The Sticker Box and the Woodstock Message Tree. “What makes this sticker-covered electrical box even more interesting is its location. It sits right across the road from the former site of the Woodstock Message Tree.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
“Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now which probably won’t magically catalyze a mass movement against Trump but that are still wildly important.” | Continue reading
We might get to see Coyote vs. Acme after all…Warner Bros. is in the process of selling it. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
On Edward Gorey’s Great Simple Theory About Art “Anything that is art…is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other…” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
A UN World Meteorological Organization report “lists 151 unprecedented extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any ever recorded in the region.” Heat, floods, storms — all made worse by global warming. | Continue reading
Trump Has Gone From Unconstitutional to Anti-Constitutional. “[Anti-Constitutionalism] rejects the premise that sovereignty lies with the people, that ours is a government of limited and enumerated powers and that the officers of that government are bound by law.” | Continue reading
Editorial from Nature magazine: Vaccines save lives. Leaders must champion them. “We urge policymakers to help boost people’s confidence in vaccines, and not to undermine scientific and medical institutions or the process of research.” | Continue reading
In 1945, the US Department of War (the precursor to the Dept of Defense) produced this educational film on the “destructive effects of racial and religious prejudice” and the use of such prejudice to gain power. Reel 1 shows a fake wrestling match and “crooked” gambling games. An … | Continue reading
A new video from Kurzgesagt explores the limits of human exploration in the Universe. How far can we venture? Are there limits? Turns out the answer is very much “yes”…with the important caveat “using our current understanding of physics”, which may someday provide a loophole (or … | Continue reading
A 6‑Hour Time-Stretched Version of Brian Eno’s Music For Airports. “The tonal field is the same, but now the notes are no attack, all decay.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
UbuWeb, a pirate library of avant-garde artifacts, closed in 2024. But last month, they started the site back up again. “Archiving reemerges as a strong form of resistance, a way of preserving crucial, subversive, and marginalized forms of expression.” 💬 Join the discussi … | Continue reading
Bad at Goodbyes is a podcast highlighting a different critically endangered plant or animal on each episode. Recently featured: Vancouver Island Marmot, Dama Gazelle, Koyama’s Spruce, Cuban Crocodile, and Pariette Cactus. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
In his latest video, Mark Rober shows how easy it is to fool Tesla’s self-driving capability (they use cheaper video cameras) when compared with other self-driving cars (which use lidar). Big Wile E. Coyote energy from the Tesla here. Oh and he also uses lidar to map out the inte … | Continue reading
From The Climate Mental Health Network, a downloadable free zine for youth that “offers a collection of perspectives and tools to support other climate-concerned youth around the emotional impacts of the climate crisis and healthy ways to respond”. 💬 Join the discussion o … | Continue reading
The Women Who Wanted to Leave Their Husbands Over Politics. “This fall, I followed three women who had been thinking about divorce. What happened when Donald Trump won again?” Really interesting and depressing. | Continue reading
Freedom of the Press Foundation: “[Wired] is going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.” | Continue reading
You may have already seen it, but I finally got around to reading this piece: One Word Describes Trump. “Patrimonialism is distinguished by running the state as if it were the leader’s personal property or family business.” | Continue reading
Song Exploder talks to Theodore Shapiro about how he created the main title theme music for Severance. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
From One Million Experiments, a printable zine meant to be “used as a template for those seeking to make an activism or organizing plan” with knowledge distilled from seasoned activists. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The Curious 100 from The Eames Institute is, “a celebration of one hundred courageous leaders and creative minds across the United States who are harnessing the transformative power of curiosity to solve today’s most pressing problems”. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org … | Continue reading
Indie game Blobun has a joke setting that eliminates its lesbian content. But the main character is gay “so flipping the so-called ‘lesbian toggle’ in the options menu removes her from the game and renders it totally unplayable”. | Continue reading
If you’re mad as hell, one thing you can do is run for elected office. Run For Something recruits & supports “young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot races in order to build sustainable power for Democrats in all 50 states”. | Continue reading
A really important point from Masha Gessen about the Trumpist attacks on (and “denationalization” of) trans people: “The reason you should care about this is not that it could happen to you but that it is already happening to others.” 🎯🎯🎯 | Continue reading
A good, long piece from Thomas Zimmer about how we “underestimated the Trumpist threat and overestimated how resilient both the political system as well as American civil society would be…that is something we all need to grapple with in earnest.” | Continue reading
Timothy Snyder on the terrifying deportations being undertaken by the Trump regime. This is a prelude to any American being stripped of citizenship and expelled from the country for any reason (protesting, faving the wrong photo, using pronouns). | Continue reading
The World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease Is About to Get Worse. John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis, warns that the Trump regime’s gutting of international aid and scientific funding will result in more death & suffering from tuberculosis. | Continue reading
Canada is so furious at the US right now. “Everything Trump has said and done has led to a level of rage and defiance that I think very few Americans fully appreciate.” And rightly so! 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Beginning April 20, Pride & Prejudice (w/ Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen) is heading back to US theaters to mark the 20th anniversary of its release. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Something new from Radiohead on the horizon? Radiohead Members Form New LLP, Historically a Telltale Sign of New Activity. New album? Reissue? Tour? 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Ross Andersen writes thoughtfully about LeBron James’ protectiveness of his son Bronny James and accusations of nepotism. “The emotions of parenthood are gigantic. They can knock anyone off their game, even the great LeBron James.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
A bunch of people who have never heard of Radiohead listen to Creep for the first time. Some of them were in tears. It *is* a pretty great song. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The Pudding: How do animals sound across languages? “How can cultures hear the same physical sounds yet translate them into language so differently?” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Always a delight to see the newest issue of Laura Olin’s newsletter in my inbox. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
On this day 27 years ago, on March 14, 1998, I started this here website. I’m not sure what there is to say about the ridiculous length of time that I’ve spent doing this “moderately anachronistic thing” that I haven’t already said before: A little context for just how long that … | Continue reading
Wired has a big story (150+ sources) that takes a look Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’. “The next step: Unleash the AI.” 😱 | Continue reading
Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir about working at Facebook, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism (Bookshop), is on the bestseller charts after Meta tried to get the book pulled from sale. The Streisand effect strikes again. | Continue reading
Ted Lasso is returning for a fourth season. Not every actor is on board (yet)…it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Trailer for season two of Poker Face. If you haven’t seen it, it’s directed by Rian Johnson (Knives Out/Glass Onion) and Natasha Lyonne plays an itinerant Benoit Blanc sort of character. Very good. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Harvey Silikovitz tried 10 times to get on Jeopardy! over 24 years and finally made it. (And won!) “He’s pretty sure he has made history as the first Jeopardy! contestant to play with Parkinson’s.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is a Trial Run. “You may believe that Khalil does not deserve free speech or due process. But if he does not have them, then neither do you. Neither do I.” | Continue reading
404 Media has obtained a list of 200+ sites monitored by a contractor for ICE (Amazon, Apple Music, BabyCenter, Bluesky, Facebook, Github, GoFundMe, etc.). They can “pull a target individual’s publicly available data” from these sites “all at once”. | Continue reading
US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms. The Us joins a list of countries with “deteriorating civic space conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression”. | Continue reading
OMG, there’s an “S” in today’s Spelling Bee puzzle! (Is this the first time?) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Things have been a little weird lately so I missed this when it came out but lolol: mustaaaaaaaaaard! 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Following on from my post this morning, I think this is a good time to step back from the site for a bit and focus on some long-neglected backend things that just don’t get the attention they deserve when I’m busy with the day-to-day posting. There are a couple of projects in par … | Continue reading
The creator of Poetry Is Not a Luxury Instagram account is coming out with a poetry anthology in May: Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Skywriter takes Bluesky threads and makes webpages out of them. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
On Inauguration Day in January, Eliza McLamb wrote about her abstention from social media for a month and the challenge of keeping up with current events “without either turning towards ignorance or overwhelming myself with information”: I’ve been thinking deeply about this idea … | Continue reading