Today in History - December 29 https://t.co/2QecMMHk4b Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president of the United States, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808. Continue reading. Click here to search Today in History for other historic moments.
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 29, 2021
Quote of the Day: "We pass through this world but once." - Stephen Jay Gould
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 29, 2021
New Census Data Finds D.C. Had Nation’s Largest Percentage Drop In Population https://t.co/zqzUPdXH5B New Census Data Finds D.C. Had Nation’s Largest Percentage Drop In Population https://t.co/zqzUPdXH5B — Streets of Washington (@StreetsOfDC) Dec 28, 2021
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 28, 2021
This carefully illustrated "isometrical view" offers a unique perspective of the White House and surrounding buildings in mid-nineteenth century Washington, D.C. Take a closer look here: https://t.co/Rel72nET1Y https://t.co/e5rP4KfHb3 This carefully illustrated "isometrical v…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 28, 2021
We love this "aeroplane map of Sydney" created about 1909! Zoom in to see the buildings, wharves, parks, and ferry routes of this bustling Australian city. Zoom in closer here: https://t.co/HKKw5xa181 https://t.co/bhfR1xhnh9 We love this "aeroplane map of Sydney" created abou…
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 28, 2021
Today in History - December 28 https://t.co/EIKEP7hnWF Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia. Continue reading. Click here to search Today in History for other historic moments.
— Kenneth Samson (@PangurBanC) Dec 28, 2021
Since we started the #longreads hashtag in 2009 to share great reads on Twitter, curation has been the beating heart of Longreads. We highlight our favorite stories in our weekly Longreads Top 5, and at year’s end — in what is now a decade-long tradition — we revisit and reflect on the pieces we loved most. Today, though, we’re celebrating some of the best stories we missed. It happens — there’s a lot out there to read, and only a few editors here combing through as much as we can. Thankfully, we’ve got our community of readers (that’s you!) and the authors honored in our Best of 2021 lists to fill in the gaps.
Exceptional essays often form around the connections a writer can make from their particular place in the world. In “Nuclear Cats,“ Vivian Blaxell connects life experience in legal and health systems with wild and domestic animals, the function of language, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the nature of consciousness…. And it’s funny. Blaxell’s voice is addictive!
—Author Briohny Doyle, honored in Best of 2021: Personal Essays
Nobody writes more beautifully about the horrors of our world than my New York colleague Kerry Howley. Her story on drone war whistleblower Daniel Hale is the piece I’ll remember most from this year.
—Author Reeves Wiedeman, honored in Best of 2021: Investigative Reporting
From the piece: “When cats fall out the windows of tall buildings, the worst injuries result from falling out the first to the sixth stories. Cats that fall from higher stories (i.e. the tenth or twentieth floors) sustain less serious injuries. In other words, the closer you are to the ground, the more you reckon with your death, the less time you have to bend your body against the terminal velocity. This is called high-rise syndrome. It is science, not metaphor.“
—Recommended by author Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, honored in Best of 2021: Profiles
I generally defer to the expertise of physicians, especially when it comes to the medical decisions made by my elderly parents. Reading this story, I could imagine myself as the protagonist, Marian Simmons, going along, trusting, believing my life was at risk. This story changed my mind by showing me how vulnerable we all are to unnecessary medical procedures in the U.S. health-care system.
—Reader Mya Frazier
From the piece: “Maybe it’s not a universal Capital-A-Apocalypse I want to excavate language for, but a lowercase-a-apocalypse that colonialism has imposed on Indigenous and dispossessed peoples since the beginning of the settler project. The tired apocalypse. The assumed apocalypse. An apocalypse that keeps (a notion of) their world alive, at the expense of (a notion of) our own.“
—Recommended by reader Vesna Jaksic Lowe
Explore our Best of 2021 collection