February 27
February 26
Need to generate some 3D blobs? Use this little web tool.
The UX On This Small Child Is Terrible. "This Small Child won't open its mouth for a toothbrush, but won't close it during my cousin's wedding ceremony. It's as if this Small Child was not designed with accessibility in mind."
February 25
Andy Works is making aesthetically bold iOS apps that prioritize "play, aesthetics, and quality-of-life over efficiencies". So far they're doing simple apps: timer, calculator, weather.
February 24
Hiking Is an Ideal Structure for Friendship. "The whole activity of walking in the woods is very conducive to having a conversation."
Missed this when it came out last summer. "The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades."
Grade-school math homework asks if a presumed semi-circle has two right angles or not. The answer is not that straightforward.
Really interesting piece about the history of Black Americans' participation in beer brewing and consumption. "Beer, as it appears in American pop culture, is hilariously white."
A new FDA analysis indicates that "the one-shot coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson provides strong protection against severe disease and death from Covid-19". More good vaccine news.
Need to generate some blobs? Use this little web tool.
February 23
Your Kids Aren't Too Old for Picture Books, and Neither Are You. "With remarkable economy, they excel at the twin arts of visual and textual storytelling."
February 22
Simone Ellin tracked down the now-adult kids who bullied her in school. "Being able to zoom out and get some perspective after all of these years underscored that we can never really know what's going on in other people's lives."
On the toll of lockdown when you live alone. "Long-term social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. What has the last year meant for those who don't share their homes?"
This is not your usual architectural criticism. "This is a love story. And, like every love story, it's also a death story."
Over 500,000 Americans have now died from Covid-19. "More Americans have perished from Covid-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined."
For his latest recipe, Kenji López-Alt hacks scrambled eggs. "The melted butter forms a rich sauce, and a cornstarch slurry keeps the eggs creamy."
February 19
What Our Food Reporters and Editors Make When They're Too Tired to Cook. These overachieving folks have a funny definition of "too tired to cook". Risotto?? Where's the Campbell's soup, 9 pieces of string cheese, or popcorn + wine?
Just sent out the latest issue of the @kottke newsletter in which I talk about tags. Remember tags? Still useful!
A list of the 25 greatest art heists of all time. If you're familiar at all with the history of stolen art, the #1 and #2 heists aren't so hard to guess.
February 18
The Evolution from Snurfing to Snowboarding. Sherman Poppen invented snurfing in the 60s and Jake Burton's addition of bindings a decade later changed the game. The old snurfing/snowboarding footage in this is incredible.
A look at what caused the dangerous power shortages in Texas. "The state's massive blackouts are the result of a failure to insure against extreme weather."
February 17
The problem with running government like a business. "In short, the govt model is 'We'll take care of you at any cost' while the corporate model is 'We'll take care of you as long as it doesn't cost us too much.'"
The myth of 'good' and 'bad' Covid vaccines: Why false perceptions overlook facts, and could breed resentment.
Some donation links to support the people of Myanmar in their struggle against the ongoing military coup. A friend w/ ties to the country and activists there vouched for this site.
It's the 20th anniversary of the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme. Back in the day, we had to share our memes by hand.
February 16
I still don't think most ppl appreciate how miraculously good & safe the Covid-19 vaccines are. 66 cases of anaphylaxis out of 18 million US vaccinations, no deaths. Will prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Good on LastPass for charging for their excellent service. The flack they're getting for this is ridiculous – if good password management is so important to people, they can pay $3/mo. Why do we keep having this bad-faith conversation?
A history and discussion of people organizing their bookshelves by color, which people get all judgy about for some reason? I did this once and had to switch back because I could never find anything. But: "My bookshelves, my rules."
Cool thing from @pca2: an auto-updated YouTube playlist of videos (currently 2100+!) that are posted to @kottke. Click that "shuffle play" button, sit back, and have yourself an experience.
Last flu season in the US, 400,000 people were hospitalized and 22,000 died. This year so far: only 165 hospitalizations. Covid precautions, flu shots, and kids staying home all contributed to almost nonexistent flu season.
There's a pink pineapple now because of Instagram. "'Don't Worry About a Filter,' the Pinkglow(TM) website tells us. 'We Grew It.'"
"Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines on children 12 and older and hope to have results by the summer." Presumably once those trials are done & approved, a large supply of vaccine will be available immediately for them.
February 12
City Guesser: try to guess the cities in which short video clips were taken. I love these types of games...I played this for way too long.
This might not mean much to most people, but there's a new post on Snarkmarket (by @tcarmody) for the first time in 5 years. It's about Muppet music.
February 11
Our World in Data is tracking the effects of the aggressive Covid-19 vaccination campaign by Israel.
February 10
To start Trump's 2nd impeachment trial, the House Impeachment Manager presented this video montage of Trump's words and the Capitol mob's deeds from Jan 6th. This is upsetting and damning to watch.
February 9
Carl Zimmer and Jonathan Corum are tracking Covid-19 variants and mutations at the NY Times. Good resource to get up to speed.
February 8
Fascism scholar Jason Stanley decodes the 2-minute propaganda video shown at the Trump rally before the storming of the Capitol. "Fascist propaganda creates an awesome sense of loss, and a desire for revenge against those who are responsible."
Tipping Is a Legacy of Slavery by Michelle Alexander. "Abolish the racist, sexist subminimum wage now."
"It's Unimpressive That I Recognized An Online Fart As I Would The Voice Of My Grandmother." I laughed until my sides ached reading this chat transcript.
February 6
As a coup attempt continues amid anti-authoritarian protests in Myanmar, the military has severely limited internet access in the country. Activists fear the blackout is cover for a crackdown.
February 5
Just sent out the first @kottke newsletter in ~6 months. Trying to reboot it with a leaner/meaner format.
February 4
A short history of flight attendants. Always a tough job, but now they're dealing with anti-mask idiots. "...you have the guy eating one sunflower seed at a time so he can keep the mask off the whole flight."
Why You Should Take Any Vaccine by @zeynep. "Since the beginning of the trials, all trials, there has not been a single death or hospitalization among people vaccinated. Not one. Zero."
XOXO has announced that there will be no festival in 2021. "It's just not clear that it will be safe for us to gather again by September." A bummer, but the right move.
Unfortunately, this sort of macho we're-gonna-kick-your-ass posturing (but "it's a joke!") is probably necessary to get Americans to take electric vehicles seriously. But hey, Awkwafina!
February 3
"That Could Have Been Me": The People Derek Chauvin Choked Before George Floyd. "They describe an officer quick to use force and callous about their pain."
On Feb 1, Oregon decriminalized possession of small amounts of all drugs. Instead of punishing people, the state will offer "greatly increased access" to services like treatment and recovery.
Out now: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain. The contributors list for this is like an all-star team.
A collection of videos of people painting. "Watching others paint is relaxing, even when the painter is not the beloved Bob Ross and his happy trees and friendly squirrels."
February 2
Amazon watcher @tcarmody on what's next for Bezos & Amazon. "He is not going to go away to start an apple butter farm or retire away to Xanadu like Charles Foster Kane. That's not how this works."
Analysis of Jan 6 terrorists. "The overwhelming reason for action, cited again and again in court documents, was that arrestees were following Trump's orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the presidential-election winner."
An Israeli human-rights organization has designated Israel an apartheid regime. "The paper argues that the Israeli regime of apartheid rests on four pillars: citizenship, land, freedom of movement, and political participation."
February 1
The COVID Tracking Project will stop its work in early March because the US government is finally doing this vital task. A huge HUGE thank you to the @COVID19Tracking team for their service.
A short interview with Hayao Miyazaki conducted during his daily ritual of tidying up the street outside his house. "I rarely watch other things. I don't watch TV, I don't watch movies. I'm a retired old man picking up trash."
The second volume of Jason Polan's Every Person in New York is being published soon; preorder it here. "He estimated having drawn over 50,000 people and as he stated 'I still have a bit to go.'"