Tag: just for fun

  • Opportunity Lost

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last summer NASA’s Martian exploration rover Opportunity went dark as its solar panels, needed to power the golf-cart sized explorer, were covered in dust from a planet-wide dust storm. Everyone hoped that over the following months the light Martian winds and dust devils would wipe clean the dust from the solar panels and the rover…

  • Regionalisms for a Drink

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    We made it to the end of the week, everybody. And so now we get a look an xkcd take on one of my favourite little pieces: regionalisms. We all use terms that are specific to the areas where we live or grew up. For example, here in Philadelphia we call a cured meat, cheese,…

  • The Business Cycle and Golf

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday I started working on the next quarter of Economic Insights, the quarterly publication I work on as a creative director at the Philadelphia Fed. For the first issue of 2019 we will be working on an article that talks a great deal about the business cycle, the expansions and contractions that define an economy. So…

  • The Intersection of Geography and Politics

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    We made it to the end of the week, everybody. And to help celebrate, xkcd posted a little comic that contains two of my favourite subjects: geography and politics. In particular, the piece looks at the 2020 election and plate tectonics. One doesn’t often hear of the Midcontinent Rift System. Credit for the piece goes…

  • All the Diseases

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    As I mentioned earlier, I spent a good part of December and this early part of January taken ill. Consequently this piece from Indexed felt appropriate to end this current week. Happy Friday, all. Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

  • Feathered Raptors

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Well we made it to Friday. Admittedly, for many of us it was a short week.  But we can end it all the same with this piece from xkcd. It asks the question, are feathered dinosaurs scary? Back when they made the first Jurassic Park, we didn’t know how prevalent feathers were and so the dinosaurs…

  • Ratings the Foods

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    For my American audience, Happy Thanksgiving. Coffeespoons will be on holiday for the remainder of the week. But don’t worry, we’ll be back. For my non-American audience, we basically celebrate a tale of the Pilgrims feasting with Native Americans after a successful harvest. Today’s graphic is really just a series of tables. I think I…

  • Amazon’s Selection for HQ2

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    Brendan Barry
    in , ,

    Well this week Amazon finally chose not just one city for its HQ2, but two—New York and Washington. Of course Philadelphia had been angling for the site. Alas, it was not to be. So let’s work with that for this Friday post. Credit for this one is mine.

  • Government Officials Using Private Devices

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Earlier this week the news broke that President Trump refuses to use his government-issued iPhone for all his communications and prefers his private, unsecured device. This of course means, and reports indicate is happening, that Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies can listen in on his calls. So how about those private e-mail servers? Happy Friday,…

  • Phone Calls

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday, everybody, and that means we all made it to the end of the week. As a millennial, I was surprised to learn that my mobile can actually be used to make telephonic calls. Phone calls, as they are often known, are like direct messages or text messages, but made without cat gifs or…