Category: My Work

  • 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…

  • State of the Union Data

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well there was a lot to poke and prod at in last night’s State of the Union. So over the next couple of days I will be looking at some of the data. I wanted to start with something I could look at over breakfast—unemployment rate data. President Trump claimed unemployment rates are at the…

  • The Shitholes

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today’s post is a very quick reaction to the news last night about President Trump calling Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries “shitholes” and trying to get rid of immigrants from those countries in favour of immigrants from places like Norway. Norwegian contributions to American immigrants peaked well before the 21st century. At that time,…

  • The Missing Argentinian Sub

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    Brendan Barry
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    A story over the last several days you  may not have heard about concerns the disappearance of the ARA San Juan, an Argentinian Navy submarine. Here in the US and over in the UK, we use rather large nuclear-powered submarines. They can travel the world underwater without ever coming up for air. But most of the rest…

  • Whom to Root for in the Playoffs

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    Brendan Barry
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    This week I covered a lot of Red Sox stuff. (And I received some great feedback from people, so maybe more baseball-related stats things will be forthcoming.) But, since it is Friday, I wanted to keep today late. So over breakfast I worked on a flowchart to help you choose whom to root for in…