Hey everyone, I've been working on a new prototype project, https://queryethereum.com
If you want to jump straight into trying some examples, use this GraphQL bin: https://www.graphqlbin.com/v2/1GmVUn You can run all of those queries directly from the browser.
Essentially Query Ethereum is a GraphQL API to Ethereum's blockchain data. It makes it very simple to get aggregate information like block production rates and transaction rates. You get fine granularity over these values, down to per second levels (per second, minute, hour, day, week, month, and year are currently supported).
Grab blocks by number or timestamp and more, you can check out the schema and documentation at https://queryethereum.com.
So please check it out, play with it, and let me know what you think. I'm constantly improving it, it's just gotten to the point where I want to let people know about it and gather some feedback. Oh yes, and blocks only for now. Transactions will come soon, followed by logs. That's where the real juicy data mining will kick in.