FeedCity: Featured

The Fascinating Map of Fungi

From Domain of Science, the Fascinating Map of Fungi.

The zombie ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infects ants by piercing the exoskeleton with enzymes and spreads fungal cells throughout the body. It then secretes special neurological compounds that hijack the ant’s central nervous system, forcing it to climb high into a tree and lock its mandibles onto a leaf with a death grip. This makes a nice stable platform for the fungus to grow a fruiting body to disperse spores in a large area to infect more hosts.

And here’s a video explanation of everything on the map.

Tags: fungi · infoviz · mushrooms · science · video

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kottke.org
05 Dec 20:00 • Jason Kottke

Bloomberg’s Jealousy List for 2025, a collection of journalism admired by the...

Bloomberg’s Jealousy List for 2025, a collection of journalism admired by the magazine’s writers and editors.

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kottke.org
05 Dec 19:09 • Aaron Cohen

I’m actually surprised how well Santa answers these difficult questions in the...

I’m actually surprised how well Santa answers these difficult questions in the face of a full on press from the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner.

kottke.org
05 Dec 18:21 • Jason Kottke

Where Did These Famous Hip Hop Screeches Come From?

Two of the most famous screeches in music history are from House of Pain’s Jump Around and Cypress Hill’s Insane in the Brain — you likely heard both of them in your mind just reading the names of the songs. This short video explains where those samples came from and which one of them is a horse (and not Prince).

Tags: hip-hop · music · remix · video

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kottke.org
05 Dec 17:33 • Jason Kottke

Dollar stores are overcharging their customers at checkout. “Red Baron frozen pizzas,...

Dollar stores are overcharging their customers at checkout. “Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50.”

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kottke.org
05 Dec 17:06 • Jason Kottke

Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? “When you consider all the...

Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? “When you consider all the impressive work Generation X has made, it’s funny that one of the most persistent stereotypes about them is that they’re slackers.”

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Daring Fireball
05 Dec 17:03 • John Gruber

Netflix Agrees to Buy Warner Bros., Including HBO, for $83 Billion

latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-12-05/netflix-prevails-in-warner-bros-discovery-bidding-opponents

Meg James, reporting for The Los Angeles Times (News+ link): The two companies announced the blockbuster deal early Friday morning. The takeover would give Netflix such beloved characters as Batman, Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone. Fred Flintstone? “Our mission ha...

Exclusive | The Verge
05 Dec 17:00 • Tom Warren

OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 ‘code red’ response to Google is coming next week

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" situation earlier this week, pushing staff to respond quickly to increased competition from Google and Anthropic. Sources familiar with OpenAI's plans tell me that the company is planning its first response to Gemini 3 with its upcoming GPT-5.2 update. I understand GPT-5.2 is ready to be released, […]

kottke.org
05 Dec 16:06 • Jason Kottke

Gemini and Mercury Remastered is “a collection of hundreds of newly-restored images...

Gemini and Mercury Remastered is “a collection of hundreds of newly-restored images and untold stories from the NASA archives” about the early manned space programs by the person who did the excellent Apollo Remastered.

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kottke.org
05 Dec 15:42 • Jason Kottke

Really interesting take on Wake Up Dead Man and the other Knives...

Really interesting take on Wake Up Dead Man and the other Knives Out films. Benoit Blanc’s primary motivation is not solving the murder but protecting the innocent from the rich and powerful.

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Sarah's Scribbles
05 Dec 15:30

This brand new piece has been made available as a signed print! A portion of all proceeds go to…

This brand new piece has been made available as a signed print! A portion of all proceeds go to Mind, the UK’s leading mental health charity.

Radiolab
05 Dec 15:00 • WNYC Studios

Shell Game: Minimum Viable Company

A year ago we brought you a show called Shell Game where a journalist named Evan Ratliff made an AI copy of himself. Now on season 2 of the show, Evan’s using AI to do more than just mimic himself — he’s starting a company staffed entirely by AI agents, and making a podcast ...

Simon Willison's Weblog
05 Dec 06:30

TIL: Subtests in pytest 9.0.0+

TIL: Subtests in pytest 9.0.0+ I spotted an interesting new feature in the release notes for pytest 9.0.0: subtests. I'm a big user of the pytest.mark.parametrize decorator - see Documentation unit tests from 2018 - so I thought it would be interesting to try out subtests an...

The Atlas Obscura Podcast
05 Dec 05:05 • SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

12 Days of Wonder: Toy Story

Mexico City is known for its museum and art scene. The collection at El Museo del Juguete Antiguo – The Antique Toy Museum – encourages visitors to lean into their imaginations – and reflect on the rich history and culture in this city.

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Simon Willison's Weblog
05 Dec 04:54

Thoughts on Go vs. Rust vs. Zig

Thoughts on Go vs. Rust vs. Zig

Thoughtful commentary on Go, Rust, and Zig by Sinclair Target. I haven't seen a single comparison that covers all three before and I learned a lot from reading this.

One thing that I hadn't noticed before is that none of these three languages implement class-based OOP.

Via Hacker News

Tags: go, object-oriented-programming, programming-languages, rust, zig

Daring Fireball
05 Dec 02:39 • John Gruber

★ Alan Dye Was in Tim Cook’s Blind Spot

NBC News, back in March 2018: Speaking at a town hall event hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Recode’s Kara Swisher, Cook said Facebook put profits above all else when it allegedly allowed user data to be taken through connected apps. [...] When asked what he would do i...

Simon Willison's Weblog
05 Dec 01:30

The Resonant Computing Manifesto

The Resonant Computing Manifesto Launched today at WIRED’s The Big Interview event, this manifesto (of which I'm a founding signatory) pushes for a positive framework for thinking about building hyper-personalized AI-powered software. This part in particular resonates with m...

kottke.org
05 Dec 01:18 • Jason Kottke

Pantone choosing a shade of white for its color of the year...

Pantone choosing a shade of white for its color of the year is a little too on the nose, especially when you consider they chose a color called Mocha Mousse last year.

Simon Willison's Weblog
05 Dec 00:39

Django 6.0 released

Django 6.0 released Django 6.0 includes a flurry of neat features, but the two that most caught my eye are background workers and template partials. Background workers started out as DEP (Django Enhancement Proposal) 14, proposed and shepherded by Jake Howard. Jake prototype...

Simon Willison's Weblog
05 Dec 00:06

Text a community college librarian

I take tap dance evening classes at the College of San Mateo community college. A neat bonus of this is that I'm now officially a student of that college, which gives me access to their library... including the ability to send text messages to the librarians asking for help ...