Data stories

Did you ever hear the story about the two women who were discussing where to go for dinner?  The first woman said, "Let's go to that new place that we read about last week."  The second woman responded, "But I hard that the food and service wasn't very good."  To...

My respect for Wikipedia increases every day.  There was a time in its early days when I scoffed at someone who relied on it for answers.  It was clear that, while a number of serious, committed individuals were spending incredible amounts of time bringing "the facts"...

The long-awaited 2010 Census counts were released yesterday for the State of Michigan and all its subdivisions - down to the block level.  Now the redistricting process for US. Congress, State House and Senate, and County Commissioners can begin. While we have known...

In 1909, Mary was far and away the most favorite name for baby girls, outdistancing its runner-up Helen by a two-to-one ratio.  The rest of the Top 5 included Margaret, Ruth and Dorothy.  While you still run across some of these names - the 2009 rankings were Mary...

I just read a story of a young man in Egypt who decided to name his first born daughter "Facebook" to commemorate the way the social networking site helped protesters get organized to topple Hosni Mubarak.  Alexia Tsotsis , writing for TechCrunch and citing a story in...

Birth data for 2009 are just coming out from the Michigan Department of Community Health and the story they tell is more of the same - births and birth rates continue to drop.  The 2009 total of 117,309 represents a 23 percent decrease since the most recent post-baby...