website
Since the first maps were created there have been errors – erroneous additions based on genuine mistakes as well as deliberately fictitious additions, many of which were perpetuated by copying maps without verification. These “Phantom Islands” are the subject of this interactive, multi-media (that means there’s sound (relaxing wave sounds mostly), so you’ve been warned! (it can be muted)) that presents them where they’re geographically supposed to be as well as who created them and when were they last on a legitimate map. Sit down, take some time, and enjoy.
Outside
On May 30th of this year Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold shattered a record already thought to be incredible: they climbed the Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite in two hours, ten minutes, and fifteen seconds, besting the record set just the year before by nine minutes. Keep in mind, most climbers make this ascent over a few days; “[…] anybody who climbs El Capitan in a single day is elite […]”. And yet, they felt they could break the two hour mark. And on June 6 they did – 1:59:07. The author is a friend of Caldwell’s and discusses the stakes and mindset involved before Caldwell and Honnold made that last climb. It touches on (and links to) the greater discussion of whether speed climbing is a good thing or not, and the inherent dangers involved.
Harpers
An exhaustive long-form article detailing how New York is on the decline largely because so many affluent people own property but don’t actually live there. But it offers a cautionary tale for other cities: “And what’s happening to New York now—what’s already happened to most of Manhattan, its core—is happening in every affluent American city. San Francisco is overrun by tech conjurers who are rapidly annihilating its remarkable diversity; they swarm in and out of the metropolis in specially chartered buses to work in Silicon Valley, using the city itself as a gigantic bed-and-breakfast.” Well put. An important read.
Washington Post
An excavation for a utility line on the Second Battle of Bull Run battlefield uncovered an amazing discovery: two bodies and a amputated limbs.
NYTimes
This is a fascinating story about the difficulty in completely eradicating a nasty parasite, but I feel like in the rush to tell that story, they buried the lede: “In 1986, when the Carter Center — the global health philanthropy in Atlanta founded by President Jimmy Carter — launched the eradication drive, an estimated 3.5 million people in 21 countries had worms.
“Last year, only 30 human cases were found: half in Chad and half in Ethiopia.”
Thirty cases down from 3.5 million. Damn.
But the emphasis in the article derives largely from the fact that should these infected dogs spread the worms into the greater ecosystem then all the hard work may be for naught.
And a bonus to leave you with as I’m about to head out on a 5-day motorcycle camping trip…
Outside
Through no fault of his own, a man gets bitten by a big snake in a rather inaccessible area. What follows is the rescue and a very detailed explanation of snake venom and its effects. Not to be read if a) you’re afraid of snakes (duh), or b) eating or squeamish.
