Category: Uncategorized

  • Punxsutawney Phil’s Day in the Sun

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Groundhog Day. It’s Punxsutawney Phil’s day in the sun. Or not. Depends upon the year. Anyway, the Philadelphia Inquirer did a small piece about the history of this famous little groundhog from remote northwestern Pennsylvania. Credit for the piece goes to Cynthia Greer.

  • Housing Prices Fall Some More

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Houses are meant to be lived in. Which is good to know if you’re a real estate investor because the housing market in the US is still not so good. According to an article in the New York Times, we’re back to 2003 levels (on average of course) for single-family homes. Accompanying the article is…

  • Cities Split Apart

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    I like maps. Ever since I was kid. This post is less of an interesting graphic, chart, or what have you, but instead to point you to an interesting opinion piece in the New York Times. Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps wrote the piece, which is about cities split apart by political boundaries.

  • Florida Primary

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Republican primaries…they’re still going on…on the long inevitable road to Romney’s coronation. Next up is Florida, always an interesting state to watch. There are a lot of people there with a whole host of interesting demographic slices. Perhaps one of the most interesting ones, at least to the media, is the Hispanic vote. Other…

  • Apple And Its Suppliers

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    American companies have long been moving their manufacturing overseas. Apple is no exception. However, Apple does audit its suppliers to ensure they are in compliance with the company’s code of conduct. The New York Times reported on this and included a graphic along with its article. We have small multiples of line charts with small blurbs…

  • Show Europe the Money

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Guardian has an interactive piece that details payments to and from European Union member states to institutions, determining whether each state is a giver or receiver. The concept sounds all well and good. However, the piece itself feels clumsy with too much scrolling and whipping about to pan across the whole EU. The charts…

  • Fresh Water Bulge in the Arctic Ocean

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The BBC has an article on a discovery of a growing bulge of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean. The top of the article includes a large set of graphics that explains the story below and links to an animation. The animation depicts the growth of the Arctic ice sheet from the pressure beneath and…

  • How the Costa Concordia Sank

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Costa Concordia sank nearly a week ago, but the questions of exactly how and why she sank will likely linger for much longer. The BBC has had extensive coverage of the story, including this page that details what is known about how and why the cruise ship sank.

  • Game Difficulties for AIs

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    from XKCD a chart on the difficulty of games for computers: And remember folks, the score is still Q to 12. A free Get Out of the Boomerang Zone card if you get the reference.

  • School’s Out For Ever

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    While on holiday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced a sweeping series of school closures and consolidations in an effort to create a smaller and more sustainable school system. As I spent my earlier years of education in the parochial system I had more than a passing interest in the story. The Philadelphia Inquirer mapped out…