Author: Brendan Barry

  • Wisconsin Politics

    Today we dive into state-level politics north of Chicago, in the state of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an in-depth article looking at the political divide in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. While one could publish an article of that nature with just lots and lots of words, the Journal Sentinel chose to use maps…

  • John Lester Dominates

    This past weekend was some good Red Sox baseball. Okay, so we only won two of three from Oakland, but that second game was fantastic. John Lester dominated. Last fall I mentioned a studio called Statlas that was visualising the World Series. They continue to update and tweak their product and so it was great…

  • Comparing the Troop Deployments of Russia and Ukraine

    Things remain tense in Ukraine, especially after the violence late last week in Odessa. But in many senses, Ukraine is limited in the operations it can undertake against the separatists, at least with its armed forces. A lot of this has to do with the tens of thousands of Russian troops, tanks, and aircraft now…

  • Symbology on the Internets

    Today I am going to take a day-long step away from data visualisation. The Harvard Business Review recently published a short piece looking at some of the symbolism—I mean symbology clearly—we use on the internets. Credit for the piece goes to the Harvard Business Review.

  • Strolling into Work…

    …forty minutes late with an iced coffee? It’s what we millennials do since we don’t understand that time exists between 04.00 and 10.30. Don’t believe me? Well, Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight crunched the numbers and it turns out that there is some truth in the humour. Cities with a younger, more millennial workforce tend…

  • NATO Deployments Near Ukraine

    Things continue to deteriorate in eastern Ukraine. And along the other borders of Ukraine, NATO is boosting its presence with planes, ships, and soldiers. This graphic from Jane’s details the recent deployment of aircraft to the theatre. Credit for the piece goes to IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly.

  • Syrian Anti-tank Missiles

    Rebels in Syria have recently acquired American-made anti-tank missiles. But for those who don’t know how exactly the TOW missile system works, the Washington Post illustrated it. In theory, these weapons will give the rebels an advantage over Syrian armour. Credit for the piece goes to Richard Johnson.

  • Defence Spending

    As troops and tanks and rumble around the Ukrainian–Russian border, I was left to wonder just how NATO has been doing with defence spending. So I took defence spending as a share of total GDP. In general, NATO countries have been spending less since the end of the Cold War. The Baltic states are a…

  • Indoor Plumbing

    Today’s post is a small interactive map—nothing fancy there—about indoor plumbing. As it turns out not every home in the United States has it. Of course, last weekend I ended up driving through those dark counties in western Pennsylvania. And I can believe it. And I can definitely say I saw a few outhouses. Credit…

  • Baseball Nation

    Baseball is back. And thankfully the New York Times has mapped out most of Major League Baseball’s fans. The glaring exception is, of course the omission of Canada/Ontario, home to the Toronto Blue Jays. The piece maps the data of Facebook likes down to the zip code and then offers details on a few border…