The Curse of Interesting Data

by | Sep 24, 2020 | Menger's Musings

Over the years, AGS has created a number of data products which have been widely commended as being as interesting and sometimes even fascinating. And many were commercial failures. These days, we are often asked “do you have mobile data?” The GPS enabled mobile...

Analytics in the Trenches

by | Sep 17, 2020 | Menger's Musings

“There are two things that you should never see being made, sausage and demographics” — Jim Stone, Geovue, 1998. Today we tour the sausage factory, at least as it relates to our recent foray into weekly small area unemployment estimates. Typically, our models...

A Field Guide to the Canis Notitia

by | Sep 10, 2020 | Menger's Musings

Are you a data hound? This is not something you can easily fake. You are or you ain’t. And with just one simple question, I can tell if you are. Don’t you just love the smell of fresh data in the morning?  If you have a bewildered look on your face or find the...

Changing Income Patterns in Urban Areas

by | Sep 3, 2020 | Menger's Musings

In the pre-automobile era, the pattern in most cities in the western world was quite similar – the wealthier you were, the closer to downtown you lived. In the twentieth century, the automobile made it possible for wealthy families to move far away from downtown and...

The Dog Days of Summer

by | Aug 13, 2020 | Menger's Musings

We’ve all heard the phrase “the dog days of summer”. But where did this phrase come from? We use the phrase to refer to those hot and humid days of mid-summer, but it originates from ancient Greek culture. It was related to the rising of the star system Sirius, which...