Author: Brendan Barry

  • The Summary of the Mueller Report

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    Brendan Barry
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    When Robert Mueller submitted his report a few weeks ago, some interested parties declared it a witch hunt that had wasted time and money. Except, it had done the opposite of that. It had laid bare Russia’s interference in our elections and the contacts between Russian government and quasi-government officials and Trump campaign officials. Said officials…

  • Redaction Action

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week, the Department of Justice released the Mueller Report. It was—and still is—sort of a big deal. But this week I want to take a look at a few different approaches to covering the report in the media. We will start with a piece from Vox on the redactions in the report. After all,…

  • An Illustrated Guide to the Deaths in Game of Thrones

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    Brendan Barry
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    Did something important happen yesterday in the news? We’ll get to it. But for now, it’s Friday. You’ve made it to the weekend. So sit back and binge. On gin or Game of Thrones, whatever. Last Sunday the hit HBO show Game of Thrones returned for its final series. I did not have time to…

  • The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral: Part Trois

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    Brendan Barry
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    On Tuesday I talked about a small article published by the New York Times that looked at the cathedral fire. I lamented that there were no immediate graphics explaining what happened. Just give me two days. Tuesday we had the BBC piece and then yesterday the New York Times published a more extensive look. As the user…

  • The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral: Part Deux

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday I mentioned how there were few graphics detailing the fire at Notre Dame de Paris. Just give media organisations a day. The BBC published this piece about the fire. It includes, much like the Times piece from yesterday, an illustrative diagram detailing the key locations of the fire. But the BBC piece goes a…

  • The Fire at Notre Dame Cathedral

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    Brendan Barry
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    This was not what I was going to write about today, but the news of the fire that ravaged Notre Dame yesterday rightly dominated the news yesterday and this morning. However, while I found multiple articles dealing with photographic evidence of the damage, I did not see many that detailed the fire from an illustrative…

  • Israeli Electoral History

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    Brendan Barry
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    One of the important stories of last week that was not black hole related was that of the re-election of the Likud Party in Israel, a party headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. This will be his fourth consecutive time as prime minister plus a fifth back in the late 1990s. Of course, he is facing an…

  • Black Holes and Revelations

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    Brendan Barry
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    On Sunday night I went to see the English rock band Muse perform here in Philadelphia. The concert was to support their latest album, but of course they played Starlight, a song which gave us its respective album’s title: Black Holes and Revelations. Then on Wednesday, scientists announced that for the very first time, we…

  • Carbon Taxes

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week the New York Times published an article about carbon taxes, looking at their adoption around the world and their effectiveness. It is a fascinating article about how different countries have chosen to implement the broad policy idea and the various forms it can take. And, most importantly, how some of those policies can end…

  • How Does the UK View Their Political Parties?

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    Brendan Barry
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    The United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union on Friday. That means there is no deal to safeguard continuity of trading arrangements, healthcare, air traffic control, security and intelligence deals, &c. Oh, and it will likely wreck the economy. No big deal, Theresa. But what do UK voters think about their leading political parties…