Menu
Idea

measurement

89
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 31–60 of 89 results. Go to first page
Drawing of a dying tree. The tree is losing its needles and the trunk is frayed.

The Tallest Known Tree in New York Falls in the Forest

The white pine known as Tree 103 had lost the dewy glow that it had back in 1675.
by Susan Orlean via The New Yorker on January 18, 2022
A photograph of Fannie Farmer cooking with another woman.

Baking for the Holidays? Here's Why You Should Thank Culinary Pioneer Fannie Farmer

We all can thank a 19th century Boston-born cookbook author and domestic science pioneer for revolutionizing the way recipes are replicated at home.
by Andrea Shea via Here & Now on December 22, 2021
Window in the Sun Temple at Mesa Verde.

Is Colorado Home to an Ancient Astronomical Observatory? The Question Is Testing Archaeological Limits.

Did Ancestral Puebloans watch the skies from Mesa Verde's Sun Temple? Solving its mysteries requires overcoming archaeology’s troubled past.
by David Gilbert via The Colorado Sun on December 19, 2021
People sitting on a hill overlooking a harbor

How We Became Weekly

The week is the most artificial and recent of our time counts yet it’s impossible to imagine our shared lives without it.
by David Hinkin via Aeon on November 30, 2021
Birthday candles lit on top of a cake.

The Strange Origins of American Birthday Celebrations

For most people, birthdays were once just another day. Industrialization changed that.
by Joe Pinsker via The Atlantic on November 2, 2021
President George W. Bush signing the No Child Left Behind act surrounded by children and legislators.
partner

This is the Problem with Ranking Schools

We keep trying to assess schools quantitatively instead of grappling with some deeper problems.
by Ethan Hutt via Made By History on October 22, 2021
Student completing standardized test

The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing

From grade school to college, students of color have suffered from the effects of biased testing.
by John Rosales, Tim Walker via National Education Association on March 20, 2021
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros

What Counts, These Days, in Baseball?

As technologies of quantification and video capture grow more sophisticated, is baseball changing? Do those changes have moral implications?
by David Hinkin via Public Books on February 24, 2021
A drawing of a person with a facial expression of pain with "Simple Bodily Pain" written above

The Fifth Vital Sign

How the pain scale fails us.
by Gracia Dodds via Nursing Clio on October 28, 2020
Bill of Mortality from the plague, and New York Times list of Covid deaths.

When 194,000 Deaths Doesn’t Sound Like So Many

From plague times to the coronavirus, the history of our flawed ability to process mass casualty events.
by Rebecca Onion, Jacqueline Wernimont via Slate on September 13, 2020
A printed advertisement for "The Bookman" depicting a fish reacting to "The Bookman" on a hook.

The Power of Flawed Lists

How "The Bookman" invented the best seller.
by Elizabeth Della Zazzera via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 27, 2020
Demonstrators with signs reading "Every Person Counts."
partner

Trump’s Push to Skew the Census Builds on a Long History of Politicizing the Count

Who counts determines whose interests are represented in government.
by Paul Schor via Made By History on July 23, 2020

Numbering the Dead

A brief history of death tolls.
by Shannon Pufahl via New York Review of Books on April 21, 2020

All Stick No Carrot: Racism, Property Tax Assessments, and Neoliberalism Post 1945 Chicago

Black homeowners have been an oft ignored actor in metropolitan history despite playing a central role.
via The Metropole on May 9, 2019

Uniforming the Nation

Standard clothing sizes don’t exist.
by Jordana Rosenfeld via Popula on April 3, 2019
Identical twin girls wearing event entry bracelets and blue ribbon medals.

The Intriguing History of the Autism Diagnosis

How an autism diagnosis became both a clinical label and an identity; a stigma to be challenged and a status to be embraced.
by Bonnie Evans via Aeon on January 8, 2018
Pope Gregory with his hand on the globe.

On New Year’s, Our Calendar’s Crazy History, and the Switch That Changed Washington’s Birthday

In 1752, the Brits and Americans lopped 11 days off the calendar in one fell swoop.
by Steve Hendrix via Washington Post on December 31, 2017

How Racial Data Gets 'Cleaned' in the U.S. Census

The national survey offers more identity choices than ever—until those choices get scrubbed away.
by Robyn Autry via The Atlantic on November 5, 2017
Woodpeckers

Sooty Feathers Tell the History of Pollution in American Cities

Preserved birds and digital photos help pinpoint levels of black carbon in the air and the changes that led to its decline.
by Alex Furuya via Audubon on October 10, 2017

Weighing the Baby

When did the practice of weighing newborns begin? And why?
by Deborah Warner via National Museum of American History on July 10, 2017
Architectural rendering of a bridge.

The True Measure of Robert Moses (and His Racist Bridges)

Did Robert Moses ordered engineers to build the Southern State Parkway’s bridges extra-low, to prevent poor people in buses from them? The truth is complex.
by Thomas J. Campanella via CityLab on July 9, 2017
A t-shirt that reads "Wanted: Notorious Disgrace to America," with a gun crosshair on Colin Kaepernick.

Spiders, Stars, and Death

It is worth taking a moment to recover the genealogy for the "crosshairs," the universal modern index of imminent violent killing.
by D. Graham Burnett via Cabinet on June 7, 2017
Children reading a storybook with a teacher.

What We've Learned In the 50 Years Since One Report Introduced the Black-White Achievement Gap

A Harvard education professor explains how far we've come in answering some of the most important questions in education since the famous Coleman report.
by Heather C. Hill via Chalkbeat on July 13, 2016
Lyndon Johnson campaigning in Illinois in 1964, the year he declared ‘war on poverty;’ Johnson signing an autograph for an elderly woman.

The War on Poverty: Was It Lost?

Four changes are especially important when we try to measure changes in the poverty rate since 1964.
by Christopher Jencks via New York Review of Books on March 18, 2015
Scientists attend to banks of monitors at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston in 1965.

Mission Control: A History of the Urban Dashboard

Futuristic control rooms with endless screens of blinking data are proliferating in cities across the globe. Welcome to the age of Dashboard Governance.
by Shannon Mattern via Places Journal on March 1, 2015

Our Mis-Leading Indicators

How statistical data came to rule public policy.
by Stephen Macekura via Public Books on September 15, 2014
Sign saying "WHIP INFLATION NOW" with image of Uncle Sam whipping a personification of inflation

The Rise of Inflation

Understanding how inflation came to be a mainstay in modern economics.
by Rebecca L. Spang via Cabinet on June 14, 2013

LBJ Orders Pants

You will never think about the 36th president the same way again.
by Put This On via YouTube on January 17, 2011
Poster for U.S. Census reading "Have your papers ready," featuring Uncle Sam writing in book
partner

Beyond Numbers: A History of the U.S. Census

To mark the culmination of Census 2010, we explore the fascinating story of how Americans have counted themselves.
via BackStory on December 22, 2010
Cover of The Woman Suffrage Cook Book.

How Women Used Cookbooks to Fight for Their Right to Vote

Before women could vote, they sold cookbooks like ‘The Woman Suffrage Cook Book’ to raise money for their cause.
by Aimee Levitt via Eater on October 31, 2024
View More
30 of
89

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History