2021.12.08 edition
Citizenship laws. The Global Citizenship Observatory’s new Citizenship Law Dataset “outlines, in a systematic way, 28 ways in which citizenship can be acquired and 15 ways in which citizenship can be lost.” Launched last week and building on the observatory’s previous work, it covers the laws in effect in 190 countries in January 2020. For each mode of acquisition or loss in each jurisdiction, the dataset points to the legal citations, specifies the type of procedure (discretionary, automatic, etc.), and describes the relevant conditions (for instance, wedlock requirements for citizenship-by-descent). Previously: Dual citizenship policies (DIP 2019.01.09). [h/t Yajna Govind]
Overturned Supreme Court decisions. The Library of Congress’s Constitution Annotated project is a “comprehensive, government-sanctioned record of the interpretations of the Constitution,” intended for a wide audience and in publication for more than 100 years. Its resources include a table of Supreme Court Decisions overruled by subsequent decisions, with the names and years of the initial and overruling cases, and another of laws held unconstitutional. Read more: The methodologies for both tables. As seen in: “How often are Supreme Court decisions overturned?” (Quartz).
Birds at the feeder. Project FeederWatch is a “November-April survey of birds that visit backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America.” Tens of thousands of volunteers record the number and species of birds at each feeder, plus information about the surrounding environment. The results can be explored online and downloaded in bulk. As seen in: “Which birds are the biggest jerks at the feeder?” (Washington Post), which uses additional behavioral data collected by the volunteers; and a related Twitter thread. [h/t John Templon]
Pandemic-era alcohol policies. The US Alcohol Policy Information System has categorized the alcohol-related regulations that each state (and DC) has enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they’ve changed over time. The dataset covers January 2020 to mid-September 2021; it examines restrictions on bar and restaurant capacity, serving alcohol without food, alcohol delivery, and more.
A map of our moon. A USGS astrogeology lab has built a 1:5,000,000-scale map of Earth’s moon, the “chief purpose” of which is “to summarize the current state of lunar geologic knowledge.” It marks thousands of geologic boundaries, plus “surface features” such as crater rims, “fissures, grabens, scarps, mare wrinkle ridges” and more. [h/t Wendy Shijia]