All articles from Kottke.org
" A long dive into the features that make my ideal...
“A long dive into the features that make my ideal music app, and why nothing currently fulfills the brief.”
This is the most 2026 thing I've ever heard:...
This is the most 2026 thing I’ve ever heard: Sigmund Freud’s great-granddaughter Bella Freud has a video podcast on YouTube where she interviews people (Cate Blanchette, Lorde, Graydon Carter) while t
A Boston man discovered a document passed down through...
A Boston man discovered a document passed down through his family: his ancestor’s freedom papers. “When he touched that paper he was touching the same place his relative touched in 1834.”
Lumière, Le Cinema!
Lumière, Le Cinema! is a new documentary film by Thierry Frémaux about Auguste & Louis Lumière and the early days of motion pictures — and includes 100+ newly restored films. It’s playing at MoMA at t
Astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi proposes sending a tiny...
Astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi proposes sending a tiny spacecraft to study nearby black holes. “Earth-based lasers would blast the [light] sail with photons, accelerating the craft to a third of the spee
" Novartis has settled a lawsuit by the estate of...
“Novartis has settled a lawsuit by the estate of Henrietta Lacks that alleged the [company] unjustly profited off her cells, which were taken…without her knowledge in 1951 and reproduced in labs to en
Why Attack Iran?
There are many possible and plausible answers to this simple question. Timothy Snyder offers a useful perspective in helping answer it: How do [we] understand the war with Iran? We must get away from
"For months, callers to the Washington state...
“For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent.”
A 2-hour mix of music compiled by Thom Yorke that plays...
A 2-hour mix of music compiled by Thom Yorke that plays before Radiohead’s European shows.
The Candy Factory
Ann Ballentine bought an old candy factory building in Brooklyn in 1979. She filled it with working artists and became something of a fairy godmother to them all. It entails someone who’s not as money
Do people still worship the ancient Greek gods?...
Do people still worship the ancient Greek gods? “Hellenism – also called Hellenic ethnic religion, or Dodekatheism – which is the practice of worshipping ancient gods, has been growing in popularity s
Jimi Hendrix Was a Systems Engineer ....
Jimi Hendrix Was a Systems Engineer. “Hendrix’s mission was to reshape both the electric guitar’s envelope and its tone until it could feel like a human voice.”
Marks found on 40,000-year-old artifacts might be a...
Marks found on 40,000-year-old artifacts might be a proto-language. “They found that these sign sequences displayed an information density very similar to the earliest examples of the cuneiform foreru
The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can
The aluminum soda can is a humble testament to the power and scope of human ingenuity. If that sounds like hyperbole, you should watch this video, which features eleven solid minutes of engineering ex
Pope Leo XIV to his priests: stop using AI to write...
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.’”
Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate...
Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees. “Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow is in the U.S. public domain. It has been since January 1, 2026. No amount of Spanish law or invent
The NY Times has added another daily crossword to the...
The NY Times has added another daily crossword to the line-up: the Midi. “The standard Times daily crossword, you see, is a 15×15 grid. The Mini is 5×5. The new Midi is 9×9, snug in between.”
Satellite's Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse Photo Taken From Orbit
During the recent annular solar eclipse on February 17, the ESA’s PROBA-2 satellite captured this great shot of the Moon passing in front of the Sun. Cue up the Johnny Cash. Tag
" Eclipses have been connected with the fate of...
“Eclipses have been connected with the fate of rulers since at least ancient Mesopotamia, around 4,000 years ago.” But more recently: “In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I of England made it a felony to use hor
Calculating the longest line of sight on Earth : 530km...
Calculating the longest line of sight on Earth: 530km (329 miles) between “an unnamed Himalayan ridge near the Indian-Chinese border and Pik Dankova in Kyrgyzstan”.
" x86CSS is a working CSS-only x86...
“x86CSS is a working CSS-only x86 CPU/emulator/computer. Yes, the Cascading Style Sheets CSS. No JavaScript required. What you’re seeing above is a C program that was compiled using GCC into native 80
Ali Akbar, the last newspaper hawker in Paris, has been...
Ali Akbar, the last newspaper hawker in Paris, has been awarded a knighthood by French president Emmanuel Macron. “Macron went on to refer to Akbar as ‘the most French of the French — a Voltairean who
Elizebeth Smith Friedman: The Codebreaker
The details of Elizebeth Smith Friedman’s remarkable career sound a bit outlandish when you list them all together: cracked thousands of codes and ciphers during WWI did the same in WWII, helping to f
How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account ....
How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account. “The answer to why powerful people in some other parts of the world face consequences, while in America they rarely do, is that elite impunity is
Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers (free...
Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers (free WSJ piece at MSN). “Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out
An Archive of Commercial Illustration (c. 1950-75)
Illustrator Zara Picken maintains an archive of commercial illustration from the mid-20th century. So much throwback inspiration here! Tags: illustration · Zara Picken
Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The...
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 d
"A collection of images of trees at Dollar Tree...
“A collection of images of trees at Dollar Tree store locations across the United States.”
Physics Is a Conversation
Physicist Sean Carroll leads off this video with this line: I like to say that Einstein is, if anything, underrated as a physicist, which is hard to imagine given how highly he is rated. And then l
These synchronized martial arts robots are genuinely...
These synchronized martial arts robots are genuinely impressive.
They're doing a new Pride and Prejudice adaptation...
They’re doing a new Pride and Prejudice adaptation. From the comments on the trailer: “this looks like a temu version of the 2005” and “The Darcy is not Darcying”.
Jayden Hoffman spent more than 4 months customizing this...
Jayden Hoffman spent more than 4 months customizing this computer keyboard, replacing the letter keys with hand-painted logos (McDonald’s arch for M, Avengers for A, Xbox logo for X, Google for G, etc
Is This Waymo a Better Person Than You? "When the...
Is This Waymo a Better Person Than You? “When the light turns yellow, this Waymo does not speed up. It does not calculate whether it could make it. It does not believe in ‘probably.’ It waits.”
"The CyberTruck is 17 times more likely to have a...
“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”.
Commenters in this thread shared a bunch of songs...
Commenters in this thread shared a bunch of songs “where the drum beats are Morse code that also serve as a separate layer to the lyrics”.
20 Minutes of Excellent Skateboarding Clips
What’s fun about school closing for the wicked blizzard in the Northeast today is last week was February break for Massachusetts schools, which means many kids are home for the the 6th school day in a
Tear Gun by Taiwanese designer Yi-Fei Chen is a...
Tear Gun by Taiwanese designer Yi-Fei Chen is a contraption that “collects and freezes actual tears to shoot them back at the person who caused the cry”.
Cover of Such Great Heights by Chvrches
For a show on Hulu called Tell Me Lies, synth-pop band Chvrches covered Such Great Heights by The Postal Service. Lovely. Tags: Chvrches · music · remix · The Postal Service · v
"I remember walking by a former drug dealer, a...
“I remember walking by a former drug dealer, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, a former mobster and a former preacher all sitting around a table together in the prison yard. Surely this
I Am a 15-year-old Girl. Let Me Show You the Vile...
I Am a 15-year-old Girl. Let Me Show You the Vile Misogyny That Confronts Me on Social Media Every Day. “I frequently feel objectified, dehumanised and disgusted by the hate towards women I see online
How to Stop a Dictator . "Democracy is in fact a...
How to Stop a Dictator. “Democracy is in fact a powerful motivating factor: When people are convinced that there’s a threat to their political freedoms, they can be motivated to go to extraordinary le
The Trailer for Season Five of For All Mankind
Just dropped this morning: the trailer for the final season of For All Mankind. When season four’s teaser trailer came out, I caught some flack for suggesting that “if you tilt your head and squint…yo
Top tier nerd shit. " WalkmanLand is a tribute to...
Top tier nerd shit. “WalkmanLand is a tribute to the long forgotten portable music players from the 80-90s. The Walkmans.”
Well, this is one of those things I wish I'd known...
Well, this is one of those things I wish I’d known about earlier — sessions with Isabel Wilkerson, James McBride, Ocean Vuong, Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Groff, Judy Blume…all sold out. 😭
Andor Creator Tony Gilroy Is Free to Speak About Fascism Now
Early on in the promotional period for season two of Andor, a series explicitly about fascism that depicted a genocide, Disney asked creator Tony Gilroy not to use the words “fascism” and “genocide”.
A Meta employee who works on AI safety let an AI agent...
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 ac
I Hate Trump's Awful Policies, but I Love That...
I Hate Trump’s Awful Policies, but I Love That He’s a Huge Asshole. “I don’t like Trump’s immigration laws; they’re racist and economically disastrous. But I do love how evil he is.”
Writer Lauren Groff on how she works . "After she...
Writer Lauren Groff on how she works. “After she completes a first draft, she puts it in a bankers box — and never reads it again.” And: “We all need to fill ourselves with the ghosts of other writers
"We" Haven't Lost Our Sense of Shame....
“We” Haven’t Lost Our Sense of Shame. Only Republicans Have. “I remember when Republicans used to lecture us all the time about the disappearance of shame in our culture…”
Token Anxiety . "This voice in my head that says...
Token Anxiety. “This voice in my head that says ‘something could be running right now’ just doesn’t shut off. I’m not even building a company. I’m just addicted to building my random ideas.”
Unusual Views of the Winter Olympics
Alan Taylor has shared a bunch of photos of the just-concluded Winter Olympics “featuring infrared imaging, vintage cameras, optical filters, digital composites, unusual angles, unexpected subjects, a
"Antibodies harvested from the blood of...
“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 develope
"What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done...
“What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?”
The United States of Beauty
During her time aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara took a series of photos of the Earth from directly overhead. Seán Doran has stitched those images together into a go
Is Donald Trump Alive? Now, this is a site that knows...
Is Donald Trump Alive? Now, this is a site that knows how to write factual headlines, e.g. “Donald Trump is alive and ranting and raving about foreign interests infiltrating the Supreme Court that he
The hum of a grocery store's freezers delights...
The hum of a grocery store’s freezers delights ambient music fans: “It’s like being in an electrical gong bath”. And: “The obvious reference is Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.”
"A new ethic is quietly emerging among modern...
“A new ethic is quietly emerging among modern travelers. It is called Digital Silence. It is the conscious decision to share the art and the emotion of a place without giving away its exact coordinate
Butter Tea
In this lovely short film, the traditional Tibetan drink butter tea (bho jha) becomes a bridge between generations, outreach across cultures, and a reminder of the value of mindfulness. From Clarissa
A ripple of excitement pulsed through the crowd. Paul...
A ripple of excitement pulsed through the crowd. Paul Ford is blogging regularly again.
The folks behind Dark Sky spun themselves out of Apple...
The folks behind Dark Sky spun themselves out of Apple and have built a new weather app: Acme Weather. “We missed those days as a small scrappy shop. So let’s try this again…”
An Introduction to Outsider Artist Henry Darger and His...
An Introduction to Outsider Artist Henry Darger and His Bizarre 15,000-Page Illustrated Masterwork.
The Greek Mythology Family Tree, Explained
Do you know your Gaia from your Cronus from your Zeus? In fewer than 15 minutes, this video provides a comprehensive overview of all the important Greek & Roman gods, goddesses, nymphs, heroes, monste
The Color Game . "Humans can't reliably...
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 g
Some of the best drone shots from the 2026 Winter...
Some of the best drone shots from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
'Viking' was a job description, not a matter...
‘Viking’ was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows. “These identities aren’t genetic or ethnic, they’re social. To have backup for that from DNA is powerful.”
Loop
Loop is an award-winning animated short featuring a society where people live a perfectly looping existence, all in rhythm. Then one day… Tags: animation · video
An app called NonUSA is surging in popularity in Denmark...
An app called NonUSA is surging in popularity in Denmark; it “helps you identify and avoid American products in everyday life”. (Ironically, iOS-only for now…)
The Trump regime is still deporting people to wherever...
The Trump regime is still deporting people to wherever they want, facilitated by a corrupt Supreme Court.
"I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new...
“I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself.”
The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot's Rapists United...
The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s Rapists United France and Fractured Her Family. “‘Look at the Pelicot family.’ They had been ‘confronted with the impossible dilemma,’ he said. ‘How to make suffering coe
Watch How Ancient Egyptians Carved Hieroglyphs
In a video for the V&A Museum, stone carver Miriam Johnson hand-carves a pair of hieroglyphs “using both sunken relief and raised relief techniques”. The video has minimal narration; mostly it’s just
An appreciation of Flickr's URL structure ....
An appreciation of Flickr’s URL structure. “It was a beautiful and predictable scheme. Once you knew how it worked, you could guess other URLs.”
Toy Story 5 joins the fight against screentime for kids...
Toy Story 5 joins the fight against screentime for kids. “Toys are for play, but tech…is for everything.”
In-browser puzzle game : "Enclose the horse in the...
In-browser puzzle game: “Enclose the horse in the biggest possible pen!”
A data analysis of how women's clothing...
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
How Finland Defeated Fascism in the 1930s
In the 1930s, a radical conservative political group almost succeeded in overthrowing Finland’s democracy: Called the Lapua movement, it was a far-right group of Finns who sought to overthrow the repu
A list of all the media (movies, books, TV shows, plays,...
A list of all the media (movies, books, TV shows, plays, etc.) consumed by Steven Soderbergh in 2025.
The Brattle theater is playing what they call the...
The Brattle theater is playing what they call the Ultimate Double Feature: “we play the first movie up until the point when the characters enter a cinema to watch a different film”, then play the enti
You know who else had a Greenland obsession?...
You know who else had a Greenland obsession? “Greenland appears to have been a lifelong preoccupation of Adolf Hitler’s.”
Fries Vansevenant's Neo-Constructivist Collages
I love these collage illustrations of various celebrities and famous characters by artist/designer Fries Vansevenant: Han Solo & Luke Skywalker, Notorious BIG, Heath Ledger’s Joker, Beatrix Kiddo, Dav
Love this cool JS pattern-making script .
Love this cool JS pattern-making script.
New from Neal Agarwal: Sandboxels . "It's a...
New from Neal Agarwal: Sandboxels. “It’s a falling-sand game with hundreds of elements, heat simulation, electricity & a lot more. I like making little cities and then adding tons of rats.”
Some modern collective nouns : a cringe of Cybertrucks,...
Some modern collective nouns: a cringe of Cybertrucks, an anxiety of authors, a migraine of toddlers, and “a group of two or men is called a podcast”.
Business/product advice: launch it three times ....
Business/product advice: launch it three times. “The vast majority of the time, the single biggest problem you have is that nobody knows you exist, and nobody gives a damn about what you do.”
A Sense of Getting Closer
With music by Max Cooper and visuals by Conner Griffith, A Sense of Getting Closer is a music video that was inspired by a quote submitted to Cooper’s On Being project: I have a sense of getting close
Searching for Birds , an engaging visualization of eBird...
Searching for Birds, an engaging visualization of eBird and Google Trends data that reveals human curiosity about birds.
How to raise children . "It's wild to me...
How to raise children. “It’s wild to me that we parent our children to fit into society, then get together with our friends and talk about how broken society is.”
Team Pursuit speed skaters used to trade off leads like...
Team Pursuit speed skaters used to trade off leads like cyclists but the sport has been revolutionized by the US team’s invention of the “bump drafting” technique.
Vintage Art House Movie Posters by Peter Strausfeld
The excellent Poster House museum in NYC currently has an exhibition up of posters by Peter Strausfeld. Between 1947 and 1980, Peter Strausfeld, a German refugee interned on the Isle of Man during Wor
Paul Ford on AI and the Infinite Software Era ....
Paul Ford on AI and the Infinite Software Era. “All of the people I love hate this stuff, and all the people I hate love it. And yet, likely because of the same personality flaws that drew me to techn
Current is an interesting new RSS reader that...
Current is an interesting new RSS reader that doesn’t function like an email inbox. “There is no count because counting was the problem.”
Reimagining the Origins of Winter Sports
A New Winter is a project from Colombian-American photographer Sofia Jaramillo that seeks to This project revisits the early depictions of skiing, which often portrayed Eurocentric ideals and a narro
The goal of the Trump Action Tracker is to...
The goal of the Trump Action Tracker is to “document how the trajectory of Trump’s presidency is aligned with the authoritarian playbook”.
The K-Shaped Economy
I think I’d heard the term “k-shaped economy” somewhere before but didn’t really know what it meant until I watched this video: American Airlines is changing the layout of some of their aircraft to a
Why AI Writing Is So Generic, Boring, and Dangerous:...
Why AI Writing Is So Generic, Boring, and Dangerous: Semantic Ablation. “The AI identifies high-entropy clusters — the precise points where unique insights…reside — and systematically replaces them wi
Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street in 1971 doing a...
Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street in 1971 doing a call-and-response with the kids of the poem I Am - Somebody.
The 19 richest Americans hold more than 2% of the total...
The 19 richest Americans hold more than 2% of the total US holdhold wealth. That figure has roughly doubled in the past 5-6 years. “The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply stagge
Vote Dizzy!
In 1964, legendary jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie ran for President as a write-in candidate. Some of the more interesting details about his campaign: If elected, he’d rename the White House to the Blue