Catching content
After walking by it for years, curiosity finally won out. What’s with the "Whalebone" on 161 Duane Street?
A Google led to a 1920 article in The New York Times marking the occasion of George Messmann closing the US’ last known whale-cutting shop at—161 Duane.
And come to find out, whalebone, isn't actually bone. Also known as baleen, it's more keratin-like, lining the upper jaws of right, sperm, and humpbacked whales. Practical, whalebone acts like a sieve to catch plankton and other small organisms on which these whales feed.
Less practical—for the whales—was baleen’s tough but elastic features proving useful as supports in 17th and 18th-century corsets and dresses, among other applications.
Anyway, now I know.
So here’s some plankton in the form of recent content that made me think.
We’re excited to announce the release of our joint report with @CGreenCapital entitled, “Rewiring Communities: A Plan to Accelerate Climate Action and Environmental Justice Through Household Electrification at the Local Level.” Read on: https://t.co/0z84rdCa8R
— Rewiring America (@rewiringamerica) May 17, 2021
Brooklyn Painter Steve Wasterval has been hiding miniature paintings every weekend in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for eager followers to find. https://t.co/Y7B1rrF0nI
— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) May 6, 2021
With restaurants, schools and hotels closed, many of America's largest farms are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food they can no longer sell. The amount of waste is staggering.https://t.co/9fdNVWbiEP
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 11, 2020
Thomas Piketty’s unlikely bestseller, “Capital in the Twenty-first Century,” perfectly fit the post-Occupy Wall Street ethos, providing empirical rigor for the upswell in anger. His new book is more radical still. https://t.co/2y8yXqyUXr
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 4, 2020
Computer files found on the hard drives of Thomas Hofeller — a deceased GOP redistricting strategist — have been cited as evidence of gerrymandering that got political maps thrown out in North Carolina.
— NPR (@NPR) January 6, 2020
Now his daughter has published them online. https://t.co/mz4arzAKWB
Marvin Gaye's Isolated Vocals on 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine' Will Give You Goosebumps https://t.co/f9utzxacXf pic.twitter.com/dJdPHmH45Q
— Esquire (@esquire) September 5, 2019
"Today, after decades of consolidation and deregulation, just a small handful of companies control almost everything you watch, read, and download" https://t.co/C5yUM0sE4T
— CJR (@CJR) August 26, 2019
Seesaws were installed on a stretch of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico this week, to allow kids to play together. Architects said they sought to tweak the meaning of a border fence.https://t.co/kuQUGmaQgU
— NPR (@NPR) July 30, 2019
Seventy-five years ago this morning, my grandfather helped invade Normandy. Sixteen years ago, we stood on Omaha Beach with him. What was he thinking?
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) June 6, 2019
“Coulda been me. Coulda been me.” https://t.co/G7vAhOFrNe
Climate change is here + we’ve got a deadline: 12 years left to cut emissions in half.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 17, 2019
A #GreenNewDeal is our plan for a world and a future worth fighting for.
How did we get here?
What is at stake?
And where are we going?
Please watch & share widely ⬇️pic.twitter.com/IMCtS86VXG
A widowed Irish mother was dragged away from her 10 children in Belfast in 1972. They never heard from her again. Did a secret archive at BC hold the answer to what happened to her? https://t.co/GcHHpUfPHL pic.twitter.com/4ECxqWQ2uO
— Globe Magazine (@BostonGlobeMag) February 12, 2019
We may have been thinking about the world’s economic woes all wrong. It’s not a series of single strands, but a spider web of them. https://t.co/jaq5IDi9T1
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2019
"Losing Laura" in this weeks @BostonGlobeMag is a @Longreads top 5 pick. It's about love, unimaginable mistakes, and my wife's tragic death steps from an ER door. I wrote it for her, and to save someone else's life #longreads #BostonGlobe #asthma #911https://t.co/FeSQbNA0vB pic.twitter.com/RXg7lJq6X3
— Peter DeMarco (@peterdemarco) November 10, 2018
When Charles Barkley’s mom passed away in June 2015, an unexpected guest showed up at the funeral to pay respects: https://t.co/1jwueBABFP
— WBUR (@WBUR) December 15, 2018
Unexplained brain injuries afflicted dozens of American diplomats and spies who were working in Havana in 2017. What happened? https://t.co/MZV48ZWHqI pic.twitter.com/OsmIV23pDJ
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) November 19, 2018
A viral video of a baby bear climbing up a snowy cliff is not a life-affirming tale of persistence. It's a video of a bear fleeing from the drone that was filming it, @edyong209 reports: https://t.co/lRWOGLWIkO
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 6, 2018
The @IPCC_CH report on #GlobalWarming of 1.5°C is one of the most important #climatechange reports ever published. Limiting temperature increase requires unprecedented changes in society, but will have huge benefits. Every half a degree of warming matters. https://t.co/a7GOzVFv50 pic.twitter.com/p0wX5vYrA5
— IPCC (@IPCC_CH) October 8, 2018
https://t.co/7iwvw6Iyia pic.twitter.com/A8YX2U1Xza
— James Corden (@JKCorden) June 22, 2018
"So this is how we live today: by stuffing ourselves to the gills, yet somehow it only makes us more anxious, more confused, and more hungry. We are hurtling forward — frantic, dissatisfied, and perpetually lost." @hhavrilesky @doubledaybooks https://t.co/nTsFDmVaIn
— Longreads (@Longreads) September 16, 2018
"Ramos took what began as a minor infraction and turned it into one of the nastiest and most emotional controversies in the history of tennis, all because he couldn’t take a woman speaking sharply to him."
— Post Sports (@PostSports) September 9, 2018
Sally Jenkins on Saturday's U.S. Open final https://t.co/wznX9IgRt7
Venezuela's inflation hit 82,700 percent in July, meaning purchases of basic items such as a bar of soap require piles of cash that is often difficult to obtain https://t.co/CugLttLWhG pic.twitter.com/VUSlrBfCkw
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) August 20, 2018
Astonishingly expensive and strategically incoherent, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue today without an end in sight, reauthorized in Pentagon budgets almost as if distant war is a presumed government action. https://t.co/yl8JAFEQUl pic.twitter.com/XW3HDxEYOL
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) August 15, 2018
“The North Koreans have never tortured a white guy physically. Never.” https://t.co/mvMu1fqeXb
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) July 24, 2018
Wonderful read on mastering the trying, deeply rewarding art of being alone https://t.co/KZQUHjRjw3 pic.twitter.com/cu2CD9xDMJ
— Brain Pickings (@brainpickings) July 15, 2018
The case is indicative of a new chapter in American education in which advocates are resorting to unconventional means to solve grave inequities in schools, @aliaemily reports. https://t.co/tfFTkmXYia
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 8, 2018
Purple represents the red and blue of the two parties coming together. Yellow is for positivity. The stars at the ends of the exclamation points are a nod to her Puerto Rican heritage. https://t.co/U55YJ04w3j
— Vox (@voxdotcom) July 3, 2018
The story behind the heartbreaking photo that went viral of a 2-year-old Honduran asylum-seeker crying for her mother at the U.S.-Mexico border https://t.co/NTvfnede2K
— Getty Images (@GettyImages) June 20, 2018
AI could wreak economic havoc—we need more of it https://t.co/eiNia6NRD0
— MIT Tech Review (@techreview) June 18, 2018
I wrote about my pal Tony https://t.co/4STkQsUxVV
— your friend Helen (@hels) June 8, 2018