Author: Brendan Barry

  • China’s New Islands

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    Brendan Barry
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    Okay, so the title might be a bit hyperbolic, but the point that China has spent the last few years expanding minor reefs into major military installations still stands. This New York Times piece is a few months old at this point, but through a combination of maps, photography, and diagrams, it illustrates what has…

  • The Cherry Blossoms Are Coming

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    Brendan Barry
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    It’s cherry blossom time in Washington. So the Washington Post has a nice piece—appropriately coloured—looking at where the different varietals are within and near the Tidal Basin. Credit for the piece goes to Emily Chow and Dakota Fine.

  • The Franco–Belgian Terror Network

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    Brendan Barry
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    The terror attacks in Paris and Brussels were bad. But even worse? The two attacks exposed a network of IS terrorists living within the Schengen Area. Are there cells or even other networks? One way of uncovering them would be to examine the links between the known terrorists and see if additional nodes appear at…

  • The Middle Class is Getting Poorer

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    Brendan Barry
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    At least relatively speaking. Today’s post is a Bloomberg article comprised primarily of charts with pithy titles summarising the data story. If listicle is a word for articles consisting of the Top-10 things about [whatever], do we start embracing charticle as the word for chart-driven stories? Even if we do, we should take note that this piece was not…

  • How Trump Could Get to 270

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    Brendan Barry
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    Trump won Arizona last night. And that is a big deal, despite losing Utah. He was never expected to win Utah. And while he Arizona was expected, the magnitude of his victory there was…big. If you replicate even something close to that in a demographically similar state like California, he can rack up some big…

  • Brussels Airport

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    Brendan Barry
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    I have only ever been to Brussels once and that was only to the airport for a brief layover whilst en route to Vilnius for work. I flew Brussels Airlines for the European segment of the trip and I snagged these photos from the in-flight magazine. Felt appropriate today. Unfortunately it was a short layover…

  • Party Demographics

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    Brendan Barry
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    Alas, these are not the fun type of parties, but the two main US political ones. But overall, before some more primary and caucus votes tomorrow, I think this Wall Street Journal piece nicely captures and illustrates the changes in and the differences between the bases of the two parties. Credit for the piece goes…

  • Emojis in the News

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well Happy Friday, everyone. Today’s chart is a serious subject: the (brief) recovery of the S&P 500. But because this is Friday, take a look at the annotations on the chart. Credit for the piece goes to Matt Phillips.

  • Irish Immigration

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    Brendan Barry
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    Illegal immigration is one of the big topics in the American presidential election. Some of us want to build a wall to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants. Today’s graphic is a number. Illegal immigrants are not limited to Latin America, but they come even from places like Ireland looking for a better life. The number is…

  • How Moderate is John Kasich

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last night contained one victory for John Kasich. The Ohio governor outlasted all but Trump and Cruz and therefore represents the only establishment candidate. He also supposedly represents the moderate wing of the Republican Party. But within an article on FiveThirtyEight is a map showing how he may not be as moderate as he claims. Kasich has…