Kevin White

There is no transit map more iconic than the London Underground's Tube map. First created by Harry Beck in the 1930s, the design has inspired countless other transit network maps that are schematic diagrams rather than geographically accurate maps. But Transport for London, which operates the Underground, also has a geographically accurate map of the network: it was strictly for internal use, but a freedom of information request has now brought it to light. It's available here (PDF). The response has been so good that TfL now says it'll be added to their website. CityMetric, Mapping London.

The Map Room's archives have lots of blog posts about transit maps and their design.

Back when I was doing The Map Room, I followed along as Yanko Tsvetkov started producing map after map of European stereotypes. The project really took off. He's kept at it since, while I wasn't looking quite as closely; he's also collected them into two self-published volumes called the Atlas of Prejudice, which appear to have sold rather well in several different languages. As of July, an all-in-one edition, Atlas of Prejudice: The Complete Stereotype Map Collection, containing all the maps from the previous volumes plus 25 more, is now available.

Buy at Amazon (Canada, U.K.)

Previously: Yanko Tsvetkov's Beloved Europe; Mapping European Stereotypes; Stereotype Maps of the World, Unite!

It's a version of the same conversation we had at our old apartment when I was pregnant with Curran. As a couple, you become so used to the cadence that is just the two of you. There is both quiet and dance parties and nights when you feel like cooking and others when it's refreshing to get dressed up and go out. Before kids, it's hard to imagine how he, she, they, will fit in to a rhythm that is not always easy, but familiar. But somehow, and not without tears and grace in the adjustment, it's as if I don't remember our son not being here. I don't pine for the quieter days or cleaner floors or less expensive grocery bill. I never felt something was missing, but he makes us feel more whole. "What will it be like with another little person around here?" I ask. It's more rhetorical. I don't expect Hugh to have the answer but suppose by asking, I want him to tell me it's going to be alright, that we can do it, that we will adjust just like we did the first time and he does. 

There is a big sliding mirror behind our bathroom sink and not a beautiful one. It is heavy, hard to open and has a yellow gold trim dating it's origin to the 70's when the house was built. I stand profile to it to take in the shape of my belly. My thighs and hips are showing the lack of exercise and bean and cheese burritos that have taken the place of my pre-pregnancy gigantic green salads. Same song, one year later, I feel like I was just doing this? I was. My body has carried a child, now growing another one, and in my own self consciousness' that can often steal all of the joy from those magical feats, I remember the work that that belly, thighs and hips are doing. The growing and the nursing, your body doesn't feel like your own for well over a year and I think it's ok to find that a little crazy making. I am growing a little girl, our daughter, and vanity aside, it's the most magical process. It feels different this time - harder, hungrier, less beautiful, if I may be so honest. They are babies and then they are PEOPLE! Curran has his own language that we can sometimes understand and gives hugs with a little pat and deduces that any toy that does not move or make noise needs a battery ("mommy. daddy. bowerry?"). He waves at airplanes and dislikes the car seat and really likes to throw things "awey". I, we, are completely taken by him. How does one do that twice?!?! So much to process and anticipate but come January, we will be welcoming a baby girl to the family and I may just burst from how completely I love my babies. 

Thank goodness I do recipe development for work because it forces me to cook when I otherwise can easily talk myself out of it lately. Ashley and I have been developing recipes for Electrolux this past year and they have a seriously delicious looking collection going on over there now. Because it has been blazing hot here and the less heating elements I have to turn on, the better, I wanted to point you towards this super simple salad. I realize we're seeing the end of stonefruits and tomatoes now but they are still sweet and juicy so get to it. 

NECTARINE, TOMATO + BURRATA CAPRESE

Serves 2-4

The full recipe can be found at Live.Love.Lux. along with a heap of other great tomato recipes this month. Think of this as less of a recipe and more an assembly of produce and creamy cheese at it's best. I like this with a bit of balsamic too or pile the goods on garlic rubbed toast. 

“Truly, nature is the best painter,” says Stas Bartnikas, a Your Shot community member. Bartnikas had flown over the Namib Desert during sunrise and sunset and noticed that the color of the dunes heavily depended on the angle of the sunlight and the point of view, with colors changing and unusual pictures and patterns emerging. As it turned out, he writes, the effect can also be observed from the ground. He took this photo while riding through Namib-Naukluft National Park one morning. “The dune behind the tree looked very unreal,” he writes, “like clouds or something else, because of [the] special angle of the sunlight.” He had only five minutes to photograph—after that, the effect disappeared.

Bartnikas’s photo was submitted to the Undiscovered assignment on Your Shot. Your Shot is our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now »

A dense fog was covering Vermilion Lakes, just outside of Banff, Canada, when Your Shot member Vitali Hantsevich arrived at 5 a.m. in search of a good sunrise shot. “The visibility was so low that I even decided not to take my camera and tripod out of the backpack,” he writes. He was about to return to his car when the fog lifted to reveal this view of the lake with Mount Rundle in the background. “I was so afraid that this magical light would disappear as rapidly as it came that I started shooting with a yellow-blue polarizer, which I had used the evening before and which was still attached to the lens. The polarizer added a maroon color to the image.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now »

Long interested in aerial photography, Your Shot member Clayton Harper used a small-scale unmanned aerial craft to capture this vantage of him and his wife at sunset in Montauk, New York. Harper had been waiting for optimal lighting and shadows for other photos when he decided to use the time and equipment to try something new. At the time, his wife was expecting their first child. “I was instantaneously drawn to this new perspective of the relationships between me and my wife, our unborn child, and the earth,” he writes. “In this moment, I saw the forces of our anxiety of the unknown and the excitement of our new baby through the environment we were in.”

Harper’s photo was submitted to the From Above assignment on Your Shot. Your Shot is our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now »

Ravi DeRossi opens a vegan restaurant, plus more information about restaurants that just opened in NYC.

1) Flatiron District: Chef Paras Shah — who spent time in the kitchens of Per Se, El Bulli, and Momofuku Noodle Bar — recently opened a New American restaurant with partner Andreas Typaldos called Kat & Theo's. The menu is broken up into three sections: "raw," "small plates," and "mains." The entree options include chicken with vegetables, duck with foie, cod in a saffron broth, and a flatiron steak. Mains are priced from $26 to $30. The space has a somewhat industrial vibe with an open kitchen, metal arches, and exposed brick. Status: Certified Open; 5 W 21st St., 212-380-1950

2) Bushwick: The team from Mother's Ruin just opened a new Latin-themed bar at 19 Wyckoff Ave near the Jefferson L station called Lorenzo's. The beverage menu includes a frozen drink for $10 called the "Not Too Sweet."  The food menu has crudo, ceviche, nachos, meat skewers, and rotisserie chickens. The kitchen stays open till 3:30 a.m. nightly. Status: Certified Open; 19 Wyckoff Ave. No phone yet.

3) East Village: Tonight, cocktail mastermind Ravi DeRossi will open a new vegan restaurant/bar at 130 East 7th Street called Avant Garden. The restaurant is right around the corner from De Rossi's new bar Mother of Pearl. Andrew D'Ambrosi, the chef who helms the kitchen at DeRossi's Carroll Gardens restaurant Bergen Hill, is serving a number of toasts and cold dishes as well as a few pastas and vegetable-based entrees. The opening of Avant Garden coincides with the launch of DeRossi's new non-profit geared at raising money for groups that are fighting to end animal cruelty.  Status: Opening tonight; 130 East 7th St., 646-922-7948 .

3) Lower East Side: East Village Mexican restaurant Puebla closed a few months ago when the landlord raised the rent. But now, the 25-year-old operation has found a new home inside the Essex Street Market. Chef/proprietor Irma Marin is serving burritos, enchiladas, tortas, and other favorites from the old restaurant inside the space in the market that formerly housed Brooklyn Taco. The menu is a work in progress. Status: Certified Open;120 Essex Street. No phone.

[Photo: Facebook]

4) Flatbush: Thomas Ferlesch, a chef who earned four stars from the Times in 1981 when he was in the kitchen of Vienna 79, just opened a new Austrian bar and restaurant on Coney Island Avenue called Werkstatt. The restaurant serves four varieties of schnitzel, plus salads, a burger, cheese plates, roasted chicken, and sure, why not, tacos and a quesadilla. The restaurant is open for dinner nightly starting at 5 p.m. As you may or may not recall, Ferlesch was also the proprietor of Thomas Beisl in Fort Greene. Status: Certified Open; 509 Coney Island Ave., 718-284-5800.

5) Soho: Popular market-driven dosa shop Hampton Chutney Co. was forced out of its home on Prince Street a few months ago, but the restaurant recently reopened just a few blocks away at 143 Grand Street. The menu and overall vibe are the same. Status: Certified Open; 143 Grand St. 212-226-9996.

6) West Village: And in other reopening news, Japanese yakitori champion Hakata Tonton sprung back to life over the weekend. The team temporarily closed the restaurant for a few weeks to make some upgrades to the dining room and the kitchen. Status: Certified Open: 61 Grove St, 212-242-3699.

At Canada’s western edge, beachcombing wolves swim between islands, eating whatever the sea serves up. Relatives babysit youngsters such as these at rendezvous sites, and their parents bring them food until they’re old enough to hunt—and beachcomb—with the pack. Coastal wolves can get as much as 90 percent of their food from the sea.

See more pictures from the October 2015 feature story “Sea Wolves.”

Ever heard of Sozodont Toothpaste? Me neither, but in 1859, it was invented by a New Jersey druggist and manufactured by a firm on Washington Street called Hall & Ruckell.

And at some point in the early 1900s, this colorful Sozodont advertisement went up on the side of a stately building on 43rd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, across from Grand Central Terminal.

Hidden behind another building for decades, the remarkably well preserved three-story ad finally saw the light of day again thanks to that building’s recent demolition.

Sozodont fell out of favor in the early 20th century; apparently its high alcohol content destroyed enamel and turned teeth yellow.

The ad will probably go into hiding again soon, but what a relic of the early 20th century city!

[Thanks to Rick F. for alerting ENY to this beauty.]

Since Fall migration is underway, here’s a reminder that I have posters of bird sound mnenomics from the East and West in my store! Learn the phrases that bird watchers use to remember songs and calls. Many of them are about tea.

For a kid that’s never done laundry before, the whole operation may as well look like NASA getting ready to launch a rocket. Writing clear instructions on your machines in dry erase marker will make it easy for them to learn.

Read more...

Furoshiki is the tradition of wrapping, holding, and carrying things in decorative pieces of cloth. Vibram Furoshiki, on the other hand, is their newest wrap-around shoe. Or, as they like to call it, the first wrap-around sole, since, technically, it’s a sole with wraps attached. They’re secured in place with Velcro patches, so putting the Furoshiki can hardly be any easier. They look comfy, too.

Vibram is also proud of their WaveGrip compound, which makes shoes lighter, as well as providing good grip on water sports surfaces. Of course, they’re even better for non-extreme sports use! The Furoshiki is a modern concept that’s much prettier than the footwraps used by certain armies (as late as 2013 in Russia), and which weren’t an actual shoe substitute.

More info: vibram.com | facebook | twitter | instagram (h/t: rocketnews24)

See The Shoe At Different Angles:

Related posts:

1. Artist Hand-Paints Shoes With Calvin And Hobbes, Pink Floyd, And Other Pop Culture Designs
2. Human Anatomy-Inspired Bags, Purses, And Shoes Designed By Konstantin Kofta
3. Adidas’s New Sneakers Are Literally Made From Ocean Trash
4. Octopus High-Heel Shoes That Let You Walk On Tentacles
5. New ‘Selfie Shoes’ Will Take Your Selfies To The Next Level