Interviews with five novelists (Jesmyn Ward, Joyce Carol...

Interviews with five novelists (Jesmyn Ward, Joyce Carol Oates, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ottessa Moshfegh, Margaret Atwood) on writing something true with fiction. Oates: “If you could read Toni Morrison, why would you read AI?” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 days ago

From Daphni (aka Caribou), a 7hr DJ set . 7 hours!

From Daphni (aka Caribou), a 7hr DJ set. 7 hours! | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

The trailer for Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the...

The trailer for Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. The film is showing in select locations around the country and will air on PBS this summer. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

Ultimate Online Phreak Box . “This is a free...

Ultimate Online Phreak Box. “This is a free online blue box, red box, and silver box.” (With this and a time machine, you could make free phone calls in the 1970s.) | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

A tour of the mannequin storage room at FIT . Each...

A tour of the mannequin storage room at FIT. Each era’s mannequins are designed to mimic the “fashionable body” of that time period. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

An interview with Ronald Wayne , Apple’s forgotten...

An interview with Ronald Wayne, Apple’s forgotten third founder. (He was with the company all of 2 weeks.) | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

Radiohead Covers Joy Division’s Ceremony

From a livestream recorded many years ago, this is Radiohead covering Joy Division’s Ceremony. The song was originally written by Joy Division but the version most people know is New Order’s — it was their first single. From Wikipedia: “Ceremony” was one of the last Joy Division … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

Oh wow, this is a trippy game inspired by MC Escher . My...

Oh wow, this is a trippy game inspired by MC Escher. My brain may be permanently broken by this. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

A short analysis of what makes Mark Antony’s...

A short analysis of what makes Mark Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen…” speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar so good and effective. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

Using wiki software, old photos, family stories, bank...

Using wiki software, old photos, family stories, bank transactions, social media posts, and an LLM to sift through everything to build a personal encyclopedia. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 7 days ago

“Stalin’s task in building what Senior calls...

“Stalin’s task in building what Senior calls his ‘Red Empire’ was made so much easier, and so much more brutal, by the intelligence the Cambridge spies passed to Moscow.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Charcuterie is a visual Unicode symbol explorer. Click...

Charcuterie is a visual Unicode symbol explorer. Click around, search, or use the pencil in the upper left to draw the shape you’re looking for. This is very cool. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Diary Comics From the 1940s

This is wonderful: a Redditor uploaded some of their grandmother’s comics that she made in the 1940s, documenting her marriage to the deployment of her husband for World War II. I never got to meet my grandma, she passed away young in 1977 but finding her 1940s sketches felt li … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Well, this blows: FSG has shuttered their MCD imprint &...

Well, this blows: FSG has shuttered their MCD imprint & Sean McDonald is leaving the company. MCD published so many good titles/authors: Questlove, Enshittification, Robin Sloan, Jeff VanderMeer, Sloane Crosley, Dilla Time, Tamara Shopsin… | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

This tiny e-ink reader is small enough to attach to...

This tiny e-ink reader is small enough to attach to the back of your phone. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

The Headless Mary Magdalene by Artemisia Gentileschi

I’m charmed by this fragment of Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting of Mary Magdalene that’s up for auction later this month. For many years it was in a private collection in Germany where it lay rolled up in a cellar. The head of the saint had been cut out of the canvas, under cir … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Between the Impossible and the Inevitable: The Case for...

Between the Impossible and the Inevitable: The Case for Defiance (aka Never F**king Surrender). “We make the future in the present, when we show up. Don’t surrender it to those who would destroy it.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Hostile Volume is a simple and maddening game where you...

Hostile Volume is a simple and maddening game where you need to hold the audio volume at 25%, which gets increasingly difficult with each level. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

International Chess Federation Adds Race Car Piece ....

International Chess Federation Adds Race Car Piece. “The race car piece gets to go twice in one turn because it’s so fast.” Smart to capitalize on F1’s popularity; they should do my fave Monopoly piece next (the iron). | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

The Fabulous Engineering and Design of Duct Tape

Bill Hammack, aka The Engineer Guy, is an amazing engineering educator and in this video he explains how duct tape is designed to simultaneously do three things well: “a) adhere with light pressure, b) stay in place, yet c) be removable”. Controlling the stickiness of tape is of … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

Someone ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii ....

Someone ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii. “Since its launch in 2007, the Wii has seen several operating systems ported to it: Linux, NetBSD, and most-recently, Windows NT. Today, Mac OS X joins that list.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 8 days ago

“Working with agents feels much less like classic...

“Working with agents feels much less like classic deep work, and much more like playing a game.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

How to Guess If Your Job Will Exist in Five Years ....

How to Guess If Your Job Will Exist in Five Years. “There’s a better question for white-collar workers to ask themselves: Am I coal, or am I a horse?” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Post-Digital Digital Glitch Collages

I really love these collages by Anton Elfilter (Instagram, Threads). They are digital-ish? But also not? And does anyone else see the influence of Hilma af Klint in these? (via moss & fog) Tags: Anton Elfilter · art · design | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Farmers won their right-to-repair fight against John...

Farmers won their right-to-repair fight against John Deere. The settlement includes a 10-year “agreement by Deere to provide ‘the digital tools ​required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair’ of tractors, combines, and other machinery”. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

This sounds like an interesting podcast series from M....

This sounds like an interesting podcast series from M. Gessen: The Idiot. “Compassion has its limits when it comes to your own cousin.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S....

Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service. “…the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. Not a budget cut. Not a policy shift. Not a ‘reorganization.’ An execution.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator

From the Norwegian Consumer Council, a funny video that warns against the dangers of enshittification. It’s part of their Breaking Free initiative: Digital products and services are steadily becoming worse. Softwarebecomes increasingly difficult and frustrating to use, websites … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

What it’s like to take an 11-day filmmaking...

What it’s like to take an 11-day filmmaking workshop with Werner Herzog (in the Azores). “Take your camera, get the shot, forgo storyboards, don’t overdo it and, above all else, do the doable.” But also: “What will the local priest think?” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize are releasing a...

Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize are releasing a collaborative album called (maybe?) Nine Inch Noize. Available April 17. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

The Most Beautiful Moment of the Artemis II Mission . It...

The Most Beautiful Moment of the Artemis II Mission. It had little to do with science or celestial bodies; instead it was a moment shared by four curious, caring humans, united in purpose, far from home. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

The Sunshine Recorder

I went into this video not knowing anything about how a mid-19th century sunshine recorder might work and was genuinely delighted by the reveal. If you’d like to be similarly surprised, stop reading now and just watch the video. … … The sunshine recorder was invented in 1853 f … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Oh, about that story you may have read about one guy...

Oh, about that story you may have read about one guy single-handedly building a “billion-dollar company” using AI: The New York Times Got Played By A Telehealth Scam And Called It The Future Of AI. Oopsie! | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

The latest big exposé on the identity of Satoshi...

The latest big exposé on the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the secretive inventor of Bitcoin, names cryptographer Adam Back as the likeliest suspect. John Carreyrou has won Pulitzers & helped expose the Theranos scam, but his evidence seems thin. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 9 days ago

Stunning Artemis II Phone Wallpapers

NASA has made available more than a dozen mobile wallpapers of photos taken during the Artemis II mission for free download. Basic Apple Guy has made some wallpapers of his own (that are slightly larger than NASA’s and better for iPhones). I have also made a few of my own: Earth … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 10 days ago

“I have a feeling that everyone likes using AI...

“I have a feeling that everyone likes using AI tools to try doing someone else’s profession. They’re much less keen when someone else uses it for their profession.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 10 days ago

Resident Advisor: there are signs that Boards of Canada...

Resident Advisor: there are signs that Boards of Canada might release some new music soon. Please let this be true, we need this! | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 10 days ago

A guide to which Apple chargers to use with which Apple...

A guide to which Apple chargers to use with which Apple products in order to charge the quickest. (Your charger’s wattage really matters when the device’s battery level is 0-50%. After that, less so.) | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 10 days ago

Solar Eclipse From the Far Side of the Moon

This shot from Artemis II of the Moon eclipsing the Sun is one of the most breathtaking astronomical photos I’ve ever seen. Holy shit. Captured by the Artemis II crew during their lunar flyby on April 6, 2026, this image shows the Moon fully eclipsing the Sun. From the crew’s pe … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 10 days ago

I missed that author Tracy Kidder died a few weeks ago ....

I missed that author Tracy Kidder died a few weeks ago. Kidder wrote the excellent The Soul of a New Machine, which won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

Hollywood, Ending is John Green’s forthcoming...

Hollywood, Ending is John Green’s forthcoming book, “a deeply observed novel about the tension between a public and a private life, and finding your safe someone to hold onto”. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

A Catalog of an Entire House/Life

In a period of four years, Belgian photographer Barbara Iweins took a photo of every single thing in her house, “from my daughters torn sock to my sons Lego, but also my vibrator, my anxiolytics… absolutely everything. 12,795 photos of 12,795 objects.” You can explore the entire … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

Teenager Michael Haskell “ buys abandoned storage...

Teenager Michael Haskell “buys abandoned storage lockers at bargain prices…with the aim of selling their contents for profit”. But: “Two years into his pursuit, he knows all too well that every locker tells a story, many of them bleak.” | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

Shoe Pop Dream Gaze , a three-hour playlist from...

Shoe Pop Dream Gaze, a three-hour playlist from Christina Hendricks’ all-vinyl DJ set. (You may remember Hendricks as Joan on Mad Men.) | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

“What caught my eye as a designer, as with most...

“What caught my eye as a designer, as with most industrial plants and control rooms of that time, besides the knobs, levers, and buttons, was the use of a very specific seafoam green…” It’s time for some color theory… | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about...

Really interesting piece from Jodi Ettenberg about microdosing a GLP-1 to manage her mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). She’s noticed “way less pain” and can eat more foods without reactions (yoghurt, oats, mild curry pastes). | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the...

The Astor Place Riots of 1849 resulted in “the greatest loss of life in a civic insurrection in American history up to that time”. And they were incited over the “wrong” actor playing Macbeth. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago

Transcription by Ben Lerner

I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about Ben Lerner’s new novel Transcription (Amazon) which comes out tomorrow. From the book’s description: What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is the unforgettable story of the triangle formed by Thomas, Max, and the narrator, … | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 11 days ago