Data Is Plural

Policing the police. The Department of Justice is authorized to investigate police departments that display a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations. In April, the Marshall Project began publishing a spreadsheet of the DOJ investigations into local law enforcement. The dataset, which is updated regularly, indicates when each case began, when it ended, and what type of agreement (if any) was reached. The latest entry: An investigation into the Chicago Police Department, announced last week. Related: PBS Frontline’s interactive map of DOJ investigations. [h/t Tom Meagher]

All the world’s glaciers. The recently-updated Randolph Glacier Inventory contains spreadsheets and outlines of every known glacier in the world. Of the 212,000+ glaciers inventoried, more than 27,000 are in Alaska. Someone please adopt Deserted Glacier. [h/t Robin Wilson’s stunningly extensive directory of free GIS data]

College coaching salaries. Last week, USA Today released its annual accounting of assistant — yes, assistant — college football coaches’ salaries. At $1.6 million per annum, Auburn’s Will Muschamp leads the pack. More than 371 assistants have salaries of $250,000+. The release complements the publication’s database of head-coaching salaries. Related: Each state’s highest paid public employee, as of 2013-ish. [h/t Steve Berkowitz]

Many pants on fire. You’ve probably heard of PolitiFact, the Tampa Bay Times project that fact-checks what politician say. What you might not know: PolitiFact has an API. You can use it to fetch detailed data the project’s national and state-level editions. Related: “All Politicians Lie. Some Lie More Than Others,” PolitiFact’s top editor writes in the New York Times.

Every obscenity and death in Quentin Tarantino’s movies. This dataset is fucking amazing.