July 17, 1902: It was another scorcher in New York City. The week before, seven deaths tied to the heat had been reported. Willis Haviland Carrier, an engineer trying to combat humidity at a printing plant in Brooklyn, invented air-conditioning. nyti.ms/2VViCbx
Air conditioning changed the United States. It allowed for sweeping development of the South with the innovation of central air. nyti.ms/2VViCbx
New York City was transformed as window-mounted air-conditioners lined the side of buildings and dripped on people on the sidewalk below. nyti.ms/2VViCbx
Over the years, air-conditioning has received a fair amount of criticism. “Air conditioning is a dangerous circumstance,” the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright wrote in The New York Times in 1979. nyti.ms/2XpMvBc
More recently, criticism has focused on air-conditioning’s deleterious effects on the planet and contributions to climate change.nyti.ms/3g3JBIH
In addition, increased demand for air conditioning in growing cities across
the globe is causing concerns for blackouts. nyti.ms/2XrEYlm
Tap the links above for more @nytimes reporting on air-conditioning, past and present. Photos by Tyrone Dukes, Dith Pran, Gene Maggio, Marilynn K. Yee, Richard Perry, and Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times. #heat#airconditioning
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On Sunday, 20 years of U.S. efforts against the Taliban and a nation-building experiment in Afghanistan were erased in just a few months as the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul.
Here's a thread of the conflict's history in front pages. ⬇️ nyti.ms/3yUBiGq
October 7, 2001: Operation Enduring Freedom begins with U.S. and U.K. airstrikes in Afghanistan. nyti.ms/3iSj0jE
April 17, 2002: President Bush embraces a major American role in rebuilding Afghanistan, calling for a Marshall Plan for the country. nyti.ms/3m7Yv4H
“‘What, you still have a car in the city?’ The well-meaning friend who had driven in from the suburbs for dinner with us let her fork slip into the fondue. ‘When are you going to get rid of it?’”
Keeping a car in New York City comes with all sorts of its own hassles, @nytimes reported in 1970: the nightly pre-martini search for a parking spot for the next day (post-martini is too late — by then the spots are all gone). And of course: the costs. nyti.ms/3iLEuyN
Today, many of those hassles and costs still exist. For many taxi-taking, Citi Biking New Yorkers who swore off private transport long ago, owning a car seemed at best unnecessary; at worst, a cumbersome time suck, @weareyourfek wrote in August 2020. nyti.ms/3sguvVd