Morning Coffee

Inside the bizarre giant ghost city of Naypyidaw, Burma. At least all this pollution is giving us cuter tinier sea life. The immense Columbus monument that could have been. After 250 years, clockmaker John Harrison has been vindicated. Congratulations. A…

Why aren’t film cuts just constantly destroying our brains? The battle for Toledo. Fanzine heartthrob Hitler. On Seattle’s mystery soda machine. Sometimes attempts to fix plumbing just lead to centuries of Italian history.

Will return Monday! I love all of you.

Exciting times, whale enthusiasts. Finding the oldest stone tools by accident. Relatedly: we’re getting some pretty good insights from chimpanzee hunting. Apparently no one had ever filmed knuckle cracking before. Now it’s time to enjoy the relative sizes of all…

I suppose this means it’s time to look back at some of the horrible ways we tried to take over Cuba. Unbuilt London (I live for these sorts of things. Diving bells are also pretty neat. On the bright side,…

Actually important linguistic news: the rise of the singular they. Ghana’s bootleg movie posters are some of my favorite things in the universe. Welcome to the future, the UN is debating a killer robot treaty. Welcome to the past, relic…

Flying oceans of magma is a good phrase to start your week with. Oh great, a newly discovered terror bird (the universe is terrifying). Everything is also terrible: the drought versus endangered fish. 19th century astronomy quilts are pretty neat…

The most delicious space cloud. Brighton’s unfinished necropolis. What can we learn from the feral chickens of Kauai? (spoiler alert: a lot I guess.) The time has come to construct a train through Mt Everest. Pouchee’s lost alphabets (are pretty).

If you live in the Bay Area the Dan Weiss Institute for Dan Weiss Studies and Technologies has its second meeting tonight. If you DON’T live in the Bay Area, there’s still some pretty good stuff on the tumblr. I’m…

GREATEST news: welcome back brontosaurus! Meanwhile, NASA is pretty sure we’ll see aliens in the next decade. I realize I should have linked to the moon hoax a week ago, but better late than never. The time has come for…

Why hasn’t anyone invited me to an Explorer’s Club dinner yet? Inside the (pretty racist but working on it) theme park town of South of the Border, South Carolina. Speaking of problematic vacations, atomic tourism in the American South West.…

Sometimes you just need to start your week with some hypnotic geometric GIFs. Complicated sexy mice songs. It’s time to meet Lucy’s neighbor Little Foot. 1920s California offshore casinos were pretty neat I bet. Stop asking about what’s on the…