The 2012 Race for the Presidency

Map, courtesy of the Washington Post.  You can click on the map and it will take you to a wonderful interactive experience.  Double-click your state, and you can see how your county voted in the last election.  Check it out.

Road Fatalities USA

It's not so cool that so many road fatalities happen every year.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 369,629 people have died on America's roads between 2001 and 2009. 

Mapping experts at ITO World have taken this information, and produced this powerful map using OpenStreetMap. You can zoom in to any particular part of the country or you can simply search for your town. Each dot represents a life. 

I used this interactive map earlier to see how many people died in proximity to where I lived, and it's mind-boggling to me how I didn't know these people died just feet from our home, or a nearby store. Click on the pic, to see how many people have lost their lives in your neighborhood, you'd be surprised.  Just looking at that huge mass of dots in Houston, Texas is crazy.

What Are The Most Dangerous Blocks In Your City?

So the only thing I can think of is that New York and Houston are so big, that crimes in these areas can't be mapped just yet.  But when you look at cities, like Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, I'm thinking maybe I don't want to know.  Geez.

Trulia maps is the newest, most innovative way to visualize the most dangerous blocks in your city.  Literally. To the very street you live on.  And I'm sure you'll feel absolutely wonderful once you realize your block is the most dangerous one in the city.

The information Trulia uses to power these sortable—by location, crime, and time of perpetration—displays isn't anything new; sites like EveryBlock.com and SpotCrime.com, among others, have been making local crime statistics publicly available for years. But when it's all laid bare for you, and you start seeing some yellow/orange seeping into your cul de sac, well, you may just take that neighborhood watch a little more seriously.[source]

Let's take a look at Austin, Texas, for example.  Look at all that sea of yellow and red, doesn't it make you shiver?  Well, it should.  Click on the image and check out Trulia Maps to see how your city fares in this country full of crime.

The Gizmodo Fireworks Atlas

I guess Gizmodo has it somewhat right.  LMAO.  Especially the states where it's categorized, "If someone wanted to pour a cup of gunpowder into a tin can and explode it, it's probably okay."  Only in Texas, baby! LOL

click to enlarge

AIDS - 30 Years and Counting...

It may no longer be a death sentence, but it is still a problem.  It is still a disease we haven't found a cure for.  It is still an epidemic.  If you are not playing safe, you are playing with the very people you love, the very people you call your friends and your family.  Get tested regularly.  If you got tested yesterday, do it again in a few months.

You may think that it is nowhere near you, but I advise you to take a look at this map.  You can click on it to reach the interactive version, it is the most recent statistics of HIV across the United States.  You can zoom into the county you live in, and find out how prevalent the disease is there.  The map is actually quite creative.  It was put together over a period of 14 years, and is currently being updated yearly.  The map is also searchable by gender, ethnicity, and age.  New York City and Washington D.C. are the cities most affected by the disease.  But don't discount the rest of the country, look at the entire eastern seaboard, the bible belt, through the east of Texas.

AIDSVu has created the interactive map based on 2008 data from the CDC, but as I mentioned earlier, it is being updated annually - next year they will have 2009 data, and continue yearly, thereafter.