An intriguing new habitat project “inspired” by NASA

The AI SpaceFactory team won half a million dollars from NASA for its Mars habitat prototype, MARSHA. They are now taking the re | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Progress is the realization of utopias

Ok. So the book is from a few years ago and, like me, you might be suffering from a light case of UBI (Universal Basic Income) fat | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

An illustrated guide to silvopasture

Paul Hawken's Project Drawdown "is the world's leading source of climate solutions." In the list of solutions, perhaps | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Desert libraries of Chinguetti

I did not know about these wonderful places. For hundreds of years, families in Mauritania have been maintaining libraries of ol | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Soli touchless interactions are coming to Pixel 4

You may remember a few years ago when a video about Google's Project Soli made the rounds, it promised very fine touchless gestu | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

What do you care about?

Somewhat as a continuation to the previous post on journalism, which included a call to "look at people and how they use the | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

A call for more research and questioning by journalists

Jeff Jarvis with some good comments (based primarily on a paper by Axel Bruns) arguing that the media in general needs to start wi | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Sato San, duct tape typographer

Lovely story of a Tokyo security guard who's enhancing his guidance work through constructions sites with some fantastic custom | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

From Reality TV to YouTube and back again

The transformation of (a lot of) the internet into simply a larger, more diversified series of tv channels continues apace. Sharin | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Ghosts on her shelves

It's always interesting to see how people feel about books. Some don't read them, some always have one in hand, even walking. So | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Walking, the easy superpower

One of the very few productivity tips I trust 100% (ok, probably the only one) is the recommendation for getting up and walking | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Rare encounter with a piglet squid

This one is a super short article about a deep sea encounter between the Nautilus research vessel and a rare piglet squid. Beaut | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

This tree stump is kept alive by its neighbours

It's sometimes easy to think that we know how most things work, especially those that surround us and we take for granted. Truth | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Serendipity v algorithmy

I've always liked the concept of serendipity, even more since being involved in the early days of coworking, where we used the ter | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Mateusz Urbanowicz’s Tokyo storefronts

Gorgeous work by a Polish illustrator working in Japan. Originally found him through this page about his Tokyo storefronts book, | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Fortnite World Cup

Incredibly (I guess), I've never played Fortnite. I have however been paying some attention to the game / platform, but it still | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Verticality, media, and China

This is the collision of two interesting "topic fields" I like to pay attention to. China in general, especially how med | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The Best Supermarket Beer

This is a fun one; over at The Takeout, they did a fantasy draft where each of the writers picked his/her favorite supermarket bee | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The Builder’s Remorse

It's nothing new for people who built tools to later have remorse when seeing those tools abused. Sometimes that remorse is world- | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Chuck Klosterman On How He Chooses Books To Read

I superficially resemble Chuck Klosterman -- we're redheaded dudes with glasses and beards -- but wouldn't call myself a fan. I've | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

“I Am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I Am a Woman, and I Am Fast.”

For Out magazine, Michelle Garcia profiles track star Caster Semenya.Immediately after that mind-blowing 800-meter final at th | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Photos from Opening Day at Disneyland in 1955

Alan Taylor of In Focus has curated a selection of photos taken during the first few days after Disneyland was opened to the publi | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

A Fresh Guide To Florence With Fab 5 Freddy

Music pioneer Fab 5 Freddy is most well-known for hosting the seminal Yo! MTV Raps, but his earliest public attention came because | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The Story Format Leaps from Instagram to Big Media

I know this probably isn't brand new, but in the past couple of weeks I've noticed a few articles published by big media companies | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Archaeology of the 99%

Archaeologists are increasingly looking past the splashy artifacts of ancient elites to seek & find the dwellings and possessi | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Climate Change Is a Humanitarian Crisis

From The New Humanitarian, a mid-year update on 10 humanitarian trends and crises to watch in 2019 (here's their initial post). Th | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

101 Things Changing How We Work

From the BBC, a list of the 101 people, ideas, and things changing how we work today. I pulled out a few of things I thought were | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

One 8-Second Sample Yields 800 Radically Different Songs

Last year, music software company Ableton gave music producers a challenge: take an 8-second sample of audio and make a track out | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The 100 Best Movies of the 2010s

Indiewire is early out of the gate with their list of the 100 best movies of the decade, betting that anything coming out in the n | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Trailer for Harriet, the Harriet Tubman Biopic

Harriet is a biopic about freedom fighter Harriet Tubman coming out in November. Tubman is played by Cynthia Erivo, who looked s | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Lovely Panoramic Paintings of US National Parks

Heinrich C. Berann's panoramic paintings of US National Parks aren't just art and aren't just maps but sit somewhere delightfu | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Sony’s Proto-Walkman that Went to the Moon

50 years ago, the Sony TC-50 cassette player and recorder accompanied the Apollo 11 crew to the Moon and back. (Here's what they | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Cars! What’s the Matter with Cars Today?

I read four things recently that are all related in some way to our cities and how we get around in them.1. Was the Automotive E | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

What It Feels Like to Die from Heat Stroke

From Outside magazine, an article on what your body goes through and what it feels like to die from heat stroke. A perhaps unneces | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Abstract Aerial Art

The Andrews brothers travel the world taking overhead drone photos that they offer as prints on their site Abstract Aerial Art. I | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Well, this trailer for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is our first look at Tom Hanks playing Fred Rogers and, hmm. I dunno. | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

What Neil Armstrong Saw from His Window As He Landed on the Moon

I was away this weekend at a family function and mostly without internet access, so I didn't get to watch the coverage of the Moon | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The Spine-Tingling Trailer for Star Trek: Picard

Here I was, flying along fat, dumb, and happy (like my dad used to say), not really wanting or needing any more The Next Generat | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Live TV Coverage of the Apollo 11 Landing and Moon Walk

You've heard by now that it's the 50th anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, 50 years ago today | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

The Simpsons has never exactly portrayed its characters in a flattering light, but this version of the show's title sequence rei | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Highlights from In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

You may know of Erik Larson from his excellent book on the 1893 World's Fair, The Devil in the White City. Larson's In the Garden | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Winners of the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards

The National Audubon Society has announced the winners of the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards competition. Photo credits fro | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Neil and Buzz Barely Got Out of the Infield

With the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the Moon fast approaching, I thought I'd share one of my favorite views | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Disco’s Revenge: the Birth of House Music

In this episode of Earworm, Estelle Caswell and the gang explore the elements of a classic house track -- the disco diva samples | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Video of the Complete Descent of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module

The Apollo Flight Journal has put together a 20-minute video of the full descent and landing of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module conta | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

How Alfonso Cuarón Uses Long Takes in His Films

Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón has become the modern director most associated with the long take. In this video, The Royal | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Simulating Natural Selection

The YouTube channel Primer is running a series on evolution and how it works. Topics include mutations, selfish genes, and altruis | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes

From the Book of Judith comes the tale of Judith beheading Holofernes.In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter | Continue reading


@kottke.org | 5 years ago