If you search for data analysis workflows for research there are lots of blog posts on using R + databases + git, etc. While in some cases I may end up working with a combination like that, it's much more likely that reality is closer to a bunch of emailed Excel or CSV files. Some… Continue reading Keeping track of research
Influences: Cronopios and Famas
Books have accompanied me for all my life, or at least for as long as I can remember. However, my reading habits have changed many times, from reading simple books, to reading very complex books, to reading anything, to reading if I squeeze a few minutes here and there, to... you get the idea. ‘Habits’… Continue reading Influences: Cronopios and Famas
This time is Calvino
This happens relatively frequently: I am talking with someone else that doesn't know me well and, at some point of the conversation I have mentioned that I am a forester. Then we move into books and I mention someone like Borges or Calvino and they look at me with this puzzled face as in 'I… Continue reading This time is Calvino
Calculating parliament seats allocation and quotients
I was having a conversation about dropping the minimum threshold (currently 5% of the vote) for political parties to get representation in Parliament. The obvious question is how would seat allocation change, which of course involved a calculation. There is a calculator in the Electoral Commission website, but trying to understand how things work (and… Continue reading Calculating parliament seats allocation and quotients
Collecting results of the New Zealand General Elections
I was reading an article about the results of our latest elections where I was having a look at the spatial pattern for votes in my city. I was wondering how would I go over obtaining the data for something like that and went to the Electoral Commission, which has this neat page with links… Continue reading Collecting results of the New Zealand General Elections