Category: My Work

  • Trump Conservatism

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    Brendan Barry
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    Another Tuesday, more primary and caucus victories for Donald Trump in his quest to become the Republican nominee. However one of the refrains you hear from the right is that he is not a true conservative. How true is that? Well the BBC put together an article comparing Trump to the other candidates and some…

  • Fighting Off My Jet Lag

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    Brendan Barry
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    As I mentioned earlier this week, I visited London for work for a week and then took some rollover holiday time to stay around London and then visit Dublin. But now I am back. And this week that has meant all the jet lag. And while everybody experiences jet lag and recovers from it differently,…

  • Sugary Sweet Donut Charts

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    Brendan Barry
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    I know, I know. You probably expect some sort of climate post given the whole Paris thing. But instead, this morning I came across an article where the supporting chart failed to tell the story. So today we redesign it. The BBC has an article about MPs backing a tax on sugary drinks. Within the…

  • Redesigning the Turkish Election Results

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    Brendan Barry
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    Turkey held its elections over the weekend. And so on the way to work this morning I decided to check the results on the BBC. And I saw this graphic—screenshot from my phone. So I decided to scrap today’s blog post and instead spend all of five minutes tweaking this to make it a bit…

  • Where in the World Have I Been?

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    Brendan Barry
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    In January 2011, I made a map of counties I had visited in my life. I just rediscovered the file last weekend, and so today I decided to update the map. So below is 2011 and then after is 2015.

  • The Spellecy’s Wisconsin Land Grant

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    Brendan Barry
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    I have returned from my trip up north to Minnesota and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, from the research side it was not the most successful of trips. I did find some records, but none that answered any of the big questions I had. If anything, I now have far more questions. Most of the information I learned…

  • Researching the Family History in Ashland, Wisconsin

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    Brendan Barry
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    I’m presently off in the northern reaches of Wisconsin, Ashland in particular, researching part of my family’s history. To aid me in understanding just how this frontier-following family moved over one century, I put together a crude map and a timeline to give me context (and jog my memory) while searching through files in the…

  • Baseball vs. Basketball vs. Hockey

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    Brendan Barry
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    There was an interesting article in Forbes on Monday that looked at baseball’s popularity. In short, the commonly believed argument is that baseball is becoming less popular vs. sports like football, basketball, &c. Hence, one of the reasons for the pace of play changes. However, last Wednesday, there were three nationally televised playoff games—two in…

  • Amtrak Train No. 188 Derails

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    Brendan Barry
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    I am a big fan of trains, rail transit, and Amtrak. I think the rail network connecting the East Coast’s big cities from Boston down to Washington is one of the big draws of the Northeast. Not surprisingly, I have taken that route I don’t know how many times. So, when Amtrak’s Northeast Regional No.…

  • Battle of Mons Graupius

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    Brendan Barry
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    I just finished reading Tacitus’ account of his father-in-law Agricola. Agricola is the Roman—more likely from a family of Romanised Gauls—general who conquered Great Britain for Rome. His crowning victory was the Battle of Mons Graupius. It should all be taken with a grain of salt, because there are no other corroborating sources—to my knowledge.…