Essays
Every short and long tail so far
6 essays. Each one answers the questions most people half-ask about a topic, then goes where most explanations stop.
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Technology
The short and long tail of File Formats
Why every PNG starts with a trap, why geneticists renamed human genes for Excel, and how a bigger file can mean less downloading.
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Machines
The short and long tail of Cars
Why nearly every new car is the same machine in a different coat, and what a 59-kilogram three-wheeler, a cotton-bodied Trabant and a Japanese box drawn by law reveal about who decided that.
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Weather
The short and long tail of Hurricane Names
A calendar that keeps killing the letter I, a Greek backup that broke in 2020, typhoons named after puddings, and lows over Berlin that anyone can buy.
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Knowledge
The short and long tail of Maps
Your phone's map rests on a sailors' projection from 1569, a pyramid of 366 billion squares, and a zero line that sits 102 metres east of the famous one at Greenwich.
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Infrastructure
The short and long tail of Water Transport
Water holds weight up for free. Follow that one fact outward and you reach canals that run on rain, a boat lift powered like eight kettles, and aircraft the law treats as ships.
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Performance
The short and long tail of WWE Moves
Every wrestling move is a sentence two people say together, and the one who loses is usually doing most of the talking.