What the Census doesn’t know

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I drafted this musing on the 2010 Census, and my wanderings over the past decade, as a Facebook Note back in May, but never got around to actually publishing it. Now that I have a blog again, I figure I might as well go ahead and post it… with apologies to Michelle Bachmann, of course.

Something got me thinking recently about the upcoming Census, and how old Censuses (Censi?) are often used to track genealogical histories — for instance, what little we know about my ancestors’ history in this country, we have gleaned mostly from Census data. And, in this vein, it occurred to me what an incomplete picture of my life’s geographic journey a future genealogist would get from looking at the snapshots captured by the Census.

I was born in 1981, so my first Census was in 1990, at which point I was living in Newington, Connecticut. My next Census was in 2000, and I was counted in Los Angeles, California, where I was a freshman at USC. And now, come 2010, I’ll be counted in Denver, Colorado, where my wife — who wasn’t even my girlfriend yet at the last Census — and our (by then) two kids have settled down in our new house, with every intention of being here for a number of Censuses to come.

So, as far as the Census is concerned, I will have gone from being an 8-year-old in Connecticut living with his parents, to a single 18-year-old in California living with a roommate (the esteemed David K.), to a married 28-year-old in Colorado living with his wife and two kids. Seems pretty straightforward. Here it is on a map:

Of course, as anyone who knows me is well aware, that map leaves, er, a few things out. Like New York, Arizona, Indiana and Tennessee, for instance. 🙂 And that only scratches the surface. I’ve had a lot of “intra-Census” homes, if you will.

My actual geographic journey, in terms of places I’ve lived, has gone more like this (including college semesters in L.A. and summers back in Newington): Hartford –> Newington –> Los Angeles –> Newington –> Los Angeles –> Newington –> Los Angeles –> Newington –> Los Angeles –> Newington –> New York City –> Newington –> Mesa –> Notre Dame –> South Bend –> Glendale –> South Bend –> Knoxville –> South Denver –> North Denver.

Here’s the map version:

The places I’ve lived that don’t show up in any Census record are: Hartford, CT (where I was born, and lived from 1981-1986); three different addresses in Los Angeles, CA (only the one at Trojan Hall got counted); New York, NY; Mesa, AZ; Notre Dame, IN; South Bend, IN; Glendale, AZ; Knoxville, TN; and our first Colorado condo, in South Denver.

Man, I’ve moved a lot in the last decade, huh?

P.S. Becky’s map would be fairly similar, but with Amherst, NY instead of Hartford/Newington, CT as her starting point, and without the stops in New York, NY and Notre Dame, IN (she has South Bend, 46637, but not Notre Dame, 46556, where I lived my first semester 1L year) … and with a brief sojourn in London, England thrown in for good measure.

Masthead madness

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Earlier today, as I pondered the “All the Nose” debate — and the subsidiary question of what to do with all that white space in the blog masthead if I eliminate the subtitle — I had a brainstorm. What if I use one of my panoramic pictures, or better yet, a rotating series of them, as a photographic backdrop for the blog’s title? For instance, if I were to use one of my recent planetary conjunction shots as the background:

Or how about the photo I took Sunday — actually a series of photos stitched together into a panorama using a piece of software called Calico — showing Becky and Loyette in the lower left corner, looking out at the vista at Red Rocks Amphitheater:

Here’s an example of what it would look like atop the homepage. I might have to tweak some of the rounded borders and such, but I think it definitely has potential.

There are lots of other photographic possibilities, and I could rotate the photos at random depending on what strikes my fancy, or use a specific photo when a particular event is happening. For instance, perhaps during football season:

Or, better yet:

Maybe this on the anniversary of 9/11:

Maybe this on just some random day whenever:

Et cetera, et cetera. There are many, many photos over the last 6 1/2 years — i.e., since I bought my first high-resolution digital camera — that could potentially fit the bill, for one occasion or another (or for no occasion at all, just because they’re pretty).

Downside: such a setup would decrease, by 150-200 pixels, the vertical space available for blog content; i.e., you’d have to scroll more, and you’d see less of the blog when you first load the page, because the masthead graphic would be substantially “taller” than it is now.

Upside(s): it would allow me to showcase some of my pretty horizontal/panoramic photos from over the years; it would solve not only the “All the Nose” problem, but also the problem of the homepage being somewhat drab and colorless; and, well, it’s just kind of cool.

Thoughts?

Iranian regime launches all-out massacre [UPDATE: conflicting reports]

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It sounds like today was a day of horrific violence in Tehran (WARNING: graphic photo on linked page). Excerpt:

An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by “black-clad police” and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime’s Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.) Much more from Nico Pitney, including these accounts:

“just in from Baharestan Sq – situation today is terrible – they beat the ppls like animals”

“In Baharestan Sq. in the Police shooting, A girl is shot and the police is not allowing to let them help!”

“In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping ppl like meat – blood everywhere – like butcher . . . Fighting in Vanak Sq, Tajrish sq, Azadi Sq – now . .”

“I see many ppl with broken arms/legs/heads – blood everywhere – pepper gas like war… ppl run into alleys and militia standing there waiting – from 2 sides they attack ppl in middle of alleys… saw 7/8 militia beating one woman with baton on ground – she had no defense nothing -… so many ppl arrested – young & old – they take ppl away”

That last quote is from @persiankiwi, a protester who has been one of the better sources of real-time information on Twitter. Now it seems she is in trouble, if not arrested or, Allah forbid, dead already. After witnessing and recounting the Baharestan Square massacre, she then proceeded to tweet a final series of updates that sounds a bit like the last entries of the dwarves’ journal in Moria (“drums in the deep … we cannot get out … they are coming”). Except this is real life:

they catch ppl with mobile – so many killed today – so many injured – Allah Akbar – they take one of us

they pull away the dead into trucks – like factory – no human can do this – we beg Allah for save us –

Everybody is under arrest & cant move – Mousavi – Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard

we must go – dont know when we can get internet – they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names – now we must move fast –

thank you ppls 4 supporting Sea of Green – pls remember always our martyrs – Allah Akbar – Allah Akbar – Allah Akbar

Allah – you are the creator of all and all must return to you – Allah Akbar –

That was ten hours ago. Since then, her Twitter feed has fallen silent.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan quotes a contradictory report about what happened at Baharestan Square:

I was there from 5:15 to 7:30. It was very tense. Being out in Baharstan was an act of defiance. No one said anything, there were only a few chants coming from outside the square. Although the police were a lot nicer, the Basij continued to be brutal. No one was allowed to stand in one place, we had to keep on moving. The moment we stood in one place, they would break us up. I saw many people get blindfolded and arrested, however it wasn’t a massacre. I heard that someone was killed, however I didn’t see it.

That’s from a “trusted source” per the National Iranian American Council’s blog. Not sure what to make of it. If the source is correct, are @persiankiwi and the others lying then? Or did different people simply see different things in different parts of the square, and/or at different times?