Category: My Work

  • Family Migration Patterns

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    Brendan Barry
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    On Saturday I attended an all-day seminar by the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) at the new Museum of the American Revolution here in Philadelphia. Just fantastic. One of the lectures included some maps that looked at the distribution of families over a year span—turns out families did not stand still. Instead, they tended…

  • The Facts on Tariffs

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    Brendan Barry
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    Unless you avoid the news, we all heard a lot about tariffs this weekend. So this morning, instead of going with some other things I found, I decided I wanted to look and see just what the data is on tariffs. Turns out Trump is wrong on the data about tariffs. In short, in 2016…

  • Philly Rules

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yo. C’mon, bro. This jawn is getting tired. Just stop already. If you did not catch it this week, the most important news was Donald Trump disinviting the Super Bowl champions Eagles to the White House to celebrate their victory over the Patriots. He then lied about Eagles players kneeling during the US anthem—no player…

  • Lunar Observations

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    Brendan Barry
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    Monday night I was doing some work outside and when I turned around to head inside I was struck by the brilliance of an object in the night sky. I had seen the Moon rise earlier in the evening, but this was far to the east. It was identifiable as a dot, not just a…

  • The Short Arc of Pub Trivia Scores Bends Towards Victory

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well, at least over the last three weeks it did. In previous examples of my pub trivia team’s performance, we have had a lacklustre performance. But a few weeks we had an epic collapse. Having been in 4th place out of 10 in the penultimate round we ultimately finished in 8th out of 9—somebody left…

  • Pub Trivia Performance—the Long View

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week my pub trivia team was debating whether our high score, although only good for second place—we lost by one point—was the highest. So this past weekend I scoured my sketchbooks for the last year and a half and reviewed our scores. Alas, the earliest appearances were tally-free. And I did not record them…

  • London Beats New York

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    Brendan Barry
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    In murders. Not the best of news, no. But this past March London saw more murders than New York. But as I was reading the BBC article this weekend, I wondered why the graphic they chose to use received as much prominence in the article as it did. The chart as you can see occupied…

  • Bitcoin Land

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    Brendan Barry
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    Sorry, I ran into some technical problems this morning so this is going up this afternoon with an added bit at the end. I’m not really sure this piece should go onto the blog. But I like it. And this is still my blog. So what the hell. I grew up a big fan of games like…

  • Brexit Is Bad News for British Regional Growth

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    Brendan Barry
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    A few days ago, a confidential report by the British Treasury was leaked to the press. It confirmed what many had feared, that the economic forecasts for the regions of the UK were not that rosy under different models for different Brexit scenarios. The scenarios looked at the change in growth for regions over the…

  • Baseball’s Free Agency Problem

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    Brendan Barry
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    Baseball season begins next week. For different teams it starts different days, but for the Red Sox at least, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Tuesday. But the Red Sox, along with many other teams throughout baseball, have holes in their roster. Why? Arguably because nearly 100 free agents remain unsigned. I do…