Pygmania

There's a good chance you saw this on Gothamist, but I wanted to put it here anyway for like Posterity 'n' Stuff, Inc. History of the New York City Subway system: an animated GIF starts with a blank subway map and draws each line in the sequence in which it was built. [source: very-appealing.com ]

What follows is an impressive catalog of departure sounds and next-station announcements of subway systems around the world.  Courtesy: mic-ro.com/metro/table.html © 2004-2015 metrobits.org Amsterdam An electronic "ding-dong" signal. There is also a "ding" and in a pre-recorded voice the next station name. At the terminus, the voice says "Endpunt". Ankara "Booop! Ding-dang" sound when the doors close. Athens There is a series of beeps that starts when the doors start closing and stops when they are closed. Then when a train reaches the next station there is a ding-dong and a station announcement in both Greek and English (English added for the 2004 Olympics). Lines 2 and 3: There is a continuous beep when the doors start closing until they are closed. Atlanta The MARTA subway in Atlanta has a 1 kHz beep going off four times on the newer trains, like: "boop-BOOP-BOOP-BOOP". The old trains have a loud "PONG". ...

It began innocently enough. I'd wanted to download a decent Android app for logging my monthly cycle, on account of that shit don't belong in gcal no more. Can you guess what    ± 0   is code for? The app I picked turned out to be a super deluxe period tracker extraordinaire complete with a tumblr presence ( blog.glowing.com ; teh lulz) and infographics  delusions of grandeur: Dear app that tracks the whereabouts of my uterine lining: please, take yourself less seriously. You have my permission. This post is part of a series on menarche and ritualisms and more ™  (oh, my!) See the first installment, conveniently titled Menarche: Archaisms and More!

Adjective Brobdingnagian  ( comparative   more  Brobdingnagian ,  superlative   most  Brobdingnagian ) Of or pertaining to   Brobdingnag . ( figuratively )   Enormous ,  huge , far larger than is customary for such a thing. Antonyms:  lilliputian Noun Brobdingnagian  ( plural   Brobdingnagians ) A creature from  Brobdingnag . ( figuratively )  A  giant . Origin Brobdingnagian entered English in the mid-1700s by way of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels , in which Brobdingnag is the name of a region where everything is of enormous size. Quotes I wish she'd call me back now, because I'd like to share with her the last of my dreams, in which the new College of Technical Careers building has turned out to be yet another replica of my own house, like Julie's, this one on a Brobdingnagian scale.      -- Richard Russo \\ Straight Man Back in 2007, ...