Author: Brendan Barry

  • Rarely Shady in Philadelphia

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    Brendan Barry
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    After a rainy weekend in Philadelphia thanks to Hurricane Henri, we are bracing for another heat wave during the middle of this week. Of course when you swelter in the summer, you seek out shade. But as a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, not all neighbourhoods have the same levels of tree…

  • The Years of the Asterisks

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. Another week and we made it. This Friday I want to highlight a graphic from xkcd that, strictly speaking, isn’t really data visualisation, but it does speak to that world because it’s about the underlying data. And as with the best humour, there’s an element of truth in it. Credit for the…

  • Little Green Men. Now with Tanks.

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    Brendan Barry
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    In 2014, what became known as little green men invaded Crimea, Ukraine. No, these were not aliens, but what we’ve later learned were unmarked Russian Army soldiers. They routed what little resistance Ukraine mustered in 2021 Crimea is de facto Russian, though de jure it remains Ukrainian. Following Crimea, insurrections erupted in the Donbas, part…

  • Out with the New, In with the Old

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    Brendan Barry
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    After twenty years out of power, the Taliban in Afghanistan are back in power as the Afghan government collapsed spectacularly this past weekend. In most provinces and districts, government forces surrendered without firing a shot. And if you’re going to beat an army in the field, you generally need to, you know, fight if you…

  • Covid Update: 16 August

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    Brendan Barry
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    In last week’s update we looked at how in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois the numbers of new cases of Covid-19 were trending in the wrong direction. This past week they continued to do much the same. This week I want to begin with New Jersey, because last week I noted how the…

  • Ranking the Red Sox Prospects

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    Brendan Barry
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    My regular readers will know that I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox, an American baseball team located in Boston, Massachusetts. I would consider myself a bit more involved than a casual fan in that I keep tabs on the team’s prospects. For those unfamiliar with baseball, the sport works by keeping development…

  • Tiffany

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. We made it through another week of Covid, vaccinations, asteroids, and all that pleasant stuff. So let’s end with an upbeat note. Over on YouTube there’s a channel I have long enjoyed, CCP Grey, who creates videos about, well lots of things, but sometimes really interesting historical, geographical, and political topics. This…

  • Threats from Little Bodies Inside and Outside

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    Brendan Barry
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    Of course the inside threat are those little bodies of coronavirus causing Covid-19. We cover them a lot here. But there are also threats from little bodies outside, way outside. Like asteroids impacting us. And that was the news yesterday when NASA announced improved data from a mission to the asteroid Bennu allowed it to…

  • The Pandemic of the Unvaccinated

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    Brendan Barry
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    Get your shots. It’s pretty much that simple. But for just under half the country, it’s not getting through. So I went looking for some data on the breakdown of Covid-19 cases by vaccinated and unvaccinated people. I found an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non-profit that focuses on health and healthcare…

  • Covid Update: 9 August

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    Brendan Barry
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    Late last week I provided a brief update on the Covid-19 situation in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois. Today I wanted to circle back to my statement that I’d update everyone again early this week. Of course, we had to wait until states began reporting their Monday data to get a better sense…