Here's an appeal from the Worldwatch Institute I thought readers of this blog might be interested in.

State of the World 2009: ???

For the past several years, themed editions have helped us frame our annual State of the World report around the big ideas that will speed the transition to an environmentally sustainable world.

Each year, the Worldwatch Institute staff comes together to brainstorm the most important stories to include in our annual assessment of progress toward healthier societies, more equitable economies, and a cleaner environment.

We've highlighted consumption, global security, the rise of China and India on the world scene, and the unprecedented demographic shift that will make the world predominantly urban for the first time in history. Next year, we're planning to focus on the innovations needed to create a sustainable global economy.

Now, we want to hear from YOU. Help us decide what the big stories will be in 2009—and help us pick the theme that best ties them together for a compelling package.

What issues do you think will be most relevant in the months and years ahead? Which topics do you think deserve close scrutiny by experts at Worldwatch next year?

Suggest your idea for the next big State of the World theme.

I was excited to read in The Numbers Guy's blog about Numberpedia, an attempt to create a Wikipedia about numbers.

From the article:

The site, launched two weeks ago and still small, aspires to be the Wikipedia of numbers—a place where anyone can contribute (or seek out) statistics about a wide range of topics.

“At its core, it’s a way for people to store statistics that they find online,” says Eric Silverberg, Numberpedia’s creator and a 27-year-old student at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Mr. Silverberg has been posting a half few dozen entries each day and has begun promoting the site with emails to fellow MIT students and Stanford University alumni. He says there are a “couple thousand” registered users so far.

Numberpedia is full of promise and pitfalls. Like Wikipedia, each entry is supposed to include a link to source material and there are forums where other users can discuss and question entries. Unlike Wikipedia, a contributor can opt to prevent other users from editing a certain entry. Mr. Silverberg doesn’t guarantee the numbers will be accurate, saying, “It’s up to the user who finds one of these statistics to judge the credibility of the author and the source.”

I went to Numberpedia to see what the excitement was about. It has some interesting numbers on it -- from the fiscal 2008 US defense budget to the sale price of dog-chewed Vick trading cards.

There's some possibilities there, including the ability to create projects and link a series of statistics within them.

It's something to keep your eye on ....

This site will be participating, and would like to invite other bloggers to join in.

BLOGGERS TO UNITE ON BLOG ACTION DAY

All Blogs Invited to Take Part in Joining Voices to Help Environment

An international initiative of bloggers known as "Blog Action Day" launched today, with the aim of uniting thousands of blogging voices, talking about one issue for one day. This year on Blog Action Day, which is slated for Oct. 15, 2007, bloggers will be discussing the environment.



Major blogs have signed up to participate, including Lifehacker, Dumb Little Man, Lifehack.org, Get Rich Slowly, Web Worker Daily, GigaOm, The Simple Dollar, Zen Habits, Freelance Switch, LifeClever, Unclutterer, Pronet Advertising, Wise Bread and many more.



"For just one day, we'd like to unite as many of the millions of bloggers around the world and speak about one issue - the environment," said Collis Ta'eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch.com, and a cofounder of Blog Action Day. "We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity. By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved, and how much we can be heard."


Blog Action Day is a non-profit initiative, and will be an annual event. As an alternative to blogging about the environment on Blog Action Day, bloggers can opt to participate by donating their blog's proceeds from Oct. 15 to one of several environmental organizations chosen for this purpose: Greenpeace International, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the Conservation Fund, and the Sierra Club.



Bloggers who would like to participate in Blog Action Day should visit BlogActionDay.org or email Collis Ta'eed at collis@eden.cc, so they can be listed on the Blog Action Day site. To participate, a blog just needs to write about the issue of the environment on Oct. 15, 2007, or donate its proceeds for the day to one of the chosen environmental organizations.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the Measures of Australia's Progress: Summary Indicators, 2007 (Edition 2)

From the press release:

Measures of Australia's Progress: Summary Indicators, presents a summary of measures which relate to the 14 headline dimensions of progress presented in MAP. It presents the headline indicators (where a headline indicator is available) at the national level, and a brief summary discussion about the measure and associated trends.

As MAP draws on data from a number of different sources, released at different times of the year, it is inevitable that more recent data will become available for the headline indicators at some stage following release of the Summary Indicators product.

While the timing of release of MAP: Summary Indicators, 2007 (Edition 1) was chosen to allow most of the indicators to be as up to date as possible, three sources were expected to have new data available in the months following its release. These were the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2005, produced by the Australian Greenhouse Office, the ABS Survey of Income and Housing 2005-06, and the ABS Voluntary Work Survey, 2005-06.

To ensure that the MAP Summary Indicators publication remains up-to-date, we have updated data and text in the following sections:

• Economic hardship
• Biodiversity – the land clearing section
• Atmosphere – greenhouse gas emissions
• Family, community and social cohesion – voluntary work section.

From the press release:

DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica Smith
U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-233
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2007

Household Income Rises, Poverty Rate Declines, Number of Uninsured Up

Full Report PDF [78p.] at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf

August 28, 2007

Press release: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010583.html

“….. Real median household income in the United States climbed between 2005 and 2006, reaching $48,200, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the second consecutive year that income has risen.

Meanwhile, the nation’s official poverty rate declined for the first time this decade, from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent in 2006. There were 36.5 million people in poverty in 2006, not statistically different from 2005. The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 44.8 million (15.3 percent) in 2005 to 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006.

These findings are contained in the Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 report. The data were compiled from information collected in the 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). Also released today were income, poverty and earnings data from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) for states and metropolitan areas, counties, cities and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more and all congressional districts. (This year marks the first time that the population in group quarters such as prisons, college dorms, military barracks and nursing homes is included, so the 2006 estimates are not fully comparable to the 2005 estimates.) ….”