sunlightfoundation
Latest
Trump's quiet war on data begins
Two months into the Trump presidency, there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the new administration. One big area of concern is how the executive branch will deal with the vast amounts of data collected by the government. Federal agencies like NASA and EPA conduct countless studies crucial to understanding our impact on climate change. Labor Department surveys are vital to determining the economic health of the country. Will the administration manipulate data that contradicts its political views? Will information become a tool of oppression? Turns out there's a simpler, but potentially just as troublesome possibility: The White House could simply make it disappear.
Infographic your world with Sitegeist
Sitegeist (free) is quite an odd little app. It's sort of a Yelp for statisticians. You set a location and Sitegeist provides you with infographics about it. View demographics, political contributions, median home values, local restaurants and the weather. It's a big, old jumble of facts and advertising, all mixed together in a magnificently whimsical bundle. Sadly, while I adored the graphics, the GUI isn't quite as easy to manipulate. Based on scrollable lists of visual data, it's quite hard to swipe between the five screens on offer. I recommend you tap on the bottom page bar instead as a workaround. I think the developers would have done better with a single scrolling list rather than trying to put up five, all with mixed levels of details. I'm not sure if this app will stay on my phone long term, but for sitting around at a coffee bar and passing an iPhone around with a bunch of interesting facts, it's actually pretty amusing. It's a good app for friends and chatting and exploring your curiousity about the political contributions of your neighbors.
