Data to Viz

For data analysts using R, this is huge.  Find out how to generate the graph you need for the data you have with just a few clicks.

Yes, you’ll find some fine print explaining that the site is not comprehensive.  BUT, it still has a trove of graph types and accompanying R and python code to generate them.

Tip from the R Bloggers

Update: from the O’Reilly Data Science Newsletter, I learn that the Data to Viz site has a CAVEATS page, showing many of the most common “worst practices” of data visualization, whether confusing, misleading, or downright deceptive.

I’m not quite sure, though, why the site displays only 7 examples when I select the Top 10 filter ….

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“I want to make this the best I can for them”

While the Man dithers in the aftermath of the Camp Fire, trying to get his sh*t togther, the Little Folks get it

I say “That seems like a thankless task.”

“Not at all,” she replies. “Not at all.”

“Really? Why the hell not?”

“Hey, I do this job every day in this store. It’s my assigned task and usually its okay but I only do it for the money because it gets really monotonous, meaningless.”

She’s a student, I perceive.

“But today those people really needed these clothes in this corner because of the price. And tomorrow more people like that will really need them too. And so I want to make this the best I can for them. So I’m going to put it all back on hangers and arrange them by size. It will be right by the morning. You better go. We’re closing. Thank you for coming in.”

Straight from the (slightly toasted) horse’s mouth at American Digest.  Stop by and drop off a tip, so he can rebuild his life.

Feynman’s 4-Step Learning Process

From the man who showed up rocket scientists, a simple checklist:

• pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it
• pretend to teach your topic to a classroom*
• go back to the books when you get stuck**
• simplify and use analogies

Exactly the technique I use to “get smart” on lots of stuff I should know, but don’t.

Tip from Old Remus at the Woodpile Report (report #553).

*Pretend, hell!  Wiggle that topic into your course syllabus, and commit yourself to teaching it.  Nothing sharpens your studies like trying to create a coherent lecture.  Or two.  With a supporting homework assignment.  And quiz or exam questions.

**There are gurus out there, go talk to them.  I’m lucky to work at a university, where many are right down the hall.  I have yet to meet an expert unwilling to speak about his area of expertise.  Often at great, nay overwhelming, length.

“Security concerns”

But today there are reports that the British government has said that it will not offer asylum to Asia Bibi. The reason being “security concerns” — that weasel term now used by all officialdom whenever it needs one last reason to avoid doing the right thing.

Thanks to Douglas Murray, writing in the National Review, for explaining the term.  I see university officials using it quite frequently.

Past performance is no indication of future…

I am such a slow pony.  I’ve just web-surfed my way into discovering Rob Hyndman’s Time Series Data Library, which has hundreds of time-series datasets suitable for every teaching need.  I was looking for one of my old faves, from that hoary old classic, Forecasting, Time Series, and Regression, and voila! there it is.

 

To every thing, there is a season

Most of us are aware of the seasonal cycle of influenza outbreaks, which for Americans peak in the winter. In a new paper, Micaela Martinez, PhD, a scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, makes a case that all infectious diseases have a seasonal element. The “Pearl” article appears in the journal PLOS Pathogens. [my emphasis]

We all knew this, we just didn’t know we knew this.  Some folks are recognized as geniuses for explicating the obvious.  I’m look at you, Micaela Martinez.

Tip from Austin Bay writing at the Instatpundit,  who, like the BlogFather himself, can make even the most boring stuff sound interesting.

Hunting the Wild Placebo

The New York Times’ Gary Greenberg asks “What if the Placebo Effect Isn’t a Trick?” and gets some interesting answers.  Along the way, he tells the interesting history of the placebo and how it has become a standard in FDA=approved clinical trials.  My only question for the FDA is this:  if someone were to attempt to certify a placebo effect, what would you compare it to?
Tip from Drudge, who, like a blind squirrel, occasionally finds a fresh nut, and never leaves a permalink.

“This is the greatest country in the world.”

An American veteran brings his Ukranian bride to the States for a honeymoon, and gets to see his country through fresh eyes.  And understands why not to sweat the small stuff:

…it’s all too easy to misjudge the gravity of life’s problems when you’re used to peace and prosperity—after all, there’s no microaggression, no trigger, no slur or verbal insult that could ever compare with the impartial brutalities of revolution and war.

Tip from Maggie’s Farm

UPDATE:  A young German woman, disillusioned with her life, is rescued from death by a kindly stranger.

As for Katharina, she said Nancy rescued her in more ways than one.

“Someone cared,” Katharina said.  She said the whole reason she did the hike alone was because she’d given up on people.

“I lost faith in humanity,” Katharina said.  But she said she got her faith back in a “really big way.”

“Come to America,” Katharina said.