Month: March 2015

As Boomers shed their stuff, their offspring reject it

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As Boomers shed their stuff, their offspring reject it

A seismic shift of stuff is underway in homes all over America. Members of the generation that once embraced sex, drugs and rock-and-roll are trying to offload their place settings for 12, family photo albums and leather sectionals. Their offspring don’t want them. As baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, start cleaning out attics and basements, many are discovering that millennials, born between 1980 and 2000…

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The Dark Underworld of the Paris Catacombs

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The Dark Underworld of the Paris Catacombs

Paris, the capital of France, is often called La Ville Lumière (meaning ‘The City of Light’), however, beneath this bustling European city of 12 million people, lies a dark subterranean world holding the remains of 6 million of its former inhabitants. These are the Paris Catacombs: a network of old caves, quarries and tunnels stretching hundreds of miles, and seemingly lined with the bones of the dead.

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Poland blames Russian air controllers in 2010 crash

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Poland blames Russian air controllers in 2010 crash

Two Russian air traffic controllers are among those charged in a military investigation of a 2010 plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski. The military prosecutors said bad weather was the primary cause of the crash, which killed 95 people on their way to Katyn, Russia.

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Can Canada teach the rest of us to be nicer?

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Can Canada teach the rest of us to be nicer?

The world, I think, would be a better place if we were all a bit more Canadian. Canadian niceness is pure, and untainted by the passive-aggressive undertones found in American niceness (have a good day, or else!). It’s also abundant. Canada is to niceness as Saudi Arabia is to oil. It’s awash in the stuff, and it’s about time, I say, the rest of the world imported some.

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The complex role of malls: private but sort-of-public spaces

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The complex role of malls: private but sort-of-public spaces

Victor Gruen, inventor of Edina’s Southdale Mall, had dreams of saving ruined cities. As he saw it, postwar America had fallen on hard times, ruined by planners and their monolithic neighborhoods. Gruen wanted nothing more than to resurrect the vibrant street life of his native Vienna.

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Where Are London’s Missing Map Traps?

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Where Are London's Missing Map Traps?

No online map is as beautiful, or feels as canonical, as the ones between the covers of the London A-Z. But the Guide to all of Londo is not flawless. Even more shockingly, its imperfections are deliberate. The London A-Z contains so-called map traps: non-existent features inserted into the map to catch out unauthorised copiers of the original.

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