Author: signoregalilei
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The school in a nuclear bunker
This is Abo Elementary School, in Artesia, New Mexico. It’s also a nuclear shelter. I remember seeing black and yellow fallout shelter signs in my own public school buildings growing up in the 2000’s and early 2010’s. Generally, the shelters these referred to were a concrete room in a larger building that had long since…
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We briefly had Long Connecticut
I recently came across the following joke map online: Surprisingly, and probably unintentionally, there’s a grain of historical truth to this “Megachusetts”. Massachusetts’ original colonial charter specified northern and southern borders, and that the colony should extend all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, or rather: “…from the Atlantick and Westerne…
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The other alphabetical order we almost had
Ah, alphabet. Basically the backbone of books. Certainly complex in its creation, contorted over centuries. (Dictionary didacts have doubtless deduced my design for this diatribe.) Every English (etc.) elementary educator exudes each explanation essentially equally. From our forebearers to the future, the form and function hold firm. Guided, we get a given gallimaufry of glyphs…
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The paddle wheel aircraft carriers of Lake Michigan
You’ve read the title. Aircraft carriers of where powered by what? I was just as surprised as you are, but yes, they really did exist. I now introduce you to USS Wolverine and USS Sable:
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Why Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme?
“Scarborough Fair” is one of the best known English ballads to today’s listeners – up there with “Greensleeves”. Simon and Garfunkel recorded a version in 1966 that would probably be most familiar to listeners today: “Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Remember me to one who lives there For once…
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The Five Boroughs of Old York
If you’re a geography nerd, familiar with New York City, or (like me) both, then you’ve definitely heard of NYC’s “Five Boroughs”. These are the city’s main administrative divisions, and each one also functions as a county of the state of New York. You’ve got: Manhattan (New York County) Brooklyn (Kings County) Queens (Queens County)…
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The most contentious person on Wikipedia is an African samurai
Recently, I’ve discovered that Wikipedia keeps a list of “contentious topics”, which require extra care and attention from editors and administrators, since they’re frequent targets of edit wars and vandalism. Wikipedia’s Arbitration committee can move topics onto the list, and topics expire from the list after some predetermined period (at least a year) if the…
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Map projections are tough – here’s my new favorite
There is no such thing as a perfect map projection. Mathematically, it’s impossible to transform the approximately spherical surface of the Earth into a 2-dimensional map without distorting either the shapes or relative sizes of the features on its surface (or both). You have to make compromises somewhere. Of course, you can make a globe,…
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We still use Roman money
The Roman empire’s legacy in the modern world is hard to overstate. So much of what we expect a state to look like comes from the Roman model. An empire two millennia and an ocean away from Ancient Rome having a Senate meet to pass laws in building with a bunch of columns and a…
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1960: The Year of Africa
This story starts with me being proven wrong. OK, well really it starts at least several decades ago. But my interaction with it starts with me being proven wrong. I was trying to determine which year saw the most countries gain independence. I was pretty sure that it would be 1991, the year the USSR…