Here’s an example from last January, when I still lived in Austin:

With the new version live, I mapped more than 900 checkins. Here’s where I go in Washington, D.C. (I live at 12th and Kearny in northeast, and I work at 6th and Massachusetts in northwest, so that explains the red spots in the upper righthand corner and downtown).

Below is a national view. This makes sense, as I’ve spent most of my time in D.C. and Austin since I stopped using Gowalla (*tear*) in favor of Foursquare. What’s strange, though, is that I’ve never been to Vancouver.

Thanks for the update, Steven.

Since the morn­ing of Dec. 30, a wave of in­ten­tion­al blazes has dam­aged prop­erty and left res­id­ents on edge. The fires range from the West­side to Hol­ly­wood and from the San Fernando Val­ley south to Len­nox. Nine more fires were re­por­ted Monday morn­ing. Of­fi­cials have not con­firmed wheth­er some re­por­ted fires are re­lated to the ar­son spree. The Times will up­date this map as more de­tails be­come avail­able.

I like how the fires are categorized by type — and that the Times’ data desk added a handy timeline to help readers visualize when the fires were set: 

This just in: Washington will be spared when the NASA satellite UARS crashes to Earth. So will Manhattan. Indeed, the entire East Coast of the U.S. looks safe as I examine the projected crash map.

This isn’t class warfare, it’s just physics.

You can watch the 20-year-old satellite, which right now is moving (at about 4.7 miles per second) over the South Pacific, with this service: 

View interactive version

sunfoundation: Google Map Maker edits in real-time Google Map Maker is a simple tool that lets you d

Here’s the national view, with colors representing which group has a plurality in each county, and shades indicating the concentration: 

More recent data shows other information collected last year by the bureau. This view, for example, is a national look at the percentage of residents who are married with kids in the home (notice Utah and South Texas — counties with the nation’s highest birth rates — have a greater proportion of these residents):

And, finally, if you zoom in, the map displays data at the block group level. Here’s D.C., which as I’ve noted is quite segregated:

To plot where I’ve been, I created a personalized Google Map and made notes on each place. It’s a very simple data visualization, but I’m not the pro in the family. Check it out:

View Elise Hu-Stiles’ Washington, DC Spots in a larger map

Click on the map to view it larger, and click on each plot point to read more about the place.

(Hat tip: Zachary M. Seward)

For today’s visualization I downloaded some 31,000 serious crime incidents in 2010, and then uploaded them to Google Fusion Tables, a free online database manager with powerful querying and visualization tools. The data were already geocoded, so I filtered the table for homicides and made this simple map (click the photo to see a full-screen interactive version): 

View an interactive map with all crimes, not just homicides. 

Sources: D.C. Data Catalog, Google Fusion Tables | Raw Data: CSV