Posted on 12/05/2009 9:41:23 PM PST by Delacon
I have to admit that after 15 years of working at EPA, I still have trouble finding environmental data. Web searches dont help that much so I rely on people like my friend Tim to email me data about hazardous waste. But I shouldnt have to know every database manager to get EPAs data.
It turns out that Im not the only person with this problem. Last year EPAs Office of Environmental Information hosted the National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information to learn about the information access needs of our major audiences. We held listening sessions throughout the country and encouraged people to comment using blogs and wikis. From the thousands of comments we received we developed EPAs Information Access Strategy, which describes key themes and a direction for EPA to address these needs. One of the common themes was: we need environmental data, but we dont know where to find it. In response to these comments weve built Data Finder, a single place to find EPAs data sources, so people can access and understand environmental information.
Data Finder points to data sources: EPA-hosted web sites where numerical data can be downloaded. You can find data sources by clicking on key words or by typing terms into a search box. One click brings you to the source itself. By making data EPA information easier to find, understand, and use, Data Finder complements the Obama Administrations commitment to a transparent and participatory government. It helps lay the foundation for more open conduct of Agency business and broader, more effective participation by the public.
I think Data Finder is a good first step for finding EPAs data, but I know it only contains a subset of the data thats out there. Please try Data Finder and tell us what information youd like to see and how to make the site more useful. Well post your comments and tell you how were updating the site in response to your comments. And lets leave Tim out of this.
About the author: Ethan McMahon has worked at EPA since 1994. Most recently he helped develop the Agencys Information Access Strategy and the 40-page Report on the Environment: Highlights Document. Prior to working at EPA he evaluated alternative refrigerants and designed high efficiency heat pumps. Ethan believes that making information available can enable lots of people to find solutions to environmental problems.
I was taught that data is singular when talking about a specific type of data, such as “the elevation data is ....” but “elevation, temperature and soil data are....”.
It seems to make sense, but never sounded right to me. But, in this case, ALL types of data are missing - so the “are” would seem to be correct.
But, I wonder if it is the same as money vs. “monies”. Where “monies”, from what I was told, refers to money from various sorts of sources. Such as “the monies for the research come from private, government and industry sources”.
What I would like to know is, where are the monies coming from that will be used so the EPA can measure the changes in CO2 data as they try to get it from 0.038% down to 0.025% (or whatever!).
G’day Mate! (Probably some bastardization of God Bless!? ;)
lol, man, you are really getting beat up here!
“..grabbed the Jeff Foxworthy database”
LOL!
“Data” is the plural of “datum”.
>>lol, man, you are really getting beat up here!<<
Actually, I am getting bear up... :)
I’ll take you up on it! :)
Delacon is correct: “...data is now being used as both in the plural and singular context” — ERRONEOUSLY! MY GODMOTHER TAUGHT LATIN! (But I loved her anyway.)
“Gday Mate! (Probably some bastardization of God Bless”!? ;)
Well everything Aussies say is a bastardization of English. This we know. But Gday Mate is a a bastardization of “Have a good day my koala humping friend”. I tried to look it up in the Aussie English Dictionary but I couldnt find one.
But even the definition in the Seventh is a liberalization of the original which just means an argument tailored to a particular audience. Galileo and Clausewitz use it in this sense. Here's Clausewitz:
We see then that there are many ways to one's object in War; that the complete subjugation of the enemy is not essential in every case; that the destruction of the enemy's military force, the conquest of the enemy's provinces, the mere occupation of them, the mere invasion of them--enterprises which are aimed directly at political objects--lastly, a passive expectation of the enemy's blow, are all means which, each in itself, may be used to force the enemy's will according as the peculiar circumstances of the case lead us to expect more from the one or the other. We could still add to these a whole category of shorter methods of gaining the end, which might be called arguments ad hominem.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesnt ad hominem generally mean “towards a personal attack”? And I am not above them but only when it comes to shits and giggles(fun for fun’s sake).
Interesting. I’ve been in IT since 1983. I’ve even been an IMS DBA during part of that time.
Although it is common knowledge that the word Datum refers to a single piece of data, nobody ever called it that. We called it a data element, a field, or some other name. The word datum was only used acedemically, never in real world examples.
Also, I have also never, EVER heard anyone say the data “are” here. It has always been the data “is” here. The word data is sort of used like the word “flock” or “herd”. Its common use is as a singular.
And I am still in IT.
No, the "to" or "towards" has nothing to do with an attack. The latin itself just means "to the man", in the sense that the argument is addressed to a particular "man" or audience.
A theory I have is that the common meaning arose as an example of this more general meaning in the context of a public debate. One might attack one's opponent by way of appealing to the emotions of the audience. "You're not going to listen to this idiot, are you?" is addressed TO the audience, not the opponent being attacked.
If you goose one woman it means to grab a woman by her butt in a suggestive way. If you grab the butts of several women, is it gramatically correct to say you geesed the women?
I disagree you lame assed latin loving sob. :)
LOL. To all: this discussion illustrates why i come back. Fun. Thanks to all.
Oh man - sorry about the crummy formating. (Ducking for cover).
I guess!?
http://johnaugust.com/archives/2004/data-is-singular
Okay - here was the most interesting part of my word jumble in the previous post. Go to the guy’s site if you want more:
Why would publications insist on such arbitrary and wrong-sounding usages? Blame Latin.
Data was originally the plural form of datum, which means something given. English speakers who use data as a plural noun, in constructions such as these data or data are, do so with conviction: they know intellectually that data is supposed to be plural, so they use it that way.
Yes, lets. Following this logic, which Ill call the Plurican Mandate If the word is plural in its source language, then it must be plural in English. the following sentences are correct:
(agendum, agenda)
* Lets move on to the next agendum.
* The meetings agenda are long.
(graffito, graffiti)
* The boy was apprehended while spray-painting a graffito on the wall.
* Bathroom graffiti are particularly vulgar.
(forum, fora)
* This is the appropriate forum for this discussion.
* Due to a server problem, the fora are temporarily closed.
Obviously, I feel pretty strongly that blindly following the rules of the source language is ridiculous, or else I wouldnt have written this interminable essay. But Im not going to chastise individual writers for choosing the opposite tack. Different things sound right to different people. As long as no one is an a**hole about it, Pluricans and Singlecrats can still get along.....
End of quotes.
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