kottke.org

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Last Notes

2026-04-23 21:16:01 UTC

Twin Peaks × LCD Soundsystem: a video mashup of Dance Yrself Clean and the Twin Peaks theme music. Perfect. A damn fine cup of coffee, even. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbcAAV09OwA

2026-04-22 14:26:01 UTC

I can't believe it: there's actually (finally!) a trailer for the Coyote vs. ACME movie and the movie itself is actually coming out on Aug 28. Looks fun! I hope it makes a billion dollars. https://kottke.org/26/04/finally-the-trailer-for-the-coyote-vs-acme-movie

2026-04-21 21:10:03 UTC

A French corporation was recently found criminally liable for enabling terrorism. “The court in Paris has just ruled that cynicism and an exclusive focus on profits can constitute a crime.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/opinion/lafarge-corporate-terrorism-syria-france.html?unlocked_article_code=1.clA.cfuW.P1y4G_7u6woO

2026-04-21 19:46:03 UTC

The Leaf Sheep Slug: The Animal That Eats Sunshine. A few animals can get their energy from photosynthesis; one of those is the adorable leaf sheep, which steals chloroplasts from algae and stores them to run on solar. https://kottke.org/26/04/the-leaf-sheep-slug-the-animal-that-eats-sunshine

2026-04-17 01:36:02 UTC

This is a map published in 1927 by Paramount Studios showing the areas of California & Nevada that doubled as shooting locations for far-flung locales, including Siberia, Wales, the Nile, New England, the Red Sea, and the Alps. https://kottke.org/26/04/hollywoods-world-map-of-california

2026-04-15 19:26:02 UTC

Your Backpack Got Worse On Purpose. “From a shareholder’s perspective, the bag that falls apart is the better product. That’s the business model. Repeat failure, repeat purchase, repeat revenue. The quality decline isn’t a side effect. It’s the strategy.” https://www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-backpack-got-worse-on-purpose

2026-04-15 18:42:01 UTC

Two Japanese aquariums have released their 2026 flowcharts of their penguins’ relationships. “Penguin drama can include serious crushes and heartbreaks but also adultery and egg-stealing.” https://spoon-tamago.com/japanese-aquarium-penguin-relationship-flowchart/

2026-04-14 18:02:03 UTC

For decades, Aadam Jacobs recorded live music shows. His collection of over 10,000 shows since 1984 features Nirvana, R.E.M., The Pixies, Björk, Depeche Mode, The Cure, and so many more — and they're now available on the Internet Archive for free. https://kottke.org/26/04/online-treasure-trove-secret-concert-recordings

2026-04-14 14:16:01 UTC

“Gerontocracy has always thrived in undemocratic places — Communist people’s republics, Gulf monarchies — where only death could pry power from the ruling elders. American gerontocracy is exceptional for being freely elected.” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/05/gerontocracy-wealth-power/686585/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ5Gz2kWnN4pZX5aCDL8KTdE

2026-04-13 22:02:02 UTC

Media companies are increasingly blocking the Internet Archive from archiving their material (but at the same time using the site to gather data for their stories). https://www.wired.com/story/the-internets-most-powerful-archiving-tool-is-in-mortal-peril/

2026-04-13 19:36:01 UTC

This is incredible: Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here’s How to Use It. I knew some of these but not all, e.g. verbatim mode “returns results for exactly what you typed, stripped of personalization and synonym-swapping.” https://cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has-a-secret-reference-desk

2026-04-09 23:36:01 UTC

This tiny e-ink reader is small enough to attach to the back of your phone. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0GPXPK65X/ref=nosim/0sil8

2026-04-09 16:52:01 UTC

Someone ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii. “Since its launch in 2007, the Wii has seen several operating systems ported to it: Linux, NetBSD, and most-recently, Windows NT. Today, Mac OS X joins that list.” https://bryankeller.github.io/2026/04/08/porting-mac-os-x-nintendo-wii.html

2026-04-09 13:32:02 UTC

Farmers won their right-to-repair fight against John Deere. The settlement includes a 10-year “agreement by Deere to provide ‘the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair’ of tractors, combines, and other machinery”. https://www.thedrive.com/news/john-deere-to-pay-99-million-in-monumental-right-to-repair-settlement

2026-04-08 23:02:03 UTC

Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service. “…the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. Not a budget cut. Not a policy shift. Not a ‘reorganization.’ An execution.” https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/trump-administration-orders-dismantling-us-forest-service/7716263

2026-04-08 14:24:02 UTC

“I have a feeling that everyone likes using AI tools to try doing someone else’s profession. They’re much less keen when someone else uses it for their profession.” https://gilest.org/notes/2026/human-ai/

2026-04-07 16:06:02 UTC

I missed that author Tracy Kidder died a few weeks ago. Kidder wrote the excellent The Soul of a New Machine, which won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/04/tracy-kidder-writer-obituary-mountains-beyond-mountains/686651/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZwSaqoM6dTGllXas5rNj7gs

2026-04-03 14:46:03 UTC

Great photo of the whole Earth taken from NASA's Artemis II spacecraft. "There are two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun." Wow. https://kottke.org/26/04/this-is-us

2026-04-03 01:32:01 UTC

“If Artemis II is successful, the astronauts will be the first humans to reach the moon’s orbit in more than 50 years, and their path around its far side will take them farther into the universe than any human being has previously traveled.” https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/04/artemis-moon-launch-trump/686661/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ0fNOSfoCs5Ae2CU41BTIqk

2026-04-01 15:32:02 UTC

After two years off, Tom Scott is back with a new YouTube series: “I took a road trip through every county in England, and filmed something interesting in each of them.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3lSKgz4q8

2026-03-31 14:02:01 UTC

The future of energy is being decided now. "The US is basically aligning itself as the last big petrostate. We're going to go down with the fossil fuel ship, and China is aligning itself as the first electrostate." https://kottke.org/26/03/us-the-last-big-petrostate

2026-03-19 18:06:02 UTC

Paris now has a cycling network bigger than Amsterdam and “more daily trips in Paris are now made by bike than by car”. https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/03/12/in-pariss-mayoral-race-its-drivers-against-cyclists

2026-03-18 19:06:02 UTC

A generator for VHS slipcovers, cassette tape inserts, CD labels & inserts. You can paste in Spotify URLs, search for movies, etc. Really cool and fun. https://vhs.texs.org/

2026-03-17 20:30:02 UTC

Am I a sucker for these kinds of ultra-detailed images because I am a fan of Richard Scarry books and Wes Anderson movies or am I a fan of Scarry & Anderson because I'm a sucker for these kinds of ultra-detailed images? https://kottke.org/26/03/vertical-societies

2026-03-17 17:12:01 UTC

Extreme Macro Photos of Insect Wings. Hundreds of images are stacked to create a deep depth of field that’s impossible to do optically, ensuring everything is in focus. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/chris-perani-macro-photography-insects-wings/

2026-03-17 14:32:01 UTC

“The US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey”. The Varieties of Democracy Institute: “Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever…” https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog

2026-03-16 21:06:02 UTC

Gorgeous: rural Kyoto in the heavy snow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd-Fy3LHJF8

2026-03-13 17:16:02 UTC

The Z9GT model EV from China’s BYD “can be 70 percent charged in five minutes and be almost full in 12 minutes, even in temperatures as low as -30° C” and “has a range of up to 800 km” (~500 miles). The US is sooooo far behind here. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/byds-latest-evs-can-get-close-to-full-charge-in-just-12-minutes/

2026-03-12 23:36:02 UTC

Potoooooooo was an 18th-century British racehorse whose name was pronounced like “Potatoes” (Pot-eight-Os). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potoooooooo

2026-03-12 17:42:01 UTC

The most exciting chase scene in cinema this year is a pair of hounds chasing a hare across a snowy plain. https://kottke.org/26/03/a-miraculous-escape

2026-03-12 15:10:01 UTC

A printable zine: 50 Ways To Meet Your Neighbor. “32. Picking up trash, generally, is a good way to meet neighbors. People notice. 33. Winter: Shovel someone’s sidewalk. It’s also great cardio.” https://millionexperiments.com/zines/50-ways-to-meet-your-neighbor

2026-03-10 20:32:03 UTC

"A new world order is here. States (countries) are no longer the highest form of power globally. Power has shifted to wealthy individuals who work in groups and operate across borders: syndicates of capital." https://kottke.org/26/03/syndicates-of-capital

2026-03-10 14:32:01 UTC

The Shape of Paris, a balletic short film of skateboarder Andy Anderson zooming, grinding, spinning, and floating around Paris in the summertime. "This is the cleanest footage I've ever seen. The cinematography and color grading is insane." https://kottke.org/26/03/the-shape-of-paris

2026-03-05 17:56:02 UTC

The Internet Archive has a ton of old HyperCard programs that you can run right in your browser, including Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies, the Whole Earth Catalog, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ebook, and The Manhole (Myst precursor). https://kottke.org/26/03/brian-enos-oblique-strategies

2026-03-04 14:12:02 UTC

Steve Jobs famously said that computers are a bicycle for the mind. What does that make LLMs? An e-bike for the mind? A car for the mind? A jet plane for the mind? https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/12/21/steve-jobs-bicycle-for-the-mind-1990/

2026-03-03 17:08:02 UTC

New Rembrandt Painting Discovered. "A painting from 1633 called Vision of Zacharias in the Temple has been newly identified by Rijksmuseum researchers as an authentic Rembrandt van Rijn." https://kottke.org/26/03/new-rembrandt-painting-discove

2026-02-27 14:44:02 UTC

Pope Leo XIV to his priests: stop using AI to write sermons. “‘To give a homily is to share faith,’ he said, and AI ‘will never be able to share faith.’” https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/pope-priests-ai

2026-02-26 14:10:02 UTC

Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses. “The letter…marks one of the most significant erosions of transgender civil rights in the United States to date.” https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/kansas-sends-letters-to-trans-people

2026-02-25 17:02:12 UTC

“The CyberTruck is 17 times more likely to have a fire fatality than a Ford Pinto”, a 70s automobile that put the “car” in “exploding car”. https://fuelarc.com/evs/its-official-the-cybertruck-is-more-explosive-than-the-ford-pinto/

2026-02-24 14:56:33 UTC

A Meta employee who works on AI safety let an AI agent named OpenClaw loose on her inbox and it deleted all her email. (This tracks; companies like Meta actually don’t care about AI safety and hire accordingly.) https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/a-meta-ai-security-researcher-said-an-openclaw-agent-ran-amok-on-her-inbox/

2026-02-23 20:32:03 UTC

Unusual Views of the Winter Olympics. A collection of photos taken at the just-concluded Winter Games "featuring infrared imaging, vintage cameras, optical filters, digital composites, unusual angles, unexpected subjects, and more..." https://kottke.org/26/02/unusual-views-of-the-winter-olympics

2026-02-23 19:52:02 UTC

“Antibodies harvested from the blood of paediatricians are up to 25 times better at protecting against the common respiratory infection RSV than existing antibody therapies, and are now being developed as preventative treatments.” https://www.newscientist.com/article/2516079-paediatricians-blood-used-to-make-new-treatments-for-rsv-and-colds/

2026-02-20 18:56:02 UTC

The Color Game. “Humans can’t reliably recall colors. This is a simple game to see how good (or bad) you are at it. We’ll show you five colors, then you’ll try and recreate them.” I scored 39/50 but got a perfect score on one color. https://dialed.gg/

2026-02-20 16:26:02 UTC

Loop is an award-winning animated short featuring a society where people live a perfectly looping existence, all in rhythm. Then one day... https://kottke.org/26/02/loop

2026-02-19 19:52:02 UTC

A data analysis of how women’s clothing doesn’t actually fit women. “That leaves millions of people — over half of all adult women — who are excluded from standard size ranges” in their 20s and beyond. https://pudding.cool/2026/02/womens-sizing/

2026-02-17 21:32:02 UTC

The goal of the Trump Action Tracker is to “document how the trajectory of Trump’s presidency is aligned with the authoritarian playbook”. https://www.trumpactiontracker.info/

2026-02-12 19:06:02 UTC

“‘CEO said a thing!’ journalism generally involves a press outlet parroting the claims of a CEO or billionaire utterly mindlessly without any sort of useful historical context as to whether anything being said is factually correct.” https://karlbode.com/the-press-is-still-propping-up-elon-musks-supergenius-engineer-mythology/

2026-02-12 15:32:02 UTC

“Any serious push to account for the actions of this government — to abolish the president’s private army, restructure immigration enforcement and punish anyone responsible for wrongdoing — must include recompense and repair for its victims.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/opinion/ice-victims-hearings-justice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LlA.H4lD._HBkW772Wm6a

2026-02-11 18:26:02 UTC

The GOP goal of destroying the post office is coming along: the USPS is now so unreliable that newspaper delivery is delayed across the country. (My mail delivery is currently one bundle every week or two.) https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/terribly-frustrating-after-usps-changes-more-newspapers-arent-reaching-subscribers-on-time/

2026-02-06 21:32:02 UTC

How Edo (Tokyo) transformed from a city on the brink of ecological collapse 400 years ago to “one of the most sustainable and efficient cities in history”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0h8Dmni8g8

2026-02-05 15:00:02 UTC

Must-watch: A powerful performance of a pro-immigrant Shakespeare speech by Sir Ian McKellen on Colbert's show; it resonates powerfully today. "This is the strangers' case; And this your mountainish inhumanity." https://kottke.org/26/02/the-strangers-case

2026-02-05 02:42:02 UTC

The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular almanac about the countries of the world) from the web. Fuck this. All these assholes do is pillage & destroy. https://apnews.com/article/cia-world-factbook-ratcliffe-trump-fbec61ce16c4b3db59db9cefce0da043

2026-02-04 15:42:20 UTC

Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month. Seven! 98 diesel cars & 29 hybrids were also sold, but the rest were EVs. And this comes after Norway cut EV incentives. https://electrek.co/2026/02/03/even-after-cutting-ev-incentives-norway-only-sold-98-diesel-cars-in-january/

2026-02-03 21:06:02 UTC

Been thinking a lot about this Ted Chiang quote recently: “I tend to think that most fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism. And I think that this is actually true of most fears of technology, too.” https://kottke.org/21/04/ted-chiang-fears-of-technology-are-fears-of-capitalism

2026-02-02 22:36:03 UTC

An hour-long set of Seu Jorge singing David Bowie covers in Portuguese (from Wes Anderson's Life Aquatic) to mark the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death. "Just an acoustic guitar, a microphone, and the beautiful coastline of São Paulo." https://kottke.org/26/02/seu-jorges-lovely-tribute-to-david-bowie

2026-02-02 20:06:02 UTC

Culinary Students Given Live Baby To Learn How To Care For Bag Of Flour. I laughed so hard at this. https://theonion.com/culinary-students-given-live-baby-to-learn-how-to-care-for-bag-of-flour/

2026-02-02 18:36:02 UTC

As part of their coursework, students at UC Berkeley are contributing edits to Wikipedia about “LGBTQ+ history, with an emphasis on queer and trans people of color”. They’ve added 300,000+ edits and 3,000+ citations. https://www.them.us/story/berkeley-college-students-wikipedia-lgbtq-history-edits

2026-02-01 21:24:04 UTC

ProPublica: “The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez.” https://www.propublica.org/article/alex-pretti-shooting-cbp-agents-identified-jesus-ochoa-raymundo-garcia

2026-01-31 14:22:18 UTC

I learned two important pieces of news in this post: 1) Frozen OJ from concentrate as a product is being discontinued by major producers. 2) Beverage analysts refer to market share as “share of throat.” And I think that’s just lovely. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/minute-maid-discontinuing-frozen-juice-9.7065520

2026-01-29 20:02:01 UTC

Minnesota community leaders are calling for an “ICE Out” general strike and protests on Friday, January 30. “No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE.” KDO will be participating. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/29/ice-out-strike-protests-explained

2026-01-29 18:22:02 UTC

“There isn’t a lot of reliable information out there about how to buy a gas mask, especially for the specific purpose of living under state repression. But hopefully after reading this guide you’ll feel equipped to make an educated decision.” https://www.theverge.com/policy/868571/best-gas-masks

2026-01-29 16:06:02 UTC

Vimeo was recently acquired by a private equity firm and you know what comes next: Vimeo Lays Off ‘Most’ of Its Staff, Allegedly Includes ‘the Entire Video Team’. https://gizmodo.com/vimeo-lays-off-most-of-its-staff-allegedly-includes-the-entire-video-team-2000713416

2026-01-27 20:52:02 UTC

Sesame Street has uploaded a bunch of classic episodes to YouTube that are free to watch, including the very first episode from 1969, the one where Mister Rogers visits, and the episode where Mr. Snuffulupagus is finally revealed. https://kottke.org/26/01/watch-classic-episodes-of-sesame-street-for-free-on-youtube

2026-01-27 17:56:02 UTC

Science magazine: US government has lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs since Trump took office. https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-government-has-lost-more-10-000-stem-ph-d-s-trump-took-office

2026-01-26 20:16:02 UTC

Scientists have detected a swole neutrino, a potential signal from a primordial black hole, which may have formed “before there were even atoms, let alone stars”. https://www.quantamagazine.org/monster-neutrino-could-be-a-messenger-of-ancient-black-holes-20260123/

2026-01-26 14:38:01 UTC

Emily Witt reports on The Battle for Minneapolis for the New Yorker. “Federal agents attempting to stop U.S. citizens from monitoring them have broken observers’ car windows, doused them with pepper spray, and shoved protesters to the ground.” https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-battle-for-minneapolis

2026-01-23 17:46:02 UTC

A Chinese factory mistakenly stitched a frown on a Year of the Horse plush toy and it became a surprise hit. Meet the ‘Cry-Cry Horse’, the perfect mascot for 2026. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-01-12/From-a-stitching-mistake-to-viral-hit-Meet-the-Cry-Cry-Horse--1JRZlzzI1t6/p.html

2026-01-21 20:08:01 UTC

“The uncomfortable truth is that the president of the United States is a man with the mind of a spoiled child. His debilitating solipsism is a threat to the stability of the entire world. A functional Congress would impeach and remove him.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/opinion/trump-norway-letter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GFA.PMZY.ihAPAdx1PYv2

2026-01-16 16:54:02 UTC

This website is compiling a sourced list of ICE abuses in Minnesota. (Click on “List” for the full listing.) https://mn-ice-witness.org/

2026-01-16 16:10:02 UTC

These photos by Chu Weimin show the mind-boggling scale of China’s green energy buildout. “In May [2025] alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second.” https://kottke.org/26/01/photos-of-chinas-green-energy-transition

2026-01-13 19:16:01 UTC

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this 2015 observation on Tumblr about the dangerous conflation of respect of personhood and the respect of authority. https://kottke.org/18/05/the-respect-of-personhood-vs-the-respect-of-authority

2026-01-13 18:12:10 UTC

Great data analysis of what would US would be like if it were just an average country in its cohort of wealthy democracies, e.g. “the nation that would exist if our democracy functioned to serve the public rather than protect the already powerful”. https://kottke.org/26/01/the-america-that-could-be

2026-01-13 16:22:03 UTC

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a group of journalists grabbed it and are relaunching the food magazine as a worker-owned co-op. Love it. https://gourmetmagazine.net/

2026-01-12 15:36:02 UTC

Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite monoliths, set directly onto the bedrock in pairs at regular intervals”. The wall is 30 feet underwater and was built 7000+ years ago. https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/submarine-wall/

2026-01-09 18:22:02 UTC

A soaring US vs a stagnant EU? “Europeans benefit from more leisure time than Americans, higher life expectancy & lower inequality levels, all w/ comparable productivity rates. However one looks at it, this is a considerably better economic performance.” https://archive.ph/fGe9V

2026-01-07 18:12:02 UTC

WikiFlix is a streaming site for movies in the public domain, including Metropolis, It’s a Wonderful Life, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Charade. https://wikiflix.toolforge.org/

2026-01-07 14:48:02 UTC

The proliferation of hummingbird feeders has become a “major evolutionary force” for the Anna’s hummingbird species in the western US. “Over just a few generations, their beaks have dramatically changed in size and shape.” https://www.science.org/content/article/bird-feeders-have-caused-dramatic-evolution-california-hummingbirds

2026-01-06 22:56:01 UTC

Robin Sloan asserts (provocatively) that AGI is already here (and has been for a few years). “We’ve got this ubiquitous term, Artificial General Intelligence, & it appears that the Artificial Intelligence has become Really Very General, so … ?” https://www.robinsloan.com/winter-garden/agi-is-here/

2026-01-06 20:42:02 UTC

“Norman Rockwell was antifa”, says Daisy Rockwell, Norman’s granddaughter. “So you’ll understand her indignation when President Trump began hijacking her grandfather’s legacy to promote what she considers modern-day fascism.” https://www.thebulwark.com/p/norman-rockwell-museum-magafication-trump-culture-dhs

2026-01-05 19:46:01 UTC

A Year of Clean Energy Milestones. “Wind, solar, and electric vehicles made huge strides globally in 2025. For the first time, wind & solar supplied more power than coal worldwide, while plug-in vehicles accounted for more than 1/4 of new car sales.” https://e360.yale.edu/digest/2025-energy-review

2026-01-05 17:42:01 UTC

Why I Left Substack. A combination of “a good deal of gross misogyny, transphobia, and hard-right stuff” plus Substack “trying to deny this responsibility [as a publisher], to pretend that their decisions weren’t decisions at all”. https://buttondown.com/MaxGladstone/archive/why-i-left-substack

2026-01-05 15:02:02 UTC

We Are the Bad Guys. “What do we call it when a stronger person decides to rob a weaker person because he can? It is just gangsterism. We are the most dangerous gangsters in the world today.” https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/we-are-the-bad-guys

2026-01-02 16:54:02 UTC

“What if you held a tree long enough for it to grow around your hand?” For a piece called It Will Continue to Grow Except at That Point, Giuseppe Penone fitted a cast of his hand to a growing tree and the tree grew around it for more than a decade. https://kottke.org/26/01/it-will-continue-to-grow-except-at-that-point

2025-12-31 16:22:01 UTC

Nancy Friedman: 52 Things I Learned in 2025. Incl. “Seventy-one percent of people in Iceland are Costco members” and “In Sweden, the largest size of Hellmann’s mayonnaise — 600 grams — is called “American size”. https://fritinancy.substack.com/p/52-things-i-learned-in-2025

2025-12-30 21:52:01 UTC

I found a bunch of old Win3.x games I used to play back in the 90s on the Internet Archive: The Incredible Machine, TriPeaks, Klotski, Freecell, Pipe Dream, and more. https://kottke.org/25/12/old-windows-3x-games-on-the-internet-archive

2025-12-29 18:56:01 UTC

Conservatives are trying to roll the Constitution back to the pre-Civil War version. “It will be a society of the dominators and the dominated. But it will not be a democracy worthy of the name.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/antebellum-constitution/685354/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ4h4pY0mS3PXFQbLYqMjDhI

2025-12-29 14:04:01 UTC

Good morning! Just wanted to let you all know that Rian Johnson subtly rickrolled us with a scene in Wake Up Dead Man. https://bsky.app/profile/jayhulmepoet.bsky.social/post/3mb4vybgmes2f

2025-12-26 15:46:02 UTC

The data is clear: congestion pricing in NYC has been a “huge success”. “Pollution: -22%. Revenue for mass transit: $548M.” https://bsky.app/profile/marklevinenyc.bsky.social/post/3manvvwzhmk2k

2025-12-19 19:02:01 UTC

“The Global Village Construction Set is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.” https://www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/

2025-12-19 16:46:01 UTC

A report from one of the competitors in a parallel parking championship. “You’ve got to get uncomfortably close. Those bumpers are called bumpers for a reason.” https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a69137759/parallel-parking-championship/

2025-12-18 14:54:01 UTC

A group of journalism students was able to track probable Russian spy drones launched from cargo ships to surveil European military bases. They even flew a drone of their own over one of the cargo ships: “we droned back”. https://www.digitaldigging.org/p/they-droned-back

2025-12-16 19:32:01 UTC

“The Trump administration’s vision for the United States is one of a white Christian nation. And the path to accomplish it is through the exclusion and removal of all who do not fit that vision — in other words, through ethnic cleansing.” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/13/ethnic-cleansing-racism-us-trump-ilhan-omar-somalia

2025-12-11 22:02:02 UTC

MacKenzie Scott announces that she’s donated almost $7.2 billion of her personal fortune to organizations worldwide this year. That brings her total giving up to more than $26 billion. https://yieldgiving.com/essays/we-are-the-ones-we-ve-been-waiting-for/

2025-12-10 20:22:02 UTC

Timothy Snyder: “What comes next? For the Nazis, the deportation and the pogrom of autumn 1938 were steps towards creating a centralised national police agency. In the US, something similar is unfolding with ICE.” https://snyder.substack.com/p/self-terrorism

2025-12-10 19:42:02 UTC

Size of Life, a visual comparison of living things from DNA to a quaking aspen clone. Lovely illustrations. https://neal.fun/size-of-life/

2025-12-09 15:06:01 UTC

Colin Furze built a full-suspension bike using powerful magnets instead of shocks or springs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxs3yNjlzkg

2025-12-08 20:56:01 UTC

Huge Collection of Laptop Sticker Art. “Laptop stickers are more than decoration, they’re a form of self-expression. Each one is a snapshot of a moment, a place, and an attitude.” https://kottke.org/25/12/huge-collection-of-laptops-plastered-with-stickers

2025-12-05 23:22:02 UTC

French electronic duo Air performs a Tiny Desk Concert. Setlist: Le Voyage de Pénélope, Cherry Blossom Girl, Highschool Lover, and Dirty Trip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuorGiEUS4

2025-12-05 21:36:02 UTC

The Land of Giants, a conceptual proposal to build power line towers so that they look like people. https://choishine.com/Giants.html

2025-12-03 22:16:02 UTC

A “sweat” is a gamer term for someone who tries too hard to win. “Swot”, a dialect variant of “sweat” in Britain, means someone who studies too much. I wonder if these two meanings evolved independently from each other? https://kottke.org/25/12/sweats-swots