At the end of each month, the AGS team looks back at articles and blog posts that we saw that stood out to us. Some are from news agencies, and many come from our partners, but not all use our data. For the end of the year, we decided to each pick our favorite posts from 2021, both our own, and external articles. Here is the round-up from the team for 2021.
Gary
After years of denying the existence of UFO’s, the federal government inadvertently affirmed that which we all knew – mermaids are real, and then surprisingly, let it be known that they are enumerating them in the census. A fun read that shows the real problem with the 2020 Census data.
Mermaids and Census Privacy Concerns – Applied Geographic Solutions
With the updated 2020 Census, they recently determined the current center of the population is near Hartville, Missouri.
The first center of population, based on the 1790 census, was located in Chestertown, Maryland. Since then, the center of population has moved west and south. The link below has more information on how they find the center, and how it has changed over time.
2020 Center of Population Press Kit (census.gov)
Matt
All technical (which, if you know him, surprises no one), Matt chose a few articles that highlight the issues with the 2020 Census.
Dealing with the 2020 Census – Applied Geographic Solutions
Deep Dive into 2020 Census Block Data – Applied Geographic Solutions
Data Scientists Ask: How Accurate Is the 2020 Census? – Bloomberg
Matt would also like to note that his favorite article was the census article on the existence of mermaids, but Gary selected it before he got a chance. It was, by far, the favorite article of the entire AGS team.
Elyse
Because I write many of the blog posts that you see here, it is hard to pick a favorite. However, in year two of creating this content, I wrote many more personal articles. Of course, my favorite has to be 25 Years of AGS: Elyse’s Perspective. It was really fun to reflect on where AGS has come—from my brothers and me running around our living room while my dad tried to take a sales call, to now, working at the family business myself.
25 Years of AGS- Elyse’s Perspective – Applied Geographic Solutions
By far my favorite read of the year was the adventure of eSite employee Thomas Cannon to visit every state in the shortest time possible, fueled by analytics of course. I’m very impressed by the logistics needed to pull this off. How do you visit all 50 states in only 5 days and 16 hours? Read on to find out.
Lori
A Demographer’s Guide to Trick-or-Treating combines holiday fun with data analysis.
A Demographer’s Guide to Trick-or-Treating – Applied Geographic Solutions
If you love maps, look up this hashtag on Twitter. A particular favorite of ours was day 15: map made without a computer. Look through the entries for the map of Canada made of jellybeans, and the map of the Netherlands made from cheese. Instant classics.
#30DayMapChallenge – Twitter Search / Twitter
John
Up, down, north, south—what do all of these mean in the way that we use them in our everyday language? Up north doesn’t always mean what you think it does.
Directional Colloquialisms – Applied Geographic Solutions
If you love listening to podcasts, Safegraph has a list of the best data science podcasts to listen to. So, take a break from the latest true crime podcasts, and give these a listen. We’d argue that you can listen to them at work, it’s educational.
Best Data Science Podcasts: Analytics, Management, Visualization, and More (safegraph.com)
Recent Comments