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Panamaximization
How El Niño affects the Panama canal's operations, and how the its infrastructure may change in the future.…
Feature
Long-form, original writing on the built environment.
28 posts
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The canal that is a lake (and also a reservoir).
How water underpins the Panama Canal's management.…
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A Technological Shortcut
TW Lim on palm oil, the primordial goop of our packaged consumer economy.…
TW Lim
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On Hevea.
How the Brazilian rubber tree made Manaus – and then left it behind.…
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On Naphtha
How naphtha -- one of the first fossil fuel derivatives ever made -- played a key role in the commercialization of rubber.…
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On Vulcanization
On Charles Goodyear and the unlikely discovery of the vulcanization process.…
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On Latex
The geography and logistics of pre-industrial rubber production.…
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Paved Paradises
How Parking Lots Shape Our Cities for the Worse…
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On Chindogu
The near-universal comedy of technological failure
The story goes that Thomas Edison ran thousands of failed experiments before landing on…
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Local Neon
The quiet crackling sound of a lamp turning on gives way to the hazy but articulated glow of neon, which…
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On Baltic Birch
We’ve recently been admiring photos of a friend’s new kitchen. The cabinets and drawers are pale, clear-coated plywood,…