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Audio • SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

The Big Duck (Classic)

The story of a big idea, and a big duck – and how this duck would go on to become an important architectural landmark that would influence buildings all around the world.   READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/big-duck


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kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink...

New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink boats and wear salmon for hats; now they’re ramming fish so hard they explode. “Orcas were observed to hold sunfish in their jaws while a second whale smashed into the target at high speed…”

Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
Text

The first known runaway AI agent - or a very bad marketing stunt?

The first known runaway AI agent - or a very bad marketing stunt? Martin Alderson's commentary on the OpenAI accidental cyberattack against Hugging Face includes a couple of details I hadn't considered. First, Hugging Face offers a truly rich target if you're trying to find ...

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers ....

It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers. “Our world is increasingly moving towards extreme values: Damages from climate change, deaths due to genocide, wealth that knows no bounds. We can’t tackle them if we can’t wrap our heads around [them].”

Accidental Tech Podcast
Audio

701: I Improved My Town

Pre-show: Marco’s Mac mini catastrophe CyberLynk / Mac Mini Vault The dead ATS The proposed replacement 🗣️ New Member’s Special: ATP Tier List: Emoji Follow-up: Member’s Special video trimming / John’s Vibe Coded App LosslessCut Casey has leveled-up his Sonos exp...

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the...

A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out. “Once everyone was back at school on Tuesday, the high schoolers lawyered up during their lunch hour.”

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by...

“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by a competent, honest person for nearly thirty years, was crushed between two features of the new AI economy.” (AI bots and prediction market dipshits.)

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom...

“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom homeland, for the sake of which one is ready to die or kill. Unreflective nostalgia can breed monsters.” On the good and bad types of nostalgia.

Colossal Valid
Text • Kate Mothes

Playful Knitted Pillows by Donna Wilson Infuse Interiors with Whimsy and Joy

Playful Knitted Pillows by Donna Wilson Infuse Interiors with Whimsy and JoyWhat's not to love about a pillow with personality?

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Playful Knitted Pillows by Donna Wilson Infuse Interiors with Whimsy and Joy appeared first on Colossal.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Bond Movie Filming Locations Map

department-m.agency/

“From a Bond fan to Bond fans worldwide.” Nice work.

Link: department-m.agency/

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

★ The Ads on Apple News Continue to Suck, but at Least There Are a Lot of Them

Kirk McElhearn, back in February: I use Apple News to keep up on topics that I don’t find in sources I pay for (The Guardian and The New York Times). But there’s no way I’m going to pay the exorbitant price Apple wants for Apple News+ — £13 — because, while you get more ...

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and...

Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and the misogyny of classical literature & the contemporary world. “Classical culture is a lot of things including, literally, rape culture.”

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

John Dvorak on Computer Chronicles in 1987 to Discuss the Then-New IBM PS/2

youtube.com/watch?v=uY2WF_sPecI

Dvorak is best known for all the takes he was jacktastically wrong about, but what gave his schtick staying power is that he was technically savvy. His take here on the PS/2 was actually spot-on: that it was technically impressive in many ways, especially the way it was assembled without any cables, but that it was doomed in the market against ugly mess-of-cables commodity PCs.

“Computer Chronicles” was the real show from the 1980s that Adam Lisagor so lovingly and spectacularly spoofed with “Computer Show” a decade ago.

Link: youtube.com/watch?v=uY2WF_sPecI

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

What’s On the Sandwich Named After You at the Local Deli?

Following a prompt from Joanna at Cup of Jo… The local deli or sandwich shop names a sandwich after you. What would be on it? Perhaps another way of asking the question: what’s your favorite sandwich that’s a little bit unusual?

I love a classic BLT, banh mi, or jambon beurre, but a sandwich that is fairly unique to me is tuna salad (made with pickles, pickle juice, and scallions), havarti, lettuce, and tomatoes on good white bread or a kaiser roll. I think that would be The Kottke at the local deli. Either that or something chopped?

Tags: food · sandwiches

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

Why are American ambulances so expensive? In part...

Why are American ambulances so expensive? In part because Medicare pays only a fraction of the actual cost of an ambulance ride and the uninsured often don’t pay at all, so the privately insured get bills of $13,000 for a $2600 ride.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

John Dvorak Drops Dead at 80

appleinsider.com/articles/26/07/23/famed-technology-journalist-john-c-dvorak-dies-aged-80

William Gallagher, AppleInsider: Legendary technology columnist, pundit, author and podcast host John C. Dvorak has died, age 80. He is survived by his wife Mimi Dvorak. Today Dvorak is best known for co-hosting the “No Agenda” podcast with Adam Curry, where he would cr...

Longreads Valid
Text • Krista Stevens

A Dying Art

"The last of the morticians."

Longreads Valid
Text • Brendan Fitzgerald

Beckett the Prophet

"We are all, it seems, still waiting for Godot."

kottke.org Valid
Text • Jason Kottke

We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night...

We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night Skies. “Our main failure isn’t a technical one. It’s that we have yet to revise our thinking about lighting at night. We use LED technology just as we did the old sources of light.”

Citation Needed Supports Webmention
Text • Molly White

Issue 107 – An unserious offer

Issue 107 – An unserious offer

The crypto industry has spent $200 million to get a bill too corrupt for Democrats to pass and a president too corrupt to sign anything that might meaningfully limit his grift.