My Mother Got on a Bike. It Changed Her Life. “I rode my bike with my mother once; believe me, there is nothing more disheartening than being trash-talked by one’s mom as she huffs by you on a hill.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
A list of tautological place names, including Mississippi River (Big River River), Lake Tahoe (Lake Lake), Gobi Desert (Desert Desert), The La Brea Tar Pits (The The Tar Tar Pits), and Milky Way Galaxy (Milky Way Milky). (via nytimes.com) Join the discussion on kottke.org … | Continue reading
This video is 9 years old and has 169 million views so I’m possibly the last person on Earth to see it,1 but I ran across a clip of it on Instagram the other day and just had to share. Steve ‘n’ Seagulls is a country band from Finland that went viral for their covers of classic r … | Continue reading
Mark Twain once said: “golf is a good walk spoiled.”1 Some American communities are realizing that a golf course is a good outdoor space spoiled. A small number of shuttered golf courses around the country have been bought by land trusts, municipalities and nonprofit groups and t … | Continue reading
“Was my only option to sweat myself awake every night & hope sweet menopause would release me?” I’m not going to buy this $500 Jetsons-looking anti-sweat bed machine (YET?), however I did enjoy the accompanying short essay about the misery of night sweats. Join the discus … | Continue reading
A Michigan ham radio operator used a homemade setup with a handheld antenna to talk to an astronaut orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station. I didn’t know this was a thing! The astronaut even sent him a QSL card acknowledging the conversation (included at the end of … | Continue reading
How NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts became a viral phenomenon. “People strategize and plot things out. Sometimes it’s just straight inspiration that makes something great, and not a lot of planning.” (I love a Tiny Desk Concert.) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I thought this short, propulsive essay about drinking was going to end with the author quitting booze, but it doesn’t exactly. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
This is an interesting point by Chris Hayes about the difference between institutions (the NY Times, the Dept. of Justice, Facebook) trying to be independent and trying to be perceived as independent: But here’s the rub, if your goal is to be perceived as independent, then you ar … | Continue reading
Could we have had mRNA vaccines earlier? The quick success of Operation Warp Speed “suggests that the primary limitation to achieving mRNA vaccines was resourcing, rather than fundamental barriers of understanding or technology.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
You don’t have to be an expert to get a lot out of art. “There are no right or wrong ways of reading a piece — only ideas that can be expanded.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Ok, this video is targeted at a pretty small audience and is super goofy, but it hit me square in the forehead and so I can’t help but post it here: it’s footage from Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean with Bush’s 1994 alternative rock hit Glycerine playing over it. And yes, there is a ch … | Continue reading
Huh, the US Census Bureau purposely fudges the location data in the census to protect people’s privacy. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Holy crap, how cool are these carved wooden cars by Kiko Miyares! The style is just incredible. Is light a wave or a particle? Neither: light is wood. (via @scottmccloud) Tags: art · cars · Kiko Miyares Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Even though I don’t live there anymore, I enjoyed Scott Lynch’s review of the best movie theaters in NYC (and where to sit once you get there). I miss seeing movies in good theaters. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Craig Mod recaps 5 years of running a membership program. “I am absolutely more patient, more rigorous, kinder, and healthier. I am who I wished I could have been when I was in my 20s and floundering.” Five more years! Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I’ve probably listened to “Right Back to It,” the first single from indie folk-rock musician Waxahatchee’s forthcoming album Tiger’s Blood, at least 40 times since it came out a few weeks ago. The album’s second single, “Bored” (also good), came out last week, and the album itsel … | Continue reading
Birds have been lying about being related to dinosaurs! “For decades, birds literally looked us in the eye and claimed they descended from theropods — and it was all a stupid lie!” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Pretty good little crossword joke… Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
A team of three students were able to virtually “unroll” a 2000-year-old papyrus scroll that was carbonized during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Herculaneum, thereby winning the grand prize in the Vesuvius Challenge. These scrolls (there are hundreds of them) are little more … | Continue reading
John Oliver has offered Clarence Thomas a $2 million tour bus & $1 million per year if he retires from the Supreme Court immediately. “And all you have to do…is sign the contract and get the fuck off the Supreme Court.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
The global cost of cars: “We find that, since their invention, cars and automobility have killed 60–80 million people and injured at least 2 billion. Currently, 1 in 34 deaths are caused by automobility.” (via @davidzipper) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Fun analysis by The Pudding of the “diva score” of dozens of renditions of the Star Spangled Banner by stars like Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Beyoncé, T-Pain, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Oh man, I really enjoyed this “infuriating” list of things that don’t seem like they are named after people, including: Price Club (Sol Price) MySQL (My Widenius) Shrapnel (Henry Shrapnel) PageRank (Larry Page) German chocolate cake (Samuel German) Baker’s Chocolate (Walter Baker … | Continue reading
Minimalism Is Neat, but Clutter Makes a Home. “I don’t necessarily love the look of mismatched junk congesting the nooks and crannies of my home, but the clutter satisfies a deeper emotional need.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Muppets make everything better, right? Here’s a list of every Best Picture Oscar winner ranked by how good a Muppets version would be. “Rocky: THE underdog story. The Muppets boxing. Kermit screaming MISS PIGGY as half his face swells shut.” Join the discussion on kottke. … | Continue reading
Apparently Delta Airlines has a secret trading card program? Pilots will apparently give a trading card of the plane you’re flying on to anyone who asks. (via threads.net) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Tetris was created by Alexey Pajitnov 40 years ago. The NES version has been out since 1989. You’d think that people would have “solved” the game long ago. But humans, properly motivated, are relentlessly inventive, and the past few months have seen a flurry of record-setting act … | Continue reading
Kinda random, but I really love this animated GIF of tree shadows on a house, by artist Corey Corcoran. (It was “inspired by the novel North Woods by Daniel Mason,” he writes.) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
“The following tips will help you feel like you belong in the Ivory Tower, even when that little voice in your head says […] ‘I’m actually half a dozen raccoons nestled inside an abandoned upscale Swedish jacket.’” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Hey, everyone. I’m really excited to announce that Edith Zimmerman is joining kottke.org as a regular contributor! Edith guest edited the site back in December and sent me an email a few weeks ago saying how much fun she’d had and that if I needed any help around the place, she’d … | Continue reading
Republicans are planning “sweeping abortion restrictions” if Trump returns to office. They would go “far beyond proposals for a national ban or the laws enacted in conservative states across the country”. Draconian, punitive, Handmaid’s Tale shit. Join the discussion on k … | Continue reading
Cool & trippy slitscan video animation by Francois Vogel. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
NYC plans 6 new waterfront shipping hubs to replace truck freight with barges. E-bikes and small delivery vehicles will handle last-mile delivery. Good idea! Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I am normally a Pepsi drinker (I know, don’t start), but IMO the best tasting soda you can get is Coke at McDonald’s. This article outlines why it’s so tasty: better syrup, filtered water, colder, more CO2, wider straws. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
This is an image created by Hal Lasko in Microsoft Paint: Lasko was a retired graphic designer & typographer who found a new passion when he received a computer for his 85th birthday, which came preloaded with Microsoft Paint. This short film tells the story of The Pixel Painter … | Continue reading
Matt Webb wrote an iOS app that’s a compass that always points to the center of the Milky Way. “I don’t know how to write apps. EXCEPT. Now there is ChatGPT.” Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Some common programming terms were derived from physical attributes of early computers, including patch (covering holes in the data tape) and loop (actual loops of paper tape w/ code to run repeatedly). (via clivethompson.net) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
OpenAI unveiled their prototype video generator called Sora. It does text-to-video and a ton more. Just check out the videos here and here — I literally cannot believe what I’m seeing. For reference, this is what AI-generated video looked like a year ago. For more context and … | Continue reading
This is a cool thing I had not seen before: Chronolog. Since 2017, they’ve been helping organizations document environments over time by compiling photos taken by visitors, who then get sent information about the area they’ve visited. Here’s how it works: Changes in our environm … | Continue reading
Rebecca Solnit writes for the London Review of Books about what’s happened to San Francisco since it’s been “fully annexed” by Silicon Valley. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
For the first few decades of the web, the tacit agreement was that web crawlers could take data from sites in exchange for traffic back. But now, are AI crawlers (incl. Google) taking too much and offering too little in return? Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
Anyone who sends a SASE to a particular Colorado address can get a teaspoon of sourdough starter that has been kept going continuously since 1847. Bonus: a website design that hasn’t changed since 1996. (via buttondown.email) Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
YouTuber Casey Neistat has achieved a lot in life, including several “impossible goals” he set for himself. But one of his longest-running goals seemed to be slipping out of his reach and, well, I don’t want to spoil what happens. I will say however that I think it’s good and hea … | Continue reading
Parisian police were going to close the bouquinistes (booksellers) along the Seine for the Olympics but Macron nixed that plan. In their defense, the booksellers quoted Camus: “Everything that degrades culture shortens the paths that lead to servitude.” Join the discussio … | Continue reading
The 13 Worst Bike Lanes in the World. Includes examples of “paint as bike lane” and “car charging cables stretching across bike lane” and my fave: “trees in the middle of the bike lane”. Join the discussion on kottke.org → | Continue reading
I am a relative NYT crossword n00b, so I just found out about XWord Info and the wealth of statistics available there — it’s like sabermetrics for crosswords. Word nerds, I’m sure there are other CW resources like this out there…share your faves? Join the discussion on ko … | Continue reading
A day late, but there’s room for love every day here at kottke.org: from the Portland Stamp Company, a history of LOVE stamps issued by the US Postal Service from 1973 to the present. There are some heavy hitters amongst the designers of these stamps, including Robert Indiana, Si … | Continue reading