Author: Brendan Barry

  • Arms Sales for Saudi Arabia and Head Removals for Journalists

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yeah, guess where I am going with that title… If you have been living under a rock, Saudi Arabia barbarically murdered/assassinated a Washington Post journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey about three weeks ago. The journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was a Saudi citizen and US resident living around Washington from where he reported on…

  • Phone Calls

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    Brendan Barry
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    It’s Friday, everybody, and that means we all made it to the end of the week. As a millennial, I was surprised to learn that my mobile can actually be used to make telephonic calls. Phone calls, as they are often known, are like direct messages or text messages, but made without cat gifs or…

  • The New Longest Flight

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    Brendan Barry
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    You might recall that back in March I wrote about the use of spherical maps to show great circles. This helps illustrate the actual routes that aircraft take in flight. (Yes, actual flight plans deviate based on routes, weather, traffic, &c.) At the time I wrote about how there was a soon-to-be Singapore–New York route.…

  • Mapping All the Buildings

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    Brendan Barry
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    I wish I had more for this post. Saturday morning’s New York Times was delivered with this on the front page, above the fold. It promised a special section including graphics that showed every building in the United States with a pullout poster of a large major city. I have been through my Sunday paper…

  • First Florence, Now Michael

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    Brendan Barry
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    You may recall a few weeks ago there was a hurricane named Florence that slammed into the Carolina before stalling and dumping voluminous amounts of rain that inundated inland communities in addition to the damage by the storm surge in the coastal communities. At the time I wrote about a New York Times piece that…

  • Europe is More than the Big States

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    Brendan Barry
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    First, I want to start with a housekeeping note. Your author will be travelling for work and then a short autumn holiday. And so while I may be able to sneak a post or two in, I generally would not expect anything until next Friday, 12 October. But let’s end this string of posts with…

  • Calendars

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    Brendan Barry
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    Throughout recorded history, calendars have profoundly impacted the development of human society. They allowed us to mark the rain or flood seasons to prepare for planting or reaping crops along the banks of rivers like the Nile. Calendars allowed us to account for the seasons and create the mythologies around them. We also have calendars…

  • Millennials Are the Worst

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, everybody. We made it to week’s end. But wouldn’t you know it? Millennials are still terrible. Admittedly this piece is over a year old, but I could not remember ever seeing it before. If you do not recall, last year there was a debate about the spending habits of millennials and why they are not…

  • Running Up the Debt

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    Brendan Barry
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    I was reading the paper this morning and stumbled across this graphic in a New York Times article that focused on the increasing importance of debt payments. The story is incredibly important and goes to show why the tax cuts passed by the administration are fiscally reckless. But the graphic is really smart too. After all,…

  • Kavanaugh’s Fading in Competitive House Seats

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    Brendan Barry
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    Another day, another allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. We are presently at two and are expecting a third tomorrow. But the question is, will these allegations sink his nomination? Probably not. But could that confirmation hurt Republicans in the mid-terms? Possibly. The New York Times posted an article about how Kavanaugh’s support in…