Tag: science

  • First Florence, Now Michael

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    You may recall a few weeks ago there was a hurricane named Florence that slammed into the Carolina before stalling and dumping voluminous amounts of rain that inundated inland communities in addition to the damage by the storm surge in the coastal communities. At the time I wrote about a New York Times piece that…

  • Longest Lunar Eclipse of the Year

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    For those of my readers in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America, you are in for a treat tonight as you get to experience the longest lunar eclipse of the year. For those of us in North America, i.e. Canada, the United States, and Mexico, we get nothing. So for a reminder, we turn to…

  • Jupiter’s New Moons

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday, space nerds were alerted to the news that 12 new moons have been discovered in orbit of Jupiter. These are much smaller than Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, which is the largest moon in the Solar System and is larger than even Mercury. The point is that there are almost certainly no Ganymede-esque moons orbiting Jupiter…

  • The Brightest Night Lites

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today is Friday. We all made it through yet another week. So let us look up into the evening sky tonight and see the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram in action. Or, we can take xkcd’s expanded version and just enjoy ourselves. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Spanish Silver

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    A few weeks back now the Economist posted a graphic about the link between lead, silver, and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. But not in the way you probably think. Instead, they graph the appearance of lead deposits in the glaciers of Greenland. For the full explanation you should read the short…

  • Lunar Observations

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    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Monday night I was doing some work outside and when I turned around to head inside I was struck by the brilliance of an object in the night sky. I had seen the Moon rise earlier in the evening, but this was far to the east. It was identifiable as a dot, not just a…

  • A Wetter Midwest

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    Brendan Barry
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    Here in Philadelphia, I think yesterday was the first day it had not rained in over a week. Not that everyday was a drenching storm, but at least showers passed through along with some downpours and definitely grey skies. But what about my old home, Chicago? Well, FiveThirtyEight turned to a longer-term look and examined…

  • Study Up

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday, everybody. We made it. So now go and hit the books this weekend and study up. Thanks to xkcd, we know a little bit more about areas of research. I just am wondering where design is. Or economics. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Knuckle Cracking

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    Brendan Barry
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    I used to work with a designer who was an expert knuckle cracker. So when I saw this article from the Guardian last week, I was hoping that it contained some kind of an illustration. Thankfully it did. What I like about the graphic is its simplicity. The illustration does not add a lot of extraneous details…

  • Warmer Winters

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Philadelphia is expecting a little bit of snow today, 20 March. We should not be seeing too much accumulate if anything, but still, flakes will likely be in the air this evening. That made me think of this piece from just last week where the New York Times looked at the change in winter temperatures…