The Social Security Administration released its list of most popular baby names for 2007 earlier this week. Jacob and Emily remained the top choices for boys and girls. Michael stayed the second most popular boy's name, while Isabella overtook Emma at the number two position for girls.
You can find the Top 10 First Names of Americans by Decade of Birth in The World Almanac 2008 on page 726.

Boys Top 10 2007: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, , Christopher, Anthony, William, Matthew, Andrew

Boys Top 10 2006: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, William

Girls Top 10 2007: Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava, Madison, Sophia, Olivia, Abigail, Hannah, Elizabeth

Girls Top 10 2006: Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, Samantha

Popular Baby Names [Social Security Administration]

CuTe BaBy from the Flickr page of 44444 U.A.E.

All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population. The pace of progress is seen in the midwest where suburban areas are punctuated by square blocks of area that are still farm land.

Also of note to World Almanac fans: Fry's zipdecode, an interactive map of ZIP codes in the U.S., which does a fantastic job of, yes, decoding the numbering scheme for postal codes. Click on the image, type "Z," and then start tapping in your favorite ZIP codes.

More at benfry.com

You're not alone. The Wikipedia entry on superdelegates was a stub until December 2007, but has undergone more than 100 edits since Super Tuesday.

Most news sites have picked up the issue:

• ABC News created a cartoon to explain how each party appropriates delegates as well as an article on Democrat superdelegates.
  
• CNN has a Delegate Explainer.
  
• NPR's All Things Considered ran a piece "Explaining Disparities in Democrats' Delegate Tallies"
  
• A blog called 2008 Democratic Convention Watch, which I found through a Congressional Quarterly article, has created a list of superdelegates who have pledged their support to each candidate.

More than 100,000 people moved to California in the following years—so many that it entered the Union on Sept. 9, 1850 with the nickname "The Golden State." Very few made their riches through gold, but some found success in other ways, including Levi Strauss (jeans), James McClatchy (newspapers and publishing), and Leland Stanford (railroad tycoon and founder of Stanford Univ.).

The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco has a chronology of the gold rush and accounts by Marshall, Sutter, and several "Argonauts of 49" (49ers for short).

The California State Library has posted some of their manuscripts pertaining to the gold rush in an online exhibit of ephemera, including some by Marshall and Sutter.

The Gold Rush (Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco)
California As We Saw It (California State Library)
Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

"Gum Shan Meets El Dorado" Quarter plate daguerreotype by J. B. Starkweather (c. 1852)

• To share photographs from the Library's collections with people who enjoy images but might not visit the Library's own Web site.
• To gain a better understanding of how social tagging and community input could benefit both the Library and users of the collections.
• To gain experience participating in Web communities that are interested in the kinds of materials in the Library's collections.

There's really nothing more to say except: clear a few hours from your schedule, and start browsing some fascinating photographs.

Links:
Flickr: The Commons
Library of Congress Photos on Flickr (FAQ)

Image: Instructor explaining the operation of a parachute to student pilots, Meacham Field, Fort Worth, Tex. (LOC)

But it might not be the state song for much longer. Florida is searching for a new anthem, and it wants its residents to choose from three finalists. What caught my eye is that Carl Ashley, the co-composer of one of those finalists, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper that The World Almanac was one of his sources. "We studied a world almanac and read about Florida history, trying to put as much as we could into the song."

Just Sing Florida, where residents can vote, has recordings and sheet music for each of the three finalists. Voting ends at midnight on January 10.

Good luck to Carl Ashley and Betsy Dixon, as well as the other finalists.

In addition to official songs, our chapter on States and Other Areas of the U.S. includes state mottos, flowers, birds, and trees, as well as lots of population, economic, geographic, and historical information. There really is a lot packed into a little space.

Links:
Three finalists sing praises of Florida in state song contest (South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Just Sing Florida

We may have mentioned this site on our blog before, but in the run-up to the Iowa caucus and primary season, I'd like to refer people to OpenSecrets, a website run by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. For the first time, the presidential candidates are on pace to raise over $1 billion to fund their campaigns. OpenSecrets tracks donations made to candidates' campaign funds, and analyzes the data in ways that you don't usually see in the news.

Find out which Senate or House campaign has raised (and spent) the most money, which presidential candidate is receiving the most funds from lobbyists (Hillary Clinton) or the oil and gas industry (Rudy Giuliani), and which candidate has raised the most through small ($200 or less) donations (Barack Obama). It's a pretty interesting tool for those who want to think about where campaign funds are coming from, and where they might go.

OpenSecrets

Flickr photo by Victory NH: Protect Our Primary

According to the White House, this Thanksgiving marks the 60th anniversary of the grand presidential tradition of pardoning a turkey. The White House's Thanksgiving website explains that the first turkey pardoning took place in 1947, when Harry Truman accepted the first National Thanksgiving Turkey. Not to quibble with the White House's website, which has a photo gallery of Turkey pardons over the years (a Kennedy turkey has a sign around its neck that reads "Good Eating, Mr. President!"), but they may want to do a little more homework.

According to the Truman Library, the Truman photo that the White House offers as proof-of-pardon dates to Dec. 15, 1947—well after Thanksgiving—and the library has "found no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records in our holdings which refer to Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his Presidency."

I just hope, for my own amusement's sake, that the White House accurately reported this year's turkey's fate following its pardon: "After the presentation, the turkey will be flown first class to Disney World in Orlando, where he will be the grand marshal of 'Disney's Thanksgiving Day Parade.' After the parade, guests will be able to visit the bird in the backyard of Mickey's Country House in Magic Kingdom Park."

White House Thanksgiving
The Annual Pardoning of the Thanksgiving Turkey photo gallery
Truman Library

A well educated Southerner, she was known for her vivaciousness, wit and spirited personality when she met the lowly lawyer Abraham Lincoln in 1839. Their marriage of 25 years produced four children, and proved to be volatile at times with Mary's high strung temperament. Mary's life was marked with many losses - starting with her mothers' death when she was 7, the death of her second born son Eddie in 1850, followed by beloved Willie in 1862. It was after Willie's death that Mary invited spiritualists into the White House so that she could attempt to communicate with her dead sons. At least eight séances were held, and Mary felt their presence in her life, writing to her sister that, "Willie lives. He comes to me every night and stands at the foot of the bed with the same sweet adorable smile he always has had. He does not always come alone. Little Eddie is sometimes with him..."

After seeing her husband assassinated before her eyes in 1865, Mary's life was shattered. She left the United States in 1868 and lived for two and a half years in Europe with her son Tad, who died at the age of 18, in 1871. In the 1870s Mary attended séances under assumed names, at which Abraham may or may not have "appeared." She was photographed by William Mumler, a "spirit photographer." Concerned about his mother's sometimes irrational behavior (and spending jags), Robert Lincoln, Mary's surviving son, petitioned the courts to declare her insane in 1875, and she was remanded to a Bellevue Place, private sanitarium for 3 months. Declared sane again in 1876, she spent many of her remaining years in France, never forgiving her son for his betrayal, and died in Springfield, Illinois, in July 1882.

While we all know a certain amazing book celebrates its 140th release today, there's another significant anniversary.

Happy 80th birthday Holland Tunnel! The first automobile tunnel (actually two tunnels) to connect Manhattan with the rest of the continental U.S. by way of Jersey City, NJ opened on November 13, 1927. The tunnels were a major accomplishment, taking 7 years, 1 month, and 1 day to complete.

Prior to completion, millions of commuters, trucks, and horse-drawn carriages relied on 15 ferries to cross the Hudson River, navigating harbor traffic like supply barges and ocean liners, plus ice flows and heavy fog. Delays and accidents were common. (A railroad tunnel under the Hudson River, completed in 1908, helped to halve the number of ferry passengers by 1914 to just 52 million a year).

It should be noted that "Holland" was the project's first chief engineer, Clifford Holland. Holland was notably young to head such a large project and he died of a heart attack in 1924 at age 41.

On its first day in operation, 51,694 vehicles (largely curious Sunday drivers) used the Holland tunnel. The first year's total was 8,517,689 according to the New York Times on Nov. 14, 1928. In 2006, 34.7 million vehicles passed through it, averaging 95,149 each day—a fifth of New Jersey-Manhattan traffic when combined with the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge.

The Holland is still the second longest underwater vehicular tunnel in North America after the nearby Brooklyn-Battery. The north tube extends 8,558 feet, the south tube 8,371 feet. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The tunnels' great innovation, designed by its third (!) engineer Ole Singstad, are the ventilation shafts tucked above and below the roadways that clear out deadly auto exhaust through enormous towers near the entrances. Winds from the 84 exhaust fans would have reached 72 mph if air flowed directly along the tunnels' roadways.

[If you're jonesing for stats on other notable tunnels, buildings, and bridges, turn to page 730 in your brand-new World Almanac 2008. You've already got one, right?]

Holland Tunnel Time Line from Port Authority of NY & NJ

Photo from Library of Congress' Historic American Engineering Record

We'll be using this blog to share (and expand on) parts of this edition throughout the year. Today, though, I'll just leave you with an assortment of facts from The World at a Glance, one of our new quick-reference features:

Nation most dependent on nuclear energy: France, 78.1% of electricity is nuclear-generated
World's most popular tourist destination: France, 79.1 million arrivals in 2006
Most popular luxury car color in the U.S.: Black, 22% of 2006 model year cars
Most popular light truck color in the U.S.: White, 25% of 2006 model year trucks
Nation hosting the most refugees: Pakistan, 2.2 million, mostly from Afghanistan, in 2006
Top country for U.S. foreign adoptions: China, 6,520 in 2006
Fastest roller coaster in the world: Kingda Ka, 128 mph (Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, NJ)
Busiest airport outside of the U.S., by passenger traffic: Heathrow Airport (London, UK), 67.5 million passengers in 2006
Most-visited shopping website: eBay, 79.8 million visitors in July 2007 alone

California's gross domestic product in 2006 was $1.73 trillion. If it was its own country, it would have the 10th largest economy in the world, smaller than Russia's but larger than Brazil's.
If all circulating U.S. dollars and coins were equally distributed among the nation's population, everyone would receive $2,688.

Total fat consumption per capita in the U.S. was 37.7 pounds in 1910. It climbed to a whopping 85.5 pounds by 2005.
China's annual energy consumption grew 249% in the past 15 years, from 27 quadrillion Btu in 1990 to 67 quadrillion Btu in 2005.
The amount Americans spent annually on casino gambling ballooned 610%, from $11.5 billion in 1990 to $81.6 billion in 2006.
The number of violent crimes in the U.S. declined from 1.6 million in 1997 to 1.4 million in 2006, a drop of 13.3%.

Previously: The World at a Glance: Number Ones, Surprising Facts, and Changing Times

Photo: Vincent G. Spadafora

Seem later than last year? It is: Daylight Saving Time in 2007 started several weeks earlier, and ended a week or so later, than in recent years. The U.S. Congress claims that the change will save energy across the country—or is it just a sinister conspiracy to sell more Halloween candy?

Either way, don't forget to set your clocks back one hour before bedtime, Saturday night.

Want a little more history about Daylight Saving Time? Hit the links below, or listen to this week's World Almanac Wake Up With Whoopi segment, on that very topic:

Links:
It's Time to Fall Back (World Almanac for Kids)
An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight? Thank Politics

Photo: Time Spiral (by gadl)

Without innovative, creative critical thinking, scientific progress would grind to a halt. Still, when we checked in on this year's Ig Nobel winners recently, some of the subjects and hypotheses inspired more than a little incredulity. I had the same response when I read about an article in this week's New Scientist that documents the most bizarre and outrageous scientific experiments of all time. Some are more than a little cruel (the grafting of a puppy's head and front legs to an adult German shepherd that caused both animals' deaths comes to mind), but others are just bizarre.

For example:

• Psychologist begins experiments on son to test if laughing is spontaneous when tickled.
Conclusion: Laughing is an innate response to tickling
• To test if people can sleep through anything, volunteers have their eyes taped open and bright lights shone in their eyes.
Conclusion: The men dozed off in 12 minutes
• Doctor rubs vomit from yellow fever patients into open wounds and drinks it.
Conclusion: Mistakenly claims it is not infectious

[Summaries from The Guardian]

Bizarre Experiments (with full details)

Flickr photo by practicalowl

First up: per capita consumption of confectionery products (chocolate and non-chocolate) from 2001 to 2006. There aren't any truly dramatic changes happening here, but still—despite Atkins, Sugar Busters, and every other voice telling us to cut back on sugar consumption, our consumption of candy was up 2 pounds per person in 2006, compared with 2001.

With Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) running for president in the 2008 elections, many wonder if she will become the first woman to lead the United States; but we may have already had a female leader from 1919-1921!

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1872-1961), a descendant of Pocahontas, was a well-to-do widow when she met the recently widowed president, Woodrow Wilson, in 1915. A swift romance followed, and they married by year's end, a scant 16 months after his first wife's death. Edith took on a public political role, and remained close by the president's side, keeping up to date on state matters. After Wilson's reelection in 1916, Edith did all she could to keep Wilson healthy under the tremendous strain caused by the U.S. entry into World War I. With the war's end in 1919, the Wilsons sailed to Europe for the international peace treaty agreements. Upon returning to the U.S., Wilson embarked on a cross-country train trip to drum up support for the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations), for which he needed the Senate's approval. At the end of September, he collapsed, and on October 2 he suffered a massive stroke which left him paralyzed on his left side and with difficulty in speaking. The tour was stopped, and the president was rushed back to the White House.

Wilson's doctor and secretary of state Robert Lansing wanted to inform the public of the president's critical situation, but Edith refused, and the public never learned that he had suffered a stroke or paralysis. Edith took control, and limited her husband's exposure to leaders of government, including his cabinet and vice president Thomas Marshall, and acted as a "steward" between them. With the president's health being her number one priority, Edith decided what matters of state would be presented to Woodrow. She later claimed in her memoirs that she never made any decisions, but this seems unlikely since she was the person who discussed matters with the president and relayed information back to interested parties. Many historians believe that her take on what had occurred was simply a matter of revisionism.

After leaving office in 1921, Edith continued caring for Woodrow until his death in 1924. For the remaining years of her life, she devoted her time to honoring her husband, and supporting democratic candidates. Her last public appearance was at the inaugural of President John F. Kennedy in January 1961, and she died 37 years to the day after her husbands' death.

As the subtitle suggests, what I think emerges isn't a unified system of territoriality, but a hodgepodge of different attitudes toward the land and its inhabitants. Different areas under U.S. control have very different relationships to government, both in terms of democratic representation and in terms of land control. (I also show all the areas of the world -- land and water -- that are, or were, influenced by the U.S. government using equal-area projections.)

Link: U.S. Territory (Radical Cartography)

The five areas accounting for the highest percentage of national GDP:

1. New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
3. Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI
4. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

• The fastest growing area was Palm Coast, FL, which experienced a 163.8% growth from 2001 to 2005; nearly triple that of Corvallis, OR, the second fastest-growing area.
• Of the top 50 largest metropolitan areas by GDP, Las Vegas-Paradise, NV experienced the largest growth, 31.2%, with its largest increase, 10%, between 2003 and 2004.
• The biggest loss of GDP was experienced in Lafayette, LA (10.7% loss). It took its biggest hit in 2002 when the GDP dropped 11.3% because of the effects of tropical storm Isidore and Hurricane Lili on the oil and fishing industries.

If the BEA gets positive feedback about the report, they're hoping to have 2006 estimates available next Fall.

BEA Introduces New Measures of the Metropolitan Economy

Books were an important focus of Abigail’s life, and she founded the first circulating library in Sempronius, New York. Her husband often purchased books for her when he was traveling, and in the years of their marriage they collected over 4,000 books.

As First Lady, Fillmore was dismayed to find that there were no books in the White House, and she got Congress to appropriate $2,000 to purchase several hundred books. Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray, Burns, travel books, biographies, histories, law books, religious works and other novels were chosen.

An 1842 ankle injury had lasting effects on Abigail’s life and she limited her activities as First Lady during her husband’s abbreviated term of office (he succeeded to the Presidency with the death of Zachary Taylor). Standing during the snowy inauguration of President Franklin Pierce on March 4, 1853, she grew ill soon after, and died of pneumonia on March 30th.

Anyway, I had another fun visit with the incredibly warm and friendly Wake Up With Whoopi crew yesterday. In this week's free-for-all:

• The awesome lap-breaking power of the The World Almanac hardcover edition (yes, we publish one, and yes, the type is bigger than the paperback)
• In honor of the anniversary of Nixon's resignation (announced Aug. 8, 1974, but in effect at noon on Aug. 9), some selections from our list of Embarrassing Presidential Moments. Some bonus links: President Ford's 1942 Cosmo cover appearance (not an embarrassing moment, just an interesting one), and Pres. Carter's official report on his UFO sighting.
• A heads-up about this weekend's Perseid meteor shower
• And at the very end, a quick hello from the next guest: Abby Cadabby, Sesame Street's newest resident. Even at my age, it was a truly great, geeky thrill to meet a Muppet.

Image: From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (Katsuhiro Mouri & Shuji Kobayashi, Nagoya City Science Museum / Planetarium)

Comment to let us know how well it represents your local loyalties. Do our nation's redrawn borders hold up?

United Countries of Baseball [strangemaps]
CommonCensus Sports Map Project [similar idea, based on internet votes, for other pro sports]

Wanna be a hobo? The convention website has some pointers from the Texas Madman Grand Duke of Hobos.

Pick a name from the long list at The 700 Hoboes Project of fictitious hobo names with illustrations. [Note: Inspired, of course, by fake-almanackist extraordinaire John Hodgman -CAJ]

Brush up on your hobo conversation points with some field recordings posted over at Otis Fodder’s 365 Days Project at WFMU (Part 11 with Sidedoor Pullman Kid is a must. Skip parts 1,2,6 if you're uncomfortable with explicit language).

Painting of Pennsylvania Kid Wilson, hobo king 1963, 1966, 1968, 1971

We called attention to this in the 2007 World Almanac (see also this previous The World at a Glance), drawing on National Safety Council data, but the NYT graphic is well worth a look.

Link: An Accounting of Daily Gun Deaths (The New York Times, April 22, 2007)

But my favorite is a story about Pres. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower's growing addiction to a new "electronic novelty":

According to [Assistant Chief Usher J.B.] West, Ike and Mamie Eisenhower regularly watched the evening news while having their meals on tray-tables. He notes that Mrs. Eisenhower's enjoyment of As the World Turns "initiated the Television Era in the White House."

The Working White House
Workers at the White House Time Line [first-hand accounts]

Someone please turn this into a webapp... I want to chart every piece of data in the World Almanac as a rollercoaster.

From magnetbox via kottke.

1. Bible [Library holdings: 796,882 Bibliographic records: 93,567]
2. Census (United States) [Library holdings: 460,628 Bibliographic records: 10,617]
3. Mother Goose [Library holdings: 67,663 Bibliographic records: 2,036]
4. Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri [Library holdings: 62,414 Bibliographic records: 2,917]
5. Odyssey, Homer [Library holdings: 45,551 Bibliographic records: 2,087]
6. Iliad, Homer [Library holdings: 44,093 Bibliographic records: 2,526]
7. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain [Library holdings: 42,724 Bibliographic records: 1,132]
8. Lord of the Rings [trilogy], J. R. R. Tolkien [Library holdings: 40,907 Bibliographic records: 685]
9. Hamlet, William Shakespeare [Library holdings: 39,521 Bibliographic records: 2,008]
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll [Library holdings: 39,277 Bibliographic records: 1,942]

Not only are January through April the peak months for passport requests, requests have increased because of new regulations that went into effect on Jan. 23 of this year. People must now present a passport when reentering the U.S. by air from any part of the Western Hemisphere, including, for the first time, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.

An AP article from Friday referred to a notice sent by the State Department to lawmakers saying that "Applications received between October and this March have risen 44 percent over the same period in 2005-2006." The article also mentions that the department expects to process about 17 million passports this year, compared to 12 million in 2006.

I was also surprised to find out my new passport was not an electronic one. The first of the new electronic passports--which have a computer chip embedded in the back cover--were issued to tourists in August 2006. Apparently not all passport agencies around the country are equipped yet to issue e-passports, the technology for which has caused controversy because of privacy concerns.

Links: Passports Home (U.S. Department of State)
"Passport Requests Flood State Department" (Associated Press)

Photo: Cover of new U.S. tourist electronic passport. The logo at the bottom is the international symbol for an electronic passport.

It’s not news that girls are being encouraged through mass media to look and act more adult and sexy. It is also well known that this type of constant exposure increases the risk of girls developing low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression. But the report is alarming because it asserts that girlhood is being cut short dramatically, and that girls are starting to think of themselves as sexual beings as early as 6 years old. It’s one thing to depict children acting as adults, but there has to be a limit, which I think was surpassed long before this became the norm:

Ten-year-old girls can slide their low-cut jeans over "eye-candy" panties. French maid costumes, garter belt included, are available in preteen sizes. Barbie now comes in a "bling-bling" style, replete with halter top and go-go boots. And it's not unusual for girls under 12 to sing, "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" (Washington Post, Feb. 20 2007)

Report on the APA Taskforce on the Sexualization of Girls , American Psychological Association (PDF download)
"Goodbye to Girlhood," Washington Post, February 20, 2007.

America's Favorite Architecture
1. Empire State Building (1931): Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
2. The White House (1792): James Hoban
3. Washington National Cathedral (1990): George Bodley
4. Jefferson Memorial (1943): John Russell Pope
5. Golden Gate Bridge (1937): Joseph B. Strauss
6. U.S. Capitol (1793-1865): William Thornton
7. Lincoln Memorial (1922): Henry Bacon
8. Biltmore Estate/Vanderbilt Mansion (1895): Richard Morris Hunt
9. Chrysler Building (1930): William Van Alen
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982): Maya Lin

The list is bound to generate a lot of controversy: all but two of the top 10 are in New York City or Washington, DC, and only one structure is on the West Coast. I have other problems with the list. (Is the White House really one of the greatest examples of American architecture?) Lucky for those displeased with the selections, the AIA has the complete list on their website, with architectural details about each structure and with an area for people to post comments on the selections suggest omissions.

America's Favorite Architecture

Flickr photo from ljcybergal