What's an "extreme mitten" ?
NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
11–20 of 140 posts
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#12Might just be the parts I looked at, but some of the data is bad. e.g. Repeated orders, orders with 0 cost, but then the cost is calculated into another line, etc.
Also why does the Florida Police (or anyone) need a 800k Mine Resistant Vehicle??
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#13This is awesome. Not really sure why they chose to release it as an XLSX document on GitHub, but it'll work!
There is a CSV uploaded as an update.
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#14I was surprised to see a number of mine-resistant vehicles associated with very rural counties in Washington State. Not being completely sure whether a mine-resistant vehicle was a tank or not, I googled the term and came across this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops-inh...
Choice quote from the article:
“Here’s the thing,” Shellmyer says. “Washington, Iowa, has 8,000 people. We have an MRAP now. We have a SWAT team. We have [police] dogs, and we have a SWAT team transportation vehicle that’s not armored.
The city councilman began to think: “Goodness, this is overkill.”
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#15No matter who was doing the acquiring, the "acquisition costs" of firearms are impressively low. Who buys a military-grade .45 pistol for $60?
I see places where the prices change year to year based on when it was acquired. I wonder if it's a depreciated cost based on how old it is.
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#16Quick question, is the apache license really the most relevant for a dataset? Does that license apply?
I ask only because I'm planning on doing something similar.
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#17Might just be the parts I looked at, but some of the data is bad. e.g. Repeated orders, orders with 0 cost, but then the cost is calculated into another line, etc. Also why does the Florida Police (or anyone) need a 800k Mine Resistant Vehicle??
From the Article[1]: "The Times is now posting the raw data to GitHub here. With this data, which is being posted as it was received,"
The data they got was bad in general. Their original article[2] also discusses the lack of information out there.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/data-on-transfer-of...
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-polic...
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#18I was surprised to see a number of mine-resistant vehicles associated with very rural counties in Washington State. Not being completely sure whether a mine-resistant vehicle was a tank or not, I googled the term and came across this article: http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops-inh... Choice quote from the article: “Here’s the thing,” Shellmyer says. “Washington, Iowa, has 8,000 people. We have a…
If we're lucky, those massive armored vehicles will be parked behind the station, and left to deteriorate. They're so expensive to operate, small departments are loathe to actually use them. If we're unlucky, we get the events in Ferguson, MO.
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#19Might just be the parts I looked at, but some of the data is bad. e.g. Repeated orders, orders with 0 cost, but then the cost is calculated into another line, etc. Also why does the Florida Police (or anyone) need a 800k Mine Resistant Vehicle??
From the Article[1]: "The Times is now posting the raw data to GitHub here. With this data, which is being posted as it was received," The data they got was bad in general. Their original article[2] also discusses the lack of information out there. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/data-on-transfer-of... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-polic...
Ah, I didn't really read the articles, just dove straight into a python interpreter to start checking out the data. I figured it wasn't the Times' fault, but just a warning.
Re: NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub
#20No matter who was doing the acquiring, the "acquisition costs" of firearms are impressively low. Who buys a military-grade .45 pistol for $60?
Those are probably not the actual acquisition costs the government paid. The way the surplussing process works is the people doing the surplussing just make a random guess at the acquisition value if the exact information isn't available. For most things that number isn't readily available to the person filling out the surplus paperwork.