If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the U.S. Census Bureau’s new Census Atlas of the United States speaks volumes about how the nation’s population and housing characteristics have changed over the years. The atlas, with more than 700 full-color maps, is the first general population and housing statistical atlas published by the Census Bureau since 1925.

Featuring more than 300 pages and weighing about 7 pounds, the atlas presents data from 1790 through 2000. It is arranged by topic and grouped into three general themes — who we are, where we come from and what we do. Most maps feature county-level detail for the United States and Puerto Rico.

Census Atlas of the United States is available on the Census Bureau Web site. A print copy of the Census Atlas can be purchased from the Government Printing Office online bookstore. This item will be available in D. H. Hill Library but has not yet been received.

All Things Considered, June 22, 2007

Authorities in Poland want to change the name of the Auschwitz concentration camp to officially include the word "German" in the title. Poles hope that will end the problem of Poland being mistaken as the perpetrator.

The change was first discussed last summer. A decision will be made at the UNESCO conference at the end of June.

Japan has returned to using the prewar name for the island of Iwo Jima -- site of one of World War II's most horrific battles -- at the urging of its original inhabitants, who want to reclaim an identity they say has been hijacked by high-profile movies like Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima."

The National Security Agency uses their technology transfer program to speed "the commercialization of new technologies, to increase the taxpayers? return on investment in the federal research and development budget, and to assist federal agencies in meeting their mission requirements." NSA technology licensed to industry may soon include a patent granted in September [Method of Geo-locating Logical Addresses] that "tackles the problem of verifying the accuracy of network addresses and passwords in the continuously developing, highly meshed Internet.
"Determining the geographic location of Internet users, represents a nascent but promising market that has proved useful for financial institutions to combat criminal fraud and could help in the NSA?s collection and production of foreign signals intelligence."

A tutorial for understanding remote sensing and its uses has been prepared by NASA, and made available on the web site of the Federation of American Scientists.