Kendall Giles

There are a number of tools that have become available recently that overlay population features on top of geographic maps (thanks NumbersGuy). The data is from government surveys, crime logs, census logs, etc., and have been available for a very long time. However, by adding the geographic component and a web interface, the data is suddenly much more accessible and useful, especially to the individual.

For example, are you going to buy a new home and want to check out neighborhoods for various factors, such as crime, income, education opportunities, neighborhood walkability, etc.? Or are you interested in checking out your current neighborhood? Do you want to open a business and so want to target specific markets?

Below are a number of online tools that you may help you answer these questions:

• SpotCrime: shows crime statistics for a given address
• PolicyMap: shows census, real estate analysis, crime, mortgage origination, education, income, demographic, job, energy, and other statistics
• Walk Score: rates a given address on its walkability - a measure of the quality of life around a given address when walking
• Criminal Searches: search a given neighborhood or even people for crimes and offences.

As the first of several examples, here is an image of the distribution of household incomes around VCU in the year 2000, using the PolicyMap service. The free version unfortunately only gives access to old data (e.g., year 2000 for incomes), and the resolution is a little course (does not give block-by-block resolution), but you still can see overall trends. In the figure, the regions shaded with the darker colors indicate higher median household incomes.

The image below, from SpotCrime, shows the various crimes that were reported and logged by police from March 4, 2008 to May 4, 2008 around VCU. The different icons indicate different types of crimes, such as assaults, thefts, arson, arrests, robbery, burglary, vandalism, etc. While the number of crimes over just a two month period might seem high, VCU is an urban university in the middle of a low-income part of town (see previous median income image) with a dense population, so some amount of crime is unfortunately probably to be expected without better enforcement and more security.

Finally, on the bright side, VCU does appear to be a neighborhood that is quite walkable, as seen in the following graphic, where WalkScore gives VCU a walkability score of 88 out of 100, where 100 is the best walkability score you can get. Each icon represents a grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, movie theatre, school, park, library, bookstore, fitness center, drug store, etc., that are good to have within walking distance - the more of these establishments there are, the higher the walkability score.

A colleague just gifted me with the book Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People, by Jane Bryant Quinn.

Unlike complex financial strategies based on timing the market or spending inordinate amounts of time and energy tracking various stocks and funds, Quinn's advice is motivated by the desire for simple strategies that anyone, with any schedule, can implement. Anyone has time to follow her advice and reap the rewards. Topics include buying insurance, buying a house, getting rid of debt, and how to invest money.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, living, review

I have been asked to give two tutorial lectures at this fall's Mathematics of Knowledge and Search Engines workshop series at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, which is a part of UCLA.

I just found out about this (me presenting), so it looks like I'll be busy preparing the talks from now until then. When I find out more information I will post it here.

Here is an overview of the workshop series:

The rise of the search engine as a major tool for searches on the internet has spawned a large and growing industry that has changed modern commerce, education, and the study of scientific, financial, and social data bases. The underpinnings of these search engines are mathematical algorithms which are well adapted to large and rapid computations, mainly from linear algebra. While the impact of this industry has been enormous, there is a parallel development in the applications of these methods to other related problems concerning the extraction of knowledge from large databases. This long program at IPAM will be devoted to new mathematics and methodologies of knowledge engines: the mathematical procedures used to extract knowledge from large databases. While this includes topics related to search engines it is mainly devoted to the more general problem of finding features in a database or using defined features to search within a database. It is expected that this program will be of interest to a large number of scientific fields, including pure and applied mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, and engineering.

In addition to the tutorial sessions, the rest of the workshops are as follows:

• Dynamic Searches and Knowledge Building
• Numerical Tools and Fast Algorithms for Massive Data Mining, Search Engines and Applications
• Social Data Mining and Knowledge Building
• Search and Knowledge Building for Biological Datasets

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, science, technology, travel, work

If you ever wanted to give up your 9-5 job, if you ever wanted to stop working for someone else, or if you ever wanted to live more of your life now, rather than wait until retirement, then you might consider reading Timothy Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

While certainly not for everyone, for not everyone is willing to give up their secure 9-5 job of working for The Man, I think anyone can pick up a few tips or strategies they might use to add some flexibility into their worklife. For example, the book contains examples of how an employee might convince their boss to let them work from home more often. For the bolder, the book gives examples of how a person can quit their 9-5 job entirely while realizing their own ideas for a new product or company. At a minimum it gives everyone encouragement to pursue their interests and hobbies, and gives examples of what is possible from Ferriss' own life. As an aside, I recently gave up a high-paying, secure job in industry to pursue a lifelong goal. Though I did this before reading this book, it certainly confirms that I made the right decision. The book is enhanced with secret codes that can be used to access additional information on the book's website, http://www.fourhourworkweek.com.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, income, job, work

Virginia has a lot of things going for it: four distinct seasons, diverse climates and countryside, thriving economic centers, strong colleges and universities, and rich and interesting historic sites and museums.

However, now Virginia has another feather in its cap. A new Forbes survey of all 50 states ranks Virginia as the Best State for Business:

Four hundred years after Captain John Smith established the first permanent English colony in Jamestown, the Commonwealth of Virginia is leading the way once again. Virginia grabbed the top spot in Forbes.com's first ever Top States for Business thanks to its strong economic growth, low business costs and excellent quality of life.

In fact, Virginia dominated the rankings in each of the six examined categories: business costs, economic climate, growth prospects, labor, quality of life, and regulatory environment.

As for institutions of higher education:

One of Virginia's strongest attributes is its two highly ranked institutions of higher education. The University of Virginia and College of William and Mary spit out up to 5,000 graduates a year, many of whom stay in-state. They help contribute to Virginia's college attainment rate of 34% which is the seventh highest in the country. Life sciences businesses have popped up in and around Charlottesville because of UVA's highly rated medical school.

In addition to UVA and the College of William and Mary, Virginia also boasts the well-known Virginia Tech university, the growing George Mason university, Virginia Commonwealth University (the largest university in the state), and a College that Changes Lives, Lynchburg College.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, living, lynchburg, virginia