The city of New York photographed every building in the five boroughs for property tax assessment purposes. The city’s photographers took more than 700,000 pics as a result. Those images are now available in the « New York City Municipal Archives Online Gallery ». It’s pretty fantastic.
Monthly Archives: December 2018
Finally Entering the Public Domain
We’re finally getting some « spectacular stuff » released into the public domain on New Year’s Day (screw you Disney!).
WWI Collides with D&D and Memes
It’s two years old, but I’m just seeing it for the first time. It’s « one of the best visual “explainers” » I’ve seen that describes the spark which ignited World War I.
It tells the story of that horrible June day in 1914 via a series of memes and the lens of a Dungeons and Dragons session.
Given that the spark (predicted by Bismarck to be some “damn fool thing in the Balkans”) ignited two large-scale global wars AND that over the next half-century upwards of 150 million humans and untold animals would die from the cascade of events following that spark, well, it’s a story well-worth knowing, telling, re-telling and making as relevant as possible to generations down through time.
118 Years of NYTimes Focus Countries
“Most mentioned country each month since 1900 according to 741,576 section front headlines via the New York Times archive.” Whew. Long title, « fabulously fascinating graphic ». | The New York Times.
A Handy Dandy Guide to the Known Universe
This « interactive map » of the universe is extremely helpful in understanding our (very, very small) position in space. | [Photo by Denis Degioanni on Unsplash]
Why Do All New Apartment Buildings Look the Same?
End of Year Retrospectives: 75 Book Covers
There are some gems among « the 75 Best Book Covers of 2018. ». Via Lit Hub.
Deadly Chinese Fentanyl is Creating a New Era of Drug Kingpins
Fentanyl’s potency has « transformed the global trafficking — and policing — of narcotics. » | Bloomberg