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How To Import Raw Political Data For Crunching

Posted by timothy on from the loaves-of-bread-to-circus-ratio dept.

Ed Pegg writes "For those that want to get their fingers stained red and blue with actual political data, resources beyond 538 and pollster can be accessed. In a blog item for Wolfram Research, Jeff Hamrick gives step by step details for how to import raw data from Mason-Dixon, Rasmussen, and Quinnipiac. Then he uses Mathematica to analyze the political data." Related: Slashdot developer Pudge presented at OSCON in July his own approach to gathering Washington-state polling data for analysis [PDF].

6 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Re:who would want.... by chill · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even bullshit can be used for fertilizer.

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  2. Re:who would want.... by WTF+Chuck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The people who would want to import this kind of data are the same people that would prefer to analyze things for themselves, rather than rely on someone else's biased interpretation.

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  3. Not sure I would want his methods by damn_registrars · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pudge presented at OSCON in July his own approach

    Considering all of the hardcore conservative journal entries that Pudge has made in just the past few weeks, I'm not sure I want to know how he comes up with his conclusions.

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    1. Re:Not sure I would want his methods by damn_registrars · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Knowing how your enemy processes his data, finding flaws in his analysis

      Well, based on the same journal entries that I pointed out earlier, it would seem reasonable to expect that he just takes feeds straight from conservative news sources and then "analyzes" by posting it here on slashdot as well as on his own website.

      I would say there isn't really any "raw data analysis" involved. At least if there is, he isn't posting it here.

      Although of course reality does have a known liberal bias. So he may choose to simply ignore reality on that basis.

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      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. Fivethirtyeight.com by ireallylovelinux · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those people that don't want to install mathematica you could go to fivethirtyeight.com and get updated polls. I got this from the typewriter xkcd.

  5. Mathematica Advertisment by Myrddin+Wyllt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This doesn't seem like a serious forecasting project, just a bit of topical advertising fluff thrown together by a couple of Wolfram staffers. It might be fun to download and play with if you have Mathematica already, but it doesn't make me want to rush out and blow two and a half grand on propriety software.

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