Data

I am a data nut.  If I see a statistic, I immediately want to know its origin.  And if I don't see a statistic, but instead see some unverified claim, I immediately want to see the statistics.

43.7% of statistics are made up on the spot. -- Steven Wright

Over the years, I've accumulated a collection of tools and data sources, as well as sources of ideas.  This article just lists the most prominent of these.  I use them, abuse them and often beat heads with the output of my efforts.  Of course, I read many political and/or social justice blogs.  I don't use them as sources of factual information, usually.  From them, I backtrack to the original (e.g., if I read an article based on a dataset from the Census Bureau, I go to the Census Bureau and look at the original data.).  My golden rule is, "trust, but verify." Heh-heh.

I don't list it here, but I do use Excel quite a bit.  By loading something like, say, a UCR into Excel, I can turn it into a table and filter the data quickly; or likewise, by creating a pivot table.  Then, charting the results of the filtering is a snap.

• Research Tools and Data Sources

• Tools
• Tableau Public
• http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/download
• GnuPlot
• http://www.gnuplot.info/
• PSPP, an open source replacement for IBM's SPSS
• https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/
• Data
• Maddison Project
• http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/maddison-project/home.htm
• IMF - A Historical Public Debt Database
• http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=24332.0
• The Conference Board - Total Economy Database
• http://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• http://www.bls.gov/home.htm
• National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
• http://www.start.umd.edu/start/
• OECD Statistics & Data Lab
• http://www.oecd.org/statistics/datalab/
• Census Bureau Data
• https://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html
• FBI Uniform Crime Reports
• http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr

• Blogs and Publications

• Economics
• New Economic Perspectives
• http://neweconomicperspectives.org/
• Real World Economics Review (subscriber)
• http://rwer.wordpress.com/
• Economist's View
• http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/
• The Economist (subscriber)
• http://www.economist.com/
• New Scientist (subscriber)
• http://www.newscientist.com/
• Healthcare
• Healthcare Blog
• http://thehealthcareblog.com/
• Healthbeat Blog (Maggie Mahar)
• http://healthbeatblog.org/
• Health Wonk Review
• http://www.healthwonkreview.com/mt/
• Politics And Social Issues
• The American Conservative (subscriber)
• http://www.theamericanconservative.com/