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Text • Jason Kottke

What a great idea for a book: Cookbooking: A Fan’s...

What a great idea for a book: Cookbooking: A Fan’s Guide. “An eclectic, visually stunning pop-history, Cookbooking explores the most influential and beloved cookbooks through photographs, listicles, graphics, and snappy writing.”

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Text • John Gruber

★ When New DF Posts Drop in a Forest and No One Is There to Read Them

It occurred to me last night that I’d gotten less feedback regarding recent posts than usual. There were a few items I’d posted in recent days that I felt sure to hear from readers about, both yea and nay. But: nothing. Crickets chirping. I almost always hear from squeaky wh...

Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
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Quoting Matt Webb

After I released version 1.0, I figured I would have to do the rotations myself. So I sat down with ChatGPT and I didn’t get it to write the code, but I got it to educate me. With a patient, interactive tutor, I was able to finally do what I hadn’t by reading books and asking mathematician friends – I learnt how to use quaternions just enough to make the app work.

So learning doesn’t stop just because I outsource a bunch of thinking to AI. It pushes me to learn more. I like that as an outcome.

— Matt Webb, Galactic Compass 2: now with new augmented reality mode

Tags: matt-webb, generative-ai, chatgpt, education, ai, llms

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Text • John Gruber

Bluesky’s Active User Base Is Shrinking, and Remains Tiny Compared to Threads and Twitter/X

techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/blueskys-active-user-base-is-shrinking-as-its-focus-expands-beyond-the-app/

Sarah Perez, writing at TechCrunch last week: Decentralized social network Bluesky was one of the bigger beneficiaries of the exodus from Elon Musk’s X in November 2024, following the U.S. elections. But now, nearly two years later, the social network and would-be X comp...

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Text • John Gruber

Bluesky Is Full of Anti-AI Zealots

bsky.app/profile/masnick.com/post/3mtk7cuvbok2x

Mike Masnick, in a thread on Bluesky: Multiple people I know have told me that they love the idea of Bluesky, and want it to succeed, but have abandoned it for X because they use agentic tools in their work and find them incredibly useful, and feel that any mention of th...

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Text • John Gruber

How Bluesky and Threads Sneak Their Logos Into iOS Screenshots

timmarinin.net/2026/bluesky-screenshots/

Bluesky and Threads both pull the same trick: When you take a screenshot on iOS of an individual tweet, they replace the “Follow” button in their user interface with their logo. Tim Marinin noticed this in the Bluesky app, got curious, and because they publish the app’s sour...

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Text • John Gruber

★ Apple and European Commission Reach Agreement on App Payment Terms Under DMA, With Apple Conceding Very Little

Apple Newsroom, on Tuesday: Apple today announced changes to its business terms for apps in the European Union, following close collaboration with the European Commission. These changes resolve Apple’s disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative...

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Text • John Gruber

Gurman Says No Camera-Equipped AirPods Until 2027

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-19/apple-s-camera-equipped-ai-airpods-remain-on-track-for-2027-despite-video-leak

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Earlier this week, a developer version of a Mac computer software update accidentally included references to several upcoming Apple products, including a video of the AirPods with cameras in action. [...]

But the product challenges are still being resolved, and the camera AirPods remain off the company’s 2026 release schedule. Apple continues to believe the earbuds will launch in 2027, said the people, who asked not to be identified when discussing unannounced products.

If true, it makes that video even stranger. If not, we can file this along the flat-sided Series 7 Apple Watch.

Link: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-19/apple-s-camera…

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Text • John Gruber

★ Apple Screwed Up the TestFlight App’s Sort Order a Month Ago, and It’s Still Screwed Up, but the More I Think About It, the More Clear It Is They Started Screwing This Up 15 Years Ago

Zac Hall at 9to5Mac, a month ago: Sometimes a small change can make a big impact. That’s especially true for Apple’s latest TestFlight update for users with a lot of pre-release software. Apple just updated TestFlight for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more. The new version, 4....

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Text • John Gruber

NBC News Strikes Ad Sales Deal With Taboola for Programmatic Display Ads

axios.com/2026/08/18/nbc-news-taboola-programmatic-display-ads

Sara Fischer, Axios:

Ad tech giant Taboola has struck a deal with NBC News to exclusively power all of its programmatic, or automated, display advertising sales, CEO Adam Singolda tells Axios.

Worked out great for Apple with Apple News. They struck a deal with Taboola two years ago and the ads in Apple News today are super premium and something the company can be really proud of.

Link: axios.com/2026/08/18/nbc-news-taboola-programmatic-display…

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Text • Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] WorkOS: Agents Can Now Sign Up for Your App

workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32026

Agents are hitting your signup flow and bouncing off a browser login built for humans. Every one that gives up is a signup you never see.

WorkOS Agent Registration turns that traffic into signups. Enroll via the dashboard and AuthKit publishes an auth.md file agents read to register for scoped, short-lived credentials you control.

Make your app agent-ready →

Link: workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium…

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Audio • WNYC Studios

Patient Zero

The greatest mysteries have a shadowy figure at the center—someone who sets things in motion and holds the key to how the story unfolds. In epidemiology, this central character is known as Patient Zero—the case at the heart of an outbreak. This hour, Radiolab digs up an epis...

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Text • Grace Ebert

On Vintage Boards, Lou Benesch Conjures the Fantastic World of The Magician

On Vintage Boards, Lou Benesch Conjures the Fantastic World of The MagicianLou Benesch translates the Magician's inclination for action and mysticism into a collection of works on found and antique materials.

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 On Vintage Boards, Lou Benesch Conjures the Fantastic World of The Magician appeared first on Colossal.

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Text • Longreads

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing stories from Andrew Fedorov, Shayla Love, Malcolm Johnston, Erin Somers, and Chris Stanton.

Daniel Pietzsch’s Photo Journal
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April 2026

A zoo visit, easter, a concert, IndieWebCamp, and Beyond Tellerrand. (35 photos)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast Updates instantly via WebSub
Audio • SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Close to the Edge Part 2 (Classic)

We asked, you answered. Hear listener stories of near death travel experiences.

PLUS: We wanna hear from you! Tell us about your intergenerational travel stories. Who did you go with?  Where did you go? What did you learn about traveling with this person of a different age? How did the trip go? What are some stories you brought back? We want to hear it all. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. 


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Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
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ChatGPT search now uses the site:operator at scale

ChatGPT search now uses the site:operator at scale Promptwatch is part of the emerging "GEO" space, for Generative Engine Optimization - the chatbot version of SEO, where companies offer tools and consulting to help your site increase its presence in replies to prompts insid...

Mars For The Rest of Us Valid
Text • Maciej Cegłowski

Glimpses of the Deep Biosphere

Glimpses of the Deep Biosphere

We are the noisy upstairs neighbors to a vast and unknown world

Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
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A shot-scraper-style JSON API on Bun 1.4's new Bun.WebView

Research: A shot-scraper-style JSON API on Bun 1.4's new Bun.WebView Today saw the long awaited release of Bun 1.4, the first stable version since the infamous Rust rewrite a few months ago. Interestingly, the Rust rewrite was downplayed in the release notes, which i...

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Text • Jason Kottke

“ The principal aim of President Trump’s second...

“The principal aim of President Trump’s second term is revenge,” says Jamelle Bouie. “Revenge shapes the president’s priorities, drives his actions and structures the decisions of his government.”