobe Illustrator.

You can see my latest work on my author page at The New York Times

Below is an archive of projects and stories I worked on between 2010 and 2017.

Archived Code Projects

These are very old projects that I haven't looked at in a long time! If you find any of them useful, please let me know.

node-seasonal - A simple Node.js wrapper for X-13-ARIMA-SEATS, the seasonal adjustment software by the U.S. Census Bureau.

node-botometer - Evaluates Twitter accounts to determine whether they're bots.

@actual_ransom - A bot that watches the bitcoin wallets tied to the WannaCry ransomware attack. Code available here.

pi-bots - A simple system for running Twitter bots from a Raspberry Pi.

Archived Articles

This is a list of articles I’ve written, both visual and traditional. Early in my career, I kept careful lists of the work I published. Unfortunately, many of these links, especially the older ones, are either behind paywalls or fully broken.

2017

Google collects Android users’ locations even when location services are disabled (Quartz, 2017-11-21)

I made a Twitter bot that hunts for Twitter bots that push political opinions (Quartz, 2017-10-25)

Inside the digital heist that terrorized the world—and only made $100k (Quartz, 2017-05-21)

Victims of the WannaCry ransomware attacks have stopped paying up (Quartz, 2017-05-17)

With H-1B under threat, Alphabet is the only big tech company to ramp up immigration lobbying (Quartz, 2017-04-27)

A Supreme Court case involving artificial sweeteners could have a huge impact on Silicon Valley (Quartz, 2017-04-04)

GitHub now lets its workers keep the IP when they use company resources for personal projects (Quartz, 2017-03-21)

Today we’re worried about smart TVs, but in the 1980s Russian spies were hacking typewriters (Quartz, 2017-03-16)

Why the Dow 20K milestone is meaningless: a visual guide (Quartz, 2017-01-26)

2016

How Adobe Flash, once the face of the web, fell to the brink of obscurity (Quartz, 2016-12-29)

The disengaged plurality: 42% of eligible US voters stayed home (Quartz, 2016-11-11)

The code that took America to the moon was just published to GitHub, and it’s like a 1960s time capsule (Quartz, 2016-07-09)

Brexit in context: Every EU membership vote since 1972 (Quartz, 2016-06-24)

Coups d’etat have become less common but more successful (Quartz, 2016-06-22)

The future of software depends on a jury’s ability to understand this question (Quartz, 2016-05-26)

How one programmer disrupted the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code (Quartz, 2016-03-27)

Disinterest and apathy are crushing it in the US elections right now (Quartz, 2016-03-22)

What Republicans and Democrats have talked about the most during debates (Quartz, 2016-03-09)

The IRS has finally taken its failed identity protection service offline (Quartz, 2016-03-07)

The IRS is using a system that was hacked to protect victims of a hack (Quartz, 2016-03-01)

Your checking account is probably easier to hack into than your email (Quartz, 2016-03-01)

All the times Obama has said he’s going to close Guantanamo Bay (Quartz, 2016-02-23)

A Los Angeles hospital paid $17,000 in ransom to hackers blocking access to patient records (Quartz, 2016-02-18)

The injuries most likely to land you in an emergency room in America (Quartz, 2016-02-04)

The US political poetry generator (Quartz, 2016-01-28)

The most frequently used words in every State of the Union address (Quartz, 2016-01-13)

The long goodbye to Internet Explorer (Quartz, 2016-01-12)

2015

The tumultuous history of the drugs that helped cure Jimmy Carter (Quartz, 2015-12-10)

Why researchers keep citing retracted papers (Quartz, 2015-12-31)

America’s most prolific wall punchers, charted (Quartz, 2015-12-29)

The most misleading charts of 2015, fixed (Quartz, 2015-12-23)

Why infectious bacteria are winning (Quartz, 2015-12-22)

Where there are more women than men working in the US (Quartz, 2015-12-16)

The tumultuous history of the drugs that helped cure Jimmy Carter (Quartz, 2015-12-10)

See for yourself where carbon emissions are coming from now and in the future (Quartz, 2015-12-08)

Explore the complicated network of allies and enemies in Syria’s civil war (Quartz, 2015-11-02)

How much daylight does daylight saving time save? (Quartz, 2015-10-30)

How do you put a price on a video game when it’s the first of its kind? (Quartz, 2015-10-15)

Never trust the first number announced in a data breach (Quartz, 2015-10-07)

Quiz: Is it an ’80s band or a super PAC? (Quartz, 2015-09-10)

Follow the flow of Syrian civilians from the Middle East to Western Europe (Quartz, 2015-09-10)

Inside the IRS data breach (Quartz, 2015-08-27)

Inline interactive: should you go to grad school? (Quartz, 2015-08-20)

Here’s what your stolen identity goes for on the dark web (Quartz, 2015-07-23)

See where ‘Go Set a Watchman’ overlaps with ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ word for word (Quartz, 2015-07-14)

As the Rich Bounce Back, the Middle Class Stays Stagnant (Bloomberg Business, 2015-06-18)

Through Years of Tumult, AOL Sticks Around (Bloomberg Business, 2015-05-12)

This Is How Fast America Changes Its Mind (Bloomberg Business, 2015-04-26)

Here’s Why Companies Keep Losing the Battle Against Hackers (Bloomberg Business, 2015-04-15)

Inline Charts: Keeping Cash Abroad (Bloomberg Business, 2015-03-04)

How to Build an Oscar Winner (Bloomberg Business, 2015-02-06)

Measles in America (Bloomberg Business, 2015-02-06)

Inline Map: Chipotle Stores (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2015-02-05)

2014

The Worst Corporate Hacks of 2014 (Bloomberg News, 2014-12-12)

Live Midterm Election Maps (Bloomberg Politics, 2014-11-04)

A Small Slice of Americans Gets to Decide Who Will Rule the Senate (Bloomberg Politics, 2014-10-06)

Intellectual Ventures’ Investors and Targets (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-09-04)

Data Breaches in the U.S. (Bloomberg News, 2014-09-04)

Map: Injustice in Ferguson, Long Before Michael Brown (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-08-21)

Chart: Libya’s Wealth (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-08-07)

Interactive Map: Where the Craft Beer Flows Like Wine (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-07-28)

Time Warner: 25 Years of Acquisitions, Sales, and Spinoffs (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-07-25)

Car Thefts Across the Country (Bloomberg News, 2014-06-26)

The Amusement Park That Controls Samsung (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-06-19)

Animated map of prevailing winds in Korea (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2014-06-05)

The Rise and Fall of Flappy Bird (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-23)

Big Tech CEOs: Likability vs. Shareholder Returns (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-15)

Target’s Data Breach: The Largest Retail Hack in U.S. History (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-14)

Cartogram: The European Parliament (Bloomberg QuickTake, 2014-05-14)

Target’s Data Breach: The Largest Retail Hack in U.S. History (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-14)

India’s Election: Forming a Coalition Government (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-01)

Consolidating the Pharmaceutical Industry (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-01)

India’s Election: Forming a Coalition Government (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-01)

Consolidating the Pharmaceutical Industry (Bloomberg News, 2014-05-01)

Oscar speeches by the numbers (The Associated Press, 2014-02-25)

Where Is Indie Gaming Going? (Fast Company, 2014-01-23)

2013

Will 2014 bring the death of the patent troll? (Al Jazeera America, 2013-12-23)

Online Test Asks Whether You Could Have A.D.H.D., Too (The New York Times, 2013-12-14)

The Nominees Waiting for a Vote (The New York Times, 2013-11-21)

Approval Ratings in Recent Polls (The New York Times, 2013-11-10)

Biggest Winners in the History of NYC Mayoral Races (The New York Times, 2013-11-05)

Tracking the Progress of the Health Care Exchanges (The New York Times, 2013-10-27)

The Factions in the House of Representatives (The New York Times, 2013-10-19)

Who Goes to Work? Who Stays Home? (The New York Times, 2013-09-29)

The Public’s Ratings of the President (The New York Times, 2013-09-25)

American Views on Intervention in Syria (The New York Times, 2013-09-11)

Jim Thorpe, Pa., fights to keep body of namesake (The Associated Press, 2013-09-05)

Influenced by media, amateurs try extreme caking (The Associated Press, 2013-09-05)

Philadelphia Teachers Crowd Funding For Supplies (The Associated Press, 2013-09-03)

Is It Possible to Achieve Immortality Online? (Slate, 2013-08-20)

Penn researchers strive for a more athletic robot (The Associated Press, 2013-08-13)

University of Pennsylvania’s Jumping, Climbing Robot (The Associated Press, 2013-08-13)

Mayor: Cigarette link to Pa. blast ‘speculation’ (The Associated Press, 2013-07-30)

Philly agency hosts career expo for ex-offenders (The Associated Press, 2013-07-30)

Philadelphia row house collapses, injuring 8 (The Associated Press, 2013-07-29)

National Urban League meeting begins in Philly (The Associated Press, 2013-07-25)

You’re Being Watched — And Not Just By The Government (Medium, 2013-07-19)

5 things to know about the US heat wave (The Associated Press, 2013-07-16)

Hundreds in Philly protest Zimmerman verdict (The Associated Press, 2013-07-15)

FBI Schuylkill River Search 1 (The Associated Press, 2013-07-15)

FBI Schuylkill River Search 2 (The Associated Press, 2013-07-15)

FBI Schuylkill River Search 3 (The Associated Press, 2013-07-15)

Princeton researchers create ‘bionic ear’ (The Associated Press, 2013-07-03)

Apps mix history with technology at Gettysburg (The Associated Press, 2013-06-27)

Boy Scouts moving statue from Philly home (The Associated Press, 2013-06-21)

Boy Scouts moving statue from Philly home 2 (The Associated Press, 2013-06-21)

Boy Scouts moving statue from Philly home 3 (The Associated Press, 2013-06-21)

Flag-bearing skydivers swoop into Philadelphia (The Associated Press, 2013-06-15)

Flag day in Philadelphia (The Associated Press, 2013-06-14)

Flag day in Philadelphia (The Associated Press, 2013-06-14)

Girl who took on transplant rules gets new lungs (The Associated Press, 2013-06-13)

Heavy showers, lightning strike Pa. (The Associated Press, 2013-06-13)

Pa. man finds reptile near sewer, offers gator aid (The Associated Press, 2013-06-12)

Philadelphia collapse survivor describes ordeal (The Associated Press, 2013-06-10)

14th survivor pulled from rubble of collapse (The Associated Press, 2013-06-06)

Girard College drops student housing, grades 9-12 (The Associated Press, 2013-06-04)

Think Using Google Glass Is Awkward? Early Phone Calls Were Worse. (Slate, 2013-05-14)

Healing Me Harshly (Project Wordsworth, 2013-05-09)

Yes, we have no (local) strawberries (The New York World, 2013-02-18)

2012

Kickstarted in Brooklyn: One Year In (The Brooklyn Ink, 2012-10-23)

Jury Set to Deliberate in Gang-Related Murder Trial (The Brooklyn Ink, 2012-10-10)

Thereƒ‘s a Patent for That: ƒ‘Trollƒ’ Litigation Hits Brooklyn (The Brooklyn Ink. 2012-10-03)

Whose Bed-Stuy is it? (The Brooklyn Ink, 2012-10-02)

2010

At age 10, he was scared. But now? (The Washington Post, 2010-07-20)