Author: Brendan Barry

  • 2-point Conversions

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    Brendan Barry
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    I rarely watch American football. But I do like charts about it. So today’s post looks at a piece from Benjamin Morris who explored the scenarios in which a team should opt for the two-point conversion. For those of you who know even less about American football, you can attempt such a conversion after your…

  • Arctic Sea Ice Levels Continue to Decline

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    Brendan Barry
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    You may recall how over two years ago I posted about a piece from the New York Times that explored the levels of Arctic sea ice. It showed how the winter sea ice of 2015 was the lowest level ever recorded. Well last week the Times updated that piece with new data. And instead of the…

  • Earthquake Early Warning

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last month, two massive earthquakes devastated Mexico. Now, if you were like me, you were captivated by the photos and videos of the quakes striking and tearing down buildings and infrastructure. But, think about it for a second, how did people know to take out their mobiles and record the tremors for posterity’s sake? Well,…

  • Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight

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    Brendan Barry
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    I had dinner with an old friend earlier this week and in the course of our conversation we discussed the bans of knives and guns from hospitals. That reminded me of this xkcd comic from last week. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • How Serious Is the Rise in Violent Crime?

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    Brendan Barry
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    On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department released figures for violent crimes in 2016. The administration talked about the rise in violent crime. And yes, such crime did rise in 2016. But, what was not raised nearly as much is that we are also living in an era of historically low crime.…

  • How Bad is the Rohingya Crisis?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Pretty bad. Less than a week after posting about the satellite views showing entire villages razed to the ground, we have a piece from the Economist looking at refugee outflows. And they are worse than the outflow of refugees during the Rwandan genocide back in 1994. To be clear, they are not saying that nearly…

  • (Lack of) Support for Cassidy-Graham Obamacare Repeal

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    Brendan Barry
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    A wee bit of housekeeping here at the top. Your author will be away for work and then enjoying a well-earned, but all-too-brief holiday over the next week. At the end of the week, the Senate’s window to pass a budget reconciliation measure, i.e. what they need to do to repeal Obamacare with only 51…

  • German Election Results

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    Brendan Barry
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    On Sunday Germany went to the polls. Angela Merkel won a fourth term, but the anti-immigrant nationalist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), won nearly 13% of the vote. That places a nationalist party in the German parliament for the first time since World War II. A lot of the graphics I saw were straight-up bar charts…

  • Nambia

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    Brendan Barry
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    C’mon. You knew I was not going to let that one slip by. President Trump, in a meeting with African leaders, twice name-dropped Nambia and in one mention held it up as having a nearly self-sufficient healthcare system. Funny thing to mention as the US is on the brink of eviscerating its healthcare system. But…

  • The Cassidy-Graham Healthcare Bill

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    Brendan Barry
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    I meant to post this yesterday, but accidentally saved it as a draft. So let’s try this again. Yesterday the New York Times published a print piece that explored how the Cassidy-Graham bill would change the healthcare system. This would, of course, be another attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare. And like previous efforts, this…