Xcelsius
does magical things for your Excel spreadsheets.  It turns the
numeric data into controlable Flash charts, which can be standalone
“movies,” imported into PowerPoint or sent to colleagues as
click-and-manipulate e-mail.  Check out the Quicktime demos at http://www.infommersion.com/demos.html

This Gallery of Data Visualization displays some examples of the
Best and Worst of Statistical
Graphics, with the view that the contrast may be useful,
inform current practice, and provide some pointers to both historical and current work.
We go from what is arguably
the best statistical graphic ever drawn,
to the current record-holder for the worst.
See http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/

There are many things that faster computers have made possible in recent years.
For [journalists], scientists, engineers, statisticians, managers, investors, and others,
computers have made it possible to create models that simulate reality and aid in
making predictions. One of the methods for simulating real systems is the ability to take
into account randomness by investigating hundreds of thousands of different scenarios.
The results are then compiled and used to make decisions. This is what Monte Carlo
simulation is about.

      Monte Carlo simulation is often used in business for risk and decision analysis, to help make decisions
given uncertainties in market trends, fluctuations, and other uncertain factors…..

     
This article will guide you through the process of performing a Monte Carlo simulation using
Microsoft Excel. Although Excel will not always be the best place to run a scientific
simulation, the basics are easily explained with just a few simple examples.”

See http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/mc/index.html

For yet-to-be-determined reasons, the blog isn't easily viewed today if you're using IE.  However, folks using Mozilla or Firefox seem
to have no problem.  Yet another reason to dump IE.  We're
trying to solve this head scratcher (any suggestions most welcome), but
until we do, fire up any browser but IE.

Today's prognostication: Fifty
to 100 years from now, historians and demographers will look at the era
from 1990 to 2005 as one characterized by intense global population
mobility. 

Any major city in Southeast Asia these days is
loaded with people from throughout that broad region.  Any major
citiy in Europe is loaded with people from other nations, especially
the former USSR, the Mideast and Africa.  And the blending of
geography, demography and economics makes for fascinating stories IF we
have the tools to tease out the interesting and important facts and
trends.

The Jan-March 2005 issue of ESRI's ArcUser
magazine is especially rich for analytic journalists and the JAGIS
[Journalism and GIS] crowd.  The latter will be especially
interested in:

“GIS Tracks Earnings Sent Home by Mexican Migrants.” 
The piece, by two geographers from SUNY-Cortland, illustrates the money
flow to individual Mexican states.  Unfortunately we don't have
data and maps showing the U.S. states-of-origin of those dollars, but the
methodology will be of interest to geographers and journalists
everywhere.

GIS Management is
essentially the same as managing a CAR or Analytic Journalism operation
in a news organization.  The same issue of ArcUser leads with
three articles on how to establish successful GIS programs; just
replace “GIS” with “AJ” and the concepts translate easily. 
So check out “Enterpriseing GIS Management” ; “Supporting Successful Enterprise GIS Solutions” ; “Building an Enterprise GIS in a Limited Fiscal Environment“; “Evaluating Enterprise GIS Requirements” and “Powering Up Your Enterprise GIS.”

Finally, the IAJ gang has been promoting performance measurement (and
forensic accounting) as important tools for journalists for the past
couple years.  Another story in ArcUser,  “Performance Measurement in Local Government,” illustrates how GIS is a valuable analytic and measurement tool, one which journalists could easily adopt.

Tom Koch is an early-adapter of the tools of analytic journalism and a friend of the IAJ. 



“In an important new book to be published by ESRI Press in spring 2005,
author Koch explores the role that mapping has played in man's
ongoing struggle to understand and treat illness. In Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping, and Medicine,
he argues that we are all fellow travelers in the war against disease
as well as agents complicit in their engagement. The communities we
build, the technologies that enable them, and the commerce that
sustains them together assure an environment favorable to the advance
of microscopic disease agents. In a real way, medical science plays
catch-up with the health problems we create in our evolving society;
its scientific advances are a response to the diseases we foster
through economic, environmental, and social choices.“

Media Matters for America points out a bogus use of bar charts by CNN.  Yes, the scale and base line DO matter.  See http://mediamatters.org/items/200503220005
Update: CNN corrected its chart.

DAVID LEONHARDT and FORD FESSENDEN
of The New York Times delivered a straightforward analytic piece today.  “Black Coaches in N.B.A. Have Shorter Tenures”
is based on fairly basic statistical analysis that suggests that black
coaches, all things being equal, don't stick around as long in the
musical chairs game that is professional sports.  Solid graphics
accompany the story, along with a helpful nerd box.

GovTrack.us
is a free, publicly available, privately run, open-government-advocating web
service in good company with such sites as Project Vote Smart and
CitizenJoe.  GovTrack debuted quietly in September 2004,
then hit the big time with mentions in
BusinessWeek
and the
New
York Times (registration required). The attention-getting feature is this:
GovTrack will send you a notice via email or
RSS feed when official legislative
websites such as THOMAS report that action
has occurred on legislation of interest to you.