Tag: illustration

  • Cancelling the Mistral

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    Brendan Barry
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    In a piece of big news about Ukraine yesterday, the French government announced that it was halting the completion of the sale of two Mistral warships to Russia. The first such ship, the Sevastopol (yes, named after said city in Crimea), was due to be delivered in just over a month’s time. The two ships…

  • Comet Siding Spring

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today we head off to the stars. Well, more appropriately the comets. The New York Times had a piece a little while back that looked at the orbits of several comets that pass near the Sun. Siding Spring in particular is highlighted because of its near approach later this autumn. Credit for the piece goes…

  • Borehole Graphics

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    Brendan Barry
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    Long articles often mean lots of vertical space. But it is only every so often when an item can complement itself with a narrow, vertical graphic. The Los Angeles Times has just that in today’s piece, looking at the layers of sedimentation from a borehole. Credit for the piece goes to Thomas Curwen, Lorena Elebee,…

  • The Siege of Sinjar

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    Brendan Barry
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    For those of you unaware, the United States became involved yet again in Iraq. This time, air dropping humanitarian supplies to Yazidi refugees near Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq. (Also, we have started bombing ISIS positions near Irbil, a large city in Kurdish-controlled Iraq.) In today’s post we have the Washington Post and its look…

  • The Silk Road, Respun

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today’s piece comes from the South China Morning Post. It looks at the Chinese government’s efforts to connect China to trade partners via a maritime route. This is conjunction with efforts to build a railway intended to connect Europe and China via Russia. Credit for the piece goes to Lau Ka-kuen.

  • Casualties in Palestine and Israel

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday I mentioned the cost of the conflict in and around Gaza and we looked at a map of damage. Today, we look at a daily-updated graphic from the Washington Post that counts the human cost—the number of dead. Credit for the piece goes to Lazaro Gamio and Richard Johnson.

  • What Else Has Been Shot Down in Ukraine

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Boeing 777 jetliner was not the first nor even at this point the latest aircraft shot down over eastern Ukraine. Just yesterday, two Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft were shot down—the Ukrainian government claims from medium-altitude surface-to-air missiles fired from within Russia. While I was working on drawing something up to catalogue just what has been…

  • The Air Defence Systems of Eastern Ukraine

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week, separatists in eastern Ukraine shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 with what appears to have been an SA-11 Gadfly missile. Separatists had previously claimed to have had this system in operation and days earlier shot down a high-altitude Ukrainian military aircraft—though not necessarily with the SA-11. How much more powerful is the SA-11…

  • Cannon Along the Walls of Québec

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    Brendan Barry
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    In what I think is the last set of diagrams and illustrations describing the fortifications of Ville de Québec, we have the reason why the overall design and construction were so difficult as well as why there are so many star-like bastions pointing out of the walls. The difficulty comes from the topography. Québec was,…

  • Palisades and Ramparts de Québec

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today I have a little bit more about the fortifications near Artillery Park. The original fortifications were not massive stone works, because those take time. Instead, a lot of the original defences of the town were wooden palisades and earthworks. The following illustration shows the wooden defences of 1690. The woodworks were more than just…