Ape Con Myth

Month: March 2011

  • Outline of [California’s] State Tax System

    For your reference…

    CA_tax_Outline_2011[from the Revenue Estimates section of the 2011-12 Proposed Budget]

  • More Light

    (click to see)

    [from Evan You]

  • Isarithmic History of the Two-Party Vote

    It looks like the weather? It is the weather.

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4h62jRiUcc&w=640&h=360]

    [For a full explanation, see David B. Sparks; via Cantankerous Buddha]

  • Open Census Season

    It’s that time of the decade again.  The census is done and now the data is starting to flow.  It’s free candy for reporters [Detroit -25%] and, since it’s 2011, you are going to see this data like never before. Of course, it takes time to get through it all, but the New York Times is offering some 2005-2009 data while you wait…

    (click to launch NYT’s Mapping America: Every City, Every Block)

    And in case you’d like to check out some of the data yourself, the U.S. Census Bureau has rolled out FactFinder2:

    While definitely easier on the eyes and more technically sophisticated, the sugarcoating is skin deep as FactFinder2 is also sort of confusing, if not discouraging, to use.  ACM recommends a deep breath before going in.

    [NYT’s Mapping America: Every City, Every Block; FactFinder2; FactFinder1]

  • For the Easy Win

    Want to play a game all day long, but don’t have the time?  Well, your problem was solved nine years ago.

    Behold, Progress Quest:

    ProgressQuest (click to play)

    Choose your character name and type and the game literally plays itself.  Progress Quest is a perpetual accomplishment machine.  Let it go in the background and it’s there anytime you need to see something in your life actually making progress.

    [Progress Quest]

  • The Phone Company Knows What You Did Last Summer

    Did you hear the one about the German politician who sued the phone company to see how much they knew about him?  Turns out his cell phone recorded his location 35,000 times over 6 months.  That’s once every 7.5 minutes.  In response, he released the data, and Zeit Online has mapped it out:

    CellPhoneTracking_Zeit(click and then press play to live the life of Malte Spitz)

    Technically, this information is part of the service.  Most days you get pissed if your phone doesn’t know where you are.  The funny part is that they aren’t willing to admit they have this level of information and are storing it.  It makes for a pretty sketchy lead-in to considering what else they might be doing with it.

    [Zeit Online via Gawker]

  • Federal Government – Non-Defense

    GDP_Gov3_shot

    (click to enlarge)

    [2007 US GDP – Data Source: BEA – NIPA tables 3.9.5, 3.11.5, 3.15.5]

  • Wasted URLs: Color.com

    That they paid $350,000 for it and took down colour.com while they were at it hints at some real lunacy.
    That they got $41M in funding points to a complete breakdown of the system.  And if that isn’t enough waste for you, think of all the people who are going to use it (for a short time).

  • The Current Radiation Picture

    A snap from the latest readings…

    See the movement of radiation from Japan in a two-part animation from ZAMG:
    March 12-19    , March 20-Present

    [via Zero Hedge, who also has a collection of crowdsourced radiation tracking sites worth a look.]

  • I Heart Huckabees

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfIiRKLMjDY&w=640&h=480]

    [I Heart Huckabees on IMDb, BOM]

  • The California Recovery Task Force!

    Wondering what’s being done to get California out of the hole?

    Here’s some extremely detailed maps to lay it all out for you:

    by County/City by Congressional District

    [from recovery.ca.gov]