Author: Brendan Barry

  • The Western Heat Dome(s)

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    Brendan Barry
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    For the last two days Philadelphia and much of the East Coast suffered from a heavy haze of smoke that blanketed the region. This wasn’t just any smoke, however, but smoke from the wildfires on the West Coast. This post isn’t about the wildfires, but rather something that exacerbated them. We are talking about the heat domes that…

  • Philadelphia’s Changing Skyline

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday I mentioned how I spent Monday researching some old family properties in Philadelphia. In some cases the homes my family owned still stand. But, in many others the homes have long since been replaced. But that’s the nature of city development. That got me thinking about an article published earlier this month at Philadelphia…

  • Substandard Housing in Philadelphia

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    Brendan Barry
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    I took a holiday yesterday and headed down the street to the Philadelphia City Archives, which houses some of the oldest documents dating back to the founding of the colony. But I was there primarily to try and find deeds and property information for my ancestors as part of my genealogy work. When I walked…

  • Greenland Uber Alles

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. Whether we’re talking melting ice sheets or attempted purchases by the Trump administration, the island of Greenland has often been in the news the last few years. So here’s an appropriate map from xkcd comparing the size of Greenland to the rest of the world. Credit for the piece goes to Randall…

  • Bodies Buried Under Spring Garden

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    Brendan Barry
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    Okay, technically not Spring Garden Street, but a strip mall along one of Philadelphia’s main arterial city streets. Luckily these aren’t some victims of a serial murderer, but rather the result of Philadelphia being an old city (for the United States). As this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer explains, the bodies were discovered during excavations…

  • Covid Update: 13 July

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    Brendan Barry
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    So Mondays no longer work for these regular updates, because as we know Illinois no longer reports weekend data. Starting next week, neither will Virginia. Furthermore, keeping track of the vaccinations is tough, because the same. But also, then we have Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia, but Philadelphia only updates vaccination data twice per week. Consequently,…

  • Roundabouts in Philadelphia

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    Brendan Barry
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    This is a piece I’ve been sitting on for a little while now, okay half a year now. There isn’t too much to it as it’s an illustration overlay on a satellite photo. But the graphic supports an article about the construction of a new roundabout in Philadelphia, coincidentally where I used to live. That…

  • A Day in the Life of Benjamin Franklin

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    Brendan Barry
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    Earlier this week I was researching something for my day job that prompted me to look through an 1820 city directory for Philadelphia. Whilst looking for my information I came upon this graphic depicting how Ben Franklin advised people divide their time during the day. Notably, this is all done in 1820, and so the…

  • Some People Never Had Experience with…

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    Brendan Barry
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    Air is an art project by Marina Vitaglione and written about by the BBC. The project seeks to raise awareness of the air pollution in and around London. She used cyanotypes to capture the pollution in the area. She collected evidence of the pollution in circular areas on paper and then exposed them as cyanotypes.…

  • Covid Update: 6 July

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    Brendan Barry
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    In trying to limit my Covid-19 updates to Monday, bank holidays definitely affect the schedule. For my international audience, that meant Monday was a day of no posting. It also meant that some states—Illinois—were not reporting data. Add to that Illinois had already stopped reporting data on Saturday and Sunday, I wanted to wait until…