All articles from Kottke.org
Fun word search game from Slate: Pears . (I love any...
Fun word search game from Slate: Pears. (I love any Boggle-esque sort of game. Got 433 today.)
" 'CEO said a thing!' journalism...
“‘CEO said a thing!’ journalism generally involves a press outlet parroting the claims of a CEO or billionaire utterly mindlessly without any sort of useful historical context as to whether anything b
"Our Milky Way galaxy may not have a supermassive...
“Our Milky Way galaxy may not have a supermassive black hole at its centre but rather an enormous clump of mysterious dark matter exerting the same gravitational influence.”
The Origins of One of the Most Beloved Video Games of...
The Origins of One of the Most Beloved Video Games of All Time. “Something I’ve heard from every Mario developer I’ve ever spoken to over the years is this: Whenever you press a button, something fun
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart) on the 30th...
Michelle Zauner (Crying in H Mart) on the 30th anniversary of Infinite Jest. “If you allow yourself to trust-fall into the barbed intricacies of the writing, you will discover soft, exquisite humanity
"It's Fine If I Suck Sometimes"
Sara Hussain for Vogue India: In 2026, I’m No Longer Interested in ‘Working on Myself’, aka the exhausting “hyper-policing [of] our thoughts and language until having a personality feels like a risk a
"Any serious push to account for the actions of...
“Any serious push to account for the actions of this government — to abolish the president’s private army, restructure immigration enforcement and punish anyone responsible for wrongdoing — must inclu
When Gmail was released as a public beta in 2004, it...
When Gmail was released as a public beta in 2004, it “ran on three hundred old Pentium III computers nobody else at Google wanted”.
Actor-style headshots from the 80s of artists like...
Actor-style headshots from the 80s of artists like Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, and Robert Longo.
Recently Discovered: an NYC Underground Railroad Stop
The Merchant’s House Museum was NYC’s first landmarked building, but until this year, the function of a small hidden passageway in the house was unknown. When historians and preservationists examined
AI Is Getting Scary Good at Making Predictions ....
AI Is Getting Scary Good at Making Predictions. “From this point on, for as long as we exist, we might be asking AIs what comes next. We won’t always understand how they arrived at their predictions.”
Zoning Out Is Good For You
Sleeping cleans your brain. Research suggests that zoning out, daydreaming, and being bored can perform a similar function without the need for deep sleep. So put down that phone occasionally and let
In case you didn't realize, ICE is still...
In case you didn’t realize, ICE is still terrorizing communities, kidnapping people off the streets, and destroying property in Minnesota. “The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance.”
Fontemon is the world's first video game in a...
Fontemon is the world’s first video game in a font. “The entire game is enclosed in fontemon.otf, no javascript, no html, all font.”
The GOP goal of destroying the post office is coming...
The GOP goal of destroying the post office is coming along: the USPS is now so unreliable that newspaper delivery is delayed across the country. (My mail delivery is currently one bundle every week or
Some Site Goings-On
Hey gang. I took a couple of days off at the beginning of the week to visit some colleges with my daughter. She found a potential contender, one that was just fine, and a school that isn’t going to wo
Everyone's living a life you know nothing about ....
Everyone’s living a life you know nothing about. Be kind.
"We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals...
“We will not achieve any of our ultimate goals without exercising state power, and the most effective way to take state power is through nonviolent but confrontational resistance.”
A recommendation for a recent episode of the Heavyweight...
A recommendation for a recent episode of the Heavyweight podcast on the Trump regime’s occupation of Minneapolis.
The Guardian: here's how Substack makes money...
The Guardian: here’s how Substack makes money hosting Nazi newsletters. These newsletters weren’t even hard to find or subtle: swastikas and in-app recommendations from one antisemitic newsletter to a
How Edo (Tokyo) transformed from a city on the brink of...
How Edo (Tokyo) transformed from a city on the brink of ecological collapse 400 years ago to “one of the most sustainable and efficient cities in history”.
" Printing Films is a collection of vintage films...
“Printing Films is a collection of vintage films that showcase the technologies and processes of printing, journalism, and typography.”
Why don't filmmakers just film on location instead...
Why don’t filmmakers just film on location instead of using visual effects? Lots of reasons, including not disrupting communities, control of weather & sun position, or can’t get permission.
Dan Sinker writes about the transformative experience of...
Dan Sinker writes about the transformative experience of seeing a work by Jenny Holzer when he was 14. “Truisms was a revelation. Art could be just words. Art could be just at home slapped on a POST N
"How did medieval French handwriting become...
“How did medieval French handwriting become ‘the Nazi font?’ And why did Hitler make it illegal?” TIL that Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag about how much he disliked blackletter fonts.
Do you remember Oddpost? It was an early email web app...
Do you remember Oddpost? It was an early email web app that used dynamic HTML to mimic the design and functionality of a desktop mail app, 2 years before Gmail launched.
Tinder Hasn't Worked, So I'm Putting Myself...
Tinder Hasn’t Worked, So I’m Putting Myself on Zillow. “I realize that my late-’80s construction might not land me in the “trending” section right away…” 💬 Join the disc
I've always said more popstars should duet with...
I’ve always said more popstars should duet with puppets, so Sabrina Carpenter and Kermit the Frog singing Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Island in a Stream’ as part of The Muppet Show’s latest speci
The Triumph of Europe's Social Democracy
Economist Thomas Piketty, writing for Le Monde (archive) on the success of Europe’s social democratic model and countering “the narrative of a ‘declining’ continent”: If someone had told the Europea
Professor Walt Hunter on the merits of challenging...
Professor Walt Hunter on the merits of challenging students: Stop Meeting Students Where They Are. “Whole novels aren’t possible to teach, we are told, because students won’t (or can’t) read them. So
The Mountain That Weighed the Earth . How scientists in...
The Mountain That Weighed the Earth. How scientists in 1774 used a Scottish mountain to estimate the mass of the Earth to within 20% of the modern number by measuring the mountain’s gravitational effe
Keep the Meter Running With Mouhamadou Aliy & Zohran Mamdani
In addition to his great series Subway Takes, Kareem Rahma does another series called Keep the Meter Running where he hops into NYC cabs, interviews the drivers, and asks them to take him to their fav
Some cool animations made from Japanese receipts by...
Some cool animations made from Japanese receipts by Michele Merlo. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Times New Resistance
This is awesome and clever. Minneapolis designer Abby Haddican has made a typeface called Times New Resistance. The letters are identical to Times New Roman (and it even appears as such in font menus,
10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month , from The...
10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month, from The Flying Ace (1926) to Killer of Sheep (1978) to Moonlight (2016). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Hour-long YouTube training session on how to observe &...
Hour-long YouTube training session on how to observe & record ICE/CBP. “This call will give you the tools to exercise your rights in a moment when federal agents are terrorizing our communities and us
The Strangers' Case
I don’t normally say this, but if you watch one thing on kottke.org today, this week, this month, make it this speech written by Shakespeare and performed by Sir Ian McKellen on The Late Show with Ste
The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular...
The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular almanac about the countries of the world) from the web. Fuck this. All these assholes do is pillage & destroy. 💬 Jo
Measles Is Causing Brain Swelling in Children in South...
Measles Is Causing Brain Swelling in Children in South Carolina. 876 measles cases in the state so far, and some children have developed encephalitis. “Among children who get measles encephalitis, 10
Michelangelo's First Painting, Made at Age 12
The Torment of Saint Anthony is the earliest surviving work attributed to Michelangelo, painted by him in 1487 or 1488 when he was 12 or 13 years old. This is an intense painting, the kind of thing th
The Tour Down Under's winner won despite being...
The Tour Down Under’s winner won despite being blasted off his bike by kangaroos. “Two of them blasted through the peloton when we were doing probably 50 kph and…went left, right, left right, left rig
"Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster...
“Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster boat skipper who fished off the New England coast wearing earrings, hot-pink lipstick and an occasional scowl for more than 80 years, until she was 10
Shared Claude is a website anyone can change via LLM...
Shared Claude is a website anyone can change via LLM chat. “Text the number below to shape this website in real-time.” (Does anyone remember Metababy?) 💬 Join the discus
Wow, these paper flowers from 11th-century China are...
Wow, these paper flowers from 11th-century China are amazingly well-preserved. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
How Do They…?
I was poking around on YouTube for “how to” videos (one of my favorite video genres) the other day when I hit a small jackpot: a bunch of How Do They…? videos from the National Film Board of Canada. A
An almost 2-hour mashup mix by dk darkly of music from...
An almost 2-hour mashup mix by dk darkly of music from France’s two most well-known electronic duos, Daft Punk and Justice. Also available on Bandcamp. 💬 Join the discus
A Lovely 3500-Year-Old Drawing of a Sparrow
From the collection of the Met, an Egyptian artist’s sketch of a sparrow circa 1479–1458 BCE. Much of the art that filters down to us from ancient civilizations was used for official purposes (state,
The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle ....
The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle. “Laughter and humor are fundamental to how babies learn about and participate in the world.” *Highly recommend* watching the laughing baby videos to bri
Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month ....
Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month. Seven! 98 diesel cars & 29 hybrids were also sold, but the rest were EVs. And this comes after Norway cut EV incentives.
Roxane Gay : "Humanity is, always, enough. We have...
Roxane Gay: “Humanity is, always, enough. We have a right to protest, legally carry a firearm, drive while Black, walk in a neighborhood at night, play in a park, sleep in a bed or do anything else wh
Good god, this story: Mother Says Asking 13-Year-Old Son...
Good god, this story: Mother Says Asking 13-Year-Old Son to Swim Four Hours to Save Family ‘One of the Hardest Decisions’. “I knew he was the strongest and he could do it.” Australia: a nation of athl
Minimalistic City Map Posters
This Github project from Ankur Gupta allows you to “generate beautiful, minimalist map posters for any city in the world”. There are a variety of different themes you can choose from and the resulting
The full trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2 . The pitch...
The full trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2. The pitch perfection of Miranda completely forgetting Andy gives me hope that this will be a worthy sequel. 💬 Join the disc
Been thinking a lot about this Ted Chiang quote...
Been thinking a lot about this Ted Chiang quote recently: “I tend to think that most fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism. And I think that this is actually true of most fear
Vibe-coding gone wild . "Stories of family...
Vibe-coding gone wild. “Stories of family groceries delivered to data centers, and “world burnt bacon day” became memes — and resulted in class-action lawsuits against kitchen appliance manufacturers
A collection of thousands of photographs of NYC...
A collection of thousands of photographs of NYC restaurants (2002-2008) taken by Noah Kalina. Quite an archive of interior design from that era. 💬 Join the discussion on
Claude's Constitution
A couple of weeks ago, AI company Anthropic published the constitution that they use to train their Claude LLM (“under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Deed, meaning it can be freely used by anyone for any
The Case of the Green Covers is a risograph-printed...
The Case of the Green Covers is a risograph-printed zine that documents the history of the “Green Penguins”, “a series of hundreds of crime novels published with green covers by the UK publisher Pengu
Podcast interview with two photojournalists who have...
Podcast interview with two photojournalists who have been covering ICE in Minnesota. “It’s a conversation about what they’ve seen, the vital role of photojournalism at this moment, and the personal to
Haven't watched this 90-minute video yet, but...
Haven’t watched this 90-minute video yet, but I’ve seen so many recommendations for it that I’m posting it as a to-do list item for myself: You are being misled about renewable energy technology.
A group of 50 Chileans recently spent several hours...
A group of 50 Chileans recently spent several hours powering a human-operated chatbot. Some questions were answered quickly but “when they didn’t know the answer, they walked around the room to see if
Killing In The Name, The Minnesota Edition
Late last week, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello led a crowd gathered at the iconic First Avenue music venue in a spirited rendition of the band’s Killing In the Name. The band handled the music
The Border Patrol Is the Problem. It Always Has Been....
The Border Patrol Is the Problem. It Always Has Been. “If you are uncomfortable with what the Border Patrol is doing in Minneapolis, you are uncomfortable with the Border Patrol, full stop.”
Elon Musk and other internet racists started an internet...
Elon Musk and other internet racists started an internet war over Christopher Nolan’s casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, thereby immediately disproving their point.
Early this month, a wily coyote swam across San Francisco...
Early this month, a wily coyote swam across San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz. He was in such rough shape, observers thought he’d probably die, but he’s been snacking on birds and rodents and was recently
Seu Jorge's Lovely Tribute to David Bowie
For his 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson enlisted Brazilian musical artist Seu Jorge to perform several of David Bowie’s songs in Portuguese. Jorge released an album of the s
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed ....
The Accidental Winners of the War on Higher Ed. “Well-resourced and prestigious small colleges are less exposed in almost every way to the crises that higher ed faces.” (My kid goes to a liberal arts
Significant Find of Cambrian Explosion Fossils
A recent paper in Nature details what scientists found at the Huayuan biota: Here we report the Huayuan biota — a lower Cambrian (Stage 4, approximately 512 million years ago) BST Lagerstätte from a
Culinary Students Given Live Baby To Learn How To Care...
Culinary Students Given Live Baby To Learn How To Care For Bag Of Flour. I laughed so hard at this. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Volleyball Player Does Sliding Dogeza Apology
During an exhibition, Japanese volleyball player Yuji Nishida hit a courtside judge in the back with an errant serve. He immediately sprinted across the court and dove prostrate in apology. The gestur
As part of their coursework, students at UC Berkeley are...
As part of their coursework, students at UC Berkeley are contributing edits to Wikipedia about “LGBTQ+ history, with an emphasis on queer and trans people of color”. They’ve added 300,000+ edits and 3
The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis . "As thousands...
The Schoolchildren of Minneapolis. “As thousands of ICE agents arrived, kids started staying home from school. A local principal, teachers, and parent volunteers have banded together to keep the famil
Autocratic backfire : when dictators construct echo...
Autocratic backfire: when dictators construct echo chambers, overestimate their abilities, and dismiss their adversaries’ capabilities, leading to weakening or ruin. Examples: Mussolini, Putin, and no
Darren Aronofsky’s AI Studio Used Artificial...
Darren Aronofsky’s AI Studio Used Artificial Intelligence Tools for Revolutionary War Animated Series. Interesting use of “animated” to mean “AI-generated photorealism”. I watched the trailer…everythi
Do you know about the original vampire ending for Marty...
Do you know about the original vampire ending for Marty Supreme? (You heard me.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Tim Burton on Catherine O'Hara :...
Tim Burton on Catherine O’Hara: “Catherine’s so good, maybe too good. She works on levels that people don’t even know. I think she scares people because she operates at such high levels.” Loved her. R
ProPublica : "The two federal immigration agents...
ProPublica: “The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierre
Another brutal Melania pan : "First Lady is a...
Another brutal Melania pan: “First Lady is a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda” and “the vulgar, gilded lifestyle of the Trumps makes them look like…Hermann
When horrible people make bad art, the reviews are fun to...
When horrible people make bad art, the reviews are fun to read. Melania doc review: “Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest” and “it’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’
"The end of Temporary Protected Status has...
“The end of Temporary Protected Status has Holocaust survivors offering to hide Haitian staffers, according to the CEO of a senior-living center in Florida.” The CEO of the center: “That reminds me of
Illustrator Chris Piascik has made several of his...
Illustrator Chris Piascik has made several of his “Fuck ICE”/”No Kings” pieces available for free, high-res download. Print them out and use them for protest signs. 💬 Jo
Stamps: Graphic Art in Miniature
On his Filatelia Grafica Instagram account, graphic designer Diego Bucciero shares some of his favorite postage stamps, with an emphasis on “iconography, form, typography and branding”. (via it’s nice
I learned two important pieces of news in this post: 1)...
I learned two important pieces of news in this post: 1) Frozen OJ from concentrate as a product is being discontinued by major producers. 2) Beverage analysts refer to market share as “share of throat