I’m beginning to make some progress with the lobbying project. Last week I got it spitting out data; in mid-week, I optimised the process of loading the meetings from the ScraperWiki API into NetworkX. Hint: the obj_hook keyword argument in python’s json.load() function is really useful! This weekend it’s producing information about lobbies, ministers, and…
Read More lobby: updateI’m beginning to make some progress with the lobbying project. Last week I got it spitting out data; in mid-week, I optimised the process of loading the meetings from the ScraperWiki API into NetworkX. Hint: the obj_hook keyword argument in python’s json.load() function is really useful! This weekend it’s producing information about lobbies, ministers, and…
Read More lobby: updateSo I asked for your help to decide what I thought about the alternative vote. A few of you were supportive on the grounds that it was a start and it would be possible to demand further improvement later. NomadUK said..I say vote yes. It’s not great, but it greases the skids by changing the…
Read More AV: roundup and conclusion of a sortOn the same day that NATO sort-of apologised for a fratricide incident in which a group of tanks the Libyan rebels had put into service were mistaken for Libyan government tanks, it turned out that the MOD was going to send the rebels 500 satellite phones. Well, you can see the point, but the first…
Read More ring ring! who’s there?Well, if you’re the prime minister, you’re not allowed to fight back against your enemies in case you win because Gus O’Donnell says so, as long as the enemies aren’t the right kind of enemies like Coronation Street editors and UNISON hospital porters. All clear so far? When are the Tory apologies to O’Donnell going…
Read More of course, Gauck tells me my file is probably in MoscowDaniel Davies is notorious for making more than full use of a joke once he gets hold of it. I think this is the original source (perhaps even the Urquell) of his line that Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb must be furious at what Hollywood did to his book in development. Well, I watched…
Read More three lessons on risks: a movieSo, a free, jetlagged afternoon by the pool in Palo Alto, after this experience. What to do? Obviously, hack on some code. I dragged out the lobby analyzer project and got it to actually spit out ministers, lobbyists, and MPs, with their weighted degrees in the network, onto the command line. The conclusions are dreadful…
Read More I cannot begin to theorise what may have caused such a catastrophic malfunctionAbsolutely, certainly, without a doubt the most important bit in the News of the World case: Last Friday, a high court judge ordered NoW to make available Mulcaire’s notes to the growing list of people suing the paper. Justice Geoffrey Vos, who is in charge of the hacking cases, ordered “rolling disclosure” to all claimants.…
Read More BritiLeaks: the best website that doesn’t exist yetI’ve realised that I don’t know where I stand on electoral reform. (With that, even my readership vanishes into the distance like Libyan rebels encountering Gadhafi’s one loyal artillery observer.) So I’ve decided to abuse both sides in the hope that they react interestingly. For AV: What, you want to give Nick Clegg what he…
Read More Alternative vote: a reconnaissance by fireRemember this post from 2006, and especially this one from a year later on the next big miscarriage of justice? Well, look what just happened. It’s far worse than even I thought – the police were well aware that there were serious problems with the Landslide case as early as February, 2003. Specifically, the old…
Read More A regrettable breach of security regulations