Tag: just for fun

  • An Animated Approach to Understanding Vaccines…

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    Brendan Barry
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    …courtesy of Family Guy. In the last 18 months of looking at the data behind Covid-19 and the vaccines, I’ve had a lot of conversations with people, maybe even some of you, about the pandemic and the vaccines we’re using to combat it. Unfortunately, I’m just one person. Seth MacFarlane, however, has himself and the…

  • The Hexagons of Saturn

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well, it’s the end of another week. I’ll save the bigger posts I have planned for next week and instead end with this little astronomy/geometry gem from xkcd. It takes a look at Saturn’s polar storm that takes the shape of a hexagon, not a circle or anything else. Credit for the piece goes to…

  • What’s in a Corporate Name?

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last Thursday I wrote about the Wagner Group, an off-the-books semi-private army the Kremlin uses wage war where plausible deniability is desired. During that piece I mentioned Blackwater, one of the more infamous American private security contractor firms. The day before I had seen a tweet, this tweet, where Samantha Stokes created a matrix to…

  • The Years of the Asterisks

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. Another week and we made it. This Friday I want to highlight a graphic from xkcd that, strictly speaking, isn’t really data visualisation, but it does speak to that world because it’s about the underlying data. And as with the best humour, there’s an element of truth in it. Credit for the…

  • Come At Me, Bro

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    Brendan Barry
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    I did not create this, but rather I saw it on a friend’s social media feed. But I didn’t take a screenshot instead I sketched it my sketchbook. So if anybody knows who actually created this I’d like to get the credit correctly attributed. Anyway, it was just a Venn diagram that made me laugh.…

  • Revolution Number…

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    Brendan Barry
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    Nein? Last week we ended the week with a Friday post looking at Covid-19 cases. And they are not trending in the right direction, to put it mildly. Now I’m not sure I like the Covid post being on Friday, but it also doesn’t make sense on Mondays any longer given the lack of data…

  • Greenland Uber Alles

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. Whether we’re talking melting ice sheets or attempted purchases by the Trump administration, the island of Greenland has often been in the news the last few years. So here’s an appropriate map from xkcd comparing the size of Greenland to the rest of the world. Credit for the piece goes to Randall…

  • Easing Back into Normalcy

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    Brendan Barry
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    Happy Friday, all. Apologies for the lack of posting yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well and sitting in front of my computer typing stuff up wasn’t happening. But now the weekend is nearly upon us and to get in the mood I wanted to share this great dot plot from xkcd. It captures something I’ve definitely…

  • Oh the Degrees You’ll Earn

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    Brendan Barry
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    This one from Indexed made me literally laugh out loud. Probably because I, like many of you, know all three types she describes. And after a week, we can probably all use a laugh before starting the weekend. Credit for the piece goes to Jessica Hagy.

  • Boldly Going…

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    Brendan Barry
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    Those of my readers who know me well know that I’ve long been a fan of Star Trek. And so we’ve made it to the weekend. And over at Indexed earlier this month, well, we have a great science fiction comparison. Here in the states we have a bank holiday Monday, so Star Trek is…