Dithering
While there is no subscription offering for Daring Fireball (never say never again), I am reminded this week to remind you that, if you enjoy podcasts, you should subscribe to Dithering, the twice-weekly 15-minutes-on-the-button podcast I do with Ben Thompson. Dithering a...
Times New Dumbass
Late-breaking candidate for best new font of 2024.
Link: timesnewdumbass.co/
A Bluesky starter pack of major news outlets that have joined the...
A Bluesky starter pack of major news outlets that have joined the platform, including CNN, The Guardian, Reuters, NPR, Financial Times, WSJ, Wired, and USA Today.
This Is What The Internet’s For
I wonder if, when Bobby Internet invented the internet, he imagined it would be used for videos like this. There’s something so fun about watching people crack up at work. See also SNL actors breaking. They also have fun accents, which I maybe shouldn’t say because kottke....
404 Media, reporting on 404’d media: big health insurance companies are removing...
404 Media, reporting on 404’d media: big health insurance companies are removing information about their executive leadership teams from their websites.
★ Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Generative AI Bullshit Bathwater
Elizabeth Lopatto, writing for The Verge, “Stop Using Generative AI as a Search Engine”:
Now, a defender of AI might — rightly — say that a real
journalist should check the answers provided by ChatGPT; that
fact-checking is a critical part of our job. I agree, which is w...
98-Year-Old Dick Van Dyke Stars in Lovely New Coldplay Video
Coldplay tapped Spike Jonze & Mary Wigmore to direct the music video for a song called All My Love from their latest album and the pair decided to turn it into an early 99th birthday celebration of Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke danced a bit, sung a bit, was swarmed by his fa...
“The sound of traffic and a uniform sea of barley have been...
“The sound of traffic and a uniform sea of barley have been replaced by the most beautiful meadows, full of wildflowers, young saplings and the buzz of bees.” The bees will come back if you give them flowers.
The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age. “We’ve been cored like...
The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age. “We’ve been cored like apples, a dependency created, hooked on the public internet to tell us the worth. Every notification ping holds the possibility we have merit.”
After almost 25 years, Paul Krugman is retiring as a NYT opinion...
After almost 25 years, Paul Krugman is retiring as a NYT opinion columnist. Krugman: “I decided to leave in search of more freedom in terms of both style and content.”
616: I Have No Grippers
Pre-show: Marco [re-]discovers progressives
Follow-up:
Yet more football (🏈) news
Seriously y’all, the Giants are so bad 😭
TVEverywhere & Channels
AVP immersive content tallies (via _)
Cleaning a Mac keyboard while screensaver lock is on (via Paradise Pete)
...
NASA’s Rocket Engine Fireplace
Oh, this is so good: NASA has an 8-hour cozy fireplace video in 4K that’s actually a rocket engine (in a fireplace).
This glowing mood-setter is brought to you by the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that launched Artemis I on its mission around the Moon and back on Nov. 16, 2022. 8.8 million pounds of total thrust – and a couple glasses of eggnog – might just be enough to make your holidays merry.
“subtle foreshadowing” — I laughed unbelievably hard at this, just absolutely gasping...
“subtle foreshadowing” — I laughed unbelievably hard at this, just absolutely gasping to breathe. Academy Award winner for best editing right here.
Radiolab
• WNYC Studios
How Stockholm Stuck
In August of 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson walked into the lobby of a bank in central Stockholm. He fired his submachine gun at the ceiling and yelled “The party starts now!” Then he started taking hostages. For the next six days, Swedish police and international media would tie the...
Seismologists
Festivitas — Holiday Lights for Your Mac Menu Bar and Dock
Purely fun, pay-whatever-you-think-fair app for the Mac from Simon Støvring (developer of numerous fine apps such as Runestone and Scriptable):
Festivitas automatically adds festive lights to your menu bar and dock upon launch and you can tweak their appearance to match your preferences.
There is something very core to the Mac’s origins about not just making a software toy like this, but putting effort into making everything about it really nice. Harks back to Steven Halls’s The Talking Moose and, of course, the undisputed king of the genre, Eric Shapiro’s The Grouch. Oh, and of course (thanks to Stephen Hackett for the reminder), Holiday Lights.
Update, Friday 6 December: Today’s 1.1 update brings several improvements, including making the lights look way cooler if your Dock is on the left or right (as god intended).
Link: festivitas.app/
‘Appeasement in the New Age of Trump’, MSNBC Edition
David Frum, writing at The Atlantic, regarding his jarring appearance as a guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
Before getting to the article, I was asked about the nomination of
Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense — specifically about an NBC
News report that his heavy drinkin...
Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong Is Tanking the LA Times’s Credibility
Oliver Darcy, in a well-sourced report at Status (paywalled, alas, but with a preview of the article if you sign up for the free version of his newsletter, which I agree is sort of a “Yeah, no thanks” offer):
Patrick Soon-Shiong is tightening his grip over the Los Angele...
Looney Tunes Backgrounds
This Instagram account posts the backgrounds of Looney Tunes cartoons with the Looney Tunes characters removed. As @presentcorrect.bsky.social remarks, these images are also a great resource for color palettes.
Tags: art · cartoons
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