Tag: just for fun

  • Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from…Venus?

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    Brendan Barry
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    If you didn’t hear the news, scientists have discovered a compound in the atmosphere of Venus. They’ve also ruled out a number of the normal ways the compound is created, and we’re left with two possibilities: some kind of unknown chemistry/chemical process or…aliens. It’s got to be aliens. Because it’s Friday. And because it’s Friday,…

  • Pretty Much My Life These Days

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    Brendan Barry
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    It’s another Friday. Which means another work week come and gone. Most of my days now consist of Covid-related work. A couple of months ago, Memorial Day began the surge in Covid-19 cases. Hopefully people take it more seriously now, and everyone masks up and stays distant so that Labour Day does not become a…

  • The More You Know

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    Brendan Barry
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    It’s Friday, everyone. And that was a week. And so on the lighter side, here is this work from xkcd about shooting stars. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Rating Scale

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    Brendan Barry
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    This week is almost over and so instead of a graphic about unemployment numbers, let’s look at a piece from xkcd that provides us all with a new rating scale. Because, let’s be honest, we all at some point are going to need to rate 2020 come December. And while we still have almost five…

  • Habitable Zones Around Masses of Light and Heat

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    Brendan Barry
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    But those masses are campfires. It’s Friday, everyone, and we’ve made it to the end of the week. And with the successful launch of Perseverance yesterday, this post from xkcd made a lot of sense. For those that don’t enjoy astronomy, basically stars have habitable zones, or sometimes the Goldilocks zone, around the star where…

  • The Golden Ratio

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today is a Friday, an important point for those of us still in or largely in quarantine. So let’s try to ease into a more frequent posting with some humourous content from xkcd. It looks at everyone’s favourite golden ratio spiral and designers’ preferred ISO 216 for paper sizes. I mean I would love if…

  • Corona Curves

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday. I’d normally say something like we’ve survived this far, but the fact of the matter is that thousands have not. But, still, let’s try to keep it a little light. So here’s something from xkcd about the shape of the various curve potentials for Covid-19. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • From Order to Chaos?

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    Brendan Barry
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    A few weeks ago we said farewell to John Bercow as Speaker of the House (UK). Whilst I covered the election for the new speaker, I missed the opportunity to post this piece from the BBC. It looked at Bercow’s time in office from a data perspective. The piece did not look at him per…

  • More Pub Trivia Scores

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    Brendan Barry
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    Next week is Thanksgiving and for me that means no pub trivia next week. So ahead of a two-week gap, here are our latest (and greatest?) in trivia scores. We won some, we lost some. And we definitely blew some. The key, as always, remains score points before music. Because we do not know music.…

  • UK–Narnia Border

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday the United Kingdom was supposed to leave the European Union. Again. Boris would rather be dead in a ditch. But he’s neither dead nor in a ditch. And the UK is still in the EU. So let’s enjoy the moment and reflect on this xkcd piece from the other day. And then enjoy the weekend.…