This project maps U.S. road names against hundreds of curated thematic lists so every street can be viewed through a particular subject lens. It currently covers 1,068 themes and presents for each theme the number of American roads that match items in that list. Examples range widely - world capitals (92,669 roads), San Francisco streets (67,895), John Williams films (44,893), Maine towns (27,468), Famous Detectives (25,309), and many narrowly focused sets like Mushoku Tensei characters (160) or Ottoman locations (974). The interface is a gallery of themes with counts and an option to suggest new themes.
The substantive finding is the scale and cultural breadth embedded in U.S. road naming: some themes produce enormous overlaps, others reveal niche or localized naming choices, and overall the data highlights which cultural references, places, professions, artists, species and fictional worlds are most frequently memorialized in street names. The collection functions as both a searchable catalog and a playful quantitative portrait of toponymy, useful for historians, cultural researchers, map enthusiasts, or anyone curious about how public nomenclature reflects broader social and cultural patterns.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
TiddlyInstall is a single HTML file that functions as a universal installer system. It contains the installer programs, runtime catalog, and all necessary code for creating, editing, and signing TiddlyWiki instances. (robertsdotpm.github.io)
Ekselio is a tool designed to streamline finance workflows with a user-friendly interface. It operates primarily on desktop browsers, utilizing a browser-based data environment with DuckDB-WASM. (gptbeyond.com)
Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell through lists, arrays, and nested arrays, allowing users to organize related information more efficiently. These features enable filtering, calculations, and analysis without spreading data across multiple cells or rows. (techcommunity.microsoft.com)
A bug in VSCode causes the border radius styling to spread across the editor interface. The issue has been marked as a duplicate and is under investigation. (github.com)
Letterboxd, a popular film social platform with 30 million users, is up for sale with bids from A24, Sony, and The New York Times. The asking price exceeds $300 million, reflecting its rapid growth since 2011 and its engaged movie-loving community. (worldofreel.com)
People discuss which service providers they would switch if a better option existed, including platforms like Spotify and Slack. The conversation explores user preferences and dissatisfaction with current vendors. (news.ycombinator.com)
Today's best Hacker News stories, summarized and screenshotted, one email a day.