During her time aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara took a series of photos of the Earth from directly overhead. Seán Doran has stitched those images together into a gorgeous 4K video of a journey across North America, from San Diego to cloud-covered Quebec.
The footage is a simulation, converting an image sequence into video footage using image processing and animation. In reality this journey from California to Quebec took 11 minutes to traverse. In order to better appreciate the view this film slows that speed by a factor of 4.
Along the way, we’re treated to views of Joshua Tree National Park, the Grand Canyon, and the Rocky Mountains. Even the clouds are mesmerizing.
Tags: Earth · ISS · Loral O'Hara · mesmerizing · NASA · photography · Sean Doran · space · video
Is Donald Trump Alive? Now, this is a site that knows how to write factual headlines, e.g. “Donald Trump is alive and ranting and raving about foreign interests infiltrating the Supreme Court that he created”. Take note, NYT.
The hum of a grocery store’s freezers delights ambient music fans: “It’s like being in an electrical gong bath”. And: “The obvious reference is Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.”
The paper asked me to explain vibe coding, and I did so, because I think something big is coming there, and I'm deep in, and I worry that normal people are not able to see it and I want them to be prepared. But people can't just read something and hate you quietly; they can't see that you have provided them with a utility or a warning; they need their screech. You are distributed to millions of people, and become the local proxy for the emotions of maybe dozens of people, who disagree and demand your attention, and because you are the one in the paper you need to welcome them with a pastor's smile and deep empathy, and if you speak a word in your own defense they'll screech even louder.
— Paul Ford, on writing about vibe coding for the New York Times
Tags: vibe-coding, new-york-times, paul-ford
“A new ethic is quietly emerging among modern travelers. It is called Digital Silence. It is the conscious decision to share the art and the emotion of a place without giving away its exact coordinates… It is a radical act of conservation.”
A ripple of excitement pulsed through the crowd. Paul Ford is blogging regularly again.
The folks behind Dark Sky spun themselves out of Apple and have built a new weather app: Acme Weather. “We missed those days as a small scrappy shop. So let’s try this again…”
The latest scourge of Twitter is AI bots that reply to your tweets with generic, banal commentary slop, often accompanied by a question to "drive engagement" and waste as much of your time as possible.
I just found out that the category name for this genre of software is reply guy tools. Amazing.
Tags: ai-ethics, twitter, slop, generative-ai, definitions, ai, llms
Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw “confirm before acting” and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox. I couldn’t stop it from my phone. I had to RUN to my Mac mini like I was defusing a bomb.
I said “Check this inbox too and suggest what you would archive or delete, don’t action until I tell you to.” This has been working well for my toy inbox, but my real inbox was too huge and triggered compaction. During the compaction, it lost my original instruction 🤦♀️
Tags: ai-ethics, generative-ai, ai-agents, openclaw, ai, llms
My thanks to Sentry for sponsoring last week at DF. Sentry is running a hands-on workshop: “Crash Reporting, Tracing, and Logs for iOS in Sentry”. You can watch it on demand. You’ll learn how to connect the dots between slowdowns, crashes, and the user experience in your iOS app. It’ll show you how to:
Link: sentry.io/resources/ios-workshop-jan-2026/?utm_source…
