Author: Brendan Barry

  • United Shapes

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    Brendan Barry
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    And for the lighter side to end the week, via xkcd:

  • Rusyns of Slovakia

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Slovakian government has published the results from its 2011 census. The census looked at many things, including nationality and language. This should allow the government in Bratislava to better fund and support the ethnic minorities in Slovakia. Of course, some of my ancestors were one of the small ethnic minorities in Slovakia. Ergo, I…

  • It’s Been Hot

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    In case you missed it, the weather the past few weeks has been hot across much of the United States. Last week the Washington Post published an infographic on temperatures in the District of Columbia. As it turns out, it has been hot. But it appears that in mid-June a few years ago, the temperature…

  • Blowing Things Up (Or Shooting Them Down)

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    Brendan Barry
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    After an odd two short weeks—imagine two weeks with each only having a Monday and a Friday—we (in the royal sense of I) are back to the routine. So what better way than to look at American awesomeness in blowing things up. Through air strikes launched from US aircraft carriers. This graphic comes from the…

  • Venn Diagrams. Let’s Go Back to Grade School.

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week Mitt Romney’s campaign released a series of infographic adverts. They were Venn Diagrams with messages attacking President Obama by highlighting what the Romney campaign called gaps between what the president has said he would do and what he has in fact done. The problem with these is that they are all wrong. Do…

  • Higgs Boson. You Can Call It God.

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    Brendan Barry
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    CERN may—or may not—have discovered a particle that may—or may not—be the Higgs Boson that would probably fill in a lot of the holes in our understanding of how the world may work at a sub-atomic level. That is a lot of ‘may’s. Understanding just what a Higgs Boson does is not quite so easy. In…

  • Crossing the Detroit River (Panic in Detroit)

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    Brendan Barry
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    The National Post’s business section, branded separately as the Financial Post, posted a comment about a proposed bridge that would span the Detroit River and add a third major crossing to the Detroit–Windsor area. The comment used a graphic to explain one of the key points of the story, that early 21st century traffic projections…

  • The Conservative Supreme Court

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    From last week’s New York Times, a look at the Supreme Court by age and political leanings. They’ve gotten a lot more conservative.

  • Voyager 1

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    Brendan Barry
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    So my prediction of the health care law being thrown out did not come to pass. But what will pass is the space probe Voyager 1 out of the solar system in the very near future. (Don’t worry unlike Voyager, I will return—albeit to the original subject matter next week.) So from the National Post…

  • The Future of Those Without Health Insurance

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    Brendan Barry
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    As the Supreme Court is likely to scrap the mandate provision of the health care law—without which sick people are left to pay higher premiums if they can get coverage at all—later today, the New York Times looks at the impact of removing the health care law changes the number of people without health insurance.…