Tag: history

  • Forecasting Snowfall

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    So that fishy little storm the Weather Channel called Nemo—you may have heard of it—put a little snow across New England. Last week the New York Times published an interactive infographic that looked at when and where the snow would be falling, from New Jersey to New York to Maine. The times are cut into…

  • Whence the Popes Came

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    For the first time in centuries, a sitting pope is to resign. Typically most popes have served until their death. The question for many will now be who will be the next pope. Will it be a cardinal from Latin America? From Africa? I looked at the origins of the all the popes since Peter.…

  • Detroit

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Detroit’s population has fallen drastically while its economy has been all but eviscerated with the near-collapse of the American automotive industry. But it was not always that way. The National Post looks at Detroit over the years, starting in 1950. It’s the mapping and charting out of the decline and fall of what was once a…

  • Taxes

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Let’s face it, governments need money to function. If you want a large military, you have to fund it. If you want pension system, you have to fund it. If you want medical care for the old, the sick, and the poor, you have to fund it. If you want to give everyone unicorns made…

  • Electoral College Victories

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Despite the claims of a select few, President Obama’s victory in the electoral college last week was not narrow. While it was not a blowout landslide, it was a clear and convincing win. But to show how it compared across American political history, I quickly charted electoral college results since the time of George Washington.…

  • History of Congress

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today is Election Day. Did you vote yet? If not, why the hell not? But you are not just voting for president, you are also voting for senators (in some states at least, like Pennsylvania), your congressman or congresswoman, state assemblies, ballot initiatives, &c. And in that spirit, this last pre-vote result post comes from…

  • Show Me Some Swing

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Problems with my access to the tubes of the internets prevented me from posting this piece last week. But it’s still good and still relevant, especially in the wake of last night’s presidential debate. The New York Times and the FiveThirtyEight forecast came together to create this interactive flow chart, if you will, of the…

  • The Growth of the Non-payers of Federal Income Tax

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today will be an unusual day in that it shall have two posts. This first post is following up on yesterday’s about the 47% of Americans who do not pay federal income tax. The Earned Income Tax Credit was created to incentivise people to work. A tax on your income, after all, does the opposite.…

  • Spies

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    This infographic from the National Post is nearly a year old, however its look at global espionage in the wake of unrest in the Middle East is once again relevant. Credit for the piece goes to Jonathan Rivait and Richard Johnson.

  • Indo-European Language Origin

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Polonius once asked Hamlet what he was reading. Hamlet replied “Words.” I still love that scene. But, it turns out that we now have an even better idea of where our words came from. It turns out that it is more likely that our shared Indo-European languages originated not in the steppes of Russia but…