June 30
The Supreme Court Is Headed Back to the 19th Century. "The justices again appear poised to pursue a purely theoretical liberty at the expense of the lives of people of color." This 2018 piece by Adam Serwer was right-on.
How book bans threaten democracy. "The restrictions are escalating into threats to defund public libraries."
The non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative has released an official statement on Barbenheimer. (No, really!) "NTI has concluded that the only sensible 'Barbenheimer' viewing order is Oppenheimer first, followed by Barbie."
Harvard Admits First White Student. "After nearly four centuries in existence, we are finally able to leave behind our woeful legacy of discrimination and accept our first student of Caucasian descent."
June 29
A free digital safety guide to protecting yourself during online harassment attacks. "It is especially designed for women, Black, indigenous, and people of color, trans people, and [others] whose existing oppressions are made worse by digital violence".
Great podcast episode on affirmative action: "When it comes to U.S. government programs and support earmarked for the benefit of particular racial groups, history is clear. White folks have received most of the goodies."
After 20 years of observations, scientists find "strong evidence" that the universe is awash with huge gravitational waves (w/ wavelengths of tens of light years). "The Earth is jiggling due to gravitational waves that are sweeping our Galaxy."
For decades, it was pretty much just assumed that men hunted and women gathered in pre-agricultural societies but in a recent analysis of humans remains, "they found about half of the time people buried with hunting tools were female".
CEO's Skill Set Transferable To Any Job That Requires Dumbass To Receive Big Salary. "No matter what the industry is, if they need a complete doofus who makes tons of money, I'm their guy."
NY Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán threw what is just the 24th perfect game in major league history last night. 9 innings, 99 pitches, 0 hits, 0 walks.
June 28
Variety: The 10 Best Films of the Year (So Far). They include Air, Flamin' Hot, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Variety: The 10 Best TV Shows of the Year (So Far). The Bear, Succession, Jury Duty, and Poker Face are all on the list.
The Death Cult of the American Car. It's obvious how to make the roads safer for cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike. We just don't do it.
Simone Biles is returning to competitive gymnastics for the first time since the 2020 Olympics.
'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' Editor Confirms Multiple Versions Of Film In Theaters. "The idea of multiple versions of a movie about multiple versions of Spider-Man is deliciously meta."
Humans have pumped so much groundwater out of the ground that it's changed the tilt of the Earth's axis 31.5 inches to the east.
Trump's animatronic in Disney's Hall of Presidents was repurposed from presumed election winner Hillary Clinton's. "They probably originally tried to salvage the animatronic by keeping Hillary's skull and putting Trump's skin over top of it."
A group at MIT is developing a megawatt electric motor for use in airplanes. "To electrify larger, heavier jets, such as commercial airliners, megawatt-scale motors are required."
The 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature, including work from James Baldwin, Alison Bechdel, Tony Kushner, Leslie Feinberg, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich.
"An inhaled Covid vaccine booster was more than 5-fold effective for inducing neutralizing antibodies at 28-days, and more durable at 1-year, than shots, vs Omicron BA.5 in a randomized trial."
June 27
The Password Game. Choosing an appropriate password is difficult when the rules are increasingly preposterous (e.g. "Your password must include today's Wordle answer.")
I Tried to Cut Small Talk Out My Life. It Went Badly. Perhaps small talk ("How's work?") is better than the alternative ("What excites you right now?")
How Did Birds First Take Off? Here's what we currently know about how dinosaurs became birds. "Paleontologists now suspect that the ancestor of all dinosaurs had feathers. And recent discoveries hint that feathers preceded dinosaurs."
Is the Army's New Tactical Bra Ready for Deployment? "Yes, it's flame-resistant, but what else can it do? Shoot bullets? Hypnotize the enemy? Turn its wearer invisible?"
The Emancipation Proclamation will be placed on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building next to the other founding documents of our country (Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights).
A single dose of MDMA caused a white nationalist to reconsider his views and actions. "Love is the most important thing. Nothing matters without love."
Also good on the Russian micro-coup: Masha Gessen's recap for the New Yorker. "But this past weekend Russians...saw something extraordinary. They saw real political conflict. They saw someone other than Putin act politically..."
FYI, you can buy yourself a "The Original Berf of Chicagoland" t-shirt. According to Cousin, it's a collector's item! #TheBear
June 26
Prigozhin's March on Moscow, Ten Lessons From a Mutiny. Another good catch-up piece on the Russian micro-coup from Timothy Snyder.
The U.S. Bicycle Route System, "a developing national network of bicycle routes connecting urban and rural communities via signed roads and trails". Over 18,000 miles in 34 states and Washington DC.
If you missed this weekend's Russian micro-coup, this piece by David Remnick is a good place to start catching up. "There came a moment when Prigozhin was no longer Putin's puppet. Pinocchio became a real boy."
This summer, Middlebury, VT is hosting an 11-hole Feminist Mini Golf course. "The kaleidoscopic course blends the vivid cotton candy world of traditional mini golf within a complex art installation that addresses issues related to reproduction..."
Recent research finds that "simply spending time with others (vs. alone) is not associated with a reduced burden of loneliness and may even backfire". Anecdotally, I have found this to be true for me at times.
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.
June 24
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?"
June 23
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American billionaire, in possession of sufficient fortune, must be in want of a Supreme Court justice."
June 22
"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".
All episodes of season 2 of The Bear are now streaming on Hulu. 👀
June 21
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.
"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."
June 20
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."
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.
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."
June 19
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?"
June 17
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".
June 16
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).
June 15
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.
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."
Evolution Keeps Making Crabs, And Nobody Knows Why. "The defining features of crabbiness have evolved at least five times in the past 250 million years."
Attention digital media workers: the longest-ever strike at a digital media company is only 13 days. The ROI for striking seems pretty high — these companies seem to settle pretty quickly?
June 14
I thought this was a limited-time thing, but Amazon is still selling the 2nd gen AirPods Pro for 20% off Apple's price. I bought some of these a few months ago and they are fantastic.
The history and significance of various LGBTQ+ flags explained. The six colors of the traditional pride flag all mean something...red represents "life and the fight against HIV/AIDS".
Electric vehicles alone can't solve transportation's climate problems. "Reducing vehicle travel and investing in other options (like public transit) are critical pieces that should not and cannot be overlooked."
A Peek Into Japan's Convenience Stores. "A far, far cry from their American cousins, convenience stores in Japan are without exception, spotless, well-stocked, open 24x7, and are ... well, actually convenient."
"I just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing." I loved the World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid and have considered buying a contemporary set.
A collection of "dumb or overly forced" astronomical acronyms, including WISEASS, ABRACADABRA, HIPPIES, TATOOINE, Hot DOGs, SUGAR-RUSH, and GANDALF.
June 13
For the first time in more than 30 years, there's a new Atari game cartridge coming out for the 2600: a game called Mr. Run and Jump.
Really interesting brief interview with Meredith Whittaker about AI, algorithms, and power in Big Tech. "There is no Cartesian window of neutrality that you can put an algorithm behind and be like, 'This is outside our present and history.'"
Anti-Trans Moral Panics Endanger All Young People. "The common thread between [all moral panics] is a grievance-driven bid to control people."
An anecdote from 1983 about algorithmic perfection and hard-boiled eggs. "The most obvious and absolutely correct algorithm may be wrong and even harmful if it works under incorrect assumptions."
"Is Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman, aka Ghost Spider, aka Spider-Gwen... Transgender? And the answer, I'm here to tell you, is yes, Gwen Stacy is trans. If you want her to be."
For the first time, wind and solar generated more power than coal in the US over the first five months of 2023.
Studio Ghibli is planning to release Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, How Do You Live?, with no trailer or other promotional material. "Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire."
"The ingredients for space yeast are fairly simple. Astronaut breath, water, yeast starter, electricity, a rolling pin and we can make it happen."
The Beatles are set to release one last song after using AI audio tools to extract John Lennon's voice from a scratchy old demo tape.
June 12
After 251 weeks, Greta Thunberg has ended her school strike for climate, not because the climate crisis is over but because she's graduating.
In case you missed it, this is probably the best (and most hilarious) plain-language explanation of what's in Trump's federal indictment.
A philosophy professor uploaded his Introduction to Ethics final exam to an online site often used to cheat on such exams and caught 40% of his students cheating. But was it unethical of him to entrap them like that?
If you're still looking for a last-minute gift for your dad, check out the 2023 Father's Day Gift Guide.
If it's asparagus season in your neck of the woods, check out this thread of ways to prepare it.
The one question I was waiting for in this interview with Baby Gronk's dad/manager but didn't get was: "How do you justify this obvious child abuse?" This whole thing is gross.
Members of Radiohead Form Side Project to Sound Exactly Like Radiohead. "It's vital to step outside your comfort zone with most of the same members of the band and see what other roads are available for us to explore."
This is just an amazing story about a frog and their new house.
June 7
The archive of the Nuremberg trials is available online, "including evidentiary films, full audio recordings of the proceedings, and approximately 250,000 pages of digitized paper documents".
Is AI the end of computer programming as we know it? Abstraction is how programming evolves, "growing more removed from the electronic guts of computing and more approachable to the people who use them."
I've been reading a lot about the end of Succession and thought this piece by Brian Phillips was particularly interesting. "The crown is made of tinfoil; the only reason to chase it is because childhood trauma is compelling you to."
The Arctic could be completely free of summer sea ice as early as the 2030s. "In a new study, scientists found that the climate milestone could come about a decade sooner than anticipated."
A great profile of the last Italian stone carver in Barre, VT, the Granite Capital of the World. He's a *20th generation* stone carver. "That's when I really knew that this guy was a genius, not just a sculptor."
For the first time in their history, the Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans. "There is an imminent threat to the health and safety of millions of LGBTQ+ people and families..."
June 6
Some myths about blogging that stop people from writing, including "writing boring posts is bad" and "more material is always better".
What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life? "Intimate friendships don't come with shared social scripts that lay out what they should look like or how they should progress."
An interactive feature on the wonky grooves of J Dilla. "People are moved by things that aren’t perfect".
June 5
Whoa, there's an upcoming streaming channel for Sid & Marty Krofft shows (like H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters).
The summer of van Gogh: both the Met in NYC and the Art Institute of Chicago have exhibitions about Vincent van Gogh this summer. Gotta figure out a way to gogh! (I know that's not how you pronounce it — just lemme have it!)
Interesting observation about The Shining: Jack Nicholson breaks the fourth wall by micro-glancing at the camera over and over during the film. (This would work a lot better as either an essay or a video essay instead of a tweet thread.)
Early viral video Charlie Bit My Finger was sold as an NFT in 2021 for $761K. The new owners pledged to keep the video online but it soon disappeared. Matt Webb argues that it should be in a museum.
Black birder Christian Cooper reflects on what he's gained from birdwatching in an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Better Living Through Birding. "We lift our gaze skyward to the birds and see what it means to be free."
June 4
Zlatan Ibrahimovic retires from football at the age of 41. One of the best of his era...I wish he hadn't been injured for most of his final season.
June 2
Paragraphica is an AI-powered camera without a lens. It uses your location data and data from various APIs (weather, time of day, nearby places) to construct a text prompt that's used to generate an image.
Almost 800,000 Maryland licence plates include a URL that now points to an online casino in the Philippines because someone let the domain registration lapse.
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks, along with "certain pollution- and climate-related topics". The changes are said to be driven by an increasingly authoritarian and conservative political environment.
Life expectancy in the US is dropping and Covid is only one factor. "In a change never recorded in the past century, the probability that children and adolescents will live to age 20 is now decreasing." My god, what a catastrophe.
The complete scripts for all four seasons of Succession are coming out in book form. The books "feature unseen extra material, including deleted scenes, alternative dialogue and character directions".
Lessons from Washington State's New Capital Gains Tax (which brought in $600 million *more* than projected over a single year). "Our state's richest residents are much, much richer than we understood..."
June 1
As the craft beer industry matures and works to find new audiences, the design of craft beer labels has moved from aggressive heavy metal-inspired designs to more clean and minimal looks.
Slide to Unlock is a simple mobile game that will test the limits of your touchscreen dexterity.
Masnick's Impossibility Theorem: "Content moderation at scale is impossible to do well."
Why this successful climate writer quit to become an electrician. "Instead of writing about the need to electrify everything, Nate is doing that work himself."
What Number Comes Next? The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences Knows. Warning: I lost a good 30 minutes browsing the encyclopedia this morning...
On anger management. "Anger does not take place in a void. It is largely a moral emotion, most frequently triggered by perceived injustice, and profoundly important for social change." P.S. read to the end of this...