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Last Notes

2024-09-20 17:22:01

London’s clean air zone was meant to reduce car pollution but also had another effect: more active kids. “Instead of being chauffeured to school by their parents, the students started walking, biking, scootering, or taking public transit.” https://grist.org/cities/london-fining-polluting-cars-more-active-kids/

2024-09-20 16:06:02

“A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was probably in his early teens has been uncovered at a library in Germany.” 12 minutes of new Mozart in the 21st century, what a time to be alive. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/19/previously-unknown-mozart-music-discovered-in-german-library

2024-09-20 15:36:02

The newest season of The Great British Bake Off premieres on Netflix next week (Sept 27). Look at all those fresh faces — I love them already. https://www.eater.com/24249267/great-british-bake-off-collection-12-netflix-premiere-date

2024-09-19 19:52:03

Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data. “Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year — tracked from America’s busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data.” https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/visualizing-ship-movements-with-ais-data/

2024-09-19 19:12:01

A famous lecture given in 1982 by computer science pioneer Grace Hopper, “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People”, has long been publicly unavailable but is now on YouTube. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/we-can-now-watch-grace-hoppers-famed-1982-lecture-on-youtube/

2024-09-19 14:44:01

Oh hey, a new book from Oliver Burkeman coming out soon: Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374611998/ref=nosim/0sil8

2024-09-18 14:46:01

Huge study from The Economist about car bloat in the US. “For every life that the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks save, there are more than a dozen lives lost in other vehicles.” ‘Safety for me, danger for you’ is an American motto at this point. https://www.economist.com/interactive/united-states/2024/08/31/americans-love-affair-with-big-cars-is-killing-them

2024-09-17 19:16:02

Congrats to Jason Snell & Dan Moren for ten years of Six Colors. “These days, direct support from readers and listeners makes up a very large proportion of my salary. Thank you all for helping me continue to do this.” https://sixcolors.com/post/2024/09/ten/

2024-09-16 19:32:02

Holy moly, William Peterson set a new Fastest Known Time on Vermont’s Long Trail: 272 miles with 67,000 feet of elevation gain in 3 days, 21 hours, and 10 minutes. https://thetrek.co/272-miles-in-less-than-4-days-william-peterson-sets-new-long-trail-fkt/

2024-09-16 18:02:03

The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group is dedicated to the study and classification of plastic bread tags (occlupanids). “They take nourishment from the plastic sacs that surround the bagged product, not the product itself, as was previously thought.” https://kottke.org/24/09/a-fun-taxonomy-of-bread-tags

2024-09-09 21:26:02

James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93. I loved him in Dr. Strangelove, The Hunt for Red October, and of course all the Star Warses. https://deadline.com/2024/09/james-earl-jones-dead-1236082801/

2024-09-09 18:06:02

404 Media on The Rise of DIY, Pirated Medicine (to get around prohibitively high drug costs). For instance, Sovaldi cures hepatitis C and costs $84,000…but you can make it at home for about $70. https://www.404media.co/right-to-repair-for-your-body-the-rise-of-diy-pirated-medicine/

2024-09-09 16:42:02

This extensive list of pangrams (e.g. “the quick brown fox…”) also contains a list of phonetic pangrams, which use all the phonemes of English, like: “Are those shy Eurasian footwear, cowboy chaps, or jolly earthmoving headgear?” https://clagnut.com/blog/2380

2024-09-06 19:02:01

The Open Book in Wigtown, Scotland is a rental place (available on Airbnb) where you can stay and help run the bookstore downstairs. “There’s no better feeling than somebody buying a book that you put on display.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y844905n9o

2024-09-05 22:02:02

Cars Have Fucked Up This Country Bad. “On average, America is an ugly country. The median American scene…would be an exhaust-choked roadway flanked on both sides by fast food restaurants and big box stores.” https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/cars-have-fucked-up-this-country

2024-09-04 17:16:01

If you (or someone you know) has hiked the Appalachian Trail since 1979, it’s likely that a photo of that person exists in the ATC’s online Hiker Photo Archive. Some folks in these photos have never seen them before & forgot they even exist. https://athikerpictures.org/

2024-09-04 16:32:01

“They’re just different kinds of human operating systems.” Steve Silberman in a 2015 interview about the need to reconceptualize “disorders” like ADHD, autism, and dyslexia “as human resources that we have not learned to tap fully”. https://kottke.org/24/09/different-kinds-of-human-operating-systems

2024-09-03 18:56:02

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny. “Few things symbolize our national dysfunction more than the inability to stop minting this worthless currency.” It costs 3 cents to make a penny. 🙃 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HU4.lM3R.GJqt8NQpQgO_

2024-09-03 14:52:01

Is My Blue Your Blue? A visual perception test that judges what you call blue and green and compares it with others’ results. I am “bluer than 68% of the population.” Now do red/pink, red/orange, and blue/purple! https://ismy.blue/

2024-09-03 13:06:01

What are we going to do with abundant, free, renewable energy? “[By 2030] solar power will be absolutely and reliably free during the sunny parts of the day for much of the year ‘pretty much everywhere.’” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/opinion/solar-power-free-energy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Hk4.p9NH.vd5W25pZC_rs

2024-08-27 23:30:02

Hey folks, I’m gonna be on vacation with my family for the rest of the week. Catch you back here next Tuesday! https://kottke.org/24/08/taking-some-time

2024-08-26 16:48:02

Hoooooollllyyy shit! It’s a brand new episode of Every Frame a Painting!! The first one in *eight years*. The seminal YouTube series returns with a video about the sustained two-shot. https://kottke.org/24/08/-new-every-frame-a-painting

2024-08-19 21:02:03

Winners of the 2024 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad opening lines, including “She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.” https://kottke.org/24/08/winners-of-the-2024-bulwer-lytton-fiction-contest

2024-08-16 16:22:02

Jamelle Bouie: “If Democrats win control of Washington in November, they should make reforming our democracy a priority” because the Republicans’ “ability to win power without winning votes is a powerful disincentive to change” their extremist ways. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/opinion/trump-republican-party-electoral-college.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DU4.Eo2Q.Gm1b0DUek-9A

2024-08-16 15:06:01

Not a joke: The Onion is bringing back its monthly print newspaper. It’s $60/yr for the print subscription. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/business/media/the-onion-print-paper.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DU4.P3tH.96QYjjcZ0J8z

2024-08-14 21:40:02

The Intense Process of Designing Political Campaign Logos. “It’s a strange and fascinating agility sport, marked by limited information, a ticking clock, unimaginable pressures, and serious consequences. It’s Iron Chef, but in Adobe Illustrator.” https://kottke.org/24/08/the-intense-process-of-designing-political-campaign-logos

2024-08-14 13:52:01

Recent CDC report: “Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths…” https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7331a2.htm

2024-08-13 20:22:01

Fever Feels Horrible, But Is Actually Helpful. “Fever feels bad. So we take medication to suppress it — but is this a good idea? It turns out fever is one of the oldest defenses against disease.” https://kottke.org/24/08/fever-feels-horrible-but-is-actually-helpful

2024-08-13 18:52:01

August 1st was Earth Overshoot Day for 2024. “In the past 7 months, we’ve used everything our planet can regenerate this year. For the rest of the year, we’ll deplete our children’s future.” We’re using the resources of 1.75 Earths per year. https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/

2024-08-12 21:36:02

Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win. “There are more than enough [pro-Trump election conspiracists] in these key posts to bring us to a constitutional crisis.” (Have you noticed Trump isn’t really campaigning? This is one reason why.) https://www.thebulwark.com/p/republicans-will-refuse-certify-harris-election

2024-08-12 20:18:03

The Mushroom Color Atlas is an extensive collection of pigment and dye colors that can be derived from mushrooms. https://kottke.org/24/08/mushroom-color-atlas-a-rainbow-of-dye-colors

2024-08-12 14:26:02

The free healthcare for athletes in the Olympic Village shines a bright light on one of America’s most shameful, uh, “features”. “The Olympic Village offers free healthcare. The United States, of course, does not.” God, this is just embarrassing. https://www.si.com/olympics/american-athletes-taking-full-advantage-of-free-healthcare-olympic-village-france

2024-08-08 17:52:02

Is this a new streaming device for your TV or the bar of soap in the shower that’s been worn down to a sliver but your parents won’t throw it out because “there’s still a lot of soap there”? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/google-kills-chromecast-replaces-it-with-apple-tv-and-roku-ultra-competitor/

2024-08-07 17:02:01

Utah is basically burning books now. “State has ordered books by 13 authors, 12 of them women, to be removed from every public school, classroom and library.” Includes books by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, and Rupi Kaur. https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/07/utah-outlaws-books-by-judy-blume-and-sarah-j-maas-in-first-statewide-ban

2024-08-07 17:02:01

2024-08-07 15:36:01

The EP–1320 Medieval is, amazingly, a real gadget being sold by Teenage Engineering — it’s a “beat machine” (or “instrumentalis electronicum”) loaded with a bunch of musical phrases & instruments from the Dark Ages. “This is ludicrous and I love it.” https://kottke.org/24/08/the-worlds-first-medieval-electronic-instrument

2024-08-07 15:12:02

The theme for the Cooper Hewitt’s upcoming Design Triennial (in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture) is Making Home. https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/making-home/

2024-08-06 21:42:01

Amazing stat about the disappearance of bands from the UK music charts (29:40 mark): in the first half of the 80s, bands were #1 for 146 weeks; the first half of the 90s, it was 141 weeks. In the 20s so far: 3 weeks that songs by bands were #1. 🤯 https://youtu.be/x8n7Sqfh0Yo?t=1780

2024-08-06 20:02:01

Tressie McMillan Cottom reports from Louisville, KY on the challenges of residents organizing a tenants union across racial & political divides. “I have to keep white liberals from disorganizing us.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/opinion/housing-louisville-tenants-union.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A04.LDkZ.vgrAqOxs76HU

2024-08-06 16:52:02

A deep dive into Null Island. “Null Island is a long-running inside joke among cartographers. It is an imaginary island located at a real place: the coordinates of 0° latitude and 0° longitude.” Its shape is a reference to the video game Myst. https://stamen.com/the-many-lives-of-null-island/

2024-08-06 16:52:02

2024-08-05 23:16:01

YES YES YES: “Campaigns from Harris for President on down should clarify that they will post to Twitter only after updating other platforms. Steering the media away from Twitter helps democracy.” Time to stop helping Musk’s disinformation campaign. https://www.theframelab.org/beware-trumps-secret-weapon-elon-musks-x-twitter/

2024-08-05 20:32:01

Is 5% of the Earth’s Population Related to Genghis Khan? “The guy did have a lot of kids. But the truth is more complicated.” https://kottke.org/24/08/is-5-of-the-earths-population-related-to-genghis-khan

2024-08-05 14:02:01

“A climate scientist half-jokingly once told me that if billionaires really wanted to save the planet, they would buy everyone a heat pump…” https://grist.org/energy/heat-pumps-expensive-bought/

2024-08-01 16:32:01

How the decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths. “Understanding the role vultures play in human health underscores the importance of protecting wildlife, and not just the cute and cuddly.” It’s all connected. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c28e2pvzn3lo

2024-08-01 14:46:01

Toni Morrison on the true function of racism: distraction. “It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being.” https://kottke.org/24/08/the-true-function-of-racism-is-distraction

2024-08-01 14:08:01

Terrified Conservative Planning To Move To 1930s Austria If Trump Loses. “A tearful Hawkins sobbed while imagining his sons growing up in a place and time where they were considered equal to another race or gender.” https://www.theonion.com/terrified-conservative-planning-to-move-to-1930s-austri-1851608247

2024-07-31 22:02:01

From XKCD, a public safety announcement about driving: random drivers can’t grant you the right of way as a gift. “Just take the right of way when it’s yours and cede it when it’s not. That’s it. That’s like 95% of driving right there.” https://kottke.org/24/07/driving-psa

2024-07-31 16:14:02

Results of LA’s 3-year basic income experiment were “transformative”. It gave people “time and space” to improve their lives by “landing better jobs, leaving unsafe living conditions and escaping abusive relationships”. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-07-31/study-details-what-happened-when-la-residents-were-guaranteed-1000-dollars-a-month

2024-07-30 19:56:02

For the first time, wind & solar generated more of the EU’s electricity in the first 6 months of 2024 than fossil fuels. “We are witnessing a historic shift in the power sector, and it is happening rapidly.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/30/renewables-overtake-fossil-fuels-to-provide-30-of-eu-electricity

2024-07-30 15:02:01

Germans are installing “plug-and-play” solar panels to feed energy back to the grid. “You don’t need to drill or hammer anything. You just hang them from the balcony like wet laundry.” Collectively, they are contributing significantly to solar capacity. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/business/germany-solar-panels-climate-change.html?unlocked_article_code=1._E0.zL83.1FCeoxOrFDBY

2024-07-29 16:36:02

10 settings to tweak to increase iPhone battery life, including turning off the always-on display and reducing your screen refresh rate. Also, stop quitting your apps…it doesn’t help! https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-improved-my-iphones-battery-life-by-changing-these-10-settings/

2024-07-29 14:52:02

Margaret Sullivan: “I urge news decision-makers to take Trump’s authoritarian desires very seriously.” Like when he tell evangelicals: “You won’t have to [vote] anymore, four years, it will be fixed. It will be fine. You don’t have to vote anymore.” https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-media-fails-to-take-trump-at

2024-07-25 21:26:01

A scientific paper on the classification, evolution, and spread of stuffed pasta shapes in Italy. “Based on the proposed evolutionary hypothesis, the Italian pasta are divided into two main clades”: a flat ravioli clade and the 3D tortellini clade. https://kottke.org/24/07/the-origin-evolution-of-italian-stuffed-pasta-shapes

2024-07-25 20:02:02

An interview with YACHT’s Claire Evans & Jona Bechtolt on that indie life. “We’re not a brand. We’re not a company. We’re human beings. Of course it’s going to change every 30 seconds. We’re following our lives.” https://metalabel.substack.com/p/new-media-irl-new-release-by-yacht

2024-07-25 19:06:01

Ok, I did not know this, and it’s blowing my mind: we have been imaging exoplanets for such a long time that scientists have made time lapse movies of their motion around their stars, including one of a star 133.3 light-years away over a 17-year period! https://kottke.org/24/07/incredible-time-lapse-movies-of-exoplanets

2024-07-24 21:22:01

“In supposedly affluent Western nations, the dire state or absence of public toilets has become a universal nightmare, impacting the health and quality of life of all of us, but particularly for marginalised groups.” https://psyche.co/ideas/public-toilets-are-vanishing-and-thats-a-civic-catastrophe

2024-07-24 20:42:01

A study of the world’s most, and least, walkable cities (and those that rely most on public transport). Shocking but not shocking: “The 100 least active cities in the study are all found in North America.” https://www.economist.com/interactive/2024-walkable-cities

2024-07-24 19:56:01

Some good climate news: the pace of decarbonization in the US is increasing (due in part to Biden policies); we’re on track to “reduce GHG emissions by 38-56% below 2005 levels in 2035”, which is 2-4X the pace from 2005 to 2023. https://rhg.com/research/taking-stock-2024/

2024-07-23 21:02:01

Flint, MI is giving pregnant residents a “cash prescription” of $1500 during pregnancy and $500/mo for the 1st year of the baby’s life. “In Flint, the poorest city in [Michigan], we are on track to eliminating infant poverty.” https://www.michiganpublic.org/health/2024-07-11/every-new-mom-in-flint-is-getting-cash-aid-now-other-cities-want-to-try-it-too

2024-07-22 20:26:01

Kamala Harris and her views on the climate crisis. “Harris has made clear throughout her career that she views climate change as a significant threat.” https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/07/how-kamala-harris-and-donald-trump-compare-on-climate-change/

2024-07-22 19:50:01

News Happening Faster Than Man Can Generate Uninformed Opinions. “It’s getting harder and harder to come up with enough incoherent perspectives to meet the moment.” https://www.theonion.com/news-happening-faster-than-man-can-generate-uninformed-1851601466

2024-07-19 16:46:02

The editors of The Lancet Microbe on the origins of Covid-19. “SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that found its way into humans through mundane contact with infected wildlife that went on to cause the most consequential pandemic for over a century.” https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(24)00206-4/fulltext

2024-07-18 17:02:02

California has strengthened its electrical grid significantly in recent years: no rolling blackouts or grid emergencies during heatwaves because of solar energy and battery storage (“now equivalent to 5 very large nuclear power plants”). https://thinc.blog/2024/07/14/california-grid-breezes-through-heat-wave-due-to-renewables-batteries/

2024-07-18 16:06:01

Interactive map from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science: What will my city’s climate feel like in 60 years? “Many cities could experience a future climate unlike anything present on Earth today.” https://fitzlab.shinyapps.io/cityapp/

2024-07-18 14:36:02

The reintroduction of beavers in southwest England has resulted in a marked increase in resilience against flooding and droughts and the formation of habitats for endangered wildlife. https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/news/research-backs-beavers-fight-against-flooding-and-droughts

2024-07-17 21:52:01

A Guide to Miyazaki’s Weird Little Guys: warawara, susuwatari (soot sprites), kodama, Ponyo’s sisters. “Their designs are quite simple, but their meaning frequently is not.” https://www.vulture.com/article/miyazaki-weird-little-guys.html

2024-07-16 22:06:02

A pair of rare video clips of Jimi Hendrix playing an acoustic guitar. “Jimi could make an acoustic sound like an electric, and an electric like something else.” https://kottke.org/24/07/jimi-hendrix-goes-acoustic

2024-07-16 20:12:02

Important not to forget with all that is going on: Republicans will likely try to end almost abortion access in the US if the elections go their way this fall. Those are the stakes, period. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/07/republican-national-committee-2024-platform-gop-abortion-stance-has-not-softened.html

2024-07-16 18:36:02

If you’re on Bluesky, you can follow the Downticket Democrats bot: “I share donation links to US Democrats running for legislative seats in competitive districts.” https://bsky.app/profile/downticketdems.bsky.social

2024-07-16 13:36:01

15 books about Appalachia to read instead of Hillbilly Elegy that counter “the stereotypes of [Republican VP pick] J.D. Vance’s version of Appalachia”. https://kottke.org/24/07/15-books-about-appalachia-to-read-instead-of-hillbilly-elegy

2024-07-11 18:22:01

Edith here. Miranda July’s All Fours is one of the must-reads of the summer. I devoured it and drew about it. Have you read it? What did you think? https://kottke.org/24/07/reading-miranda-julys-all-fours

2024-07-11 14:52:02

Enduring 129°F in Death Valley. “The breeze only makes things worse, by blasting apart the thin and fragile atmosphere of cooled air that millions of your pores produce by sweating. Your heart hammers faster and faster. Your cognition starts to blur.” https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/07/extreme-heat-death-valley-129-degrees/678957/?gift=S4EwRLGNogt2Kqjs1lNdfxtb4WecW49W9eAREtgoY8s

2024-07-10 22:16:01

I’ve linked to these before, but the Do Not Reply images (which gently dunk on social media reply guys) are now available on their own site — and you can order IRL stickers too. https://donotreply.cards/

2024-07-09 16:02:01

Project 2025 in one sentence: “Project 2025 is conservatives’ vision for an American society that’s a result of gutting all the gains made by the civil rights, abortion rights, LGBTIA+ rights, voting rights and environmental rights movements…” https://kottke.org/24/07/project-2025-in-a-nutshell

2024-07-09 15:12:01

Biden is The Candidate. Gabrielle Blair on the practical facts of the Democratic nominee. “If he ever needs to be [replaced], the replacement is already in place. That’s literally part of the job of the Vice-President.” https://www.threads.net/@designmom/post/C9LPqhTtQn3

2024-07-08 19:52:02

How to Stop Fascism: Five Lessons of the Nazi Takeover. “4. Big business should support democracy. Whether they like it or not, business leaders bear responsibility for whether a republic endures or is destroyed.” https://kottke.org/24/07/how-to-stop-fascism-five-lessons-of-the-nazi-takeover

2024-07-08 18:12:03

Fascism and Fear and the Media. “The Biden administration is being held to standards, while the previous Trump administration is not; and Biden personally is being held to standards, while Trump as a person is not. This helps to generate a fascist aura.” https://kottke.org/24/07/fascism-and-fear-and-the-media

2024-07-08 16:12:02

THIS THIS THIS. “The proof of Biden’s ability to run the country is the fact that he is running it. Successfully. Not a debate performance against a pathological lying sociopath.” https://kottke.org/24/07/we-talking-about-practice

2024-07-08 14:32:01

Rebecca Solnit on the ridiculous frenzy about Biden’s age: “[The media is] doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race — providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump.” https://kottke.org/24/07/appalling-vs-a-whole-other-level-of-appalling

2024-07-05 19:32:02

Here’s what the web looked like in 1994, including the likes of Yahoo!, GNN, Pathfinder, IBM, The Amazing FishCam, and Pizza Hut. https://www.fastcompany.com/91140068/how-the-internet-went-mainstream-in-1994

2024-07-01 15:18:02

Supreme Court Rules That Presidents Have Absolute Immunity for “Core Constitutional Powers”. From Sotomayor’s dissent, a line that will reverberate for decades: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” https://kottke.org/24/07/supreme-court-rules-that-presidents-have-absolute-immunity-for-core-constitutional-powers

2024-06-27 15:14:02

Calm Down — Your Phone Isn’t Listening to Your Conversations. It’s Just Tracking Everything You Type, Every App You Use, Every Website You Visit, and Everywhere You Go in the Physical World. “So don’t even worry about it.” https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/calm-down-your-phone-isnt-listening-to-your-conversations-its-just-tracking-everything-you-type-every-app-you-use-every-website-you-visit-and-everywhere-you-go-in-the-physical-world

2024-06-26 13:42:02

Unhoused participants in the Denver Basic Income Project used their $1000/mo to find jobs & housing, spent less time in ERs, and reported improved mental health. “A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/denver-gave-people-experiencing-homelessness-101802213.html

2024-06-25 15:32:01

Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery repair with visible “scars”. For a marketing campaign, Oreo sold tubes of their frosting so people could repair their broken Oreos in the same way. https://kottke.org/24/06/oreo-kintsugi

2024-06-25 14:42:01

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declares gun violence a public health crisis. “America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship” without putting our lives at risk. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/25/us-surgeon-general-declares-gun-violence-public-health-crisis

2024-06-24 16:36:01

How do actors memorize their lines? “Actors engage in elaborative rehearsal, focusing their attention on the meaning of the material and associating it with information they already know.” https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-actors-remember-their-lines/

2024-06-24 15:42:02

Critic Maya Phillips wrote about seeing her anxiety reflected in Inside Out 2. “In a way that’s both cathartic and devastating, Pixar’s latest portrays how anxiety can take hold.” https://kottke.org/24/06/anxiety-in-inside-out-2-is-too-real

2024-06-24 13:16:01

Great news about HIV protection: “Results from a large clinical trial in Africa showed that a twice-yearly injection of a new antiviral drug gave young women total protection from the virus.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/health/lenacapavir-hiv-prevention-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1k0.48pH.ML6CbYVKmd5v

2024-06-24 13:16:01

2024-06-21 15:22:02

Walmart is switching to electronic price tags that “allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds”. No one wants this!! No one wants surge pricing on ice cream and price increases on items already in your cart. https://www.npr.org/2024/06/17/nx-s1-5009271/electronic-shelf-labels-prices-walmart-grocery-store

2024-06-21 14:12:01

Roxane Gay signs off from her Work Friend column. “I want everyone to make a living wage and have excellent health care and the means to retire at a reasonable age. I want all of us to want this very simple thing for one another.” https://kottke.org/24/06/we-deserve-a-better-work-life

2024-06-20 16:22:01

A photographer entered a real photo of a flamingo in an AI image contest and was disqualified after winning the People’s Vote Award. “I wanted to show that nature can still beat the machine.” https://petapixel.com/2024/06/12/photographer-disqualified-from-ai-image-contest-after-winning-with-real-photo/

2024-06-19 19:26:01

Mel Brooks is producing a sequel to Spaceballs with Josh Gad starring. Please say they are getting Rick Moranis to come back for this… https://variety.com/2024/film/news/spaceballs-2-josh-gad-mel-brooks-amazon-mgm-1236041375/

2024-06-19 17:52:02

How heat affects our brains: it makes us dumber, irritable, impulsive, and aggressive (i.e. don’t blame me if the site sucks today, it feels like 97° here and I don’t have A/C). https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/well/mind/heat-affect-brain-emotions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.000._KgR.uR0e2BTcYdLw

2024-06-19 14:26:01

American English “invisible letters” include the t in pizza, the r in colonel, and the extra b in cummerbund. Maybe this is a Midwestern thing, but I recently noticed that I add an l to both: bolth. (My daughter does it too but not my son.) https://www.threads.net/@mhick/post/C8UjvrSuY_R/

2024-06-18 21:52:02

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe is fully online again after months of spouting gibberish. “The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space.” https://science.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-program/voyager-1/voyager-1-returning-science-data-from-all-four-instruments/

2024-06-18 21:02:01

An Apple Watch reimagined in the style of a Newton. Love the app icons for Bluesky, BBEdit, and Marathon. https://bsky.app/profile/nanoraptor.danamania.com/post/3kuwhczwlok2d

2024-06-17 14:26:01

A modern approach to habitat restoration: Leave It To Beavers. “At their very most basic, beavers store water. They build dams; think of them sort of as speed bumps in the stream. The pools and eddies they create are entire new spawning areas for fish.” https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/beavers-king-countys-modern-habitat-restoration

2024-06-14 16:26:01

From Palestinian-American Mo Husseini, a list of 50 Completely True Things, including “You can advocate for Palestine without being a racist, antisemitic piece of shit” and “You can advocate for Israel without being a racist, anti-Arab piece of shit.” https://mo-husseini.medium.com/50-completely-true-things-1ce672087b28

2024-06-14 15:46:02

The kids who were 1st graders when 20 of their classmates were murdered in Newtown, CT are graduating from high school. “There is a whole chunk of our class missing.” More than 4200 mass shootings in the US since then, several of them at schools. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg33zqd5wyeo

2024-06-14 14:36:01

Boston Should Rename Its Airport for Bill Russell. “He was Boston’s greatest sports champion, and as a brave and steadfast civil-rights leader across half a century, an even greater man.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/boston-rename-logan-airport-bill-russell/678683/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ2HRQB20CDW0yt6SxjxiV6w

2024-06-13 22:02:01

Paul Theroux: “In the short run, criticism seems to have merit; in the end, criticism is useless—a good book has a long life in spite of anything said about it.” I’m not sure I agree, but I did find this idea somewhat thrilling. https://thecollidescope.com/2024/05/30/the-grit-that-makes-the-pearl-an-interview-with-paul-theroux/

2024-05-16 16:36:02

Why do big cicada broods emerge at prime-numbered year intervals? It could be because it’s easier for them to avoid predators with two-, three-, four-, or six-year cycles. https://kottke.org/24/05/cicadas-and-prime-numbers