This is Cabel Sasser’s XOXO talk. Best not to know anything going into it…just watch all the way to the end. “Don’t waste this. Keep everyone guessing. Make me proud.”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
POSSE (Post (on) Own Site Syndicate Elsewhere) has been my strategy for years now. “A simple technique offers the best of both worlds: total control over your own work, while still maintaining a presence on third-party platforms.”
Bookshops are cool again! Booksellers have “noticed a sharp rise in young readers coming into their shops seeking out human guidance, eager to be in a physical store rather than filtering through AI and influencer-recommended titles online.”
Season Two of Silo
The trailer for season two of Silo, which starts on Apple TV+ on November 15. It doesn’t reveal much but I am excited to watch the new season! (No spoilers please from folks who have read the books.)
These solidly middlebrow shows like Silo, The Diplomat, and The Gilded Age are some of my favorites to watch these days because they are well-produced with quality actors but don’t tax the viewer (ok, me…they don’t tax me) as much as more serious fare like Shōgun, My Brilliant Friend, Severance, or Chernobyl (all of which I love to bits but sometimes feels like eating your vegetables, if you know what I mean). But a good media diet is a varied media diet and stuff like Silo is really hitting the spot for me right now.
From Robin Wall Kimmerer (author of Braiding Sweetgrass), a new book called The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, in which “she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy”.
There’s no guarantee that the Earth’s natural carbon sinks (ocean, plants, soil) will continue to work the way they have in the past. Last year for instance, “forest, plants and soil — as a net category — absorbed almost no carbon”.
Charles Schulz on Being a Good Citizen
In 1970 as part of a class project, 10-year-old Joel Linton wrote to Peanuts creator Charles Schulz to ask him, “What do you think makes a good citizen?” Schulz replied with this letter:
The letter reads:
Dear Joel:
I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen then it has ever been before. Certainly all any of us can do is follow our own conscience and retain faith in our democracy. Sometimes it is the very people who cry out the loudest in favor of getting back to what they call “American Virtues” who lack this faith in our country. I believe that our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.
Sincerely yours,
Charles M. Schulz
Schulz’s widow Jean Schulz wrote of the letter:
The letter turned up recently, and the answer must have startled Mr. Lipton by how appropriate the answer would be if written today.
I always saw Sparky as a great believer in the long flow of history — that the people of the world had seen improvements over the centuries, and that, as he says in his letter, “our greatest strength lies always in the protection of our smallest minorities.”
The way mainstream media covers Trump and the GOP is fatally flawed to the point of being inaccurate. “They stumble over and over to convey what is actually happening. Why can’t legacy media say clearly what he’s doing on a consistent basis?”
Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our online age, dies at age 78. “Friends and associates remember Christensen as humble and unassuming, a quiet innovator who never sought the spotlight for his groundbreaking work.”
Ed Yong on Breaking Down and Putting Yourself Back Together
My favorite presentation at XOXO this year was Ed Yong’s talk about the pandemic, journalism, his work over the past four years, and the personal toll that all those things took on him. I just watched the entire thing again, riveted the whole time.
Hearing how thoughtfully & compassionately he approached his work during the pandemic was really inspirational: “My pillars are empathy, curiosity, and kindness — and much else flows from that.” And his defense of journalism, especially journalism as “a caretaking profession”:
For people who feel lost and alone, we get to say through our work: you are not. For people who feel like society has abandoned them and their lives do not matter, we get to say: actually, they fucking do. We are one of the only professions that can do that through our work and that can do that at scale — a scale commensurate with many of the crises that we face.
Then, it was hard to hear about how his work “completely broke” him. To say that Yong’s experience mirrored my own is, according to the mild PTSD I’m experiencing as I consider everything he related in that video, an understatement. We covered the pandemic in different ways, but like Yong, I was completely consumed by it. I read hundreds(/thousands?) of stories, papers, and posts a week for more than a year, wrote hundreds of posts, and posted hundreds of links, trying to make sense of what was happening so that, hopefully, I could help others do the same. The sense of purpose and duty I felt to my readers — and to reality — was intense, to the point of overwhelm.
Like Yong, I eventually had to step back, taking a seven-month sabbatical in 2022. I didn’t talk about the pandemic at all in that post, but in retrospect, it was the catalyst for my break. Unlike Yong, I am back at it: hopefully more aware of my limits, running like it’s an ultramarathon rather than a sprint, trying to keep my empathy for others in the right frame so I can share their stories effectively without losing myself.1
I didn’t get a chance to meet Yong in person at XOXO, so: Ed, thank you so much for all of your marvelous work and amazing talk and for setting an example of how to do compassionate, important work without compromising your values. (And I love seeing your bird photos pop up on Bluesky.)
- I hope that makes sense? Sometimes you can feel the pain of others so intensely that it renders you useless to help them or to keep yourself afloat. So you’re still empathetic and open to the experiences of others, but in a much more functional and constructive way.↩
An early analysis of data by scientists at the World Weather Attribution project shows that “climate change boosted [Hurricane] Milton’s landfall strength from Category 2 to 3”.
Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately. “We’re seriously open to letting [Columbus Day] slide if we get back, say, the continent that you stole from us.”
The Last Years of Alexei Navalny, In His Own Words
The New Yorker has some excerpts of Alexei Navalny’s diary from the last 2 years of his life, taken from his forthcoming memoir, Patriot.
2022, January 17th.
Exactly one year ago today I came home, to Russia.
I didn’t manage to take a single step on the soil of my country as a free man: I was arrested even before border control.
The hero of one of my favorite books, “Resurrection,” by Leo Tolstoy, says, “Yes, the only suitable place for an honest man in Russia at the present time is prison.”
It sounds fine, but it was wrong then, and it’s even more wrong now.
There are a lot of honest people in Russia-tens of millions. There are far more than is commonly believed.
The authorities, however, who were repugnant then and are even more so now, are afraid not of honest people but of those who are not afraid of them. Or let me be more precise: those who may be afraid but overcome their fear.
There are a lot of them, too. We meet them all the time, in all sorts of places, from rallies to the media, people who remain independent. Indeed, even here, on Instagram. I recently read that the Ministry of the Interior was firing staff who had “liked” my posts. So in Russia, in 2022, even a “like” can take courage.
In every period, the essence of politics has been that a tin-pot tsar who wants to arrogate to himself the right to personal, unaccountable power needs to intimidate the honest people who are not afraid of him. And they, in turn, need to convince everyone around them that they should not be afraid, that there are, by an order of magnitude, more honest people than the mean little tsar’s security guards. Why live your whole life in fear, even being robbed in the process, if everything can be arranged differently and more justly?
The pendulum swings endlessly. Or the tug-of-war. Today you are brave. Tomorrow they seem to have scared you a bit. And the day after tomorrow they have scared you so much that you despair and become brave again.
Two years later, Navalny was dead, murdered by Russia’s leader, dictator Vladimir Putin. I do not think it is hyperbole to read Navalny’s words as a warning, a harbinger of what happens to a country and its people when they come under undemocratic leadership.
A short thread of videos that sync perfectly to other audio tracks, e.g. This Is America video clip set to Call Me Maybe or the Peanuts dance party set to Joy Division.
A Syllabus for Generalists. Featuring resources for learning about geometry, chemistry, world history, home maintenance, origami, tying knots, and playing chess.
Floor Maps of Iconic NYC Fast Food Joints
When he was asked to design a new outpost of iconic NYC hot dog joint Papaya King in the East Village, Andrew Bernheimer went around to several other establishments in the city built to serve food quickly — Chipotle, Russ & Daughters, Katz’s, Shake Shack, Gray’s Papaya — and looked at their floor plans and flow of customers through their spaces. Mark Lamster talked to Bernheimer about the survey.
ML: I think at fast food joints we’re conscious that we’re in a very controlled environment, but perhaps don’t realize (because we are in a rush), just how manipulative that space can be. How did you see this playing out in the places you looked at?
AB: It ranged. Artisanal places (like Russ & Daughters) don’t feel manipulative in an insidious way at all (other than showing off some great food and triggering all sorts of synaptic response), while others do (Five Guys and their peanuts, a pretty nasty and obvious trigger to go order soda or spend money on WATER). We didn’t just look at fast food joints, but also icons of New York (R&D, Katz’s) that do try to serve people quickly but I don’t think qualify as “fast food joints.” In these cases the manipulation is either entirely subliminal and beyond recognition, or it has been rendered unnecessary because a place has become iconic, the domain of the “regular.”
Speaking as a customer, places like Katz’s and Russ & Daughters always felt like a total mess to me. Katz’s in particular is the worst: the whole thing with the tickets, paying on the way out, the complete lack of a single line, separate ordering locations for different types of food, etc.
That Gray’s Papaya that used to be on the corner of 8th St and 6th Ave, however, was fantastic. It had the huge benefit of being situated on the corner, but when you walked in, there was the food being cooked right in front of you. It was obvious where the line was and what direction it was moving. And after getting your food, you could exit immediately out the “back” door or circle back against the line to find a counter spot to quickly eat your meal.
The Most Sought-After Travel Guide Is a Google Doc. “Nothing is more embarrassing than waiting for a viral pastry because some influencer said it was yummy after not paying a dime.” Personally shared Google Docs or Maps are often more trustworthy.
Newly remastered and available on YouTube, Interview Project (presented by David Lynch) is a series of 121 interviews of people from all around the United States.
Photos of Spanish Human Tower Competitions. “More than 40 teams of ‘castellers’ recently gathered for the city’s 29th biannual human-tower competition — working together to build the highest and most complex human towers (castells) possible.”
The Distorted Paper Collages of Lola Dupré
Collage artist Lola Dupré makes these wonderfully weird images of exaggerated objects, animals, and people. You find more of Dupré’s work on her website and on Instagram. (via colossal)
Twin Peaks Actually Explained (in a four-hour video). “Lynch’s obsession with electricity and fire is essential to the theory” presented in the video.
I am tempted by this Lego Fortnite Battle Bus set. (Alas, it is backordered…)
Initial experiments in using Dungeons & Dragons as a group therapy tool are encouraging. “It seems particularly useful in combating the effects of social isolation and improving both interpersonal skills and intrapersonal skills (problem-solving).”
The trailer for season 2 of The Diplomat. Keri Russell? Witty banter? What’s not to like? I enjoyed season 1 and will probably give this a shot. Premieres Oct 31 on Netflix.
Radiohead’s Everything in Its Right Place, 800% Slower
Songs played back at much slower speeds were a thing several years ago — the effect can turn even the harshest rock song or bounciest pop tune into something that sounds like Enya or an ethereal Gregorian chant. I listen to these while I work sometimes and I’ve got a new one for the rotation: Radiohead’s Everything in Its Right Place, but played 800% slower.
See also the Seinfeld Theme Slowed Down, Justin Bieber slowed down 800%, a whole playlist of 800% slower songs, and, perhaps best of all, 80s Pop Hits sung by Alvin & the Chipmunks played at 16 RPM on a record player (“secretly the most important postpunk/goth album ever recorded”).
Oh, and some artists are releasing their own slowed-down versions of songs. LXNGVX’s Yum Yum comes in regular, slowed (my fave), super slowed, and sped up. Thom Yorke released a slower version of Creep in 2021. And Underworld released Slow Slippy, a slowed-down remix of Born Slippy, in 2017. (via @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie)
Whoa, new Nintendo hardware! And it’s…an interactive alarm clock? You can wake up to the sounds of Zelda or Mario Kart, shush the clock by waving your hand, and if you snooze too long, the alarm will become more intense and Bowser appears.
“Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests.” What’s more, the risk does not appear to diminish over time.
“One woman and two men with severe autoimmune conditions have gone into remission after being treated with bioengineered and CRISPR-modified immune cells.” This is a first for people w/ autoimmune diseases using donor cells.
The Best Panoramic Photos of 2024
The results of the 15th annual Epson International Pano Awards have been announced — you can check out all the winners & runners-up on the competition website. Here are a few of my favorites:
From top to bottom, the photos are by Tuan Nguyen Tan, Kelvin Yuen, Elliot McGucken, and Ignacio Palacios. (via in focus)
The myth of the climate haven. “Because of its speed and scale, however, human-caused climate change is especially extreme, and everywhere will be impacted by some degree of risk. There is no completely safe haven.”
Who died and left the US $7 billion? “It was the biggest estate-tax payment in modern history, but no one knew who made it. Then an anonymous phone call pointed to one man.” We don’t even know who our billionaires are.
Photo Remakes of Famous Art
I love everything about this…I scrolled through the entire list. This one was my favorite:
(via waxy)
This simple tool finds your Letterboxd besties, people who have listed the same favorite films as you on Letterboxd.
Forums Are Still Alive, Active, And A Treasure Trove Of Information. A huge list of still-active internet forums on topics like audio, drugs, plants, home repair, crafting, sports, cars, and all sorts of other things.
Imprints of Nature
Maximilian Prüfer makes art in collaboration with nature and animals like ants & snails. Using paper with a very sensitive coating on it, he’s able to record the slightest moments of activity, like a raindrop or an ant’s footstep. Here’s a video of some ants leaving their marks:
And some rain drops:
You can find more of Prüfer’s work on his website and on Instagram.
In their own words, what volunteer health care workers saw in Gaza. “Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die.”
Waffle House “has developed an advanced storm center FEMA consults with”. Their Waffle House Storm Index rates Hurricane Milton as a “Code Red”, meaning that they are closing stores in its path.
On Monday, Dave Winer’s Scripting News turned 30 years old. Dave is still one of the purest of the pure bloggers.
Stupid dipshits are starting to fill Wikipedia with “unsourced, poorly-written AI-generated content” (that is also totally false in some cases), prompting a purging effort by some WP editors: WikiProject AI Cleanup.
Green Day “demastered” their 1994 album Dookie into 15 “obscure, obsolete, and inconvenient” formats, like wax cylinder, Fisher Price record, Teddy Ruxpin, and player piano roll. This is amazing.
Erin Kissane on Trying to Save the Internet for the Humans
I attended the XOXO Festival back in August, and video of some of the talks are starting to trickle online. I’m going to highlight a couple of my favorites here on the site; the first one I’d like to share is Erin Kissane’s talk about fixing the social internet.
From her notes:
The talk was about why I left the internet, how the Covid Tracking Project got me back online, and most of all how the work we did at CTP led to me to believe that we — the weirdos of internet-making and online life — have to not merely retreat from the big-world social internet, but fix it.
Kissane talked about the work she’s been doing recently: the COVID Tracking Project, the Fediverse Governance project, and the Meta in Myanmar series. It’s a great talk…I recommend setting aside some time to watch it.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS should be visible with the naked eye in the night sky tonight (Oct 9). “Astronomers are expecting the comet to be especially vivid, possibly rivaling the brightness of Jupiter in the night sky.”
“Milton Is the Hurricane That Scientists Were Dreading”
Zoë Schlanger writes about the potentially dangerous and incredibly powerful hurricane now bearing down on Florida’s Gulf Coast and how it’s been supercharged in several ways by climate change.
As Hurricane Milton exploded from a Category 1 storm into a Category 5 storm over the course of 12 hours yesterday, climate scientists and meteorologists were stunned. NBC6’s John Morales, a veteran TV meteorologist in South Florida, choked up on air while describing how quickly and dramatically the storm had intensified. To most people, a drop in pressure of 50 millibars means nothing; a weatherman understands, as Morales said mid-broadcast, that “this is just horrific.” Florida is still cleaning up from Helene; this storm is spinning much faster, and it’s more compact and organized.
In a way, Milton is exactly the type of storm that scientists have been warning could happen; Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, called it shocking but not surprising. “One of the things we know is that, in a warmer world, the most intense storms are more intense,” he told me. Milton might have been a significant hurricane regardless, but every aspect of the storm that could have been dialed up has been.
My thoughts are with everyone in Milton’s path and also with those still recovering & cleaning up from Helene. Please stay safe, everyone.
The passwords generated by Apple Passwords consist of two-syllable gibberish words designed to be easier to input in non-optimal situations. “The syllables help them to be memorable briefly, but still not memorizable.”
Mainstream journalists are clamoring for Harris to do more interviews, but these interviews haven’t been substantive. “Not only are these interviews not terribly valuable for the candidate; they’re not terribly valuable as journalism.”
The Move
I really liked this entertaining short film by Eric Kissack (editor & producer for The Good Place), in which a couple moving into a new apartment together discovers a previously unnoticed feature of their new space, which in turn…well, I don’t want to spoil anything. Just watch it.
A look at Mozilla’s rebrand. “Mozilla’s new logo is a flag symbol built from the Mozilla M that comes to life to reveal the company’s iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex symbol and mascot, originally designed by Shepard Fairey.”
Finalists for the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
The finalists of the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards competition have been announced, so if you need a laugh, here you go.
There are so many “tag yourself” moments in these photos. You can check out all of the finalists here and vote for the People’s Choice Award until Oct 31.
From Kenji López-Alt, a list of potential red flags that he looks for when deciding to patronize restaurants. “I try to avoid spending my money at establishments where that money may end up in the hands of people who are abusive or exploitative.”
Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, an investigation of fake objects. “Value is found through fakeness, not in spite of it, giving the fake object the potential to be even better than the real thing.”
Stay Connected