Author: Brendan Barry

  • Long-distance Amtrak

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s post is not super complex, but we all know I am a sucker for transit. Especially Amtrak. Back home on the East Coast, it runs both quickly and reliably along the Northeast Corridor and the Keystone Corridor. But as this graphic from the Wall Street Journal shows, that does not quite hold up for…

  • Europe’s Far-right Parties

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    On Sunday, Austria narrowly elected a former Green Party leader as president over the leader of the Freedom Party, a far-right party that surged in part because of the impact of Europe’s migrant and refugee crisis. The New York Times took a look at just how often and by how much far-right parties have succeeded…

  • Don’t Go, Big Papi

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s graphic is not terribly complicated, but it is near and dear to Boston Red Sox fans. This is David Ortiz’s final year as he announced his retirement at the year’s outset. And of so course FiveThirtyEight examined Big Papi’s chances of getting into the Hall of Fame. Credit for the piece goes to Rob…

  • Where Is Pennsyltucky?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    So last week I mentioned Pennsyltucky in my blog post about Pennsylvania’s forthcoming importance in the election. And then on Friday I shared a humourous illustrated map of Pennsylvania that led into an article on Pennsyltucky. But where exactly is it? Luckily for you, I spent a good chunk of my weekend trying to find…

  • Pennsyltucky

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    You may remember my post from Wednesday talking about the likely importance of Pennsylvania in the forthcoming election. I referenced an article from Philadelphia Magazine, which opened with a great map of Pennsylvania. I find the map very much worth sharing, especially on a Friday. I love the island life. Take note of the other…

  • The Decline of the Middle Class in America

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week the New York Times published a great piece on the shrinking middle class and they used a series of small multiples to tell the story. They broke the story up into several sections, based on the trends in the data, e.g. in the screenshot below the designer sorted by areas where the middle…

  • Is Pennsylvania the Tipping Point?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today we look at a piece that focuses on my native (and favourite) state: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (Along with Virginia, Massachusetts, and Kentucky, we self-identify as a commonwealth and not a state.) FiveThirtyEight examines how Pennsylvania and its shifting political preferences might just be the key (get it? keystone) to the election for both candidates.…

  • Comparing Economic and Political Freedom

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Today’s post is just a little scatter plot today of my own creation. I was interested to see which countries fall outside the mainstream when it comes to economic and political freedom, as measured by the Heritage Foundation and Freedom House, respectively. Those are certainly not the only indices that I could have chosen, however,…

  • Pedro Martinez Was A Great Pitcher

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week FiveThirtyEight posted a nice article about the best pitchers in baseball. Turns out Pedro Martinez rates pretty highly among them. The late 90s and early 00s were great for Red Sox pitching. Credit for the piece goes to Neil Paine and Jay Boice.

  • Dancing and Boozing

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday the 13th. So after a look at Holyrood election results, today we have a look at the correlation between how well people (think they) dance and the amount of alcohol they consume. Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.