All articles from Kottke.org
Why Wildfire Experts Are So Worried About This Year’s...
Why Wildfire Experts Are So Worried About This Year’s Fire Season. “Key environmental indicators show that the nation is a tinderbox, gripped by widespread drought and with a light snowpack in the mou
I've probably featured this before but always worth...
I’ve probably featured this before but always worth a re-up: “A Books Unbanned library card gives teens across the United States free digital access to ebooks and digital resources, including banned a
Star Wars Influences: Dam Busters
The original Star Wars movie was a mashup. George Lucas and his collaborators pulled from everywhere: westerns, samurai movies, Flash Gordon, and a 1955 war film called The Dam Busters. This video sho
"Hackers say that they used Meta’s AI support...
“Hackers say that they used Meta’s AI support chatbot to break into a host of high-profile Instagram profiles by asking the support bot to change the email address associated with the target account.”
In Post-War Japan, the US Used Quiz Culture to Help...
In Post-War Japan, the US Used Quiz Culture to Help Democratize the Country. TV quiz shows “normalized participation, merit-based competition, and equal opportunity — values that contrasted sharply wi
Meet the Ukrainian Stunt Pilot Who Shoots Down Russian Drones
Timur Fatkullin is a Ukrainian flying ace who uses his acrobatic flying skills honed before the war to shoot down Russian drones. When I fly close to the target, I can’t engage because there’s houses
Power Lines: Maps That Shaped the Way We See the World ....
Power Lines: Maps That Shaped the Way We See the World. “A collection of the greatest political maps in history and how these images have an unmatched power to influence our thinking — and our world.”
" Serena Williams has announced her sensational...
“Serena Williams has announced her sensational return to professional tennis at 44 years old next week at the Queen’s Club in London.” Yessss.
The Illuminated Windows of NYC
For his project Windows, Dave Krugman took photos of hundreds of NYC apartment windows at night and stitched them together into ever-shifting typologies. What’s going on in each of those apartments?
Legendary film editor Marcia Lucas died last week ....
Legendary film editor Marcia Lucas died last week. Lucas edited Star Wars (won an Oscar for it), Taxi Driver, Return of the Jedi, and American Graffiti. It was Marcia that suggested to George Lucas th
Roost is a messaging app where messages aren't...
Roost is a messaging app where messages aren’t instant; they travel between users at the speed of whichever bird they use to send it. Note sending is limited by the # of birds in your rookery…if they’
Slow blogging day today; I spent some time on the KDO...
Slow blogging day today; I spent some time on the KDO undercarriage and a new little members-only feature for the Rolodex: a simple list of links to the latest posts from Rolodex sites. (Click on “Lat
Pope Releases Encyclical On Perils Of Disney’s ‘Star...
Pope Releases Encyclical On Perils Of Disney’s ‘Star Wars’ Strategy. “I fear for what horrors the fan base might soon endure, but I would be negligent not to give Andor its flowers.”
Radiohead's OK Computer reimagined as Nintendo 64...
Radiohead’s OK Computer reimagined as Nintendo 64 songs, featuring reworked sounds from Mario Kart, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye 007, and more.
Andor Gave Us One Of TV's Best Monologues
Andor loves a good monologue. Among the best of them is Nemik’s Manifesto: Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occur
Infinite Jeffs is an actual physical book you can buy...
Infinite Jeffs is an actual physical book you can buy in which “every one of the ~550,000 words in Infinite Jest [is replaced] with ‘Jeff’ while preserving punctuation, line breaks, etc.”
How Should a Book Sound? And What About Footnotes?...
How Should a Book Sound? And What About Footnotes? Footnotes present “kind of a nasty problem for an audiobook: where do the footnotes go? There is no bottom of the page in an audiobook, obviously.”
Out now: new Boards of Canada album. Get it wherever you...
Out now: new Boards of Canada album. Get it wherever you buy or stream music.
From The Mandalorian and Grogu, an extended loop of...
From The Mandalorian and Grogu, an extended loop of Shakari, a synth-y track from composer Ludwig Göransson. See also Niamos from Andor (composed by Nicholas Britell).
Not a surprise but nice to have the data: the Federal...
Not a surprise but nice to have the data: the Federal Reserve calculated that inflation would be much lower without Trump’s stupid tariffs.
The Backward Index
How do dictionary makers keep track of similarly suffixed words, like those ending in -ism, -graphy, -ness, or -ology? With a computer, it’s simple, but how did they do it before the computing age? St
On The Fuel Efficiency of Launching My Enemies Into The...
On The Fuel Efficiency of Launching My Enemies Into The Sun. Incredibly nerdy and fun: does it require more power to eject a person from the solar system or launch them into the Sun?
The Rise & Fall Of ‘Petty Tyrants’ . "The energy...
The Rise & Fall Of ‘Petty Tyrants’. “The energy required to deceive is unsustainable. Reality is relentless. The tyrant who chooses to fight it is doomed.”
Down with -maxxing! Searching for the absolute best...
Down with -maxxing! Searching for the absolute best option isn’t always the wisest course of action. Better to make a good-enough choice so “a great deal of energy gets freed up for living, instead of
There are no lightsabers in The Mandalorian and Grogu, a...
There are no lightsabers in The Mandalorian and Grogu, a first for Star Wars films. There are also no Wilhelm screams in the movie, which is weird because I thought I heard snippets of it everywhere (
100 Iconic Moments From Sir David Attenborough
Let’s the keep the David Attenborough love going: this is a six-hour video featuring 100 of the most iconic moments from the famed naturalist’s work. I got this via Enrique, who rightly asserts that “
Consider the Sister : an interview with Amy Wallace....
Consider the Sister: an interview with Amy Wallace. “It was hard work being David Foster Wallace’s little sister. It still is. The job of preserving the memory of her brother as a complex, vibrant, of
I, Sisyphus, Am Ninety-Five Percent of the Way There ....
I, Sisyphus, Am Ninety-Five Percent of the Way There. “Honestly, folks, we are so, so close. The summit is largely visible. It is nearly visible. There is a concept of visibility at play here that is
Make Way for Beavers
A Tube station in West London used to have a flooding problem. Instead of opting for an expensive reworking of the landscape via reservoir & levee, local officials reintroduced a family of beavers int
American Wealth, Sliced Up
Using the Federal Reserve’s Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989 data, Ryan Thorpe imagines a pizza party with 100 guests and 100 slices of pizza as a stand-in for the United States
As part of the Ocean Census project, "scientists...
As part of the Ocean Census project, “scientists have discovered 1,121 marine species in a single year”. Discoveries include “a new species of deep-sea ghost shark, a symbiotic bristle worm…as well as
Caught In Joy: Music for Flow, Rest, and Reset
The moment I clicked through to the Caught In Joy YouTube channel, I knew I was going to love it. The description: Over 80 albums designed to focus, flow and reset. Instrumental electronic music for y
A recent study of 2.5M scientific papers found ~146,900...
A recent study of 2.5M scientific papers found ~146,900 fake citations, presumably hallucinated by AI. The fake citations “were not limited to a handful of bad apples but appeared across many papers,
To Land a Job in AI, Try Reading Kant . "If a...
To Land a Job in AI, Try Reading Kant. “If a for-profit AI company signs your paycheck, might that compromise your research? By playing Aristotle to AI Alexander, do you risk your work becoming an ins
"Observe the moth in its monumental fight for life,...
“Observe the moth in its monumental fight for life, and do likewise. We gain life’s powers by knowing that eventually they will be taken away. There is beauty in this struggle. Murmurations of starlin
Going Focaccia Crazy
I have a pizza oven and baked very underwhelming bread twice during the pandemic, but I’ve found it difficult to fall into a proper rabbit hole when it comes to dough-making. Focaccia might do it for
My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon ....
My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon. “As I watched my son play Prodigy, it became clear there wasn’t much learning happening. In about 10 minutes of gameplay, he spent less than 30 seco
The first-ever Enhanced Games (open to those using...
The first-ever Enhanced Games (open to those using performance-enhancing drugs) featured 42 athletes, three of whom were competing clean. All three won their respective events.
Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence
Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical letter yesterday; it’s entitled Magnifica Humanitas Of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV On Safeguarding the Human Person In the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It
250 to 250. We Are America.
The 250th birthday of the United States is coming up and I know many of us are having a tough time feeling celebratory because *waves hands around at everything*. To mark the occasion in a decidedly n
Tenderly Tracking My Husband . "Knowing when to...
Tenderly Tracking My Husband. “Knowing when to step in and tell a loved one with [Alzheimer’s] that they can no longer do something because it’s too risky is a game of chance we caregivers hate to pla
Great title for a book: Fascist Yoga . "Ever...
Great title for a book: Fascist Yoga. “Ever since, the world of yoga has been full of grifters, occultists and white supremacists, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise.”
Pinterest Has Become Unusable . "When I started...
Pinterest Has Become Unusable. “When I started painting again in January, I went back to Pinterest and found it overrun with AI slop. It’s continued to get worse and worse, and it’s now basically unus
Stephen Colbert Hosts Only in Monroe
The day after ending his run on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert hosted a show called Only in Monroe on a Michigan public access channel. His musical director for the show was Jack White, nestled onstag
An unusual new-to-me animal: the aardwolf . It's a...
An unusual new-to-me animal: the aardwolf. It’s a hyena but it eats insects like an aardvark. The cubs are incredibly cute.
Essential summertime reading: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like...
Essential summertime reading: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning. “Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prep
Eric Rodenbeck on AI as a Design Medium . "In my...
Eric Rodenbeck on AI as a Design Medium. “In my class, the first principle is simple: Do not take what comes back from prompts at face value. Interrogate it. Iterate on it. Stay with it longer than fe
Art But Make It Sports is now available in book form....
Art But Make It Sports is now available in book form. “Epic moments in modern sports are masterfully paired with their fine art doppelgangers…”
"A woozle effect …occurs when frequent...
“A woozle effect…occurs when frequent citation of previous publications that lack evidence misleads individuals, groups and the public into thinking or believing there is evidence, and non-facts becom
"A three-month national investigation by Beyond...
“A three-month national investigation by Beyond Plastics found that not a single tracked Starbucks cold-beverage cup ended up at a recycling facility — even when the cups were placed in clearly marked
Water World
Water World, created by Seán Doran from imagery captured by a NASA/NOAA weather satellite, is a gorgeous, swirling, painterly portrait of the Earth’s dynamic atmosphere. Doran calls it “a meditative s
The Secret to Winning on Jeopardy . "To win on...
The Secret to Winning on Jeopardy. “To win on Jeopardy, you don’t need to learn everything. You just need to learn one thing about everything.” As an proficient player of Yell Answers At The TV Jeopar
Paul Brown's iPod . This is a lovely remembrance &...
Paul Brown’s iPod. This is a lovely remembrance & time capsule: a playable iPod emulator of “the music on the iPod my dad had in 2018 before he died”. Click wheel works and everything.
What Number Was Stephen Colbert Thinking Of?
One of the questions on The Colbert Questionert that Stephen Colbert would administer to his celebrity guests was “What number am I thinking of?” As you can see from this compilation, his answer was o
This is impressive: an AI model has disproved an...
This is impressive: an AI model has disproved an 80-year-old conjecture by Paul Erdős. “The proof came from a new general-purpose reasoning model, rather than from a system trained specifically for ma
Three Hours of Unbelievable Moments From Nature, Narrated by David Attenborough
Wow, BBC Earth has posted this three-hour-long video to YouTube of David Attenborough narrating Unbelievable Moments From Nature. I’ve had it on in the background for the last little while as I’m work
"US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola...
“US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts.” Just so fucking stupid and maddening and wasteful and dangerous and callous and evil.
Trump Destroyed USAID. Now People Are Dying....
Trump Destroyed USAID. Now People Are Dying. “Everyone, especially in South Sudan, wanted to know if the US really had cut off aid. It was easier for them to believe that the aid organizations were ly
Free admission to Canadian national parks this summer!...
Free admission to Canadian national parks this summer! “From June 19 to September 7, no fees apply for: admission for all visitors to all national historic sites, national parks, and national marine c
At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks ....
At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks. “Apparently, eating a fistful of iguana tranquilizers for breakfast every morning has turned me cold-blooded, and I am no longer appropriately adapted for lif
What If Lock-In Doesn't Matter So Much Anymore?
Interesting observation by Mitchell Hashimoto (creator of Vagrant and Ghostty) on how a company’s or product’s choice of programming language matters less in the age of agentic programming: On the int
All the Star Wars Lightsaber Designs
This scan isn’t very good (best I could find), but these are all the lightsabers used by Jedi and Sith in the various Star Wars shows and movies. I think this is from a few years ago, so I’m not sure
My friend Adriana wrote about her story game based on...
My friend Adriana wrote about her story game based on Dante’s Inferno. “In Vya, I modeled Pom after the poet Alice Notley, whose Descent of Alette (1996) is one of the great contributions to the liter
How to Make a Living as an Artist
Contemporary pop artist fnnch’s essay on How to Make a Living as an Artist is pretty great. Lots in here that resonates with my experience of turning a creative hobby (KDO) into a business. Most peopl
From Universe Today, an ongoing series of articles on A...
From Universe Today, an ongoing series of articles on A Brief-ish History of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Part I is entitled “Where is Everybody?”
You Can Make an App for That . "The most important...
You Can Make an App for That. “The most important thing you’ll need is taste. Not objectively good taste, necessarily, so much as a keen sense of your own.”
Our Mob Boss President
Jamelle Bouie writes that each US president molds the presidency in his own image and Trump has constructed a “government as protection racket and the president as mob boss”.1 So what manner of presid
Mariame Kaba's letter to young activists :...
Mariame Kaba’s letter to young activists: “I don’t know how things will turn out, but I am committed to something other than this — the current structure and state of this world. We can live different
A pep talk in the face of despair . "Things can...
A pep talk in the face of despair. “Things can always get better, but it doesn’t happen via inertia. It happens because a lot of people tried.”
Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who...
Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live. Among the buildings are a school in Mass., a hospital in Rwanda, a prison in Norway, and a lighthouse in Maine. Intrigu
India's Hottest District Shuts at 10 AM as Mercury...
India’s Hottest District Shuts at 10 AM as Mercury Breaches 48 Degrees Celsius Mark. “After 10am, Banda becomes deserted. At first, you see one or two people outside. Then, as the day rises, there is
New-to-me vocabulary: oneshotted , "a term that...
New-to-me vocabulary: oneshotted, “a term that means, roughly, to be destroyed and subsequently remade by a single experience”.
Cookie Queens
Cookie Queens is a feature-length documentary film that follows four Girl Scouts as they navigate the big business & big feelings of Girl Scout Cookie season. “Cookie Queens” is a coming-of-age story
Interview with the guy behind the great Art But Make...
Interview with the guy behind the great Art But Make It Sports social accounts. “When he sees a sports photograph, he can recall, off the top of his head, a pose, or a style, or even just a figure or
The Banality of the Video Podcast . "The sets,...
The Banality of the Video Podcast. “The sets, installed with plentiful mics awaiting speech, are authoritative and yet unintimidating, like a friend’s renovated suburban basement.”
There's No Earthly Way of Knowing Which Direction We Are Going…
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.: The author of a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth acknowledged on Monday that he had included nume
Cucumbers used to be called "cowcumbers" ....
Cucumbers used to be called “cowcumbers”. I’m sorry, what?!
No reparations for Black Americans. No student loan...
No reparations for Black Americans. No student loan forgiveness. No UBI for average Americans. But reparations, treason forgiveness, and UBI for the Jan 6th insurrectionists & criminals who attacked C
On the heels of turning Orwell's Animal Farm into a...
On the heels of turning Orwell’s Animal Farm into a kids’ movie, Alexandra Petri imagines other dystopian source material for family flicks. “Andy Serkis’s Maus: Talking mice? Great. Talking mice and
"Somewhere between 'Let’s catch up...
“Somewhere between ‘Let’s catch up soon’ and ‘Sorry, life has been hectic’, adult friendship became one of the most emotionally significant and least discussed losses of modern life.”
The fake courtesy machine is a wooden hand-cranked...
The fake courtesy machine is a wooden hand-cranked contraption that types “I hope this email finds you well” over and over again. Jacquard loom & player piano vibes.
Marcin Wichary on how to get more fun and utility from...
Marcin Wichary on how to get more fun and utility from your keyboard experience. “Break all the rules. You’re designing for the audience of one.”
Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise . The Pudding...
Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise. The Pudding analyzed 200,000 similes from popular fiction. “The clichés are obvious, marked by a single tall spike that overshadows the others.”
"I have travelled all over the world in the last 30...
“I have travelled all over the world in the last 30 years, and have never seen anything like the density of assholes I just encountered in Japan, [i.e.] tourists being an unbearable menace specificall
Watching an Art Conservator Restore a Damaged Painting
There’s something so relaxing about watching art conservator Julian Baumgartner restore this damaged painting, a self-portrait by Italian painter Emma Gaggiotti Richards. I love how he paints tiny cra
Marbles Squared is a puzzle game 30 years in the...
Marbles Squared is a puzzle game 30 years in the making that you can play on the web, Game Boy, ZX Spectrum Next, and Palm Pilot.
Ben Prunty has composed the soundtrack to a new game,...
Ben Prunty has composed the soundtrack to a new game, Subnautica 2. Prunty did the FTL: Faster Than Light soundtrack back in the day, which I love.
Perhaps businesses are collecting too much data for...
Perhaps businesses are collecting too much data for their own good. “Each morning at 10am, I get an email from Caroline in the finance team showing the cash we have in the bank compared with the same
Mike Monteiro on how to deal with your suddenly grown-up...
Mike Monteiro on how to deal with your suddenly grown-up kids. “When your kid leaves it is the happiest day of your life and also the saddest day of your life. And a lot of other feelings in between.”
What's Your Favorite Recipe?
I am not what you would call a dedicated home cook. But every once in a while, I get a bee in my bonnet and make something from my small cache of recipes or from something I saw online that looked goo
I have always liked Steve Kerr, but I did not expect to...
I have always liked Steve Kerr, but I did not expect to read this whole 15,000-word profile of him at ESPN. Really interesting throughout.
Handy app: "Point your camera at anything (a dress,...
Handy app: “Point your camera at anything (a dress, a paint swatch, a flower, your kid’s drawing) and What Color Is This? names the color instantly.” I like the increasingly specific color labels (e.g