Tag: HISTORY
New York City got hit with a lot of snow last night. And while it will surely inconvenience us–and provide Bill de Blasio with the first big challenge of his brand new mayoralty–it will be nothing like the quaint, Dickensian chaos New Yorkers faced a century and a half ago, before the days of SUVs […]
In the five weeks since the British tourist Sian Green was maimed by a taxi in Midtown, there have been at least nine pedestrians killed by automobiles in the five boroughs and thirteen other accidents involving pedestrian injuries. It seems like an extreme number, and it is, but for NYC it’s business as usual: cars have been killing […]
The skeleton of the Nasutoceratops titusi has been hanging in a Utah museum for about a year and a half, but it wasn’t until now that it had a name. Translated to “big nosed horned face” in English, the Latin Nasutoceratops couldn’t be a more fitting moniker–the beast’s schnoz is truly massive, and, according to National Geographic, “had large air spaces–or […]
On June 5, the Guardian published a report based on a leak from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, detailing how the NSA surveils U.S. phone calls, collecting and analyzing cell phone metadata from Verizon. The following day, the Washington Post revealed PRSIM, a program that allowed the NSA to monitor electronic communications like […]
Not to be outdone by Kill Bill bees and Johnny Depp Arthropods, a group of paleontologists studying a giant prehistoric reptile discovered in the 1970s decided to name it after the original Lizard King: Jim Morrison. The ancient beast, dubbed Barbaturex morrisoni, lived some 40 million years ago, weighed 60 pounds, and was six feet long. It’s one […]
British television series “Secret Life Of…” has commissioned a group of digital artists and researchers to imagine what historical figures would look if they were alive today. The results are more or less on point. By applying contemporary trends to what historians know about these icons, the team rendered up portraits of Shakespeare, Henry VIII, […]
Ah, historic Jamestowne. The very first settlement of our great colonial ancestors. The glorious Chesapeake Bay, the mighty James Fort, the abundance of lush wildlife! It must have been a wonderful place to live, save for a couple teensy kinks — like rampant disease, constant rape and pillaging, decimation of Native Americans and, apparently, CANNIBALISM. Whether the early […]
Earlier this week, we presented evidence that cats have always fucked up our shit with a 15th-century document marked with pawprints. Another instance has been discovered; on a really old brick, there are little paws indented into the side. After some examination by a master’s student at Sonoma State, the hypothesis seems to be that […]
The early sixties were a pretty sexy time in the US. A decade after Alfred Kinsey conducted his sexuality studies, Americans were enthralled by the steamy affair between JFK and Marilyn Monroe, everyone wanted to get invited to a Playboy Club party, and the Free Love movement was rapidly subverting the prudish “values” of the […]
Ever wonder just how much more inconvenient transit was back in the days before airplanes and the interstate highway system? A set of maps unearthed by Mother Nature Network goes into detail. The maps, produced by the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States in 1932, use New York City as a starting point […]
