site: www.atlasobscura.com
Cincinnati Built a Subway System 100 Years Ago–But Never Used It
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cincinnati-built-a-subway-system-100-years-ago-but-never-used-it [www.atlasobscura.com]
2021-01-06 01:13
tags:
history
transport
urban
The Cincinnati subway stations are still there. But if you’re still waiting for a train to come, you’ve been waiting for almost a century. To this day Cincinnati remains home to the largest unused subway system in the world, with over two miles of empty tunnels. Engineers who inspected the tunnels recently deemed them in “very good condition.”
source: HN
Escape Into These Fantastical, Imaginary Maps
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fantastical-maps-to-escape-into [www.atlasobscura.com]
2020-04-10 02:19
tags:
fiction
maps
This week, why not venture even farther afield, to lands that don’t really exist at all? Atlas Obscura recently asked map collectors and curators to suggest some diverting maps that chart imaginary terrain.
George Peabody Library
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/george-peabody-library [www.atlasobscura.com]
2019-10-17 05:23
tags:
academia
architecture
photos
travel
College libraries can be claustrophobic, institutional affairs, more concerned with eliminating distractions than providing a scholarly atmosphere. But the George Peabody Library on the campus of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, now owned by Johns Hopkins University, was seemingly designed to create a space where studying feels monumental.
Built in 1878 at the behest of philanthropist George Peabody, the library was originally part of an arts and culture institute—America’s first music conservatory—that he created to be available to the people of his beloved Baltimore. The Peabody Institute is still among the world’s finest music schools, graduating many of classical music’s finest performers, teachers, and composers.
To Evade Pre-Prohibition Drinking Laws, New Yorkers Created the World’s Worst Sandwich
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/raines-sandwich [www.atlasobscura.com]
2019-06-08 23:22
tags:
food
history
nyc
policy
Bar owners insisted on this bizarre charade to avoiding breaking the law—specifically, the excise law of 1896, which restricted how and when drinks could be served in New York State. The so-called Raines Law was a combination of good intentions, unstated prejudices, and unforeseen consequences, among them the comically unsavory Raines sandwich.
source: HN
The World’s Newest, Most Gloriously Designed Maps
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/best-new-maps-2018 [www.atlasobscura.com]
2018-08-28 21:07
tags:
book
design
maps
photos
visualization
Calling all map enthusiasts: the North American Cartographic Information Society will soon be releasing the 2018 Atlas of Design, its latest compendium of the world’s newest and best maps. Every two years since 2012, NACIS, a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes cartography, has released a new volume of maps, carefully selected from hundreds of entrants by a panel of judges. This year reveals a bumper crop of map-makers: NACIS received over 300 submissions for just 32 spots.
source: K
The Brief, Wondrous, High-Flying Era of Zeppelin Dining
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/zeppelin-hindenburg-dining-food-aviation-blimp [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-11-11 22:24
tags:
flying
food
history
hoipolloi
photos
A trip from Brazil to Europe, for instance, took three days, and there was little to do except look out the window, read, socialize, eat, and drink. These last two, as one might expect, were taken quite seriously.
The Oldest Treasures From 12 Great Libraries
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oldest-library-books-manuscripts-cuneiform-tablets [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-11-11 22:23
tags:
archive
book
history
photos
We asked some of our favorite libraries: What’s the oldest item in your collection?
The 19th-Century Freakout Over Steam-Powered Buses
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/steam-buses-horse-carriages-fight [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-08-31 18:17
tags:
cars
history
tech
transport
urban
These salvos were part of a battle between old-fashioned horses and high-tech steam: horse-drawn omnibuses, from which we get our modern word “bus,” had been the public transportation standard, but now the steam-powered bus threatened to take their place. And that would not do.
The Search for the World’s Most Enchanting Greenhouses
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/haarkon-photographers-greenhouse-tour-of-the-world [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-08-31 03:15
tags:
architecture
photos
travel
urban
They began what they call “a self-initiated Greenhouse Tour of the World”—they find, explore, and photograph greenhouses, potting sheds, polytunnels, conservatories, and other indoor spaces made by humans, for plants.
The Scottish Scoundrel Who Changed How We See Data
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-scottish-scoundrel-who-changed-how-we-see-data [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-07-26 21:41
tags:
article
history
visualization
When he wasn’t blackmailing lords and being sued for libel, William Playfair invented the pie chart, the bar graph, and the line graph.
source: MR
Behold the intricate detail of these exquisite miniature worlds
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dioramas-miniatures [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-03-07 20:12
tags:
archive
life
photos
While there are endless different kinds of dioramas, there is something that most all of them have in common: the strange beauty that comes from capturing our world in miniature, in exacting detail.
Uncovering the Hidden Books Tucked Inside Every Single Library
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/anonymous-texts-hidden-libraries [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-03-01 00:30
tags:
academia
history
ideas
Finding an anonymous text, if you don’t know which one, exactly, you’re looking for, can be difficult, if not impossible.
It’s the one by that guy; you know, that guy, the guy with no name.
Darwin Centre Spirit Collection
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/darwin-centre-spirit-collection [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-02-11 21:53
tags:
biology
food
history
Repository for more than 22 million pickled specimens
World’s largest pickle collection, but perhaps best not to eat any.
The True History of the Gambia's Bizarre Origin Story
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-true-history-of-the-gambias-bizarre-origin-story [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-01-22 05:20
tags:
history
According to an apocryphal story, British ships created the country’s borders by shooting cannonballs off the sides of their ships.
Not really, but perhaps not entirely wrong.
How to Make an Alien Planet on Earth
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-make-an-alien-planet-on-earth [www.atlasobscura.com]
2017-01-22 05:15
tags:
biology
movie
For a short film about another world, the landscape designer Bas Smets created a dark, scientifically accurate terrain.
A short list of black plants.
An Alarm Designer on How to Annoy People in the Most Effective Ways
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/an-alarm-designer-on-how-to-annoy-people-in-the-most-effective-ways [www.atlasobscura.com]
2016-12-23 19:52
tags:
biology
hoipolloi
physics
ux
Not too much, not too little, the Goldilocks of alarms.
Why Scientists Sank a Telescope Into the Deepest Parts of the Ocean
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-scientists-sank-a-telescope-into-the-deepest-parts-of-the-ocean [www.atlasobscura.com]
2016-12-20 05:58
tags:
biology
physics
In other bioluminescent neutrino news...
With further study, these experts discovered that the light was coming from a massive bloom of deep-sea bioluminescent bacteria, stirred into action by water that was being transported from the surface into the deep.
Ascending One of the World's Oldest, Tallest Trees for Science and the Views
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ascending-one-of-the-worlds-oldest-tallest-trees-for-science-and-the-views [www.atlasobscura.com]
2016-12-05 02:07
tags:
article
biology
Since 2011, drought and pestilence have killed more than 100 million trees in California. What does that mean for the fate of the world’s largest tree, the giant sequoia?
“I remember this tree, for sure,” someone chirps, a sentiment that seems more appropriate as an epitaph on a lost hiker’s headstone than as a vote of directional confidence.
One of four redwood species, the giant sequoia is not the world’s tallest tree; that crown belongs to its northern cousin, the coast redwood. But in terms of sheer volume of biomass, no living organism ever to walk, swim, fly, or stand on this planet comes close.
"Year 1999 AD" - A 1967 Film Imagines the Future
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/see-what-people-of-1967-imagined-the-world-would-be-like-in-1999 [www.atlasobscura.com]
2016-11-28 23:37
tags:
ioshit
life
retro
video
Short film depicting everyday home life. Gets a fair amount right, like online shopping and email, and the unnecessary automation of every gadget and scale in the house. Only difference is everything reporting to a central home computer, not the cloud.