That is Genius

My sister wins an Oscar

There really should be an Oscar for Best Supporting Supporting Actor

On the streets of Hong Kong in 1938

Hong Kong in 1938 was smaller in scale, more human, much poorer and more unjust

Police shootings database

Whatever the cause the sheer number of dead should impress us: 813 so far this year with weeks to go


Tracking the incompetent Trump cabinet

Bush’s team bungled Hurricane Katrina but they were professionals compared to Trump’s gang

Homs, Syria after five years of war

Drone video footage shows there’s no life left in Syria’s third largest city

Our doom was never so beautiful

It may be bad news about CO2 levels but it’s gorgeous


The long, strange journey of checked luggage

Finally, the answer to how many chances are there along the way to steal my valuables

Syrian-American composer who plays for peace

A symphony for Syria reminds me of Sarajevo and the hope that cosmopolitan tolerance will survive

Activists in Raqqa exposing the Islamic State

We owe a great debt to the people documenting the devastation around them


Portraits of African elites in India 500 years ago

Who knew Africans ruled parts of India, including Bengal, centuries ago?

Take a walk in Berlin a century ago

A film of early-20th century life in the German capital so vivid it will feel like you’ve visited

Japanese doll village

The Japanese village alive with dolls

An imaginative response to the end of rural life in Japan


Dennis Hlynsky starlings video

Flying things as you have never seen them before

Tracing the patterns of birds and bugs results in something very cool and almost abstract

A couple of unbelievably bad ideas

Exhilarating to watch, but profoundly ill advised

Every flight in 24 hours

This video reveals flights, yes, but also population densities, wealth, and history


Tattoo artist Duncan X

This wild video gives new meaning to the phrase ‘body of work.’

A historic find on the Bowery

A friend may have found the 18th C Bull’s Head Tavern under a construction site on the Bowery

Prayer of Fear by Mosireen

The media collective Mosireen perfectly captures the current moment in Egypt


The funniest person I know

My sister Kali is a riot and you’ll soon see why on the Disney show “Liv and Maddie”

The Indian Memory Project

Revealing the lives behind old photographs in India

Video drones over Taksim Square in Istanbul

When the police control the streets, video drones can see what they are up to


How great is India’s magazine The Caravan?

Long form reportage, ruthlessly edited, about India and elsewhere. Now you know

The Atlantic tries to show how genius happens

To the systems minded, no nitty is too gritty when it explains how things work

HOW and NOSM mural on the Deitch wall

The Basque street artists brave the New York blackout to paint their wicked new mural