Hitler, Stalin, Freud, Trotsky, and Franz Joseph all lived within a radius of a few km in Vienna in 1913-14. “Stalin could have, with real probability, walked past a homeless Hitler trying to sell his mediocre watercolor paintings on the street…”
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The Neurodivergent Genius Who Invented Formula 1 For Marbles. “This is the story of how one creator on the autism spectrum redefined online sports through marbles, community, and viral spectacle.”
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This is so so cool and an arrow-splitting bullseye in the middle of my wheelhouse: a short Boards of Canada tune played on a DEC PDP-1, one of the most significant machines in the history of computing.
Here’s a description of what’s going on, courtesy of @dryad.technology...
The Sordid Mystery of a Somalian Meteorite Smuggled into China. “The journey of the ninth-largest meteorite in the world involves lies, smuggling and possibly death.”
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It’s not often that a movie trailer makes you cry — but this one might.1
Come See Me in the Good Light is a documentary film about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley facing a cancer diagnosis that took Gibson’s life earlier this year.
This is the beginning of a nightma...
Flashbak has a collection of photos that offer an inside look at NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain Combat Center as it looked in the mid-60s.
These display screens would display signs of air attack against Canada and the United States. By pushing buttons, the NORAD battle staff members can take an electronic look at the tracks of space satellites or aircraft, which are chartered on the display by computers. This is the nerve center which would give the first warning of attack, and the command post from which NORAD battle commanders would direct the defensive air battle.
(thx, joseph)
Tags: Cold War
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Phil Gyford, writing about when he first got online in 1995: My First Months in Cyberspace. “It was a miracle and it changed my life. All of our lives.”
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I’m totally charmed by these snaps of some of the best sumo wrestlers in the world touring London.
The athletes were in London for a 5-day event at the Royal Albert Hall.
London’s Victorian concert venue has been utterly transformed, complete with six-tonne Japa...
Anil Dash on The Majority AI View. “Stop being so goddamn creepy and weird about the technology! It’s just tech, everything doesn’t have to become some weird religion that you beat people over the head with, or gamble the entire stock market on.”
How cool are these embroidered Nona Kecil (“little woman”) figures by Indonesian artist Irene Saputra, aka Nengiren. She explained to Colossal what the figures signify:
Nona Kecil’s evolution mirrors my own journey as an artist. Initially, she adorned simple OOTDs with muted colors and straightforward patterns. However, the turning point occurred three years ago when I embraced motherhood. Balancing time between my son and art intensified my experimentation, leading Nona Kecil to explore more expressive and elaborate outfits.
(via @antichrista)
Tags: art · embroidery · Nengiren
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I’d never heard of this before: tearoom ambient, a style of music that arose in post-revolution Czechoslovakia, influenced by new age, ambient, and minimalism music newly imported from the west.
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Apple TV to air F1 races in the US for the next 5 years. This is interesting: “Select races and all practice sessions will also be available for free in the Apple TV app.”
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Photos of the No Kings protests & rallies that happened in big cities and small towns all across America this weekend.
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This is incredible: artist Kara Walker took a statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson that had stood in Charlottesville, Virginia until 2021, chopped it up, and reconstituted it into a disfigured beast. It’s part of an exhibition of several such works called Monu...
Consumer Reports: Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead. “More than two-thirds of [tested products] contain more lead in a single serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day.”
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More than 170 *US citizens* have been detained and held (and “dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot”) by immigration agents this year. “Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.”
One hour and twenty-five minutes. That’s apparently all of the footage that exists of Joy Division playing their music on TV and in concert. Open Culture’s Colin Marshall writes:
Brian Eno once said of the Velvet Underground that their first album sold only 30,000 copie...
John Casey, the owner of one of the last rubber stamp stores in NYC, shows how he makes stamps by hand. This short video is from a few years ago; the shop is still open.
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I’ve seen a bunch of these before, but it’s cool to scroll and get your tiny mind blown over and over again. Human cognition and perception is such a trip. (via neatorama)
Tags: optical illusions · photography
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Artist Guy Buffet has painted a number of different variations of his depiction of how to make various drinks (martini, margarita, Manhattan) but I like this version the best. (thx, ollie)
Tags: art · cocktails · food · Guy Buffet
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Go Computer Now! – The Story of Sphere Computers. “If things had gone a little differently for them, we might be remembering Sphere the way people have fond memories of the Commodore 64 and Apple II.” Wow, I’ve never heard of
Sphere.
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Luis Mendo is self-publishing a book about his life as a writer/artist in Japan. “You don’t buy the book, you support the artist.” (You’ve maybe seen his work; Mendo does illustrations for Craig Mod’s books.)
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My first adventure of the day is going to the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum. Other Japan bonsai recs welcome!
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I hoping to post some of my photos from Japan here when I get a bit more organized, but for now, you can follow my adventures on Instagram Stories.
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I stopped into the MEGA Donki (Don Quijote) in Shibuya last night and it was like being inside a slot machine. They had 20 different Kit Kat flavors, including a sake flavor. Ppl had baskets overflowing with candy. It was so bonkers.
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An iconic Philly skate locale, Love Park, was demolished in 2016 — but has been reconstructed in Malmö, Sweden (including street lights and trash cans).
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I just reread this 2023 post about a neighborhood Tokyo izakaya (and my related thoughts), spurred by a conversation w/ my friend Andrew about what makes for good work, a good life, and a good society. It dovetails with this podcast conversation between Rich Roll and Craig M...
The 39 coolest neighbourhoods in the world in 2025, including Jimbōchō, Tokyo; Ménilmontant, Paris; Vallila, Helsinki; Linden, Johannesburg; and Portales, Mexico City.
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POP Phone: a USB-C handset that you plug into your phone for when you’re missing the warm analog embrace of Ma Bell. The hours I spent as a youth wrapping and unwrapping that coiled phone cord around my fingers!
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