Some advice from Old Man Kottke: if you need readers, get some with good lenses. I had some cheapo ones that gave me eye strain, so I ordered these from Caddis and they’re like 100 times better.
Tucked into today's Google I/O keynote, a blink-and-you'll miss it moment:
The pelican in the keynote was created by Alexander Chen. Here's the code they wrote with the help of Gemini, which uses p5.js to power the animation.
Tags: pelican-riding-a-bicycle, google-io, google
cityofaustin/atd-data-tech issues
I stumbled across this today while looking for interesting frequently updated data sources from local governments. It turns out the City of Austin's Transportation Data & Technology Services department run everything out of a public GitHub issues instance, which currently has 20,225 closed and 2,002 open issues. They also publish an exported copy of the issues data through the data.austintexas.gov open data portal.Tags: open-data, github, github-issues
Magnus Carlsen played a game of freestyle chess against 143,000 people (who voted on what moves to make) and was forced into a draw. I’m surprised at the outcome…I didn’t think the wisdom of the crowds would work in a situation like this.
politicalwire.com/2025/05/20/kristi-noem-doesnt-know-what-habeus-corpus-is/
Taegan Goddard:
When Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem for the definition of “habeas corpus,” Noem incorrectly described it as a right that the President of the United States has to deport people.
You can go the Latin route (“produce the body”) or the English common-law route (the accused have a right to be shown the evidence against them and defend themselves in court). Noem went the “biggest clown of the clown-car Trump 2.0 administration” route.
Link: politicalwire.com/2025/05/20/kristi-noem-doesnt-know-what…
Lagarto Films is a film collective based in Puerto Rico that makes interactive YouTube videos and games. This is pretty clever actually…they use keyboard shortcuts to skip to different parts of the video, Choose Your Own Adventure style. So you can play a game of Uno:
Or direct the action in a short cops & robbers film:
Play Grand Theft Auto in real life:
There are many more of their interactive videos in this playlist. (thx, ollie)
Tags: Lagarto Films · video · video games · YouTube
The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
In Guyana’s Square of the Revolution, a statue honors Cuffy, an Akan man from West Africa who became a legendary figure. Captured and enslaved by the Dutch in the colony of Berbice (present-day Guyana), Cuffy rose from house slave to revolutionary leader. But an act of civility would be the beginning of his downfall.
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The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey are compelled by some indescribable force to rewatch Steven Spielberg’s 1977 spectacle ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’
Podcast Manager: Craig Horlbeck
Video Producers: Ronak Nair and Jack Sanders
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
macrumors.com/2025/05/19/apple-fortnite-us-app-store-dispute/
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
With Apple blocking Fortnite from returning to the U.S. App Store, Epic Games told the court that Apple was violating the injunction and asked that Apple be forced to approve the app. The judge overseeing the case responded to Epic’s request today, and she is sounding more and more fed up with Apple’s continued defiance and Epic’s grousing.
“More and more fed up” is perhaps euphemistic, given Gonzalez Rogers’s tone today.
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.
Link: drata.com/daring
The reader who sent me this video said, “I’ve never seen a more Star Wars + Gruber combo on Instagram” and — right down to the profanity — I have to agree.
