If there's one thing you want to do immediately after completing the kind of long, exhausting hike that's mandatory when backpacking, it's rip off those shoes and let your fiery, achy feet breathe a little. But as much as you'd like to whip out your most comfortably broken-in set … | Continue reading
I am still stinge watching my way through the second season of Strange New Worlds, but the third season of the show premieres sometime this summer, so I’d better finish it up before then. Anyway, I love this show and crew and the trailer looks appropriately kooky and wacky so let … | Continue reading
"It is crucial to exercise caution in introducing new substances." Scientists issue warning about threat lurking in common beach item: 'We are essentially sitting on a ticking time bomb' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
What happens when you minimize the chance of data leakage? | Continue reading
Chimpanzees select materials for tools based on flexibility, revealing early engineering instincts linked to human tool evolution. A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute … | Continue reading
"You can't be serious." Shopper sparks outrage with photo of shocking snack item for sale at grocery store: 'That's just sad' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
A spiral galaxy known as NGC 4945 exhibits powerful winds of material blowing from the supermassive black hole located at its core in a new photo taken by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. | Continue reading
A "fully immersive experience" promises viewers a new way (and reason) to rewatch Wizard of Oz ahead of Wicked For Good's release. | Continue reading
All the broken pecan shells are in one spot under the tree. Must be some happy squirrels living here. | Continue reading
"The alternative hypothesis is that it had never gone and that in the last 190 years simply, we were unable to observe it." Experts celebrate rediscovery of species believed extinct for nearly two centuries: 'Photographed once, observed twice' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Microsoft unveiled its Xbox AI era earlier this year with a new Muse AI model that can generate gameplay. While it looked like Muse was still an early Microsoft Research project, the Xbox maker is now allowing Copilot users to try out Muse through an AI-generated version of Quake … | Continue reading
Arctic sea ice hit a historic low this winter, shrinking to the smallest extent ever recorded at its seasonal peak. NASA and the NSIDC revealed that warmer air, ocean temperatures, and persistent wind patterns have limited both the formation of new sea ice and the survival of old … | Continue reading
It’s about greed. It’s about resources. It’s about the Oligarch’s thirst for control of water. New York Times: Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau spoke twice on Feb. 3, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, as part of discussions to stave off tariffs on Canadian exports. But tho … | Continue reading
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, yesterday: Thanks to Microsoft for 50 years of being awesome to developers! Some years the software was great. Some years the software sucked. Every year the company and its ecosystem has stood with and supported developers. I pity the man who doesn’t have e … | Continue reading
In the latest Club MacStories Monthly Log, I got a chance to reflect on my expanded journaling practice one year on. The original story I wrote about my approach to journaling was my first contribution to the Monthly Log a year ago, so it was cool having the opportunity to revisi … | Continue reading
I have a Canadian partner on the radiofreeameri.ca project, a founder of Tucows, who I've known for decades, Ross Rader. We've done work together in the past, it's great to be doing it again. | Continue reading
Deep sea mining has been off limits thus far, both because it's awfully hard, and because governments haven't yet firmed up regulations around extracting minerals offshore. That might soon change, as an ambitious company is moving steadily to secure permission to begin operations … | Continue reading
Tom Warren, reporting for The Verge: Microsoft held a special 50th anniversary event at its headquarters earlier today. During Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman’s presentation, a Microsoft employee interrupted the event to protest the use of Microsoft’s technologies in Israel’s w … | Continue reading
Lars Moravy, Tesla's VP of vehicle engineering, shared this news on the Ride the Lightning podcast. Tesla executive sparks buzz with surprising remark about two popular models: 'It's about time' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
They’re gonna do a season three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I enjoyed both seasons, but the second one was definitely better. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
“[Tariffs] will certainly raise the price of equipment needed for telecommunications,” said Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. “Higher prices will lead to lower demand. In turn, this will reduce equipment market growth,” Dell’Oro anal … | Continue reading
Interesting & joyful things from the previous week | Continue reading
“The cost of servers, near term, is likely to increase materially, which may have an impact on AI deployments,” many of which are in the U.S.,” wrote New Street Research’s Pierre Ferragu in a note. “How would tariffs apply to a GPU server, selling for $400k, of which $280k is the … | Continue reading
“Cameras are bought with disposable income, and that’s not growing the way it used to in China. Indeed, the impact on China of the US tariffs is going to challenge the Chinese economy, just as it will the US.Bottom line: short term camera pricing won’t seem to make a lot of sense … | Continue reading
Warm Caches in Cold Worlds | Continue reading
In April 2025, while most of the world was clutching pearls over trade war tit-for-tat tariffs, China calmly walked over to the supply chain and yanked out a handful of critical bolts. The bolts are made of dysprosium, terbium, tungsten, indium and yttrium—the elements that don’t … | Continue reading
Celebrities are monetizing spirituality with the most popular app on the iPhone - Hallow - The thing about meditation is that it's totally pointless unless you can somehow monetize it. /s As AI Takes His Readers, A Leading History Publisher Wonders What’s Next - His World History … | Continue reading
"There is still much more that needs to be done." New report shows global investments surpassing $2 trillion in emerging sector: 'Shows just how much growth we've seen' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Celebrities are monetizing spirituality with the most popular app on the iPhone - Hallow - The thing about meditation is that it's totally pointless unless you can somehow monetize it. /s As AI Takes His Readers, A Leading History Publisher Wonders What’s Next - His World History … | Continue reading
HTEC just opened another hydrogen fueling station in British Columbia. It sits gleaming and underused in the Lower Mainland, one more high-cost monument to a transportation future that never arrived. It’s an infrastructure project aimed at a market that doesn’t exist, serving veh … | Continue reading
The EU is seeking more green hydrogen from overseas suppliers, but US producers have been sidelined by a sudden shift in federal energy policy. The post Trump’s Green Hydrogen Loss Is Everyone Else’s Gain (Shocker!) appeared first on CleanTechnica. | Continue reading
A new agrivoltaics assessment tool can help US farmers weight the financial and environmental impacts of combining solar panels with crops on their land. The post Agrivoltaics To Rescue US Farmers From Ron Vara appeared first on CleanTechnica. | Continue reading
"Great tip!" Woman reveals simple trick to revive leather goods using just one ingredient: 'Can't wait to try' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Although it’s certainly more plausible than hypotheses like ancient aliens or lizard people, the idea that slaves built the Egyptian pyramids is no more true. It derives from creative readings of Old Testament stories and technicolor Cecil B. Demille spectacles, and was a classic … | Continue reading
On the path we're on, no doubt Bluesky will come under the same kind of regulation law firms and universities are. And the shame of it is we could be using this time to spread out, distribute. | Continue reading
I visited this place four years ago, but today my family and I went to the Todtnau Waterfall again. This time there’s a new suspension bridge from which you can see the waterfall from above and get an even better view of the valley in the black forest. | Continue reading
Euclid is on a quest to unravel one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: why it’s expanding faster and faster. With help from NASA, this space telescope is capturing sweeping views of billions of galaxies, allowing scientists to peer into the deep past. Using light that took bil … | Continue reading
Ripe, golden mangoes are key. READ MORE... | Continue reading
"It's so important to have local people included in the management and benefits of this hope spot, so no one is left behind." Rolex announces unique initiative to address pressing issue in the world: 'I feel hopeful' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
About programming, AI and devops | Continue reading
It’s been a little while since I last looked at regular mini-PCs, and considering that the market is flooded with cheap Intel N100 and N150 variants, you would think there isn’t a lot of diversity in the EUR 200 range. Well, it turns out there are some interesting alternatives ou … | Continue reading
Not going to lie, this has been a long week. I gave two presentations at Arc of AI, one of which needed to big updates as Chrome changed their API a day before my presentation. To be fair, the browser AI stuff is in development and the changes were good, but I had to scramble a b … | Continue reading
Disney just released the first trailer for Tron: Ares, the long-planned Tron: Legacy sequel. The minute-and-a-half trailer doesn’t say much about the story but shows plenty of the movie’s visuals, which look dark, moody, and filled with the series’ signature light trails. The tra … | Continue reading
Loosely related to Which explorer called the Gulf of Mexico/America the Golfo de Florida? … David Levitt, a Marvin Minsky PhD student at MIT 40 years ago, posted the following meme on his Facebook feed: It struck me as odd that Einstein, who died in 1995, would have written or sa … | Continue reading
A swift uphill scramble for my friend and fellow volunteer John and I, before dinner. We're staying in a nearby farmhouse for a week if volunteer work, writing software to help charities. Beautiful view from the summit this evening! SL, TNLN, TFTC! | Continue reading
This setup, filled with references to How I Met Your Mother and The Truman Show, really allows Ava Valianti to go to a place of vulnerability, exploring her own feelings of self-doubt and insecurity through the lens of an outside observer. | Continue reading
"Still totally usable!" Chef shares smart, money-saving hack to get the most out of your produce: 'I never knew this' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
The venerable designer and regular face of D&D livestreams had been at Wizards of the Coast for 28 years. | Continue reading