Author: Brendan Barry

  • Boldly Going…

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    Brendan Barry
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    Those of my readers who know me well know that I’ve long been a fan of Star Trek. And so we’ve made it to the weekend. And over at Indexed earlier this month, well, we have a great science fiction comparison. Here in the states we have a bank holiday Monday, so Star Trek is…

  • Hamas’ Rocket Swarms

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week I wrote about the deaths in Gaza and Israel, where a ceasefire is holding at the time of writing. But I also included a graphic about the size of Hamas’ rocket arsenal. In a social media post I commented about how it appeared Hamas had also changed its tactics given Israel’s Iron Dome…

  • On a Line. Or Not.

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    Brendan Barry
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    Two weeks ago I was reading an article in the BBC that fact checked some of President Biden’s claims about the economy. Now I noted the other day in a post about axis lines and their use in graphics. Axis lines help ground the user in making comparisons between bars, lines, or whatever, and the…

  • I’ve Got the Subtlest of Blues

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    Brendan Barry
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    As I prepared to reconnect and rejoin the world, I spent most of the weekend prior to full vaccination cleaning and clearing out my flat of things from the past 14 months. One thing I meant to do more with was printed pieces I saw in the New York Times. Interesting pages, front pages in…

  • Covid Update: 23 May

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week I wrote about how we were seeing new cases continuing to rapidly decline. This week we can say cases are still declining, but perhaps a bit less rapidly than earlier. The charts above show that slowdown in the tail at the right of the chart. First some points to note, Delaware reported that…

  • The Month That Lasted a Year

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    Brendan Barry
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    Two Fridays ago I received my second dose of the vaccine. In other words, I’m fully vaccinated and can resume doing…things. Anything. And so this piece from xkcd seemed an appropriate way to wrap up what has been a horrible, no good, terrible year. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • It’s Warming Up

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    Brendan Barry
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    As many of my readers know, I prefer my weather cooler and summer is probably my least favourite season—weather wise at least. Appropriately, my vaccination will be kicking in just in time for a small, early season heatwave. Felt like an appropriate time to share this piece from Brian Brettschenider. It’s just an animated map…

  • Some Data on Deaths in Gaza and Israel

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    Brendan Barry
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    I’ve seen an uptick in traffic to the blog the last few days, specifically my older content on the Middle East. I don’t exactly have the bandwidth to track the conflict between Israel and Gaza in addition to Covid-19 and my other projects. But as we approached the ten-day mark since Hamas first fired rockets…

  • Israel’s Palestine Trilemma

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    Brendan Barry
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    In what feels like forever ago, I wrote about the trilemma facing the British government as it related to Brexit. Brexit presented Westminster with three choices, of which they could only make two as all three were, together, impossible. Once made, those two choices determined the outcome of Brexit. For better or worse, Prime Minister…

  • Covid Update: 16 May

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week I wrote about how new cases in the five states we cover (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois) were falling and falling rapidly. And this week that pattern continues to hold. If we look at the Sunday-to-Sunday numbers, daily new cases were down in all five states. If we look at the…