Yeah, do you have that…yeah, I’m going to have to take that stapler. Could you go ahead and move down to storage area B?
You’re jumping to conclusions.
I do a lot of technical writing, and to me, “the data is” or “the data shows” sounds wrong to me. The point of writing is to get the idea across, and often to get the idea across to people you don’t know. IMHO, it’s always better to write so that you sound like you know what you’re talking about, so that people who do know what you’re talking about will take the rest of what you’re trying to say more seriously. On the other hand, you don’t want to write something that makes 90% of your audience wonder what you said, or have to run for the dictionary to find out.
For an alternative view on this, see AskOxford .
If “data” is singular, what is the plural?
Data.
Datum = singular
Your question is like asking, “If ‘milk’ is singular, what is the plural?” Mass nouns–chocolate, milk, gasoline, data–do not generally have plural forms. When data is treated as such, it should take the same type of verb–i.e., a singular verb. The milk is good, the gasoline is cheap, the data is interesting.
Daniel
Say, that does sound interesting. So, do the characters work for a software company of some kind? 
Are you serious? lol @ initech.