Betting on myself
After an unorthodox past year, I'm excited to start a great new job with the news website CityLab.
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The map in the painting
A map tucked away in the corner of a famous painting speaks volumes about history, cartography, art and politics. An exegesis.
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Infinity War: Laws and narrative
The climax of Marvel's latest superhero movie illustrates how writers can and can't use magic to solve problems — and how understanding these narrative laws lets them subvert our expectations.
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Long lives the queen
How Queen Elizabeth's record-breaking reign stacks up to past monarchs — and how her presence in the lives of Britain's prime ministers compares to her predecessors.
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Obscenities and oaths: French languages before the Revolution
Is it really true that most residents of France couldn't speak French at the time of the French Revolution? Absolutely.
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American latitude
Where do most Americans live? I plot out the population of the lower 48 states by latitude and longitude.
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A history of nuclear testing in nine charts
With North Korea testing nuclear weapons and President Donald Trump mulling a response in kind, the world could soon see a resurgence in nuclear tests for the first time since the end of the Cold War. I break down the numbers.
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Kickstarting journalism
I experimented with using a Kickstarter to fund a journalism project and was blown away by the results.
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In the hinterland, plus ça change
History shows antecedents for today's changing relationships between cities and their surrounding regions.
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Creatures of New York
A profane oral history of the New York Yankees' 8-4 win over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Wild Card Game on Oct. 3, 2017, by the residents of the left field bleachers.
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The Culinary Trilemma
When eating, most people want to save money, save time and eat healthily. Unfortunately, it's really hard to accomplish more than two of the three at once.
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Three fascinating things
Learn about African geography, Roman culture and... Looney Tunes? Thanks, internet.
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Recommended: 'Snowflakes'
A clever and whimsical webcomic about precocious and imaginative children at a mountain orphanage.
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Along for the ride
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is fun, but it's undermined because its main characters are largely just along for the ride instead of making consequential choices that drive the movie's action.
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Pup inflation: Good dogs getting better
Who's a good dog? More and more of them, according to a statistical analysis of the world's #1 source for professional dog ratings and puptastic puns.
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Recommended: 'The Man From God Knows Where'
Recommending a 'folk opera' album about immigrants to the American Midwest from Ireland and Scandinavia.
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20 arguments (mostly) in favor of Daylight Saving Time
People love to complain about Daylight Saving Time. I stand up for the embattled twice-yearly clock change.
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The Accidental Republic — Let's Nerd Out
A talk I gave at a local event called "Let's Nerd Out" about the rise of democracy in 1870s France, adapted from an older post from this site.
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My 2016 in review
Few Americans are mourning the passing of 2016, a possibly deadly and definitely tumultuous year. But I try to live by the philosophy of the Roman Stoic Epictetus — concern yourself only with the things you can control. And for me personally, 2016 was a pretty good year.
Not everything was perfect, of course, but I improved both my quality of living and my self over the past 12 months. Here's my assessment of my 2016.
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Site update
Longtime visitors may notice some differences around here. I’ve not just redesigned this website, but have moved it to an entirely new architecture and hosting services.
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Did more famous people than usual really die in 2016?
On Tuesday, actress and author Carrie Fisher died, setting off a wave of lamentations not just for the beloved Fisher, but for the entire calendar year 2016.
Her death and those of seemingly countless other celebrities, athletes and world leaders have created an impression that the year 2016 has been particularly bad, an annus horribilis for the Anglo-American world.
But is that impression of 2016's mortality accurate?
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Coining a word: 'comital'
English has "municipal" as an adjective for things pertaining to cities, but no equivalent adjective for counties. Here's an idea to add one.
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The huge 2016 World Series ratings
The Cubs' 2016 World Series victory drew huge ratings. Here's how they compare to past Series (with charts!).
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Hip to be square: American edition
Earlier this year, programmer David Barry released a fun estimation of how rectangular each country's borders are. I adapt his code to look at the rectangularity of U.S. states and counties.
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The Iron Throne Handbook: What political science can tell us about the game of thrones
A political science book offers a theory to understand why some rulers stay in power and others get overthrone — a perfect way to understand the Game of Thrones.
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With every word, I drop knowledge: A lexical analysis of 'Hamilton'
I break down the more than 20,000 words in the "Hamilton" lyrics with word clouds, reading level and more. Don't say no to this.
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1800 and the politics of the absolute
In these days of high-octane political rhetoric and a party system defined more by "voting against the opposing party rather than for their own party," it's worth casting back into American history to another time when political tensions ran so high that each side believed the other would lead to the destruction of American ideals. Unlike now, things got so divisive that some states talked about seceding from the union and even stockpiled arms and mobilized militias to achieve their political goals through force.
I speak not of 1860, when all those things happened on the road to a brutal and bloody civil war, but rather of 1800 — when all those things happened but were averted just shy of bloodshed.
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Bad omens
In their post-apocalyptic comedy novel “Good Omens,” authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman describe the nefarious handiwork of the demon Crowley, an agent of Hell on Earth with a particularly acute grasp of human nature:
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Planting seeds of journalism and defeat
Almost eight years ago to the day, Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the vital caucus state of Iowa shot itself in the foot. I helped pull the trigger.
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A host unto himself: 'Hamilton' astonishes
I realize that I am somewhat biased, as someone whose idea of recreation is reading late-18th Century biography. So keep that in mind but try to set my funny sense of fun aside when I tell you that the new musical “Hamilton” is the most electric listening experience I’ve had in years. A bunch of guys in breeches and frock coats singing about arcane two-century-old political disputes? Well, I did like “1776,” but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” is something else entirely. Read my review and hear some samples after the jump.