Author: Brendan Barry

  • Home Run Distance

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    Brendan Barry
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    Apologies for the lack of posts recently. Allow me to blame work, travel, and sickness. But let’s get back on track this week—for me now a short one—with this post from FiveThirtyEight about the distances travelled by home runs. The piece uses data up to the All Star break, and looks at how far the home runs would…

  • Not Alone for Trivia

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well after the last two weeks of recording solo trivia performances, I decided that this week I would showcase a team effort. And we finally placed, ending the performance tied for first place. But if you look closely you will see the final score has us at second. Why when we were tied with the…

  • Another Solo Pub Trivia Performance

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    Brendan Barry
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    This past Wednesday I once again ended up playing trivia at the pub solo. Once again, I decided over the final pint that I would attempt to visualise my performance. One thing to keep in mind is that on Wednesday there were fewer teams competing—five instead of nine. And while I never placed higher than…

  • Clear the Cache

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    Brendan Barry
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    Some of the aforementioned work that has been keeping me busy is the design of a new part of a website. And one of the most common things I hear when I ask why something is not displaying as I intended is “Have you cleared the cache?”. And that is why this Friday’s piece from…

  • The Donald and The Donald Subreddit

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    Brendan Barry
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    I don’t use Reddit. But things begin to made sense for me in this article from the Economist as it explained the origins behind Trump’s weird tweet of himself beating up a CNN-headed wrestler. I think the thing perhaps lacking from the graphic is a line that tracks Trump’s approval or popularity. The article mentions…

  • Confidence in the US President

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    Brendan Barry
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    From those surveyed around the world. The Pew Research Centre surveyed international respondents about their confidence in Donald Trump vs. Barack Obama. The Economist took those results and visualised them. And the results, well they kind of speak for themselves. But make sure to click through the link for the rest of the graphic. Credit…

  • Pub Trivia Performance

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    Brendan Barry
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    Wednesday night I had the dubious honour of playing the weekly pub trivia solo. Accordingly my team name was Hats Solo. (After I opted not to wear my fedora one night, another regular team called itself Where’s Your Hat?) I started strong, had a second wind, but still faded to a seventh place (of nine)…

  • Brexit One Year On

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    Brendan Barry
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    I still remember where I was on 23 June 2016 as the Brexit referendum results were coming in—drunk at a karaoke bar (for celebrating the end of a softball season) talking with a guy from Manchester about how the hell Britain could be voting to leave the European Union. Fast forward a year (and a…

  • High-rise Living

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    Brendan Barry
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    I was reading my print edition of the Economist last night and found this graphic—screenshot from the online version—about the rising importance of skyscrapers in the urban landscape. The article was written after the Grenfell Tower inferno and looks at things that could be done to improve safety in high-rises. Naturally, I was reading this on…

  • The Grenfell Fire

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    Brendan Barry
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    This weekend, the New York Times published an online piece explaining the spread of the Grenfell Tower fire in London. The story uses small animated graphics and videos to show the origin and progression of the fire from an exploding refrigerator on the fourth floor to its trapping of residents on the 23rd and final…