Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson originally drew Calvin’s hair as a mop covering his eyes; his editor suggested he change it and the iconic spiky hair was born.
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Entries for June 2023
The decline of American playtime — and how to resurrect it. “If you take away play from children, they’re going to be depressed. What is life for anybody without play?”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American billionaire, in possession of sufficient fortune, must be in want of a Supreme Court justice.”
Lego Stop-Motion Recreation of Iconic Scenes From The Shining
The creepy twins. Jack feverish at the typewriter. Danny riding his Big Wheel through carpeted hallways. The elevators of blood. These familiar scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining (and several more) have been recreated in this Lego stop-motion animation. The video took 50-60 hours over a three-week period to make and was an exercise in constraints:
“Mostly, it came down to choosing the right pieces,” he says. “I made this movie only with pieces I already had in my collection, so I had to do with just what I had laying around. For instance, the famous carpet pattern in the hallway could have been more realistic, but with the pieces I had, it became a little more abstract. I went with clay for the bloody elevator scene also because I do not have thousands of red translucent pieces.”
(via boing boing)
“My e-bike has changed my life. I’m happier, healthier, and more active. My relationship to my community has been completely transformed.”
Everything Must Be Paid for Twice. The first price is the cost of acquisition and then “in order to make use of the thing, you must also pay a second price. This is the effort and initiative required to gain its benefits.”
Bellingcat’s Online Investigation Toolkit, a spreadsheet that includes “satellite and mapping services, tools for verifying photos and videos, websites to archive web pages, and much more”.
The Trailer for 3 Body Problem
I loved Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem trilogy (read it twice!) and was excited/apprehensive when Netflix announced they’d partnered with Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff to adapt the books into a TV series. Well, the first trailer is here and has tipped my scales more towards excited. Really looking forward to when this premieres in January March 2024 — if they get it right, this could be something really special.
All episodes of season 2 of The Bear are now streaming on Hulu. 👀
The Reason Why Cancer Is So Hard to Beat
Using the metaphor of a cancerous tumor as an unruly village, Kurzgesagt explains how cancer develops in the human body, how the body fights against it, and how, sometimes, the cancer develops into something unmanageable.
In a sense this tiny tumor is like a rogue town. Imagine a group of rebels in Brooklyn decided that they were no longer part of New York but started a new settlement called Tumor Town, which happens to occupy the same space. The new city wants to grow, so it orders tons of steel beams, cement and drywall. New buildings follow no logic, are badly planned, ugly and dangerously crooked. They are built right in the middle of streets, on top of playgrounds and on existing infrastructure. The old neighborhood is torn down or overbuilt to make room for new stuff. Many of the former residents are trapped in the middle of it and begin to starve. This goes on for a while until the smell of death finally attracts attention. Building inspectors and police show up.
Why Pop Radio Stations All Sound the Same
On his YouTube channel this week, Phil Edwards explores the question of why all pop music radio stations in the US sound the same. The short answer is consolidation caused by deregulation but the longer answer is worth watching. And if you want more information, Edwards’ list of sources in the video description is pretty extensive.
Abolish Venture Capitalism. “Venture capitalists have supercharged surveillance, [economic impoverishment], and dispossession. Why should we trust them with so much power over the economy?”
Netflix is making an Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series; here’s a very short, very teaser-y trailer.
Search engine logic: The Sega Genesis was also known as the “Mega Drive” so if you search Google for “the book of megadrive”, the top result is for the first book of the Bible.
Max Park struggled with fine motor skills as a kid, a symptom of his autism. Now he’s the fastest in the world at solving a Rubik’s Cube.
Meet Mr. Doodle
For some reason, a chap calling himself Mr. Doodle has covered his entire house, like every single inch, with black and white illustrations. As a top commenter says on YouTube, “I would 100% go insane after my 2nd day living in that house but the props I give this man for his work are absolutely immense”. (via boing boing)
“The [Supreme] Court’s majority is so ethically challenged, internally divided, jurisprudentially sloppy, and ideologically polarized that it cannot do a competent job despite what by historical standards is a ridiculously light workload.”
Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court. “Republican megadonor Paul Singer’s hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. Alito has never recused himself.”
Editorial from The Guardian: “The contrast between the frantic hunt for a missing submersible and the failure to save migrants drowning in the Mediterranean is illuminating.”
Book of Earth: A Guide to Ochre, Pigment, and Raw Color
Heidi Gustafson is the curator of Ochre Sanctuary, a collection of iron-based earths that are the oldest natural pigments used by humans. In her new Book of Earth, Gustafson details where these pigments come from and how to use them to create art. Here are a few images from the book and the Ochre Sanctuary:
Looks like a gorgeous book. Check out her Instagram for more colorful photos of ochres.
Tressie McMillan Cottom on Ted Lasso: “Maybe our little comfort show about positive masculinity was a cautionary tale about romanticizing himpathy all along.”
TIL about the lying flat lifestyle. “Lying flatists refuse to participate in consumerist lifestyles, such as pursuing high-paying jobs, purchasing material possessions, getting married, or having children.”
Antarctic tipping points: the irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2°C. “Antarctica has to remain a stable ice-covered continent to avoid the worst impacts of rising seas.”
How Rebar Is Produced in a Japanese Factory
The immense scale of the factory and the intense temperatures involved (along with a musical soundtrack that sounds like Interstellar by way of Philip Glass) makes this video about how rebar is made compelling viewing. There are several scenes from this video that would not be out of place in this collection of Real-Life Infrastructure That Looks Like Sci-Fi. And there’s a color gradient moment near the end that’s really lovely. (thx, alex)
A Little Baby With Really Good Taste
This conversation with musician Perfume Genius about his creative process is interesting throughout. This is something I relate to 1000%:
I’m good at making things, but not talking about why. I made them because I don’t know how to talk about why. The explanation is the thing I made.
This too is something I try to hold myself to:
I also just do it, you know what I mean? I just make shit. 90% of doing anything is doing it. Not to sound self-help-y, but when people are asking me for advice, my first thought is, you should just do it. You beat so many people already if you just actually make a finished thing.
I am still a perfectionist sort of person, but when your work entails publishing 10-20 things in public every single day, you have to let go of that. Good enough is better than nothing at all.
Embrace your inner little baby (with really good taste):
I essentially have to get back to feeling like I’m a little baby to make things that are good. A baby with really good taste.
One Of Saturn’s Moons Discovered To Have All The Ingredients For Mouthwatering Enchiladas. “…the discovery would completely change the way Americans create easy weeknight dinners in space.”
In Defense of Ted Lasso. “Perhaps Ted Lasso isn’t broken — we are. The show hasn’t stopped working: It’s merely changed to meet the moment.”
The results of a recent survey highlights a massive and growing refugee crisis: “130-260,000 transgender people have already fled their home states” and 1M more are considering leaving because of dangerous anti-trans legislation.
1968 Howard Johnson’s Kids Menu Featuring 2001: A Space Odyssey
In the 60s and 70s, Howard Johnson’s was the largest restaurant chain in the US — the restaurants and their associated hotels were ubiquitous while travelling America’s roadways. So it made sense that when Stanley Kubrick needed a hospitality brand for the Earthlight Room on the space station circling Earth in 2001: A Space Odyssey, he reached for HoJo’s.
And of course, even in 1968, you had to do some sort of cross-promotion and, bizarrely, what Howard Johnson’s came up with was a 2001-themed children’s menu.
Even more weirdly, the menu is not about the movie itself, it’s about a family that goes to see the movie. The whole opening sequence with the apes is omitted entirely, as is the HAL 9000 (arguably the film’s main character) — I suspect the HoJo’s people didn’t get to see the entire movie while putting this together (as evidenced by the “preview edition” graphic in the bottom right corner of the menu’s cover).
It’s cool to see scenes from the movie rendered in comics form:
You can see the entire menu here, including the activity page — just click on one of the images to enter slideshow mode. (via meanwhile)
Update: Fun fact: The food on the 2001-themed kids menu would likely have been developed by Jacques Pépin and Pierre Franey, who were the head chefs at Howard Johnson’s. (via @EineKleine)
Cotton Bureau’s site was down for part of the long weekend, so I’m extending summer sales of the Kottke Hypertext Tee through the rest of today if you weren’t able to get one. (P.S. Use HBDCB10 at checkout for free US & 50% off intl shipping.)
Samuel L. Jackson hasn’t been in either Black Panther movie: “I’m still trying to figure out why I’ve never been to Wakanda.”
The Story We’ve Been Told About Juneteenth Is Wrong. “What are we celebrating when we observe it, and should we be celebrating it at all? Is it actually an indictment of America? A repudiation of the Fourth of July?”
Paul Ford: My Father’s Death in 7 Gigabytes. “Dad spent decades writing weird, experimental literature. His last wish: Upload it all to the Internet Archive.”
Sigur Rós is out with a new album called Átta that “leans heavily towards the orchestral”.
Just for funsies and to celebrate that it’s actually t-shirt weather in the northern hemisphere now, I’ve opened Kottke Hypertext Tee sales back up again for the weekend. I’m wearing mine today!
Digits is a new puzzle game from the NY Times that’s pretty fun. Here’s how the game was designed.
GB Studio is a drag and drop editor for creating Game Boy games.
Forthcoming book from Ethan Marcotte: You Deserve a Tech Union. “Ethan shares these workers’ insights and stories, weaving them together to outline the process for forming a union of your very own.”
If you missed the blockbuster show at the Rijksmuseum, here’s how to see all 36 of Johannes Vermeer’s publicly available paintings as soon as they return to their homes around the globe (London, NYC, Holland, Paris, Tokyo).
Enhanced Color Mars
Using data from the ESA’s Mars Express probe, the German Aerospace Center has released an enhanced color image of Mars that shows off the planet’s geology and mineral content better than the usual dusty red photos do. Here’s part of what you’re seeing:
It is well known that most of Mars is reddish in colour, due to the high amount of oxidised iron in the dust on its surface, earning it the nickname the ‘Red Planet’. But it is also immediately noticeable that a considerable region of Mars is rather dark, appearing bluish in colour in image 1. These regions represent greyish-blackish-bluish sands, which are volcanic in origin and form large, dark sand layers on Mars. They were primarily piled up by the wind to form imposing sand dunes or enormous dune fields on the floor of impact craters. These unweathered sands consist of dark, basaltic minerals, of which volcanic lava on Earth is also composed. Basalt is the most widespread volcanic rock on Earth — and in the Solar System. Earth’s ocean floor is made of basalt, as are the extinct volcanoes of the Eifel, Mount Etna in Sicily and volcanoes of the Hawaiian archipelago.
In my mind, the best bit is how much clearer you can see the various geographical features of the planet. (via bad astronomy)
A New Dialect Emerges in South Florida
According to recent research from linguists Phillip Carter and Kristen D’Alessandro Merii, a new dialect of English is forming in South Florida. The dialect, distinct from Spanglish, is spoken English that borrows lexical and semantic rules translated from Spanish. Carter writes:
For example, we found people to use expressions such as “get down from the car” instead of “get out of the car.” This is based on the Spanish phrase “bajar del carro,” which translates, for speakers outside of Miami, as “get out of the car.” But “bajar” means “to get down,” so it makes sense that many Miamians think of “exiting” a car in terms of “getting down” and not “getting out.”
Locals often say “married with,” as in “Alex got married with Jos’e,” based on the Spanish “casarse con” — literally translated as “married with.” They’ll also say “make a party,” a literal translation of the Spanish “hacer una fiesta.”
We also found “semantic calques,” or loan translations of meaning. In Spanish, “carne,” which translates as “meat,” can refer to both all meat, or to beef, a specific kind of meat. We discovered local speakers saying “meat” to refer specifically to “beef” — as in, “I’ll have one meat empanada and two chicken empanadas.”
I particularly liked this one:
We found that some expressions were used only among the immigrant generation — for example, “throw a photo,” from “tirar una foto,” as a variation of “take a photo.”
APIs for content sites must be free. “If a company like Reddit or Twitter derives most of its value from content that users write for free then it must provide APIs for anyone to download and manipulate that content.”
Researchers were able to recover cryptographic keys from computers by watching video of their power LED — the cryptographic calculations affect the brightness of the LED in predictable ways.
Electric bikes are the most climate-friendly way to travel. “After traveling 4,500 miles, I have spent less than $5 on electricity.”
Beeper is a universal chat app that supports iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram, Discord, Twitter, Slack, Google Chat, and others.
The Supreme Court Just Made This Gerrymandered Map Illegal
This short video from Vox takes a look at the recent Supreme Court decision that struck down a gerrymandered congressional map in Alabama.
In 2013, a divided Supreme Court gutted one of the major pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In the 10 years since then, the court has moved even farther to the right. So when the Voting Rights Act came before the Supreme Court again in 2022, it didn’t look good for the law. But then something completely unexpected happened: in a 5-4 decision, two of the conservative justices voted with the 3 liberal justices to preserve the Voting Rights Act. And the effects could be huge.
At stake in the case was the way that Alabama divides up its Congressional districts. Alabama has seven districts, one of which is what’s called a “majority-minority district” in which Black Americans are the majority of the population. In 2022, a group of Black voters sued the state, saying that under the law, Alabama should actually have two majority-minority districts. And the Supreme Court agreed.
The decision could affect recently redrawn district maps in other states, which could in turn affect the balance of power in the House of Representatives. You can read more about these gerrymandering cases at the Brennan Center for Justice: Allen v. Milligan: Gerrymandering at the Supreme Court (Formerly Merrill v. Milligan) and Redistricting Litigation Roundup.
12 Things People Get Wrong About Being Nonbinary. “Being nonbinary is not just a personality trait or phase; it’s a real identity that’s existed for thousands of years.”
25 years of Banksy’s stencils are going on display in Glasgow. “I’ve kept these stencils hidden away for years, mindful they could be used as evidence in a charge of criminal damage. But that moment seems to have passed…”
Apple’s new Game Porting Toolkit looks interesting. “With zero need to modify any game code, games such as Grand Theft Auto V, Diablo IV, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwart’s Legacy can now run on Apple silicon Macs almost as if they’re native.”
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