Category: My Work

  • The Mother Of All Bombs

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday the United States dropped a GBU.43 on a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. The bomb is better known by its nickname MOAB, Mother Of All Bombs. But just how does the GBU.43 compare to some of the more common—and not so common—weapons in the US arsenal? What we do know is that yesterday was…

  • An Update on Trump-Russia Ties

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    Brendan Barry
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    Between travelling and being ill, I apologise for a lack of posting the last week or two. But as promised, we are back with a small update to the Trump–Russia ties. It turns out that shortly before the Syria air strikes, news broke that Jared Kushner omitted dozens of contacts with foreigners on his security…

  • Prince, Prince, Goose?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well, this wasn’t what I was expecting to post today. But that’s okay, because it’s big news all the same and allows me to get my hands dirty. Yesterday the Washington Post broke news that the United Arab Emirates, specifically Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and the UAE’s national security advisor, arranged a meeting between…

  • Undocumented Irish Immigrants

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    Brendan Barry
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    You know, I was trying to find a nice and funny graphic that related to the Irish for today since today is St. Patrick’s Day. But, I keep circling back to that piece I posted last year. Because, unfortunately, these are not terribly uplifting times. We make a great big deal about how we need…

  • UK By-election Results in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central

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    Brendan Barry
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    Labour’s collapse in Copeland in particular is comically bad, but this Friday indulge me in a non-comedic post. Instead, Thursday night we had the results for the by-elections in Stoke and Copeland, two long-held Labour Party constituencies. Generally speaking in a by-election, the government of the UK can expect to see its vote share decrease…

  • Diversity in the 115th Congress

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well, we have arrived at 2017. We all know the big political story in the executive branch. But we also saw elections in the legislative branch. But how different will the 115th Congress look from the 114th? The Wall Street Journal took a look at that in an article. The article’s graphic does a nice…

  • David Petraeus for Secretary of State—No

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    Brendan Barry
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    I am very closely following the transition of power from President Obama to President-elect Trump. And one of the very surprising news stories has been that Trump is considering David Petraeus for Secretary of State. Given the controversy and campaign rhetoric against and surrounding Hillary Clinton for alleged mishandling of classified information as Secretary of…

  • Deportation of Immigrants

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    Brendan Barry
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    Donald Trump announced how he wants to deport 2–3 million undocumented immigrants that have criminal convictions or that belong to gangs. I read up on the issue at FiveThirtyEight and came across the following graphic from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, when I review the graphic, I found it difficult to understand…

  • Detroit’s Housing Market

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    Brendan Barry
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    A few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published a graphic that I thought could use some work. I like line charts, and I think line charts with two or three lines that overlap can be legible. But when I see five in five colours in a small space…well not so much. So I spent…

  • Raining Maps Monday

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    Brendan Barry
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    One of the things I like about Chicago’s WGN network is its weather blog. They often include infographic-like content to explain weather trends or stories. But as someone working in the same field of data visualisation and information design, I sometimes find myself truly confused. That happened with this piece last Friday. The map in…