Author: DanShaffer
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December-February Northern Michigan Search Interest Forecast
My Google search interest forecast for Northern Michigan places during the next three months continues to show higher levels for the Upper Peninsula and slightly lower forecasts for the Lower Peninsula. During this period, we would expect some of the lowest search interest of the year with this impact reduced in the Upper Peninsula due… Read more
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The Skills Shortage in Data Related Occupations
You won’t be around any sort of professional circle, social media, or talent network long without hearing about the extreme talent shortfalls for data analytics, data science, data engineering, and data analysis along with related skill sets in math, statistics, computer science, and quantitative business and social science. This leads one to wonder to what… Read more
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A Bird in Search of Heaven
Ruffed grouse are a large, non-migratory bird of the northern forests. They are northerners especially these days as they’re in short supply in areas like the Appalachian Mountains where they were once plentiful. In Indiana, they have been on the state endangered list since 2020. Nonetheless, they are plentiful in the northern portions of Michigan,… Read more
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Regularized Regression: Good for Goldilocks or the Worst of Both Worlds?
Is regularized regression a happy medium or does it simply combine the disadvantages of traditional regression and machine learning approaches? The answer is that there is a bit of truth to both outlooks. (Note: Moving forward I refer to regression as more traditional linear/semi-linear prediction models for either continuous or classification tasks. This is as… Read more
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Back to the Basics of Camping
Many people say that humans are social animals. But there are plenty of social animals. Our obsession with things is what makes us human. Our ability to use and make everything from basic tools to the most complex modern technology is what makes us different from the other animals. It’s not surprising that this has… Read more
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Northern Michigan Search Interest Forecast Nov-Jan 2024
This is my forecast of Google search interest for places in Northern Michigan during the next three months. I forecast the Upper Peninsula to have higher than normal search interest and the Lower Peninsula to have slightly lower than normal search interest. This month, I have created several more figures that will help motivate future… Read more
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How I developed my idea for the Northern Michigan search interest project.
How we come up with a data science, analytics, or data based research project is the subject of both common lore and debate, or at least debate as defined by dissenting behavior. Common lore dictates that we start with the business question that we are most concerned with irregardless of available data and methodologies and… Read more
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Northern Pines
Humans find beauty in order, even in our natural environment. Consider the cookie cutter yards of suburban America. These are neatly mowed and landscaped with clean lines. Brush piles that are hiding places for small animals are removed. Even the forbs (weeds), which are choice wildlife food sources, are tediously killed leaving the non-nutritious grass.… Read more
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Northern Michigan Search Interest: November, October, December Forecast
This is the forecast document I provided for Northern Michigan Place Search Interest back at the beginning of October. This version had an added section for places in the Northern Lower Peninsula with higher search interest for October and November. Northern Michigan search interest exhibits high seasonality which favors summer months even more than the… Read more