2016.06.15 edition
(Almost) every politician. On everypolitician.org, you can search and download data on 70,000+ legislators (past and present) from 233 countries. (Among those missing: Cuba, Ethiopia, and Qatar.) The dataset includes each lawmaker’s party affiliation, years served, gender, social media profiles, and more. Related: Every member of the United States Congress since 1789.
Title IX investigations. The Chronicle of Higher Education has been tracking federal investigations into sexual assault on college campuses. Recently, The Chronicle added an API, so that developers and data analysts can access the data more easily. Currently, the dataset includes 292 investigations conducted since April 2011 — 49 of which have been resolved. [h/t Jon Davenport]
Air quality. Last month, the World Health Organization released its latest update to the Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database, which now covers nearly 3,000 cities in 103 countries. For each city, the dataset includes annual average density of two key categories of particulates (PM2.5 and PM10), as well as details regarding the data collection. According to the organization’s own analysis, “98% of cities in low and middle income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines.” Related: ”A New Air Pollution Database Is Good, but Imperfect.”
Gone phishing. PhishTank is a clearinghouse that tracks thieves’ attempts to steal personal information and online credentials. The website also publishes bulk data on all verified phishing attempts — 44,000 and counting. With more than 1,000 phishing attempts recorded against it, PayPal is the single most-targeted website in the database. [h/t Herman Slatman]
Gone fishing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Statistics Division provides data on seafood caught by U.S. commercial fisheries, sliceable by month, species, and fishing gear. You can learn, for example, that these fisheries caught 88,893,305 pounds of Dungeness crab in 2006 — the highest recorded total since at least 1950. [h/t Gwynn Guilford]