News – Page 5 – Kat Long

New on Atlas Obscura: Freedomland U.S.A, Long-Lost Disneyland of the Bronx

by Kat LongArticles July 8, 2015March 5, 20160 comments

While reporting about the east Bronx for my Craft II class at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, I stumbled across the Facebook group for the East Bronx History Forum. The club advertised an upcoming lecture and slideshow about Freedomland U.S.A–the massive, now-demolished theme park in the Bronx once called the “Disneyland of the East.” …

New Trailer for “The Crokinole Connection,” My Video About People Obsessed with an Obscure Canadian Board Game

by Kat LongVideo May 29, 2015May 29, 20151 comment

My fans know I’m obsessed with obsessive Canadians, so I’m excited to share the trailer for my video storytelling project, “The Crokinole Connection.” What’s Crokinole, you say? It’s a board game invented in Tavistock, Ontario in the mid-19th century, employing elements of shuffleboard, billiards and curling. Each of two players has a handful of small pucks …

New Article: Samuel Mudd’s Legacy on Smithsonianmag.com

by Kat LongArticles April 28, 20150 comments

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination–and inspired by my recent vacation to Florida–I contributed a feature to Smithsonianmag.com about the little-known legacy of Samuel Mudd. The infamous surgeon who set John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg was sentenced to life and condemned to the notorious army prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, a …

Black Death in Middle Ages Offers Clues to Ebola’s Spread

by Kat LongBook Reviews, Commentary January 23, 20150 comments

The medieval epidemic of bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, wiped out 40 to 60 percent of the population in Europe, Africa and Asia. Now a Rutgers University researcher says that the rapid and lethal spread of plague in the 14th century gives us clues to the current escalation of the Ebola outbreak. And …

Study: Glaciers Get Squeezed from Both Sides

by Kat LongCommentary January 22, 2015January 22, 20150 comments

Scientists at Cornell University have discovered that meltwater from the surface of an ice cap can seep downward and become trapped beneath it, adding heat to the bottom of the cap. It’s the first time that researchers have seen the potential for atmospheric warming to affect glaciers from above and below. The Cornell team, led …