Hi. I'm April Miller and I'm from the USA. A unique feature about myself is that I have a rare genetic disorder called B.P.E.S. (blepharophimosis, ptosis, and epicanthus inversus syndrom. See a picture of myself with my parents (Dad's a BPESer, also):
I was curious about this condition's prevalence in the USA and how that would compare to global statistics. Unfortunately, the google search engine had little information to offer. Our condition is REALLY rare.
Eventually I thought of this: use Netvizz to import member information of my facebook "BPES" group into Gephi, sort by locale, and summarize in a chart:
Facebook's "BPES" group is a closed group only available to individuals with BPES or their immediate family members (usually parents, occasionally spouses). There are 255 members total (which shows the rarity of B.P.E.S.). At first, I thought 146 members were from the USA exclusively (locale: en_US), which would mean we American BPESers dominate the group by a large margin. Then I saw that one of my Canadian and another of my Kiwi personal facebook friends were listed under the en_US locale (so I changed this to "USA / Canada / NZ / Australia"). I have no way of knowing exactly in which country each group member resides since I am not personal facebook friends with each of them, but... this chart would indicate that the majority of group members at least use American English on facebook.
That was a fun learning experience. I learned lots about Netvizz and Gephi, although I must admit I still do not know a great deal about B.P.E.S. prevalence within the USA.
B.P.E.S. Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/25396865974/
More information about B.P.E.S.:
http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/Condition/23/Blepharophimosis_ptosis_and_epicanthus_inversus_syndrome_type_1.aspx)
