Tag: politics

  • Paying a Bribe

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Some say bribes grease the wheels of business. But if that is the case, where are the greasiest wheels? This interactive piece from the BBC showcases an interesting story. It maps who has paid bribes and the value thereof. Then it looks at corruption in the different sectors of the country and which is perceived…

  • Hunger Strikes

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Guantanamo Bay and the US military prison there almost always spark a debate. For some months now, prisoners have been staging a hunger strike. Increasingly, however, the strike is garnering attention not for itself, but for the US military’s treatment of the prisoners in force feeding them. The National Post looked at just how this…

  • Covering the New York Mayoral Primaries

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Tuesday was election day in New York (among other places) where voters went to the polls for the mayoral primary (among other positions). For those living underneath what I can only presume was a very comfortable rock, this is the whole Anthony Weiner comeback election. Anyway, a bunch of different websites, most tied to the…

  • But Can You Do the Gerrymander?

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday. And that means you will likely be contorting on the dance floor this weekend. But if you tried to bend to conform to any of these congressional districts, you would likely break your back. Gerrymandering is an old practice that basically allows state governments to decide what area (and therefore populations) belong to…

  • Women Bankers

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    …and not just any bankers but central bankers (the ones who establish policies at a national level), are rather under represented as this graphic from the Economist details. It is a nice use of small multiples with bar charts over time. Each bar is a 0–50% of the total membership of a central bank board…

  • Riding the Rails

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    A little while ago the Washington Post published this graphic on Metro ridership. But not just anybody’s ridership, that of the individuals who sit on the DC transit agency’s board. After all, should not those overseeing Washington’s transit agency be intimately familiar with the conditions faced by DC commuters? The graphic is a really nice…

  • Whip Counts to Authorise Force in Syria

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    I was catching up on some news tonight and I came upon an unhelpful graphic that was supposed to be helping me understand the whip count (who is voting yes or no) for authorising the use of force in Syria. Below is the original graphic from Think Progress. I struggled, however, to directly compare the…

  • Ye Olde Boston Mayoral Candidate Map

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    A map? Again? I know. But trust me, this one is interesting. For those of you who do not know, Boston’s Thomas Menino is not running for reelection this year. By the time he leaves office, he will have been the mayor of Boston for over twenty years and so this year is the first…

  • Elections in Mali

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    For those of you who did not know, the country of Mali held elections yesterday and results should be forthcoming. Those of you who regularly read or semi-frequently check my blog, you are likely familiar with the work I did covering the French-led intervention in Mali. I am a bit busy working on some other…

  • Senate Facebook

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Partisanship in Washington has only grown worse over time. So how better to track that than through Facebook-like network analysis diagrams? If you look at senators who voted with other senators at least 50% of the time and at least 75% of the time, and compare those numbers to numbers over a decade ago, you…