Writing

The invisible city beneath paris

All cities are additions to a landscape that require subtraction from elsewhere. Much of Paris was built from its own underland, hewn block by block from the bedrock and hauled up for dressing and placing. Underground stone quarrying began in the thirteenth century, and Lutetian limestone was used in the construction of such iconic buildings as Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and Saint-Eustache Church. The result of more than six hundred years of quarrying is that beneath the southern portion of the upper city exists its negative image: a network of more than two hundred miles of galleries, rooms and chambers, extending beneath several arrondissements. This network is the vides de carrières—the quarry voids, the catacombs, which together total an underground space around ten times the space of Central Park.

Intermediate vim

Been having to use vim a lot recently. This has been a boon.


May 2019

The invisible city beneath paris

Apr 2019

Intermediate vim

Mar 2019

The Asian century is set to begin

Manhole covers in Japan

Feb 2019

The making of Madvilliany

Jan 2019

Devon Zuegel on London

Bash scripting cheatsheet

Vases and mace heads

Dec 2018

Nihon Noir

Secrets of smooth Béziers revealed

Oct 2018

Streets in the sky

Sep 2018

Design districts

Jul 2018

The Tornaviaje

May 2018

Worlds smallest spreadsheet

Written in stone

Apr 2018

Cultural Wayfinding

Ancient Amazon

The clock is ticking

Mar 2018

How to make a fountain pen

French shop frontages

Neon Communism

Feb 2018

English fuckeries

Raise a drink to Julie d'Aubigny

Post Horse

Sensational Kodachrome Photos of London’s East End by David Granick

Jan 2018

Soulaf Khalifeh on Arabic Typography

UFO Version 3

Bubble burn

Beating Jet lag

Lingua Francas

English - The winners curse

Dec 2017

2017AD by DJ Cable

Treasure trove found in Westminster Abbey attics

Asterix and the Linguist

Politics in the Music Hall

Elmattic takes a well earned bow

Nov 2017

Data visualisation

World cup peregruzka

Wallpaper on the new Apple campus

Aug 2017

Pantone marks a colour to honour Prince

Destructive selection bias

Jul 2017

Innovative block about to break ground on Finchley Road

The Cohen Slayer

Postscript resources

The making of the Maybot

Urban planning done right

Jun 2017

Clay tombs

May 2017

Culture wars

Oil rigs

Ghost ships in Japan

Apr 2017

Going back to the polls

Black Gull Books

You should be watching The Expanse

Mar 2017

Shots fired by Nick Cohen

How to block auto-play videos in Safari

Nov 2016

Divorcing Facebook

Sep 2016

NMCN - Sign up!

Aug 2016

Installing Swift on CentOS 7.1

Apr 2016

Timbuktu's great save

The real game of thrones

Homebrew, Robofab, Fontlab

Mar 2016

Outback palms - Aboriginal myth meets DNA analysis

Street markets in Soho in 1956

Sep 2015

Rome! In maps

Fuck in a word

Custom Macro Location for Fontlab

Rotten at the top

NMCN

Freehand klaxon!

Jul 2015

A Heath Robinson Last.fm

Grand Armée Mass Grave Found

Apple Music Predications

Killing the cloud

Adobe

Jun 2015

With thanks

Jerdon's Courser

String and Hip Hop Klaxon

Feb 2015

Caspian origins for European language

A South American language is dying out because the last two speakers won't talk to each other

Dec 2014

Macchu Re-Release

Feb 2014

Winter is coming

Aug 2013

Ice Cream Truck Soundclash

Jun 2013

Dropbox and BBEdit

Jan 2011

This is cool

This is creepy

Poker Face vs String Quartet

Soviet era electronics

Dec 2010

Colour of the year

Nov 2010

Mood Swings, Stig of the Dump

Oct 2010

Brightons finest

Verb-T, Kashmere and Ghost

Jul 2010

Digitonal release

Aura Journal

Jun 2010

Fontographer restored