Author: Brendan Barry

  • The Solar Eclipse

    If you have not heard, the entire continental United States will, weather cooperating, be able to see at least a partial solar eclipse on Monday, 21 August. It is still too far away for an accurate weather forecast, but I am hoping that we have good weather in Philadelphia that day. Or else why bother…

  • The New Dinosaur Family Tree

    Today’s post is not a particular great graphic in that it is far from revolutionary. Instead, you could say it far more evolutionary. A new finding by Matthew Baron posits a rather unusual dinosaur named Chilesaurus, discovered in Chile as its name suggests, is actually a cousin to both the tyrannosaurs and raptors as well as…

  • North Korea’s Missile Programme

    Another week, another batch of news and posturing from North Korea. So I was delighted to see last week a post from Politico exploring the history of the North Korean missile programme with data visualisation. This kind of maps are my favourite for these types of stories. So often people get locked into this idea…

  • Nobody’s Fault

    We made it to Friday, everyone. So let us end the week with an examination of the different type of geographic faults, as explained by xkcd. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Labour Marches On (into Tory Housing?)

    We have a nice little piece from the Economist today, a look at the electoral majority for London-area constituencies and how their housing prices may begin to draw out priced-out Labour votes from London proper. What I really like from the design side is the flip of the traditional choropleth density. In other words, we normally…

  • A Throwback to Prior Kenyan Elections

    Kenya presently waits for the results of its presidential election, one that pitted incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta against Raila Odinga, a many ran but never won candidate. Now, if you will indulge me, the Kenyan elections have interested me since December 2007, which if you recall provoked sectarian violence to break out across the country. At…

  • Gowanus, Brooklyn

    This past weekend I was reading an article in the New York Times about how a diary from the 19th century may indicate a plot in Gowanus Brooklyn destined for development may contain an old slave burial ground. You may recall how this author’s hobbies include genealogy and family history—how I would love to find…

  • Man vs. Shark vs. Marlin vs. Every Other Animal

    About two weeks ago, Michael Phelps raced a shark. What will they not do for television ratings? The Economist took the basic premise and then had an insightful piece about the speed of animals compared to their size. The whole notion of animals get faster the larger they get. Well, to a point, the Economist…

  • Hot Summer Days

    We made it to Friday, folks. So here in Philly it is, of course,  hot and disgusting. (Please refer to Tuesday’s post about the increasingly hot weather in summers.) Thankfully we have ThisIsIndexed to explain what happens in hot weather. Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

  • Immigrations Impact on Economic Growth

    Initially I was not going to post this work, if only because other things came up and I do have to prioritise what I post on my site. It had nothing to do with the work’s quality, which I think is actually quite good. What am I talking about? Well today’s piece is from a…