Published by Skeptikos on Jun 12, 2014
I replaced the old NOMINATE data with Boris Schor's NPAT data. (Read about the differences here.) All 50 states now have interactive graphs. The state pages default to the most recent year of data available, but you can also see older years by clicking on the legislator links.
I intend to put the old NOMINATE data back up, along with more visualizations, but I won't predict how long that will take. A few other projects may take precedence.
Since I know some people were fans of a few of the older blog posts, I'll try to ... Read more
Published by Skeptikos on Apr 3, 2014
Ted Cruz took a poll on facebook:
It didn't seem to go as planned. One article says it “blew up in his face”. I wrote a program to gather the results for him.
Yes: 1621 - 39%
No: 2515 - 61%
The earlier comments, which are easily visible on facebook, are heavily biased in favor of "yes". Thus the media response. But overall the "noes" get the majority, as you'd expect on a conservative facebook page.
Many people didn't follow instructions, so the numbers aren't perfect. (For example, one ... Read more
Tags:
Ruby
Mechanize
Published by Skeptikos on Sep 12, 2013
In a rare spectacle, Chris Cantwell got himself kicked out of the FSP. Now he's a 'porcupine non grata'.
It's not hard to see why. In an incendiary blog post, he wrote, “the answer, at some point, is to kill government agents,” among other things, while the FSP guidelines clearly say “Participants may be removed for promoting violence, racial hatred, or bigotry.” And this, right after the Concord PD implied the FSP was a 'terrorist' group in a ... Read more
Tags:
Libertarianism
Free State Project
Published by Skeptikos on Sep 10, 2013
William Tucker uses the NH Liberty Ratings graph [edit: sorry, link is broken for now] to argue that 'Free State Project lawmakers form [a] monolithic voting bloc'. But the data isn't on his side.
Here's his modified graph, with Free Staters colored green:
On the y-axis, which measures the Liberty Ratings from the NHLA, some people may see a monolith. Free Staters are all clustered in the top quarter of the graph-- not surprising, since Free Staters claim to vote for liberty.
On the x-axis, ... Read more
Tags:
Libertarianism
Free State Project
NOMINATE
Published by Skeptikos on Aug 21, 2013
The radical libertarian blog Free Keene, and the group of libertarians associated with it, are well-known for creating controversy in Keene, NH. But most people outside of the group don't know much about them or what drives them.
With that in mind, I decided to do some social network analysis to get a better understanding. Since I used to be involved in the group and know many of the activists involved, I simply asked for facebook friend data to use for the analysis.
I got 3 sets of friend data, which was enough to create a fairly ... Read more
Tags:
Libertarianism
Free Keene
Gephi
