The Muffled Thud of Fire in the Hole
From a 2014 article on The Dark Power of Fraternities by Caitlin Flanagan, this is one hell of an opening paragraph: One warm spring night in 2011, a young man named Travis Hughes…
It’s time to de-privatize the US government. “The problem...
It’s time to de-privatize the US government . “The problem is not just that privatization is often inefficient because it adds a nontransparent layer of profiteering on top of…
Q: “An AI tool with all your passwords or a bear in the...
Q: “An AI tool with all your passwords or a bear in the woods?” Signal president Meredith Whittaker : “Look, I know social media wants this. I know you guys want this little clip.…
Anthropic says that, as of Sept ‘26, they were merging...
Anthropic says that, as of Sept ‘26, they were merging 30,000 code changes per day , a 12-fold increase from just four months earlier. The volume increased so much that they wrote…
Whoa, the Lion Nebula!
NASA’s JWST recently snapped this image of the Lion Nebula (NGC 2392) . Massive stars undergo supernova explosions at the end of their lives, but these kinds of events are few and…
The Case for Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting...
The Case for Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting Out by Lindsay Crouse. “When perseverance turns against us, quitting isn’t just a way out. Often, it’s the first step to…
“If a human did this, it would be an instant Fields...
“If a human did this, it would be an instant Fields Medal, no questions asked.” OpenAI recently released 350+ proofs of mathematical theorems, all in one go . “I imagine many…
“I’m forced to admit that these AI-decompiled web browser...
“I’m forced to admit that these AI-decompiled web browser ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: CE, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Skate 3, and The Simpsons: Hit and Run actually…
The People Holding Up the Internet. Amazing to see how...
The People Holding Up the Internet . Amazing to see how much of the modern internet still depends on the volunteer work of individual people. 4 billion phones rely on the time…
ArtCraft is building open source versions of what looks...
ArtCraft is building open source versions of what looks like most of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps . Oh, and a word processor and a spreadsheet app because why not?
Overdose Offsets: Why Every Bag of Fentanyl I Sell Is Net...
Overdose Offsets: Why Every Bag of Fentanyl I Sell Is Net Life-Positive . “Every death on my corner is offset, with a third of a toddler left over, and I’d like that number in the…
Improving Conversation on KDO
I’ve been really pleased with how KDO comments are working lately — you folks have been lively, informative, fun, and pushing conversations beyond what I can individually manage.…
Thing I am going to make time for in the next few days:...
Thing I am going to make time for in the next few days: Harry Styles and Thom Yorke in conversation . “My laptop has been dead for about 6 years. I don’t know where my charger…
The Worst Way To Get To Space. I’d never heard the story...
The Worst Way To Get To Space . I’d never heard the story of the manhole cover possibly propelled into orbit by a nuclear blast — it was estimated to be moving at ~42 miles/sec.…
May Peace Prevail on Earth
Here are some photos I’ve taken during my time in Tokyo so far. I’ve been posting new stuff more or less daily to Instagram . Somehow I’m already about halfway through my stay.…
Beautiful Hand-Painted Globes
Bellerby & Co. Globemakers are one of the world’s last remaining makers of globes by hand. Their Instagram account is chock full of their handiwork. If I could afford it (£2000!),…
My friend Matt was recently here for a week in Tokyo and...
My friend Matt was recently here for a week in Tokyo and wrote up his experience and observations . “I don’t think humans were ever meant to experience that many eyes and faces at…
Why I Did Not Leave Nazi Germany in Time. “Many of us...
Why I Did Not Leave Nazi Germany in Time . “Many of us feared the shock of being uprooted and tried to avoid it if at all possible. But to understand this reaction…I say that…
All the Percents on Star Trek: TNG
I 100% love this video of every time someone says a percentage on Star Trek: The Next Generation. And the word “percent” has lost all of its meaning due to semantic satiation .…
Nearly 4M Records of Enslaved People in 20 Former British...
Nearly 4M Records of Enslaved People in 20 Former British Colonies Now Searchable Online . “ The Former British Colonies Enslavement Registers contains about 300,000 pages…
Prompting as Self-Portrait. “We need the blank page and...
Prompting as Self-Portrait . “We need the blank page and the silence to go deeper into our thoughts and our understanding of ourselves and of the world.”
Unseen Places: Rediscovering the Art of Observation by...
Unseen Places: Rediscovering the Art of Observation by Anna Kodé. Looking forward to this one…Kodé is one of my favorite journalists covering urban culture. “Observation…is not a…
Every US Electrical Outlet Explained
This video from Practical Engineering was very illuminating to me, a naive person who thought there were only three types of electrical outlets used in the US — the two-prong, the…
After working hard taking away the civil rights of people...
After working hard taking away the civil rights of people and granting more powers to our Mob Boss President, Chief Justice John Roberts retreats to a Maine island for the summer.…
Back in 2005, a group of restorers established a hidden...
Back in 2005, a group of restorers established a hidden workshop in Paris’s Panthéon and snuck into the building for a whole year to repair an antique clock . “The group managed…
“Margaret Hamilton, who led the 100-person team that...
“Margaret Hamilton, who led the 100-person team that wrote the onboard software for the Apollo missions, guiding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to a safe landing on the moon, died…
In 2005, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory calculated that...
In 2005, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory calculated that the water stored by China’s huge Three Gorges Dam is enough to increase the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds and move…
Blue Planet III
BBC Earth is returning to the ocean. 25 years after the first installment, the legendary naturalist, presenter, and centenarian David Attenborough narrates Blue Planet III . This…
The Job Trail, a web game about making it through 52...
The Job Trail , a web game about making it through 52 weeks as a laid-off creative worker. Based on The Oregon Trail. My first try: “You have died of burnout. Week 13. 51…
Silent Friend
Silent Friend is a historical drama written and directed by Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi. Here’s the description: In the botanical garden of a medieval German university, a…
Watch One of Radiohead’s Best Live Shows: Bonnaroo 2006
Back in ~2008, right on the cusp of stardom, Lady Gaga did a crate-digging video in a London record shop and named Radiohead’s set at Bonnaroo 2006 as her favorite show she’s ever…
Things That Are Good to Do. Including “admit what you...
Things That Are Good to Do . Including “admit what you don’t know”, “put the cart away”, “rest before you’re exhausted” (I often get this one wrong), and “walk home if you can”.
An interesting long profile of Mark Zuckerberg. “Mark is...
An interesting long profile of Mark Zuckerberg . “Mark is the fucking Terminator. He’s actually not an asshole, which is interesting. He’s not a miserable fuck. But his source of…
AI-generated images don’t have to look like AI-generated...
AI-generated images don’t have to look like AI-generated images… they can be any style you want . (It’s just going to get more and more difficult to tell…)
From a tongue-in-cheek Google Japan, a conveyor belt...
From a tongue-in-cheek Google Japan, a conveyor belt keyboard , where the keys move and your hand stays still while typing. One of several unusual keyboards released by the…
The Best Sandwich Shop in America?
YouTuber Rob Martinez travelled to Columbus, Ohio to tell the story of what he calls the best sandwich shop in America, Wario’s Beef and Pork . Here’s part of the transcript of…
Richard Linklater is directing a film adaptation of the...
Richard Linklater is directing a film adaptation of the Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along . Shooting started in 2019 and will continue until 2040 to match the musical’s…
Designer Giorgia Lupi: In Defense of the Detour. “I fear...
Designer Giorgia Lupi: In Defense of the Detour . “I fear that A.I. is undermining what makes us most human — the ability to translate lived experience and nuanced thoughts into a…
The Future Library
A few years ago, in a forest just outside of Oslo, 1000 trees were planted. In 2114, after a century of growth, the trees will be cut down and made into paper for an anthology of…
Stalin Boys is a short documentary about a Joseph...
Stalin Boys is a short documentary about a Joseph Stalin-obsessed middle-schooler from a tiny Texas town who writes a play about the Soviet dictator and enlists his three friends…
Mapsnap is a program designed to take old Sanborn...
Mapsnap is a program designed to take old Sanborn insurance maps (block-by-block maps of every US city from 1870-1960) and aligning them with modern maps.
Where in the world are typefaces being designed? The US,...
Where in the world are typefaces being designed? The US, Germany, and France…but also the UK, Netherlands, and Indonesia.
Mapping Tariffs explores “the potential impacts of...
Mapping Tariffs explores “the potential impacts of tariffs on jobs and businesses across Canadian cities and communities at the neighbourhood and city level”.
Random TV Time: watch old TV pulled from the Internet...
Random TV Time : watch old TV pulled from the Internet Archive. 17 channels to surf, including cartoons, 1960s TV, and one that’s only old commercials.
The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century
Last week, the NY Times dropped a list of The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century , as picked by a panel of “more than 500 influential stars, showrunners and other notable names…
OrySnack: The Bar Where Bartenders Work From Home. Small...
OrySnack: The Bar Where Bartenders Work From Home . Small robot servers in this Japanese bar are controlled by people who can only work from home because of disability or illness.
The Bayeux Tapestry of Fascism. “What’s this middle bit?”...
The Bayeux Tapestry of Fascism . “What’s this middle bit?” “Why, that’s the Battle of Legitimate Concerns!”
JumpStar is the world’s strongest Chinese Checkers AI...
JumpStar is the world’s strongest Chinese Checkers AI engine. Designed to emulate AlphaGo and Stockfish but for Chinese Checkers. The model was trained entirely on a M4 MacBook.…
118 Things to Do Instead of Doomscrolling. Including “put...
118 Things to Do Instead of Doomscrolling . Including “put together a puzzle”, “go for a bike ride”, “hold a plank for as long as you can — even if it’s only a second”, and “make…
O Superman, Laurie Anderson
O Superman by artist Laurie Anderson from 1981. Some of the lyrics: ‘Cause when love is gone There’s always justice And when justice is gone There’s always force And when force is…
The Ku Klux Klan is rebranding itself as The Knights...
The Ku Klux Klan is rebranding itself as The Knights Party , centered on “family and faith” along with proud & open white supremacy. 💩🖕
Lots and Lots and Lots of Control Panels
To go along with my recent post about control rooms , here’s the Control Panels group on Flickr , containing almost 3000 photos of control interfaces for all kinds of things.…
Is American Culture Simply Bad Now? I’ve been hanging...
Is American Culture Simply Bad Now? I’ve been hanging with my friend Matt while he’s here in Tokyo for a trip, which he refers to as his “America is Cooked Tour” as he keeps…
So Many Amazing Control Rooms
From the Control Rooms group on Flickr . 🤩 So many little details in all of these photos to pore over. See also Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green , The User Experience…
Japanese book rave. A club in Tokyo spread carpets on the...
Japanese book rave . A club in Tokyo spread carpets on the dance floor, played ambient music, and invited daytime clubgoers to chill out and read. Would 100% frequent a…
Weball allows you to roll up websites into a Katamari...
Weball allows you to roll up websites into a Katamari ball. You can even roll up KDO . This is too much fun. See also Destroy Any Website .
I just went down a rabbit hole of incense seals. So cool.
I just went down a rabbit hole of incense seals . So cool.
Bill McKibben: I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We...
Bill McKibben: I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We Weren’t Built for a World Like This. The human nervous system wasn’t designed for the polycrisis. “Among all the other dangers…
Wildwood
Laika is the stop-motion animation studio that made Coraline & Kubo and the Two Strings. Their newest film, Wildwood , looks pretty incredible; have a look at the trailer .…
Nappy is a site offering free stock photos of Black and...
Nappy is a site offering free stock photos of Black and brown people. ( The site says they’re going offline in a few months due to a falloff in demand bc of AI. Maybe Internet…
In 1996, the Blondin family drove all around the US,...
In 1996, the Blondin family drove all around the US, blogging about it all before “blog” was even a word . “We were doing something that had no name and no manual, and we were…
The 2026 Comedy Wildlife Awards Finalists
The Comedy Wildlife Awards have announced the finalists for the 2026 competition and, well, these awards never miss. You can almost hear the background music for some of these……
Abolish Frat Culture. “This is going to be uncomfortable...
Abolish Frat Culture . “This is going to be uncomfortable for anyone with a kid in a fraternity to hear: If your son finds himself in a group that would send a ‘free pussy’ text,…
“‘Digger’ has a lot of haters. Here’s why they’re wrong.”...
“‘Digger’ has a lot of haters. Here’s why they’re wrong.” Digger is fascinating — I can’t remember another big movie where public opinion has been so divided (it’s either genius…
Any Human Ever randomly picks an average person from some...
Any Human Ever randomly picks an average person from some point in human history and tells you about what their life was like. Mine was a woman born in 1547: “Of all the sounds of…
Mamdani’s “Richard Scarry Socialism” Can Make City Life...
Mamdani’s “Richard Scarry Socialism” Can Make City Life Simple Again . “It is an astonishing indictment of our times that the cities of our picture books can seem like a radical…
Bertrand Russell Shows How to Respond to Fascists Who Want to Debate
Late in his life, the prominent English mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell was subject to an attempt in the early 1960s by Oswald Mosley to provoke him into a debate…
The Global Rise of Electoral Dictatorships. Is the U.S....
The Global Rise of Electoral Dictatorships. Is the U.S. Next? “Electoral dictators — who identify as presidents and prime ministers — hold uncompetitive and unfair elections after…
Don’t Cook That: a collection of real recipes that you...
Don’t Cook That : a collection of real recipes that you shouldn’t make. Cholera remedy recipe calls for “equal parts laudanum, rhubarb, double-strength capsicum, camphor and…
Girls is coming back to HBO for a 5-episode run. Lena...
Girls is coming back to HBO for a 5-episode run . Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, and Andrew Rannells are all returning. I loved this show and will tune…
Reelizer: A Trove of Movie Art
Reelizer is a personal project by Roger Erik Tinch that is a collection of movie art: prints, posters, illustrations, albums, books, covers, etc. Careful, you can lose hours…
Chasing a Plane Across the Moon
Agustín Ferrando Trenchi became a little obsessed with the moon as a kid. As an adult, he’s taken tons of photos and hundreds of hours of footage of the moon. After seeing an…
Great Deals on Apple Stuff Today
Just wanted to dip in here to say that Amazon is running another one of their sales for Prime members , which can be a great opportunity to upgrade some tech items at lower…
A short (too short?) video from Little White Lies on...
A short (too short?) video from Little White Lies on designer Saul Bass and his influence on the art of movie title design. They also did videos on Pablo Ferro and Kyle Cooper .
The first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The...
The first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew . I love Gerwig and I know this will be good, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it will be great. (I still…
Crossword Clues Where It’s Clear the Puzzle’s Creator Got...
Crossword Clues Where It’s Clear the Puzzle’s Creator Got Themselves into a Jam Letter-wise . Incl. “Could be found on the second to last line of an optometrist’s vision chart”…
Is This Weird Quiz Game the Toughest F1 Video Game Ever?
It might be that this text-only quiz game from 1993 is the most challenging F1 video game of all time . Here are a couple of the 23 questions from Gerhard Berger’s Formula 1 Quiz:…
So Many Different Mes
Japanese photographer and artist Tomoko Sawada works primarily in self-portraiture. For her first project, she visited ID photo booths to take hundreds of photos of herself,…
Stutterer
Stutterer by Benjamin Cleary won the 2016 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film and is now available to view online for free courtesy of the New Yorker . It’s a thirteen-minute…