This is cool. Dr. Ohab just reported on Data.gov, a new site designed to “increase public access to high value, machine readable data sets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.”
Several third party applications have been created to allow regular folks like us to “mash-up” the data  in various forms.
Here’s one example of such an application: ThisWeKnow.org. Simply key in a location or zip code and up pops government stats such as current populations, # of pollutants released into the air, recently earmarked funds and a list of who requested them (hint: Chaka Fattah’s been busy), and more.
Turns out, in Philadelphia, we have 349,651 home owners and 240,420 renters. (All of this assumes the data is accurate, a topic for a future post.)

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