Valuable insights passed along by Prof. Marble.
-tj

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Duane Marble <dmarble@...>
Date: Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Subject: [Crimemap] Two interesting articles from the Sunday Los Angeles
Times
To: crimemap@googlegroups.com


The first of these articles deals with an all too common problem that
arises in the geocoding
of crime incidents. Neither the LAPD nor its contractor were apparently
aware of the
basic workings of the geocoding protocol being used. I find it amusing that
the contractor's
initial response to the problem, as reported by the Times, was to change the
default
geocoding location from near City Hall to an ocean location off the coast of
Africa.
Now the map is "correct" but the real problem still requires resolution.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-geocoding-errors5-2009apr05,0,5966285.st\
ory

The second article demonstrates the critical role of scale in crime mapping
and analysis.
Spatial patterns that are difficult to identify at one scale may provide
more insight at
a larger, or smaller, one.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-serialkillers5-2009apr05,0,\
2434292.story

Duane Marble

--
Dr. Duane F. Marble Email: dmarble at OregonFast.net
2226 Primrose Lane Telephone: 541.902.8837
Florence, OR 97439 Cell: 541.991.1730
Emeritus Professor of Geography -- The Ohio State University
Courtesy Professor of Geosciences -- Oregon State University

The great advances in science usually result from
new tools rather than from new doctrines. ... Science
flourishes best when it uses freely all the tools at
hand, unconstrained by preconceived notions of what
science ought to be.
-- Freeman Dyson, 1992





==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom@...

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
==========================================


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]