Apr

20th 2008

Historic Aerials

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Despite having to peer around the plethora of watermarking, the HistoricalAerials.com site provide some interesting aerials across the United States spanning back to the 1930s.  Locations are searchable by Lat/Long or by address.  What’s interesting is the comparision slider which allows the user to compare two different aerials side by side to see how the landscape has changed over the years.  Viewing online is free with an option to purchase the image for downloading. 

Feb

29th 2008

2008 Statistical Abstract

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Compiled from various U.S. Government and private sources such as the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Statistical Abstract is the mother lode of statistics on many aspects of American life. Covering a range of such subjects as politics, economics, life expectancy, and marital status, the Statistical Abstract has been capturing an annual snapshot of the United States since 1878.

Feb

14th 2008

Fun Facts About Valentine’s Day from the US Census

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Valentine’s Day 2008: Feb. 14

Opinions abound as to who was the original Valentine, with the most popular theory that he was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome. Emperor Claudius II felt that marriage weakened his soldiers. In any event, in A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius set aside Feb. 14 to honor St. Valentine. Through the centuries, the Christian holiday became a time to exchange love messages, and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. Esther Howland, a native of Massachusetts, is given credit for sending the first valentine cards in the 1840s. The spirit of love continues today as valentines are sent with sentimental verses, and children exchange valentine cards at school. Read more

Feb

06th 2008

Census Atlas of the United States

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atlascover.jpgAvailable in PDF format, the Census Atlas of the United States is the first comprehensive atlas produced by the United States Census Bureau in over 80 years.  The Atlas contains almost 800 maps which look at a range of cultural and socio-economic issues “ranging from language and ancestry characteristics to housing patterns and the geographic distribution of the population.”  The atlas can be downloaded by chapters which are arranged by subject matter.  If you don’t want to go through the trouble of downloading and printing out the 300 pages of statistics and maps you can always  from the U.S. Government Bookstore.

Jan

28th 2008

The Role Of Geographic Profiling In Serial Violent Crime Investigation

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Thanks to films like silence of the lambs, many people associate criminal profiling with the methods and techniques developed by the FBI at the Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico.

There are, however, a number of other approaches that can be used in the course of a criminal investigation. The role of one of these other approaches, geographic profiling, will be outlined in the course of this article. Read more

Jul

02nd 2007

Historical Population Reports for the United Kingdom

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Hosted by the University of Essex, Histpop, the online site for British historical reports is an impressive site with over 200,000 pages of information relating to the British Isles from 1801 to 1937:

The Online Historical Population Reports (OHPR) collection provides online access to the complete British population reports for Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1937.

The collection goes far beyond the basic population reports with a wealth of textual and statistical material which provide an in-depth view of the economy, society (through births, deaths and marriages) and medicine during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

These 200,000 pages of census and registration material for the British Isles are supported by numerous ancillary documents from The National Archives, critical essays and transcriptions of important legislation which provide an aid to understanding the context, content and creation of the collection.

 

Jun

22nd 2007

World of Women

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The WomanStats Project web site is, by its own disclaimer, “The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world.”  With over 240 variables on women for all nation-states with a population over 200,000 (currently totaling 172 nation-states), the site offers valuable and free access to data on the status of women around the world. 

The WomanStats Project compiles data about women from many sources, including inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, governmental agencies, scholarly articles and books, news reports, and interviews with country experts. 

The site is coordinated by a board of directors from three universities: Brigham Young University, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. 

Data can be search by variable or by country and then exported to a .CSV file.  The site offers a codebook which is necessary for interpreting the data.  A continuous work in progress, the site also has a data entry section where volunteers can help add and update data.  Also of note to geographers are the three sample maps depicting Women’s Physical Security, Trafficking of Women, and Son Preference/Sex Ratio.

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