Tag: politics

  • Explaining What is Going on in Ukraine

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Not “the Ukraine” as it is (admittedly) fun to do in pop-culture references to Seinfeld. This comes from the Washington Post and the article tries to show that the protests in Kiev are not necessarily a vast majority against the government. Certainly the opposition is strong, but there is also a very strong pro-government movement.…

  • Living on the Minimum Wage

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week the New York Times published a nice interactive about the minimum wage and just how difficult it is to live on it. (We will for now spare the charts that show how the actual purchasing power has declined over the years.) First you pick your state because not every state pays the same…

  • Mapping Economic Mobility

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    This piece from the Washington Post examines the idea of economic mobility. That is, what is the likelihood that children born and raised in an impoverished family will surpass their parents’ standard of living. Credit for the piece goes to Darla Cameron and Ted Mellnik.

  • Sochi and the Caucasus

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Olympics opened in Sochi this past weekend. Many of us may well be familiar with photographs of urinals without piping, or unfinished hotel rooms, or many other infrastructure problems, but there is a bigger issue facing Sochi. It exists on what the New York Times terms the edge of a war zone. Their overall…

  • Wealth and Education

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s post looks at education across a set of 65 countries from a standardised test backed by the OECD, basically a group of wealthy countries. The test results found that some poor countries have surprisingly good education systems whereas some of the world’s wealthiest countries—here’s looking at you, United States—perform poorly. The Huffington Post created…

  • Views on Gay Marriage Around the World

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    If you have been living under a rock, Sochi, Russia is hosting the winter Olympics this year. A year in which the Russian government passed legislation banning not same-sex relationships but advocacy for said relationships. Several countries, including the United States, take issue with the legislation. But this graphic from the National Journal hints that…

  • Traffic Jam on the George Washington

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    A lot of people have been talking about Bridgegate, a scandal in New Jersey wherein the governor’s office allegedly abused its power to negatively impact the residents of Fort Lee, New Jersey. What actually happened for a few days this past fall? The Washington Post uses aerial photography and illustration to diagram the normal traffic…

  • Brand New Year, Same Old Politics

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s piece comes from this past weekend. The New York Times looked at how states fell on various politically sensitive issues, e.g. abortion and same-sex marriage, depending upon the political control of the executive and legislative functions of each state. In other words, which states have passed legislation to regulate abortion or same-sex marriage? States…

  • North Jersey Traffic

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    For those of you unaware of the shenanigans going on in New Jersey, this won’t make any sense. But for those that are, it sucks to be a commuter in North Jersey as this comic map illustrates. Credit for the piece goes to Ruben Bolling.

  • Tracking You While You Text

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s post comes from the Washington Post, which looks at further revelations about the NSA surveillance programme. Specifically, the Post details how the NSA tracks Americans by what is called co-traveler analytics. The piece does a really nice job of explaining how the tracking works through illustrative examples. Credit for the piece goes to the…