Brickception: a Breakout-style game for desktop browsers in which a popup window acts as the paddle for the main window…but there’s also a mini Breakout game in the popup. So awesome. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Itttt’s baaack… After not happening for the past three years, the Kottke Holiday Gift Guide has returned. I’ve scoured the internet and dozens of other gift guides for the best (and sometimes weirdest) stuff out there — it’s a curated meta-guide for your holiday giving. This list … | Continue reading
Relax, Electric Vehicles Really Are the Best Choice for the Climate. “Electric vehicles are like digital cameras in their early iterations. They are already better than the alternative for almost everyone, and improving at a breathtakingly fast clip.” Join the discussion on ko … | Continue reading
After OpenAI’s Blowup, It Seems Pretty Clear That ‘AI Safety’ Isn’t a Real Thing. “The long-term fallout from this gripping incident is bound to be a lot less enjoyable than the initial spectacle of it.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The recipe for the cookies that Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster eats. “They’re edible, but barely.” And they have to be “thin enough to explode in a shower of crumbs”. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Children, left behind by suburbia, need better community design. “Walkable, mixed-use planning is the key to getting young people outside again and enabling their independence.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
This is me every single damn morning: “To hurkle-durkle is to lounge around in bed long after you should have got up.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Wow, Taylor Swift’s website from 2002. Includes “dialup” and “broadband” download links to her music. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The opposite of the straw man argument: the steel man technique. “Put simply, it’s building the best form of the other side’s argument and then engaging with it.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Three Palestinian students were shot in Burlington, VT on Saturday evening. The alleged shooter was a middle-aged white male — it’s being investigated as a possible hate crime. This is fucking horrifying. | Continue reading
Whoa, the 2nd-gen Apple AirPods Pro are on sale at Amazon for $190…that’s $60 off and $10 cheaper than I’ve ever seen them for sale. These are the new USB-C ones too. | Continue reading
I listened to Ministry of Sound’s The Annual - Millennium Edition on heavy repeat in my mid 20s. What a treat it is to rediscover it on Soundcloud: It’s an unofficial upload so who knows how long it will last. The three song mix by Judge Jules at the beginning of the first disc … | Continue reading
Craig Mod’s new book is out: Things Become Other Things. Great title, perfect cover. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
AI Thanksgiving includes such traditional dishes as GRASTED POTINOS, PUCAPIN, TURFING, FUFER, GREENRRY PANS, and PUPLIN ROLLS. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Rebecca Solnit: Billionaires are out of touch and much too powerful. “The 1% aren’t just the biggest climate wreckers, they also greatly influence how the world responds to the crisis.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The current state-of-the-art in AI video generation reminds me so much of the early days of film — short, experimental, silent, uncanny resemblance to real life, mostly just moving still lifes. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The Ministry of Sound did a show back in September at the Royal Albert Hall where they re-imagined classic 90s dance music (Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, etc.) backed by a 50-piece orchestra and vocalists. I found out about this via organist Anna Lapwood’s Instagram, where she … | Continue reading
A new version of Rasmus Andersson’s Inter typeface has been released. “Inter is a free and open source font family. You are free to use this font in almost any way imaginable.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
This entire article is a delight from start to finish, full of laugh-out-loud moments. I couldn’t decide which part to quote for you, so here are more than a few particularly delightful paragraphs. The flight to Rome is sentient; it knows exactly where I’m going and what to provi … | Continue reading
Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI. All but one of the old board members are gone (including both women). New board members are Bret Taylor (Facebook/Salesforce) and Larry Summers (economist). The money won, full steam ahead. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I linked to this in the recent David Bowie post, but it’s worth pulling out separately: the 100 greatest BBC musical performances. This is an incredible trove of late 20th and early 21st century musical greatness. Some selections just off the top of my head: Blondie – Atomic/Hear … | Continue reading
Tumblr is betting big on going small. “We are shifting from the mode of ‘surging’ on Tumblr with tons of people to get it to exciting growth, to working on how we can run Tumblr in the most smooth and efficient manner.” | Continue reading
Manifesto for posting online in 2023. Liked this bit: “Most people would prefer you to be an indentikit loaf of sliced white supermarket bread, but we know that all of the goodness is in your funky sourdough starter mix.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Climate scientist Kate Marvel is done warning people about the problems with our climate and has moved on to highlighting our success in combatting it. The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create … | Continue reading
What Happens When the Super Rich Are This Selfish? (It Isn’t Pretty.) The West has always counted on the rich to support societies in times of need and crisis. But today, “this symbiotic relationship no longer exists”. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Apparently, Aardman Animation is running out of clay. The company that produces the clay ceased operations and they only have enough for one more feature film. Uhhh, why doesn’t Aardman just buy the clay company? Lucasfilm had ILM after all. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Oh ho! PBS & BBC have announced that filming will soon begin on their adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light (the 3rd book in the excellent Wolf Hall trilogy). Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis return as Cromwell and Henry VIII. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I love these depictions of famous moments in psychology and cognitive science via @tomerullman. From top to bottom: the Stanford prison experiment, the marshmallow test, and the selective attention test. These didn’t track as AI-generated at first…and then I tried to read the tex … | Continue reading
Transanta is an online secret Santa program to “deliver gifts to trans youth in need, safely and anonymously”. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Why Aren’t More People Marrying? Ask Women What Dating Is Like. “It seems that by the time men begin dating, they are relatively ‘limited in their ability and willingness to be fully emotionally present and available’”. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The staff of Lapham’s Quarterly has been “furloughed indefinitely” after the magazine announced that it was temporarily on hiatus due to financial constraints. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
This is the cover to the just-released United Nations Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report 2023 (full report here). Perfect title, perfect graphic, perfect subheadline. No notes. Amazing that an official UN climate report has this much biting personality. You can just sens … | Continue reading
For her new album Rockstar, Dolly Parton has covered a number of “iconic rock anthems”, including Heart of Glass (feat. Debbie Harry), Stairway to Heaven (feat. Lizzo on the flute), I Hate Myself For Loving You (feat. Joan Jett and The Blackhearts), and Every Breath You Take (fea … | Continue reading
I loved Questlove’s review of André 3000’s “departure album” of instrumental music. “All you newbie meditators/microdosers/”time-out-for-me-before-I-hurt-someone” people who are trying to do better - THIS is good medicine music for you.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
November 17 was the first day on record to have “a global average surface temperature above 2°C when compared with preindustrial levels”. Jesus. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
In what’s been voted the greatest BBC musical performance of all time, David Bowie appeared on Top of the Pops in 1972 to sing Starman and changed the course of musical history. The performance launched Bowie to stardom. Thursday 6th July, 1972, is said to be ‘the day that invent … | Continue reading
“Beginning November 20, every U.S. household can again place an order to receive four more free COVID-19 rapid tests delivered directly to their home.” | Continue reading
A cold-oven Thanksgiving turkey recipe from Helen Rosner. You start the bird in a cold oven and gradually raise the temperature in order to help ensure a crispy skin. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Reminder: the Squiggle t-shirts remain for sale and are proving quite popular. I’m wearing one of mine right now! Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Monaspace is a mix-n-match “superfamily” of monospaced fonts designed by Github for coding. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Wow, what a lovely, inspiring story this is: in 2022, Gary McKee ran a marathon every single day. On weekdays, he got up early and completed his run before work. And along the way, he inspired a bunch of people to join him (one work colleague ran 92 marathons w/ him) and raised £ … | Continue reading
Meanwhile, 100s of OpenAI employees are threatening to quit and join Altman at Microsoft unless the remaining board members resign. Turns out, if you sell AI-idealistic people on bettering the world, they don’t want to wait to do so (and get rich in the bargain). Join the disc … | Continue reading
After OpenAI tried all weekend to hire former CEO Sam Altman back, Microsoft hired him and fellow co-founder Greg Brockman. Altman will be CEO of a new AI research team. Great move by MS — and obvious in retrospect…didn’t see many pundits predicting this… Join the discussion o … | Continue reading
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes Away at Age 96. President Carter: “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it.” | Continue reading
Well, it has been a loooong week and this made me laugh a stupid amount, so now you’re seeing it. ✌️ Tags: cars | Continue reading
Sam Altman is out as CEO and a member of the board of directors at OpenAI. “A deliberative review process by the board […] concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board…” | Continue reading
This video from MoMA follows master printer Jacob Samuel as he makes his final print before he retires. As he inks, hand wipes, and rolls his final print through the press, he reflects on his philosophy. “My goal is to leave no fingerprints,” he says. All you see is the artist’s … | Continue reading
Is My Toddler a Stochastic Parrot? “The world is racing to develop ever more sophisticated large language models while a small language model unfurls itself in my home. It’s funny to observe the similarities between the two models.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading