Email received earlier this month about a price increase that begins today: We are informed that we live in an era of “disinflation” (see for example, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman in the NYT, 2023: “How (Many) Economists Missed the Big Disinflation”). I guess disinflation does … | Continue reading
This is the twentieth part of a fiction serial, in 862 words. After Eric had been killed along with his brother and driver, there was something of a vacuum waiting to be filled in some of his area of operations. It took a while, but Alan Richards managed to muscle in on a few of … | Continue reading
2025 is upon us and my goals for the new year are very clear: I need to get my fitness in order. Here's the plan… | Continue reading
"This is a game changer!!!!" Mom shares creative, budget-friendly hack to make snack time mess-free: 'This is so smart' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Astronomers modeled sunspot activity on a nearby red giant star to learn about its chaotic interior. | Continue reading
Rare earth elements, a series of chemically very similar elements, have been much in the news in recent years because they are critical in many high-tech applications. This deposit at Mountain Pass, California, was discovered in the late 1940s and supplied much of the global dema … | Continue reading
Haalarit are overalls worn by Finnish university students, covered in patches they get from attending events, organization affiliations, and friendships. It’s giving NASCAR merit badge pajamas? 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Ze Frank takes a humorously informative look at stingrays, a flat fish with a unique body that makes them look like "floppy sombreros'. | Continue reading
"Oh, you've never read The Odyssey???" Your timing is perfect. Emily Wilson's translation is the best one in literally ages, has that sweet iambic pentameter to give it a "bouncy" feel, & makes dudebros cry that the classic has "gone woke". pic.twitter.com/zN5uSPTJSY — Librarian … | Continue reading
Agnes Callard at UnHerd: Even if you haven’t read Robert Musil’s unfinished modernist masterpiece, The Man Without Qualities, you probably agree that it has a great title. If you have read it, I’m sure you agree, because the novel returns obsessively to the theme of how its main … | Continue reading
Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Monday morning read: Supreme Court At A Crossroads In Oil Emissions Lawfare Campaign (David Blackmon, Forbes) Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law that could ban... The … | Continue reading
It is not a secret that I’m not a fan of social media. Since I left that part of the web years ago I never felt the need to go back to it. That said I am still curious to know what people out there are building and so when I read about Bluesky years ago I registered on their wait … | Continue reading
As I did in 2023, here's my app defaults at the end of 2024. ⚠️ Spoiler - not much has changed. I won't mess around with a load of intro-guff. Instead, I'll jump right in, here's the list as of the end of 2024 (anything that has changed has a strike-through the previous tool: &#x … | Continue reading
A virus that infects ocean phytoplankton was found to encode a ribosomal protein, a first for eukaryotic viruses. Researchers believe this aids the virus in replication. Researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa have identified a virus, FloV-SA2, that encodes one of the e … | Continue reading
With 2024 drawing to a close, we're taking a look back on some of the most exciting developments taking place over the course of the year: from human rights and education to environmental protection measures and beyond. | Continue reading
How Emil Frey whipped up a smooth dairy sensation after two years of tinkering | Continue reading
Consumer Reports' brand reliability report for 2024 has been released. According to the survey, the brands that make up the top five remain the same as last year, but it is Subaru which now holds the #1 spot, becoming the single most reliable car brand. Continue Reading Category: … | Continue reading
You can use the battery-powered Blink Outdoor 4 indoors, too. | Image: Amazon As we head into 2025, there aren’t many things preventing homeowners from building out a basic home security system. You can start small and cheap with the battery-powered Blink Outdoor 4. If you don’t … | Continue reading
In this post I'll give updates about open source I worked on during November and December 2024. To see previous OSS updates, go here. Sponsors I'd like to thank all the sponsors and contributors that make this work possible. Without you, the below projects would not be as mature … | Continue reading
When – from a passenger point of view – I make the case why the EU ought to pass a Regulation to fix cross border railway ticketing, the reaction from the railway industry (especially state owned railway firms) is essentially “why should we make booking easier, because our cross … | Continue reading
The eighth president of the United States, the so-called little magician, saw political parties as the key to achieving power | Continue reading
We, Gary Marcus, author, scientist, and noted AI skeptic, and Miles Brundage, an independent AI policy researcher who recently left OpenAI and is bullish on AI progress, have agreed to the following bet, at 10:1 odds, with criteria drawn from two earlier Substack essays by Gary t … | Continue reading
The Walmart Effect. According to new research, “Walmart makes the places it operates in poorer than they would be if it had never shown up at all. Sometimes consumer prices are an incomplete, even misleading, signal of economic well-being.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke … | Continue reading
It comes in fun flavors. READ MORE... | Continue reading
TIL about the iOS Camera app’s QuickTake video feature. | Continue reading
If you want to bet on the fate of the UnitedHealthcare assassin, you’ll have to do it outside of America (or through a VPN) | Continue reading
Image: Apple Apple TV Plus will be free to stream this weekend from January 4th through the 5th. The company posted the news on social media alongside a short trailer featuring some of its top shows, with the tagline “see for yourself.” Apple had teased last week that it might pr … | Continue reading
His book has gained bipartisan fans from Barack Obama to Bill Gates to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Olivia Reingold reports on the Haidt effect. | Continue reading
One major attraction of Python. A recent realization. Ever since I became aware of the distinction between statically and dynamically typed languages, I've struggled to understand the attraction of dynamically typed languages. As regular readers may have noticed, this is a bias t … | Continue reading
Book 22 of 26 books for 2024! I made my secondary goal for the year, considering I fell short of my original goal. However, for 2025, I think I’ll aim for 30 books, to push myself… One thing I love … Continue reading → | Continue reading
"What these companies are doing is so important that I just think it'll be unstoppable." Department hustling to issue final payouts from $400 billion program before Trump's return: 'They want to ... safeguard as much progress as they can' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
The innermost Earth-like planet in the famous TRAPPIST-1 system might be capable of supporting a thick atmosphere after all, according to new research. | Continue reading
Python 3.12 introduced sys.monitoring, a new framework for “monitoring” tools like debuggers and profilers to hook into. It provides fine-grained control so tools can listen only to certain events on specific lines of code. The framework came from PEP 669, thanks to Mark Shannon … | Continue reading
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now. | Continue reading
Some of the most picturesque landscapes in the United States can be found along the border with Mexico. Yet, from San Diego’s beaches to the Sonoran Desert, from Big Bend National Park to the Boca Chica wetlands, we see vistas marred by the sinister spread of surveillance technol … | Continue reading
EFF has been sounding the alarm on algorithmic decision making (ADM) technologies for years. ADMs use data and predefined rules or models to make or support decisions, often with minimal human involvement, and in 2024, the topic has been more active than ever before, with landlor … | Continue reading
State lawmakers are increasingly shaping the conversation on technology and innovation policy in the United States. As Congress continues to deliberate key issues such as data privacy, police use of data, and artificial intelligence, lawmakers are rapidly advancing their own idea … | Continue reading
You'll be back for more. READ MORE... | Continue reading
Key takeaways Charging trucks is the first, second, and third priority Side benefits to the site are welcomed, but can’t be allowed to drive design decisions Don’t let potential local or hypothetical value propositions distract from charging delivery As the people who will be bui … | Continue reading
Add some much-needed space to your computer and never have to delete files again. | Continue reading
Musing about the unexpectedly many conversations about #pkm I had this year, I think one should take the P in pkm much further than people seem to do based on the questions they ask. The P in pkm is at least threefold. | Continue reading
The skyward show will produce many shooting stars from the evening of January 2 into the early morning hours of January 3—here’s how to make the most of the fleeting celestial event | Continue reading
Der Spiegel and Chaos Computer Club were able to tie data to car owners and their trips. | Continue reading
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge One of the big benefits of buying a “Pro” iPhone is currently that you get a fancy high-refresh rate OLED display, but that may become standard across the iPhone 17 lineup, according to a Weibo leak from Digital Chat Station spotted by … | Continue reading
At least this one stayed in in the new Aardman movie, after the Anglo-US relations got things sorted. | Continue reading
I was floored by Husqvarna's already exquisite Vitpilen 801 neo-retro café racer when the 2025 model was unveiled in October. The Swedish marque has now unveiled a Custom concept to give people a taste of what they can expect in the future, building on the original with some tast … | Continue reading
Hennig Brand was on to something. Or rather, he thought he was. By the 17th century, alchemists had been trying to make gold for over a thousand years. Though the search had ultimately proved fruitless for his numerous forebears, Brand, a merchant and an alchemist living in Hambu … | Continue reading
Late-stage breast cancer diagnoses have risen sharply in the U.S. since 2004, with younger and minority women disproportionately affected, highlighting the urgent need for improved screening and access to care. The number of U.S. women diagnosed with late-stage, invasive breast c … | Continue reading