Show Me the Money!

America's Wealth Is Staggeringly Concentrated in the Northeast Corridor - The Wire

The median household income in the poorest county (Wilcox County, Alabama) was $22,126 in 2012. In Falls Church, Virginia, where highly educated defense contractors and federal government workers cluster, the median income last year was $121,250, more than five times higher. Here's a map of income by county for the United States.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Mapped: The World’s Water Crisis

Slate magazine provides this map showing water stress — the ratio of water withdrawals to supply. There's an interactive version here: Water Risk Indicators.

...Said No Teacher Ever

How much teachers get paid — state by state

Here's the Washington Post on how much teachers get paid state by state. (Alaska is $65,468; Hawaii is $54,300.) The original source allows you to look at data over the years: http://highereddatastories.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-much-do-we-pay-public-school.html.

For comparison, I've added a map showing the highest paid public employee in each state. Can't find a reliable source for how much those highest-paid employees actually make.

Losing My Religion

Religion in America’s states and counties, in 6 maps

Here's a Washington Post article showing the demographic breakdown of religion in the United States. Map #1 is the largest single denomination in each county, map #2 is the largest non-Christian religion for each state, and map #3 shows the religious diversity by county. There are more maps at the link, including some interactive ones.

Here's the largest non-Christian religion for each state. South Carolina — who knew?

Blue counties have little religious diversity; red ones a great deal.

The Geography of Hate

Hate Map

Here are geotagged tweets featuring homophobic, racist, and other nasty words, showing the areas where they are most used. Here are the maps for "nigger" and "fag" — many more at the link.

A Nation Divided Over Mayonnaise

22 Maps That Show The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts In America - Business Insider

Does "mayonnaise" have two syllables or three? "Pa-jamma" or "Pah-jama"? And most importantly, is it "you guys" or "y'all"?

Here are heat maps showing concentrations of how people pronounce "crayon," address a group of two or more people, describe nighttime wear, eat pie with pecans in it, all courtesy of Joshua Katz of the statistics department at NC State University. And, of course, the uniquely Southern expression, "the devil is beating his wife."

For a hundred more examples, visit Katz's site, Dialect Survey Maps.

It's a Rolls...It's a Mansion...It's SUPER ZIP!

Washington: A world apart | The Washington Post

A "Super ZIP" describes the most prosperous and highly educated demographic clusters. Washington, DC, has the greatest concentration of Super ZIPs, followed by East Manhattan, San Jose, Boston, and Oakland. There may not be any "there" there, but there's sure a lot of money.

Click the link to visit an interactive tool that allows you to enter a ZIP code or city and see how it lines up against the rest of the country. We're in 20817.

Watershed Down

A New Map Of The U.S., Created From Where We Get Our Water | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

If state lines reflected the watersheds that supply them, this is what the US would look like. 19th century explorer John Wesley Powell recommended (unsuccessfully) that western states be brought into the union based on these borders, which would have been of particular importance to the dry southwest.

Three Americas Based on Attitude

There Are Three Americas Hiding Inside Our Country--Which Do You Live In? | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

When Americans are sorted by five personality traits — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — it turns out they tend to live with others of the same temperament. Do you belong in the "Friendly and Conventional Region," the "Relaxed and Creative Region," or the "Temperamental and Uninhibited Region"?

The region is defined by moderately high levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, moderately low Neuroticism, and very low Openness. This configuration of traits portrays the sort of person who is sociable, considerate, dutiful, and traditional...

The psychological profile of this region is marked by low Extraversion and Agreeableness, very low Neuroticism, and very high Openness... In general, the qualities of this region depict a place where open-mindedness, tolerance, individualism, and happiness are valued.

The psychological profile of the region is defined by low Extraversion, very low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, very high Neuroticism, and moderately high Openness. This particular configuration of traits depicts the type of person who is reserved, aloof, impulsive, irritable, and inquisitive.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

A Beautiful Vision Of An American High-Speed Rail Map | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

Here's the United States covered by high-speed rail — but I don't know why they limited this to 220 mph rather than maglev at much higher speeds. If we're going to do this (alas, we aren't), we might as well do it right.

Where Did All the Money Go?

A New Map Of The U.S., Created By How Our Dollar Bills Move | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

Using data from "Where's George," physicist Dirk Brockman created new internal borders for the US based on where dollar bills were and were not likely to cross. While in many cases they follow state lines, this isn't always true. Missouri and Pennsylvania are divided into east and west, and Chicago includes a large portion of both Indiana and Wisconsin. Where did your money go?

I Say Jabluko, You Say Jabloko

European Maps Showing Origins Of Common Words - Business Insider

Both "jabluko" and "jabloko" mean "apple," but the fruit is also known as "manzana," "omen," "milo," and (my favorite) "xnjor." (I think that's what Joe Btfsplk calls it — though that might be a bad omen.)

In addition to "apple," here are maps for "church," "bear," "beer," "orange," "rose," "pineapple," "tea," and "cucumber." Remember, a trandafir by any other name would smell as sweet.

Whiskey A-Go-Go

How the World Drinks Whiskey—Visualized - Roberto A. Ferdman - The Atlantic

While India consumes about half the world's whiskey, on a per-capita basis it isn't even in the top 40. The top three whiskey-drinking nations are (in order) France, Uruguay, and the United States. (Uruguay may be switching to other vices, of course.)



India produces a lot of its own whiskey — UB India is the world's largest whiskey maker by volume. The United States produces just under 360 million barrels of whiskey per year (slightly more than one barrel for every American — man, woman, and child) and drinks about 70% of what it makes. However, on a per-capita basis, Australians drink more American whiskey than do Americans: 0.661 liters versus only 0.653 for the USA.



All this blogging is making me thirsty. I think I'll go get a drink.