No. 254 March 2004
2000 CENSUS METRO/MICRO GEOGRAPHY “PLAIN AND SIMPLE” Within the Census Bureau’s SUBJECTS A-Z on the Census Bureau Home page (at
http://www.census.gov), there is an entry under M: “Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas.” This is a direct way to find the latest information about the 2000 Metropolitan/Micropolitan standards, and lists of the current Metropolitan/Micropolitan areas. After the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewed and revised the standards for the definition of metropolitan areas, the OMB and the Census Bureau put this information in their websites. The Census Bureau’s
The Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metroarea.html
web page includes a link to the Metropolitan Area Standards Review Project (MARSP). The MARSP page provides information about the OMB and the metro areas standards revision. It also includes a link to the full text of the new “Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas”
(Federal Register v. 65, No. 249, December 27, 2002, pages 82227-82238). The Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas page also provides a link to Current Lists of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas
(http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metrodef.html
). The Current Lists page provides two comprehensive alphabetical lists of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Components (as of December, 2003) and Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Components (as of June 6, 2003). There are also Lists by Principal City and New England listings. These three web pages provide easy access to the 2000 Metropolitan Standards and several lists of the Metro/Micro areas. This is one easy way to access Census geography, until someone else shows you an easier way.
LEWIS AND CLARK’S EXPEDITION 1803-1806 In 1803 after the United States purchased the lands west of the Mississippi River known as the Louisiana Purchase, President Madison sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark west to explore this new territory. Lewis was the expedition’s biologist and botanist, and Clark was the cartographer and river man. Their task was to explore and report to President Madison and the American people what they encountered in this new land. Lewis and Clark explored, described, and mapped physical features of the lands west of the Mississippi River. They found prairies, mountains, valleys, and other landforms found in this uncharted territory and their recorded observations of all these landforms were later called geomorphic observations. Their recorded observations about the rivers and bodies of water constitute their hydrologic observations. They also made observations and measurements related to astronomy, biology, ecology, ethnology, and geology. “Lewis and Clark provided the first major scientific documentation of the American West.” Since the U.S. Geological Survey was created in 1879, it used the data collected by later expeditions to build upon and update what Lewis and Clark provided. U. S. Geological Survey Circular 1246,
Lewis and Clark’s Observations and Measurements of Geomorphology and Hydrology, and Changes with
Time, issued in 2003 is 110 pages of interesting reading. This is in many Federal Depository Libraries under I 19.4/2:1246 and is free from U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80225-0286.
HOUSING: YOURS, THE BEST, AND THE WORST On a scale from “best to worst,” how do you rate the house/apartment/condominium in which you live? No matter where you rank it on the scale, you most likely fall between the two extremes. You could be in either “the best” or the “worst,” but if (you and) your house were at either extreme, you would not be reading this newsletter. Isn’t there a better house you cannot afford, where “the rich people live?” Next, where are the poverty areas, you know about, which have houses which are “worse than yours?” Now, where are the “worst” houses in your city?, worst in the State?, the “worst” in the nation? Per the HUD definition, “worst case” needs are defined as unassisted renters with very low incomes (below 50 percent of area median income) who pay more than half of their income for housing or live in severely substandard housing.” “In 2001, an estimated 5.07 million unassisted very-low-income renter households has worst case needs for rental assistance.” “Almost 60 percent of the 10.9 million persons with worst case needs in 1999 were elderly, children, or disabled” and most lived in the inner cities areas.
Trends in Worst Case Needs for Housing, 1978-1999, A Report to Congress on Worst Case Housing Needs, Plus Update on Worst Case Needs in
2001, issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in December 2003, is a good introduction to America’s housing problems. Found in some Federal Depository Libraries under HH 1.2:R 29/22, this volume is also on the HUD website
(http://www.huduser.org/publications/affhsg/worstcase03.html) as a PDF file. The 2001 information in the Trends volume updates
Rental Housing Assistance – The Worsening Crisis: A Report to Congress on Worst Case Housing Needs
(issued in March 2000 and) found as html and PDF files on the HUD web site
(http://www.huduser.org/publications/affhsg/worstcase00.html). These are two of the several HUD publications found on the Rental Housing Assistance Reports page
http://www.huduser.org/publications/affhsg/rha_main.html .
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION AND (SUMMER) TRAVEL If you are a member of the American Automobile Association (AAA), one of the best member services is the TRIP TIK Service. The TRIP TIK is a set of maps, put together by the AAA, which shows the streets and highways one will follow when driving from one city to another. On these maps, all the current highway construction projects which will be encountered while driving the designated route are marked on the maps. The AAA member will know venture across country knowing what highway constructions sites he will encounter and whether he can avoid them. This awareness of what highway construction is now available to every driver who owns or has access to a computer. Now everyone can learn what highway construction is taking place anywhere in the United States. National Traffic and Road Closure Information http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo/index.htm is a Federal Highway Administration website which consists of a National Map of all 50 States. Yes, even Alaska, which is accessible via Canada, and even if someone ships a car to Hawaii, it would be good to know about the weather and any highway construction ahead of time. A “mouse click” on any state(s) will provide access to the web pages of information provided by the State(s)’ Department of Transportation. Information includes: construction zones, traffic conditions, congestion, accidents/problems, traffic camera videos, travel maps, weather information, travel maps, and travel times. There are links to city and regional areas electronic traffic information systems and to the information network provided by the 511 America’s Traveler Information Telephone service.
OVER 4,000 HEALTH RISKS AT HOME Home is not a safe place. Do you know how many harmful household products there are? Hundreds/thousands? Vapors from varnish and Superglue can be sickening and the ingestion of automobile antifreeze, or drain cleaner can be fatal. If you are using household products and become dizzy and get a headache, you can now find out why. The National Library of Medicine has created the Household Products Database of information on over 4,000 brand name products which is found at http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm. For the first time the information about potentially harmful household products and their harmful effects is in one location The Products page divides all products into seven categories: Auto Products, Home Inside, Pesticides, Landscape/Yard, Personal Care/Use, Home Maintenance, and Hobbies & Crafts. The selection of a major category, such Auto Products ultimately leads to specific brand name auto products. Each product has a comprehensive information sheet describing all its hazardous/harmful qualities. To learn what specific (brand name) home products contain Acetone, go to the Ingredients page and type in Acetone, and a list of all the household products containing Acetone will appear. If you are working with several household products and experience dizziness and a headache, go to the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) page and type in “dizziness and headache” and you will find a list of all the household products which are capable of causing dizziness and a headache. The Home page introduces the Products page which has seven categories and lists the (over) 4,000 specific brand name products. The Ingredients page lists the toxic or hazards ingredients which are then Lists all the specific household products which contain that substance. For this and other information go to “Household Products Database” which is an introductory article by Erin E. Dooley in Environmental Health Perspectives, V. 111, No. 16, December 2003, page A875 (HE 20.3559:111/16).
AUGUST 14, 2003 BLACKOUT At about 4:10 PM on August 14, 2003 in a motel in Cleveland Ohio, when I was turned on the coffee pot, the lights went out. Did my coffee pot makes the lights go out in Cleveland, (Northern) Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Ontario Canada? Why did the power fail, what caused the Cleveland urban area to look like the “scene out a science fiction movie” where all the lights are off and the world seems to have come to a standstill awaiting the arrival of the conquering alien spaceships? For those who experienced the blackout, those who did not, and those who didn’t even know of this memorable event, the answers are now available. In the February 4, 2004, Federal Register V. 69, No. 23, pages 5330-5331, there was a official Notice issued by the Department of Energy’s U.S. –Canada Power System Outage Task Force: Interim Report: Causes of the August 14 Blackout in the United States and Canada which sought public input and written comments about the content of the Interim Report: Causes of the August 14th Blackout in the United States and Canada by February 11. After the Comments deadline, the Task Force will then consider the comments when preparing its Final Report. The Department of Energy has made the Interim Report available as a PDF file at August 14th Blackout Report Released (http://www.eere.energy.gov/distributedpower/news/2003/1103_blackout.html ). The Department of Energy’s Energy Reports website has the Task Force’s final report: Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada: Causes and Recommendations (April 2004) and is found at https://reports.energy.gov/.
AGE ADJUSTMENT/2000 POPULATION STANDARD IN MORTALITY STATISTICS Federal and State statisticians go through a complex mathematical process of “blending death data with the population statistics” change crude mortality data to what we know as age adjusted mortality rates. Some statisticians, until recently were using population data as old as 1940, many statisticians and thought it was time to change the age adjustment standard. This is an oversimplified statement of how the Federal and State agencies were using varied population data 1990 and earlier (1940, 1970, 1980, etc.) population data to create age adjusted mortality statistics. “In August, 1998, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services issued a policy statement directing all DHHS agencies to use the 2000 projected U.S. population (hereafter referred to as the 2000 Population Standard) for age adjusting death rates beginning no later than data year 1999.” The 2000 standard is based on Census Bureau population projections data. There is also a “Master List” of age-adjustment weights which mortality statisticians will use for the current (1999 and later) age-adjusted mortality data, i.e. “Table 1. Master List: 2000 U.S. projected population and age-adjustments weights.” “The source of the population figures in the Master List is the official Bureau of the Census Projections for the year 2000” published on page 52 of Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1995-2050 (Current Population Report 25-1130, issued February, 1996) (http://www.census.gov/prod/1/pop/p25-1130/). For more details, Richard J. Klein and Charlotte A. Schoenborn explain this statistical theory in Age Adjustment Using the 2000 Projected U.S. Population. This 12 page CDC Healthy People 2010 Statistical Notes No. 20 was issued in January 2001 and is found on the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/statnt/statnt20.pdf.
May 20, 2004
http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/news0403.html