Tag: politics

  • More Effective Cartograms

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The other day I posted an example of a good cartogram, actually a pair of good ones from the New York Times. Today, I wanted to share another good example. The Economist created this cartogram, map of Great Britain’s constituencies. What is perhaps most effective in this chart, even more so than in the Times’,…

  • Immigrants’ Paths to Citizenship

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week several important stories were drowned out by the bombings in Boston. One of those stories was that a group of senators agreed on a compromise immigration bill that would offer undocumented workers in the United States definite plans to citizenship. Of course now that we know the suspects in the Boston bombings were…

  • Arming a Civil War

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    War is good for the arms business. So a long and bloody civil war in Syria is just what arms manufacturers want. And while arming the Syrian government is fairly easy, how do you get weapons and ammunition to the Syrian rebels? The New York Times maps the flow of arms through an almost Sankey-like…

  • The Economies of Europe

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Cyprus has been in the news over the course of this past week because its financial system almost brought the country to bankruptcy. And that has meant trouble for European markets. So now it’s time to look at the economies of Europe once again. And the National Post has done a great job using clear…

  • Diversity in Politics

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Republican Party has a problem. Its policy platform appeals to “angry white guys” and they are not being bred fast enough. And as the quotes indicate, that isn’t my idea. That comes from no less than Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator for South Carolina. The Wall Street Journal looks at just four states previously safely…

  • Women in the US Senate

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Women are half the population, but only twenty percent of the upper chamber of the United States Congress. As this great interactive timeline from the New York Times shows, at least that inequity has been narrowing over the last several elections. The infographic comes in two main views. The first highlights women in the Senate…

  • Wealth Inequality in the United States

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Reality is never what you think. Over at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog I found a post about a YouTube video looking at wealth inequality in the United States. It looks at a study that compared what Americans thought the distribution of wealth in the United States is vs. what they think is an ideal distribution.…

  • Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Hugo Chávez died yesterday. He was a controversial president to be certain. Some claim he was a dictator who tolerated no opposition. But he won four elections. Some claim he helped reduce poverty and ease the suffering of the poor. But he eviscerated the middle class and private enterprise. And he has left Venezuela in…

  • Understanding Modern China

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    China is a big country, both geographically and demographically. It can also be rather opaque and difficult for an outsider to understand. So this recent work from Reuters is amazing because it makes China a bit more transparent while illustrating just how the political system structures power and personnel appointments. Truthfully, there is more content…

  • Whence the Popes Came

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    For the first time in centuries, a sitting pope is to resign. Typically most popes have served until their death. The question for many will now be who will be the next pope. Will it be a cardinal from Latin America? From Africa? I looked at the origins of the all the popes since Peter.…