Dataset of the Day: Mapping ‘Weird’ News

Everyday, millions of people find the time to get caught up on the news. Whether by newspaper, radio, television, or the internet, people take in the news to get a better understanding of the world around them. Popular topics that are covered in the news tend to include local events, world events, sports, weather, and traffic, but not all news falls into one of these topics. Sometimes the news can be rather peculiar or downright weird.

Headlines like, “Naked woman knocks, asks for cigarettes” or “British regiment bids goodbye to goat mascot” may not seem important but can certainly turn one’s head. These are two articles that can be found in the ‘Weird News’ section on msnbc.com. I find myself going here to enjoy reading bizarre news from across the globe. I have started documenting these articles on a monthly basis as a dataset on Finder! to turn them into maps on Maker! (See interactive map below of May 2009)

#maker_map_5691 {width: 100%; height: 400px;}

View full map

Maker.maker_host=’http://maker.geocommons.com’;Maker.finder_host=’http://finder.geocommons.com’;Maker.core_host=’http://core.geocommons.com’;
Maker.load_map(“maker_map_5691″, “5691″);

Now I am able to see where weird events are taking place and see if any are occurring around where I live (hopefully not). It’s a fun way to view and take in peculiar stories (‘Cops: Teen uses banana in attempted stick-up’ or ‘Man sues over right to wear skirt in public’) that are taking place in the world around us. Look for more months to come on Finder! and Maker!