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You know me, I love a good gradient. These watercolors are from a series called Strata by Mikael Hallstrøm Eriksen, an artist who uses “repetitive and accumulative mark-making” in his work. The works in the Strata-series are inspired by geological and natural phenomena — sediments, horisons, bodies of water, etc. These works explore a colourful imagery of accumulation, distance and transformation. Within geology and archeology, strata (singular: stratum) refers to layers (of rock, soil, culture etc.) possessing internally consistent characteristics making them distinguishable from each other. You can check out more of Eriksen’s work on Instagram. Tags: art · geology · Mikael Hallstrom Eriksen 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

This is how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear on live television in 1983. This was a *huge* event in my childhood and I am thrilled to finally learn how it was done.

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In 1976, 20th Century Fox released a teaser trailer for a little film called Star Wars…aka “the story of a boy, a girl, and a universe”.

No James Earl Jones voiceover for Vader, no John Williams score (which wasn’t finished until just two months before the film premiered), but those visuals must have impressed.

Here’s the first teaser trailer for Empire Strikes Back, which features no film footage at all, just concept art drawn by Ralph McQuarrie:

And for the sake of completeness, the teaser trailer for Return of the Jedi, which appeared in theaters before Lucas changed the name from Revenge of the Jedi:

[This is a vintage post originally from Jul 2014.]

Tags: movies · Star Wars · timeless posts · trailers

I’ve seen a lot of these bouncing ball videos (balls double until my PC crashes, etc.) but this one is absolutely mesmerizing. So many more of these on Slightly Satisfying’s TikTok.

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Brandy Zadrozny and Erik Ortiz, NBC News: The Onion, the satirical news company that repeatedly spoofed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has won the bankruptcy auction for control over his media empire — most notably Infowars, the far-right, conspiracy-minded website that...

🚨 LAST CALL! 🚨 ATP Holiday Store is open! 🗣️ Place your orders by Sunday! Follow-up: Aperture was not a purchase; it was developed by Apple. (via Jason Sims) “Plain” M4 MacBook Pro and external displays (via Eric Roch) Mac mini “Modular” storage Quinn’s teardown ...

The Guardian on why they’re not posting on Twitter anymore. “The benefits…are now outweighed by the negatives and…resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere.” (If your org can’t stop, at least post elsewhere first.)

The Threat of Trumpism Is Real. So Is the Need for Rest. “If we don’t seek out pleasure, comfort, companionship, and laughter, numbness becomes our only protection. And fascism thrives when we are dead inside.”

Today I learned about evacuation aprons, which places like maternity wards use to rescue infants and toddlers in case of emergency or fire. Or as this labor & delivery nurse on Threads put it: …the goal is to grab your vest and just stuff as many babies as humanly possible in its giant kangaroo pockets before running out the door. This particular company sells a few different models, like this apron for newborns and this one for larger infants and toddlers that can carry a total weight of 60 lbs. All the aprons are fire-resistant. There is also something called the Med Sled, which can carry up to 6 infants at a time. Tags: fashion · healthcare 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Actually not an Onion article: The Onion Says It Has Bought Infowars, Alex Jones’s Site, Out of Bankruptcy. They’re going to relaunch the site as “a parody of itself” with Everytown for Gun Safety as an advertiser.

Bill Atkinson, on Facebook, “Request for Prayers”: On October first, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Because of vascular involvement, surgery is not possible. I am taking weekly chemo treatments to shrink the tumor before surgical resection. I am tolerating the c...

Is the love song dying? Or has the definition broadened? The Pudding investigates.

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Republicans secure total control of US congress after winning the House of Representatives. Also: climate impact of jet condensation trails and the kidults rediscovering the joy of toys.

I’m a journalist and I’m changing the way I read news. This is how. “I’ll read news, not other people’s reactions to news.”

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In this video from Pianote, the multi-talented Jon Baptiste hears Green Day’s Holiday for the first time (drum & vocals only) and is challenged to come up with a piano accompaniment for it — and he really really gets into it. (How do you find a song that a musical encyclopedia like Baptiste has never heard before though?)

These are always so fun to watch — see also Drummer Plays Metallica’s Enter Sandman After Hearing It Only Once. Oh and Green Day’s demastering of Dookie. (via @unlikelywords.bsky.social)

Tags: Green Day · Jon Baptiste · music · remix · video

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Oooh, Casey Johnston is coming out with a “memoir and manifesto” about weight lifting: A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting. (I am inching ever closer to taking up lifting myself…)

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Huge if true: “Triangles were long believed to be related to squares, but genetic analysis proves that they are actually very pointy circles.”

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This is a still frame of a film shot just a few moments after President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, TX in 1963: From a NY Times story back in September: For decades Mr. Carpenter’s 8-millimeter snippets of what transpired in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, have been a f...

Hey, it’s the Microscope Museum, featuring ‘scopes from the early 1800s to the 1980s. “An antique microscope is a work of art as well as science.”

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What Will You Do? “What will you do if men in uniforms arrive in your neighborhood, and an immigrant neighbor gets a knock on the door and is led away in handcuffs? Or if the uniforms are not police uniforms, and there is not even a knock?”