Author: Brendan Barry

  • The Science Behind the Thoroughbred

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    Brendan Barry
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    I do not know a thing about horses. I leave that knowledge to others in my family. However, this piece from the South China Morning Post explains quite a bit of why the thoroughbred is such a famous type of horse for racing. Credit for the piece goes to Alberto Lucas López.

  • Defensive Incest

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today’s piece comes from Bloomberg Businessweek. In the wake of the Pentagon’s decision to push for budget cuts including force reduction and slashing several programmes, I decided to show this chord diagram that shows how the defence industry supports itself. Credit for the piece goes to Robert Levinson, Dorothy Gambrell, and David Evans.

  • Potholes

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today’s piece is from the Washington Post. However, it is less data visualisation and more of a neat little motion graphic explaining the formation of pot holes. Since it seems to be about that time of year when roads are destroyed by the things. Credit for the piece goes to Sohail Al-Jamea and Bonnie Berkowitz.

  • Household Income Inequality

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Washington Post published this dot plot graphic to explore inequality in household income across numerous American cities. The chart, as most dot plots do, does a good job of showing where several distinct points within a set fall within the entire range of data. Or to put it into other words, where do the…

  • Baseball Windows

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    Brendan Barry
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    Spring training has begun for baseball fans. The glow from the Red Sox victory last October is fading as we now wonder if we can repeat. Fans of other teams now wonder if this is their year. Over at SB Nation, an article plotted 29 baseball teams—ignoring the Dodgers— and looked at their chances in…

  • The Swiss and Immigration

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week, the Swiss people narrowly rejected the principle of freedom of movement. This principles serves as one of the foundations of the European Union. And while Switzerland does not belong to the EU, its economy benefits from access to the single market via that freedom of movement principle. That may be an oversimplification perhaps,…

  • Explaining What is Going on in Ukraine

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    Brendan Barry
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    Not “the Ukraine” as it is (admittedly) fun to do in pop-culture references to Seinfeld. This comes from the Washington Post and the article tries to show that the protests in Kiev are not necessarily a vast majority against the government. Certainly the opposition is strong, but there is also a very strong pro-government movement.…

  • Racing for Revenue

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    Brendan Barry
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    As the Winter Olympics continue, the Economist looks at a different kind of race. The race between companies reaching a certain amount of revenue—along with the net profit from said revenue. How long does it take a company to reach $1 million in revenue? When all companies have reached the same amount of revenue, what…

  • Living on the Minimum Wage

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week the New York Times published a nice interactive about the minimum wage and just how difficult it is to live on it. (We will for now spare the charts that show how the actual purchasing power has declined over the years.) First you pick your state because not every state pays the same…

  • Happy Valentine’s Day

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    Brendan Barry
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    To celebrate, here’s a cropping from an infographic about breakups. From a whole series of graphics about breakups. You can thank me with some dead and rotting flowers. Credit for the piece goes to Lee Byron.