All articles from Kottke.org
The Ping-Pong Hustler Who Inspired 'Marty Supreme'. "If Chalamet has found, in...
The Ping-Pong Hustler Who Inspired ‘Marty Supreme’. “If Chalamet has found, in this role, an all-time character, it is surely in no small part because Reisman was an all-time character.” (Saw the movi
How Russia's Children Got So Violent. "There is no positive ideology for...
How Russia’s Children Got So Violent. “There is no positive ideology for children in a country fighting a murderous war.” Ultranationalist & xenophobic violence is encouraged by Putin’s regime.
This website is compiling a sourced list of ICE abuses in Minnesota....
This website is compiling a sourced list of ICE abuses in Minnesota. (Click on “List” for the full listing.)
Photos of China's Green Energy Transition
These photos by Chu Weimin show the mind-boggling scale of China’s green energy buildout. Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough r
Wikipedia turns 25 years old. (I can't believe it's only been around...
Wikipedia turns 25 years old. (I can’t believe it’s only been around for 25 years…trying to imagine the web without it is impossible at this point.)
At the Stone Skimming World Championships in Scotland (at an old slate...
At the Stone Skimming World Championships in Scotland (at an old slate quarry), it’s distance that counts, not the number of skips. “Anyone who is familiar with slate could instinctively tell you that
By All Measures. "Our scales are too imbalanced; we are unable to...
By All Measures. “Our scales are too imbalanced; we are unable to think the unthinkable. It goes without saying that it can be paralyzing, demoralizing, to be an individual acting as part of the colle
Visualizations of the growing undersea network of submarine cables, 2013-2025....
Visualizations of the growing undersea network of submarine cables, 2013-2025.
The Florentine Codex
The Florentine Codex is a 16th-century illustrated encyclopedia of indigenous Mexico, “the most reliable source of information about Mexica culture, the Aztec Empire, and the conquest of Mexico.” Cour
Many of us have "lost the future" during the radical uncertainty brought...
Many of us have “lost the future” during the radical uncertainty brought about by polycrisis. “I hadn’t fully grasped how the idea of a better future sustained me — now I, like many others, find it di
From XKCD, some common sailing rigs, including the ketch, schooner, offset rig,...
From XKCD, some common sailing rigs, including the ketch, schooner, offset rig, and oops all spinnakers.
Bread Infographic
London bakery The Dusty Knuckle cleverly used a loaf of bread as a graph to illustrate the costs of running their business: From their post: This comes off the back of a big decision to increase our
"This should be the year you stop trying so hard to turn...
“This should be the year you stop trying so hard to turn yourself into a better person, and focus instead on actually leading a more absorbing life.”
Divers
“Divers documents the restless anticipation of walking to the platform’s edge and the fleeting serenity found in jumping.” Lovely. Just lovely. (via colossal) Tags: diving · slow motion · sports · vid
Claudette Colvin, Who Refused to Give Her Bus Seat to a White...
Claudette Colvin, Who Refused to Give Her Bus Seat to a White Woman, Dies at 86. “History had me glued to the seat.” Her refusal predates Rosa Parks’ similar stand, but she was deemed “too dark-skinne
Olive Oil Sculptures
Suzanne Saroff makes unusual photographic sculptures, including these dynamic olive oil shapes. Tags: art · food · photography · Suzanne Saroff
I Was Kidnapped by Idiots. "Later, he tried the 'good cop, bad...
I Was Kidnapped by Idiots. “Later, he tried the ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine on me but undermined the effect by playing both characters himself, on alternate days, which just made him seem deranged.”
Jamelle Bouie: "The American public, then, is left not with a president...
Jamelle Bouie: “The American public, then, is left not with a president but with a man who imagines himself master and behaves like a tyrant. A man whose agents brutalize ordinary citizens and then de
Stop complaining about paywalls existing. "These paywalls are attempts to make this...
Stop complaining about paywalls existing. “These paywalls are attempts to make this dying field viable. When you get personally offended by paywalls, you’re essentially saying we should work for free.
Donald Trump Is Waging War Against Human Conscience. "The lust for mud...
Donald Trump Is Waging War Against Human Conscience. “The lust for mud has taken up many guises in our history and has been many given names of late — neo-reaction, post-liberalism, fascism. But the n
Zoe Saldaña is now the highest-grossing actor of all time (bc of...
Zoe Saldaña is now the highest-grossing actor of all time (bc of Avatar & Marvel). 2. Scarlett Johansson, 3. Samuel L. Jackson, 4. Robert Downey Jr., 5. Chris Pratt. Would be interested to see inflati
Currently listening to this Thai house mix from Meltmode, played from a...
Currently listening to this Thai house mix from Meltmode, played from a tuktuk tooling around the streets of Bangkok.
Lunchtime
In the late 70s and early 80s, photographer Charles H. Traub roamed the streets of Chicago, New York, and Europe to take photos of people during the lunch hour. Colorful and direct, animated and intim
North America kind of sucks at elevators. "Elevators cost nearly three times...
North America kind of sucks at elevators. “Elevators cost nearly three times as much in North America compared to its peers. What is going on here?” (Maintenance fees can be 10x as expensive.)
How Will the Miracle Happen Today? "Kindness is like a breath. It...
How Will the Miracle Happen Today? “Kindness is like a breath. It can be squeezed out, or drawn in. You can wait for it, or you can summon it. To solicit a gift from a stranger takes a certain state o
Montreal's Ice Surfer
There’s a guy named Orion who surfs the St Lawrence River in the winter, sometimes dodging massive chunks of ice and sometimes riding them downstream, looking for waves. If you’ve ever been in Montrea
Thoughtful lessons from a Google software engineer. "The punchline isn't 'never innovate.'...
Thoughtful lessons from a Google software engineer. “The punchline isn’t ‘never innovate.’ It’s ‘innovate only where you’re uniquely paid to innovate.’ Everything else should default to boring, becaus
Recently I've been thinking a lot about this 2015 observation on Tumblr...
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.
The America That Could Be
The main point of Adam Bonica’s post The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls is about the optimism of this moment: that the US could be ripe for a Berlin Wall-falling moment that opens the door for a
Astronomers have discovered an "almost-galaxy" called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy...
Astronomers have discovered an “almost-galaxy” called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy that contains no stars. “There’s nothing like this that we’ve found so far in the universe.”
Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a...
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. 💬
Discover the 100-Year-Old Self-Playing Violin, One of the Most Complex Music Players...
Discover the 100-Year-Old Self-Playing Violin, One of the Most Complex Music Players Ever Made. “It featured three vertically mounted violins, each with a single active string, played by a rotating bo
"I feel stuck and sad and I don't know what else to...
“I feel stuck and sad and I don’t know what else to do.” Yeah, same.
An Optical Compass Inspired by Bee Vision
Bees use polarized sunlight scattered by the atmosphere in order to navigate; they always know where the sun is, even if it’s cloudy or behind a mountain. Then they waggle dance to inform their hive-m
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. "This page contains a collection of small...
Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection. “This page contains a collection of small computer programs which implement one-player puzzle games.” 💬 Join the discussion o
Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News, it looks like...
Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News, it looks like around 50 of them were written by women.
A Logistical Matter
Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that kottke.org moved servers over the weekend. You shouldn’t have noticed anything, except perhaps that the site is faster now. There was a small issue with th
Train Wreck
A wreck on the Lehigh Valley trackage in South Somerville, NJ circa 1918. (via shorpy) Tags: this is a metaphor for something · trains
I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha...
I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha Zepeda made the book covers for 10 books that came out in 2025. Zepeda has a much longer look at his process on YT.
Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of "60 massive granite...
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
words.zip is "an infinite collaborative word search where anyone can find and...
words.zip is “an infinite collaborative word search where anyone can find and submit words — no account required.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
There's a shark called the cookiecutter shark because it leaves bite marks...
There’s a shark called the cookiecutter shark because it leaves bite marks the shape of “neat, circular holes resembling the cut of a cookie cutter”. 💬 Join the discuss
Burn Harry Burn: Reckoning With My Harry Potter Fandom as a Trans...
Burn Harry Burn: Reckoning With My Harry Potter Fandom as a Trans Person. “I dug a fire pit in my backyard and burned my complete set of hardcover Harry Potters.”
A soaring US vs a stagnant EU? "Europeans benefit from more leisure...
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
Alexandra Petri: I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go...
Alexandra Petri: I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well. “I have just driven six and a half hours to Ohio in order to forecast my own weather. From a hot-air balloon.” She also inspects milk
What You're Watching Isn't What You're Really Watching. "You think you're watching...
What You’re Watching Isn’t What You’re Really Watching. “You think you’re watching an innocent woman being shot and killed in cold blood by the federal government, but what you’re really watching is t
Abolish ICE
Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Abolish ICE. Aboli
An ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis today. Mayor Jacob Frey...
An ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis today. Mayor Jacob Frey to ICE: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
How Did We Map the World Before Satellites?
In 1375, a Spanish mapmaker made a world map we now refer to as the Catalan Atlas. For its time, the atlas was remarkably accurate and comprehensive. This video explains how such a map was made in med
WikiFlix is a streaming site for movies in the public domain, including...
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. 💬 Join the discu
"South Korea imports more kimchi than it exports, and the gap has...
“South Korea imports more kimchi than it exports, and the gap has widened as cheaper Chinese-made products take hold in the domestic market.” 💬 Join the discussion on k
A group of students at a New Mexico college (mostly) gave up...
A group of students at a New Mexico college (mostly) gave up their phones & computers for a week. What did they learn? “Most students said they had gotten to know themselves better without their phone
MTV Rewind
MTV Rewind is an interface through which you can watch music videos from the 70s to the 20s, organized by decade. There are also “channels” for 120 Minutes, MTV Unplugged, Yo! MTV Raps, Headbangers Ba
The proliferation of hummingbird feeders has become a "major evolutionary force" for...
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 chang
Lost episodes of Star Trek from the 70s. They were going to...
Lost episodes of Star Trek from the 70s. They were going to do a reboot of the TV series (without Spock!) but the project morphed into the first movie. There are 19 episode scripts & treatments from t
Robin Sloan asserts (provocatively) that AGI is already here (and has been...
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 Intellig
The Story of Czech Graphic Design
Identity — The Story of Czech Graphic Design is a seven-part series available on YouTube. In seven parts, the Identita series introduces viewers to the history of Czech graphic design. We will not onl
"Norman Rockwell was antifa", says Daisy Rockwell, Norman's granddaughter. "So you'll understand...
“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 consi
A Collection of Unreleased Boards of Canada Tracks
A couple of weeks ago, someone uploaded to YouTube and Google Drive eleven unreleased tracks from Boards of Canada (made from 1985-1996). This seems to be a legit, high-quality leak, judging from the
This sucks: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is no more. "Its board...
This sucks: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is no more. “Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.” GOP ghouls finally killed
The Detectorists — A Short Film About Otters and Detection Dogs.
An ecologist in Wales uses tracking dogs to help track & protect the endangered wild otter population; meet The Detectorists. Set against the serene backdrop of rural Wales, this short documentary fol
Tiled.art: "Discover great tessellation art, understand how it works, and create your...
Tiled.art: “Discover great tessellation art, understand how it works, and create your own.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Anna's Archive ("the largest truly open library in human history") is backing...
Anna’s Archive (“the largest truly open library in human history”) is backing up the entirety of Spotify. “We have archived around 86 million songs from Spotify. While this only represents 37% of song
When Two Filmmakers Make the Same Movie — and One of Them...
When Two Filmmakers Make the Same Movie — and One of Them Is Werner Herzog. A comparison of the two 2022 documentaries about volcanologists Maurice & Katia Krafft, Herzog’s The Fire Within, and Sara D
From Book Riot's Zero to Well-Read podcast: How to Read More (and...
From Book Riot’s Zero to Well-Read podcast: How to Read More (and Better) in 2026. “They dig into when to push through, when to quit a book, how to choose books outside the algorithm, and how small sh
The Mystery Of The Samurai In Venice
Until the late 19th century, Japan’s relations with Europe were relatively limited. So when a pair of letters written by a Japanese man in the early 1600s were discovered in Venice, a mystery was born
A Year of Clean Energy Milestones. "Wind, solar, and electric vehicles made...
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 vehic
A number of studies show that various vaccines (shingles, RSV, flu) are...
A number of studies show that various vaccines (shingles, RSV, flu) are associated with “off-target” benefits like reduced cardiovascular risk, lower rates of dementia, and lower Alzheimer’s risk for
Why I Left Substack. A combination of "a good deal of gross...
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 decis
What We Will Use as Weapons: A List of School Supplies
In 2024, schoolteacher Ginny Robinson won the Best in Show award at a quilting convention for her quilt called What We Will Use as Weapons: A List of School Supplies. This is a protest quilt. It was m
M. Gessen on the new world order the Trump regime seems eager...
M. Gessen on the new world order the Trump regime seems eager to bring about. “If Trump can take Venezuela and Putin can take Ukraine, surely President Xi Jinping of China can take Taiwan.”
The Media Refuses to Call Trump's Venezuela Attack an Act of War....
The Media Refuses to Call Trump’s Venezuela Attack an Act of War. “Overwhelmingly, the US media and its purportedly straight reporters have adopted wholesale the White House’s pseudo-legalistic, limit
We Are the Bad Guys. "What do we call it when a...
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.”
Isaac Chotiner interviews Oona Hathaway, an expert in international law, about the...
Isaac Chotiner interviews Oona Hathaway, an expert in international law, about the “brazen illegality” of the Trump regime’s invasion of Venezuela to kidnap president Nicolás Maduro.
Evergreen: No Blood For Oil vs. Exactly How Much Oil Are We...
Evergreen: No Blood For Oil vs. Exactly How Much Oil Are We Talking About?