Author: signoregalilei
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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…
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The mountain that weighed the Earth
Suppose you want to find out how much you weigh. It’s easy enough – get a scale, stand on it, and read the number. Now suppose you want to know how much the Earth weighs. You get out a scale and…hmm. What exactly do you do with it? Let’s do a little physics class refresher.…
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Why the government’s bank account grew 100x since 2007
Have you ever wondered where the government actually keeps its money? Governments usually get tax revenue in bursts, for example when income taxes come due – April 15th here in the US. They then have to spend all that money over the course of the year. So where do they keep their cash in the…
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Happy Public Domain Day
On January 1st 2026, copyrighted works first published in 1930 entered the public domain in the US.1 There are plenty of articles online about what works are included this year. To name a few, there’s the first Nancy Drew novels, The Maltese Falcon, the first film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, and…
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There are too many types of barcode
A few weeks ago, I embarked on another technology quest. This time, I wanted to digitize my library card, so I could get books using just my phone. I figured it would be simple – the card just used a barcode. All I would need was a picture of the correct barcode. At first, I…
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Preserved Fish, Boss of New York City
New Yorkers love preserved fish – particularly on top of a bagel with a nice hearty schmear of cream cheese. My favorite preserved fish in New York City comes from Russ & Daughters, an icon of New York cuisine that’s been around since 1914. But this article isn’t about preserved fish of New York. It’s…