Outdated Symbols
Pictograms can be useful for conveying information without text. But they can also go out of date pretty quickly. Such outdated symbols often outlast the very objects they are modeled on. Here are five...
Category: Nonfiction
Ninja Turtles, Hogwarts and Archetypes
I recently got into a very nerdy discussion with my friends, asking what Houses of Hogwarts the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be sorted into. I was amazed at how well the Teenage Mutant...
The Shutdown and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Here’s the thing that bugged me most about the 2013 Government Shutdown. The Tea Party Caucus and the Objectivist Conservatives all complain that the government is broken, when they themselves broke it. In effect,...
Top 5 Stick Figures
Stick figures are one of the simplest forms of art imaginable, but there is a lot of history and meaning behind the simple stick man. Throughout the ages, these minimal line drawings have had...
Odd Punctuation Marks
Punctuation marks are a fairly modern phenomenon. From antiquity up through the Middle Ages, words were written together in great long strings, with little spacing or punctuation. These kind of texts were meant to...
The Beauty of Barcelona’s Eixample
Barcelona is a beautiful city at any scale. Take a walk down La Rambla or visit the Sagrada Familia and you’ll see some of the greatest urban spaces in the world. Then take a...
The Rise and Fall of Neutral Moresnet
Borders can cause a lot of problems. I’ve already talked about how shifting rivers can create odd little enclaves on the landscape. But borders can be tricky even when there aren’t rivers involved. This...
Homage to Catalan
If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, you might know that they don’t speak Spanish. It comes as a shock to many first-time tourists, but the language spoken in Barcelona isn’t Spanish. It’s Catalan. I’ve...
Neo-Feudalism in the Space Age
In the Dune universe, set tens of thousands of years in the future, humanity is organized into feudal fiefdoms and guilds. I wrote about this last year, but I think it’s worth delving into...
Soda vs Pop (vs. Coke)
American English is remarkably uniform. While there are slight differences in pronunciation, especially in the older parts of the country, most Americans can understand each other with ease. But there are differences in dialect....
