James Trimble’s European word translator generates maps of Europe showing the word of your choice in the most common languages for each nation. It gets the job done nicely, though it only works for English words.
This page was inspired by the etymology maps by Bezbojnicul on reddit. It was built using D3, maps from Natural Earth, and the Google Translate API. The translations were retrieved around 2014, and unfortunately this page is not currently set up to get new translations. You can contribute a few pounds towards the web hosting costs for this site if you really want to! Contact James Trimble.
New Zealand’s tourism board might have been hoping to inspire a rush of visitors, but its latest slogan has inspired more groans than getaways. The campaign, titled Everyone Must Go, was launched with a budget of NZ$500,000 (US$285,000) aiming to draw Australian tourists across the Tasman with a sense of urgency.
Instead, the tagline has been widely mocked, with many saying it sounds more like a clearance sale than an invitation to explore.
The campaign, which promotes New Zealand’s natural beauty and attractions through radio and social media ads, has faced criticism from both political opponents and the public.
Some have taken issue with the phrasing, calling it tone-deaf given the country’s rising emigration rates. Labour Party tourism spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel likened it to a desperate sales pitch, while Green Party MP Celia Wade-Brown jokingly suggested it might be referencing the need for more public restrooms at popular tourist sites.
Tourism Minister Louise Upston has defended the slogan, arguing that it sends a clear message that New Zealand is “open for business” and eager to welcome visitors from across the ditch.
The timing of the campaign has also raised eyebrows. Official figures show that New Zealand recorded a net migration loss of 54,700 people in the past year, prompting some to draw ironic connections between the slogan and the number of locals choosing to leave.
You’ve probably run across the popular annual compendiums of long time blogger Kevin Kelly. His year-end posts seem to get widespread coverage which reflects both his sage wisdom and a bit of clever promotion. Kelly is also a serious traveler who recently shared “50 years of travel advice” on his popular site. I’m not ready to endorse every bit of Kelly’s advice, but it’s worth a read.
Here are some interesting observations and suggestions:
Organize your travel around passions instead of destinations. An itinerary based on obscure cheeses, or naval history, or dinosaur digs, or jazz joints will lead to far more adventures, and memorable times than a grand tour of famous places. It doesn’t even have to be your passions; it could be a friend’s, family member’s, or even one you’ve read about. The point is to get away from the expected into the unexpected.
Make no assumptions about whether something will be open. There are other norms at work. If possible check at the last minute, if not, have a plan B.
Don’t balk at the spendy price of admission for a museum or performance. It will be a tiny fraction of your trip’s total cost and you invested too much and have come too far to let those relative minor fees stop you from seeing what you came to see.
The most significant criteria to use when selecting travel companions is: do they complain or not, even when complaints are justified? No complaining! Complaints are for the debriefing afterwards when travel is over.
Your enjoyment of a trip will be inversely related to the weight of your luggage. Counterintuitively, the longer your trip, the less stuff you should haul. Travelers still happy on a 6-week trip will only have carry-on luggage. That maximizes your flexibility, enabling you to lug luggage up stairs when there is no elevator, or to share a tuk-tuk, to pack and unpack efficiently, and to not lose stuff. Furthermore, when you go light you intentionally reduce what you take in order to increase your experience of living. And the reality of today is that you can almost certainly buy whatever you are missing on the road.
Planning your itinerary: You want to see it all and you are likely to never return, so the temptation is to pile it on, maximize your visit. Since we are in X, and Y and Z are so close, we might as well see Y and Z….. Paradoxically when you are traveling you should minimize the amount of time you spend in transit—once you arrive. The hard-to-accept truth is that it is far better to spend more time in a few places than a little time in a bunch of places.
The list of most coveted cities to visit have one striking thing in common—they are pedestrian centric. They reward walking. Better online hotel sites like Booking.com have map interfaces which allow you to select hotels by their location. Whenever possible I book my hotel near to where it is best to walk, so I can stroll out the door and begin to wander.
Which Book Do You Prefer was created by Aris Catsambas basically and asks visitors to pick their favorite from a pairing of novels – it requests only that you vote if you’ve read both of the books in question, but otherwise you just pick your preference from the pairing and move onto the next set. At any point you can see the cumulative global ranking of THE BEST BOOKS EVER – at the moment The Haunting of Hill House , followed by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Apparently the website was created by AI. It’s worth a few minutes anyway.
And who by fire, who by water
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial
Who in your merry merry month of May, who by very slow decay
And who shall I say is calling?And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt
And who by avalanche, who by powder
Who for his greed, who for his hunger
And who shall I say is calling?And who by brave assent, who by accident
Who in solitude, who in this mirror
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand
Who in mortal chains, who in power
And who shall I say is calling?
The song is by Leonard Cohen, who explained it as follows:
“The melody on which this next song is based I first heard when I was four or five years old, in the synagogue, on the Day of Atonement, standing beside my tall uncles in their black suits. It¹s a liturgical prayer that talks about the way in which you can quit this vale of tears. It’s according to a tradition, an ancient tradition that on a certain day of the year, the Book of Life is opened, and in it is inscribed the names of all those who will live and all those who will die, who by fire, who by water…”
Dorothea Tanning, the Surrealist artist and writer, who made it from the small town of Galesburg, Illinois, to the center of New York’s avant-garde art world, lived until she was 101, but she never got the major museum survey she deserved in her lifetime.
“Legend”
by
Dorothea Tanning
From Surrealist Women: An International Anthology (ed. Penelope Rosemont). “Legend” first appeared in Max Ernst’s At Eye Level and Paramyths, the catalog of the “Max Ernst: 30 Years of His Work” exhibition in Beverly Hills in 1949.
A young sinner grew weary of Olympus. He went to the head of the stairs where the three graces sat knitting sweaters for their earthly sons. (Winter was at hand.) Each of them smiled secretly at the young sinner, each believing she was the only one whom he had provided with pleasant memories. But they wouldn’t let him pass.
“It’s a cruel place,” said one. “How will you nourish yourself?”
“On destinies,” he answered promptly. “Take the laughter of seven maidens, stir in several of the moonbeams that fall across their beds. Add the head of a procession, a few umbrella ribs and a tale of hilarious crime. Season it madly and serve on collection plates.”
“But,” said another, barring the way, “Where will you go?”
“To picnics,” said he, making a perfect triple pirouette.
The third grace laid her knitting in her lap where it formed a pretty, medium-sized figleaf. She turned her eyes up to him and said softly, “What will you do?”
She looked so charming that for a moment the young sinner hesitated. Perhaps he wouldn’t go after all. But he recovered himself and said:
“Please be advised that I will vaccinate the world with a desire for violent and perpetual astonishment. Disguised in my own presence, I will conduct a horde through the five aqueducts of knowledge, after which their guardians will ask the authorities for replacements. I will provoke prodigies. When I have built the torpid town, certain words will fall into disuse: eminent prominent peerless noble honorable lordly stately august princely majestic sacred and sublime. I will make rhapsodies from grains of sleep. I’ll wrap up a manmaking hat and drop it in the mailbox. I’ll hold a revolver up to nature. When professional critics lose themselves in the swamp I’ll arrange a delegation of chimeras with their own language and their own secrets. As for the night, I will discover all its phases. And I will fall in love.”
The three graces had been looking rather sleepy; but at the last words they opened their mouths in horror, then picked up their knitting and fled.
With his glittering blue eyes the young sinner sent lightning strokes after them—a parting gift. Then he ran down the steps, two at a time.
To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail. You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
—Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn, Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, часть 1, глава 5 (1973)
The Black History Month Map is a new collaborative and dynamic map developed by kinkofa and PamPam to honor and document the significant places, individuals, and movements that have shaped Black history. To help you explore the invaluable contributions of Black Americans to U.S. history, the map is powered by PamPam’s “Ask Pam” AI assistant.
The current neo-Fascist Trump regime has been working overtime trying to erase Black History Month, but we won’t allow them to succeed. Here’s how the folks behind the map site have to say about the project:
For centuries, Black cartographers and mapmakers have used mapping as a tool for resistance, storytelling, and preservation. Louise E. Jefferson shaped how the world visualized Black life and culture. W.E.B. Du Bois used maps and data to expose racial injustice. Black mapping traditions carry stories, power, and legacy—charting the ways Black communities move, build, and shape the world.
This Black History Month, kinkofa and PamPam continue that legacy with the Black History Month Map, a living archive of the places, people, and movements that have shaped history.
The first curation of this map honors the 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, set by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—the organization founded by Carter G. Woodson, the creator of Black History Month.
More than a collection of locations, this map connects history to the present. With each pin added, communities expand this archive—mapping the figures, stories, and landmarks that deserve recognition.
Explore. Contribute. Keep Black history visible.
A team of four highly skilled photographers has created a mesmerizing flow motion timelapse of London, deploying novel techniques to tell the story of the U.K. capital.
A Taste of London is the fifth installment of FilmSpektakel’s long-running A Taste of series which previously covered Los Angeles, Vienna, and New York City.
Travel Between The Pages 