This Map Lets You Find Every Street, Place, and Thing With Your Name

This Map Lets You Find Every Street, Place, and Thing With Your Name

If you’ve ever secretly believed that you deserve a place named after you, then you have come to the right corner of the internet. This handy little app finds every street, river, garden, park, castle, or cave with your name already on it.

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Here's a map of the US if every state's population matched its size

Here's a map of the US if every state's population matched its size

It’s a little unfair that giant states with tiny populations get so much room for such few people. I mean, especially since states on the east coast are living on top of each other in cramped borders. So let’s change that with a fun little thought exercise and a spin on how to look at the map of United States: what if we gave the biggest states by physical size to the states with the biggest population? New York would be the new California, Alaska is in New Jersey, Hawaii is part of the contiguous 48 and Texas stays Texas forever.

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The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base… in Alaska?

The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base... in Alaska?

An absolutely fascinating but little-known story—described as a "forgotten theater" by the U.S. Navy itself—is the tale of Kiska and Attu, Alaska: two remote Aleutian islands where the Japanese military established a submarine base during World War II.

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Hike 2600 miles through the United States in six minutes

From Mexico and all the way up to Canada with something called the United States of America in between. One man, Tyler Fox, decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and make his way completely through the US. That would be a 2,600 mile hike through California, Oregon and Washington. Here’s what he saw.

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Flooded Ghost Towns Re-Emerge as Water Levels Drop Across the West

Flooded Ghost Towns Re-Emerge as Water Levels Drop Across the West

The ongoing drought in the U.S. west and mountain region is leading to the surprise reappearance of historical artifacts, including entire towns and villages emerging from the sand and muck left behind by drying reservoirs.

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The U.S./Mexico Border Is Infested With Underground Machines

The U.S./Mexico Border Is Infested With Underground Machines

The very fact that underground robots being used to patrol the U.S./Mexico border—a program now moving into its second decade—can be greeted with what amounts to a disinterested shrug is a good indication of how sci-fi our everyday lives have gotten. There are underground robots patrolling the edge of the country.

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A Map of the 124 United States of America That Could Have Been

A Map of the 124 United States of America That Could Have Been

The fact that we’ve kept the number of U.S. states relatively static is nothing short a miracle—there have been hundreds of attempts at state secession over the years. But what if they had all succeeded? This brilliant map depicts that alternative universe, where the U.S. is broken up into 124 different states that stretch from sea-to-shining-sea.

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Spend Your Weekend Gawking at Nearly 700 Old Maps of the U.S.

Spend Your Weekend Gawking at Nearly 700 Old Maps of the U.S.

Okay, history buffs. We’ve got a challenge for you: Learn as much as you possibly can from the 700 odd maps just uploaded to the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab. Your brain will thank you later.

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15 Tools That Helped Pioneers Survive on the American Frontier

15 Tools That Helped Pioneers Survive on the American Frontier

American culture unapologetically romanticizes the lives of the first pioneers. Through rose-colored glasses, we see Manifest Destiny as fate, leading our heroic ancestors across a perfectly manicured landscape. In reality, the frontier was a terrifying, dangerous wilderness. And you were only as good as the tools you carried.

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A Meteor Streaked Across the East Coast of the United States and No One Has a Damn Picture Of It Yet

At around 8 o’clock tonight, a meteor that’s been described as “huuuuge green” and “very bright” and “blueish” and “glowing green” and “pretty big” and “very slow and bright green” was spotted across the east coast of the United States from NYC to DC to Baltimore to West Virginia to Boston and basically any big city where millions of people live. But unlike the Russian meteor that exploded over the sky, no one has a freaking picture of this American space rock. More »