The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age. “We’ve been cored like apples, a dependency created, hooked on the public internet to tell us the worth. Every notification ping holds the possibility we have merit.”
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After almost 25 years, Paul Krugman is retiring as a NYT opinion columnist. Krugman: “I decided to leave in search of more freedom in terms of both style and content.”
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Oh, this is so good: NASA has an 8-hour cozy fireplace video in 4K that’s actually a rocket engine (in a fireplace).
This glowing mood-setter is brought to you by the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that launched Artemis I on its mission around the Moon and back on Nov. 16, 2022. 8.8 million pounds of total thrust – and a couple glasses of eggnog – might just be enough to make your holidays merry.
(via @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social)
Tags: NASA · video
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“subtle foreshadowing” — I laughed unbelievably hard at this, just absolutely gasping to breathe. Academy Award winner for best editing right here.
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This Instagram account posts the backgrounds of Looney Tunes cartoons with the Looney Tunes characters removed. As @presentcorrect.bsky.social remarks, these images are also a great resource for color palettes.
Tags: art · cartoons
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Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink. “This guide outlines concrete strategies and tactics that collectively will help us limit harm, win in 2026, and throw MAGA out in 2028.”
You don’t actually have to stay on Twitter. “There are many better tools to persuade people with, organize with, frame arguments with, and have fun with.”
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An unidentified disease (“Disease X”) in the Democratic Republic of Congo has infected 376 people, killed 79 people (mostly children), and “appears to be airborne”. They hope to have an ID by the weekend. This seems bad?
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This person posted a bunch of images of their dad’s old VHS tapes with lovingly hand-drawn labels indicating their contents. Kids, this is what people did before the internet.
Also, it’s weird/interesting that CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, LaserDisc, cassettes, MiniDisc, and 8-tracks are all played on devices named for the media (e.g. CD player) but VHS tapes are played on VCRs. We could have easily started calling them “VCR tapes” or “VHS players” en masse, but we mostly collectively stuck to the “correct” terminology. (thx, david)
Tags: design · movies
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32 Rules for Flying Now. Like: “This should go without saying, but there’s no reason, ever, to take off your socks on a plane.” And: “Triple-check that your cat didn’t get into your carry-on bag.”
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The average brightness of car headlights on US roads has doubled since 2015. “As headlights get brighter, it’s actually becoming harder to see.” I hate the brighter headlights, both on on-coming traffic and on my car (can’t dim them).
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I posted the first pass of the 2024 Kottke Holiday Gift Guide yesterday and just added some new items to it this morning (this link will take you right to the new stuff). I’m gonna be updating it every day or two with new gift guides and things I run across, but I wanted t...
You Have Not Died of Dysentery. “It’s a version of Oregon Trail where dysentery doesn’t kill you, it just makes you pull over to poop, constantly.”
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A playlist of the 100 most streamed songs on Spotify. The current #1 is The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights (4.59 billion streams) followed by Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You (4.12B) and Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Love (3.7B). Never even heard of Capaldi!
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Now airing on PBS and streaming on their website, a new four-hour documentary film about Leonardo da Vinci directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon.
A 15th century polymath of soaring imagination and profound intellect, Leonardo da Vinci created some of the most revered works of art of all time, but his artistic endeavors often seemed peripheral to his pursuits in science and engineering. Through his paintings and thousands of pages of drawings and writings, Leonardo da Vinci explores one of humankind’s most curious and innovative minds.
The trailer for the series is above and there are several extended clips available on the website and on YouTube.
Tags: Ken Burns · Leonardo da Vinci · trailers · TV · video
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Rob Stephenson is currently visiting and photographing all 350 neighborhoods in NYC. “Some things I’ve learned so far: Nobody can agree on a neighborhood’s name or borders. Every neighborhood has something worth seeing.”
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The War on Poverty Is Over. Rich People Won. “Why do so many Americans live in poverty? Because so many rich people benefit from it.”
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Jesus, this story about an IVF clinic mix-up… “Two couples in California discovered they were raising each other’s genetic children. Should they switch their girls?”
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Since 2013, I’ve done a holiday gift guide that’s basically a curated roundup of stuff from the best gift guides I can find. I always do it a little bit differently from year to year, and this year I’m going with a simple list. It’s gonna be dense…let’s go!
1. Charitable gi...
Bloomberg Businessweek’s Jealousy List for 2024, “We’ve asked our editors & contributors to identify that one story in 2024 that filled them with the kind of indescribable resentment that theologians once thought was a dangerous gateway to other sins.”
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A universal “Plug and Charge” framework for EV charging is rolling out next year. The goal is this: “You just go anywhere you want, boom, you plug in, it accounts for everything in the cloud, charges your card, and you walk away.”
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It is difficult to categorize the kinds of videos that Posy makes — they are part science demo and part visual art. His latest video, Household Objects (But Extremely Close), uses a powerful macro lens to look at everyday objects like toothbrushes, sponges, and pencils, turning them into swirling abstract films. His music is lovely too — you can find it on Bandcamp.
See also Motion Extraction.
Tags: music · Posy · video
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How to Win Connect 4 Every Time. “Ever thought Connect 4 was a simple game of luck and chance? I will explain why Connect 4 is way harder than you think.”
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In this clip from my favorite Werner Herzog film, Encounters at the End of the World, the director muses about the mental health of penguins and observes a lone penguin heading in the wrong direction. From an appreciation of this penguin scene written by Tim Cooke for Litt...
Roku offers a PBS Retro channel where you can watch old episodes of shows like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, and Thomas & Friends.
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Here’s how the Sun will end all life on Earth. “Let me start by reassuring you that the Sun isn’t going to explode.” The Sun, Earth’s ultimate frenemy.
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I just spent my lunch hour watching the 22 nominated goals for the 2024 Puskas & Marta Awards, given to the most spectacular goals scored by men’s & women’s footballers last season.
The Marta Award is new this year; here’s a playlist of the 11 nominees. Fun fact: one of the nominees is Brazilian legend Marta, after whom the award is named. She was 37 when she fizzed this goal in against Jamaica.
Here’s a playlist of the nominees for the Puskas Award. Generally, I prefer goals with a bit of buildup to bicycle kicks or rockets from outside the 18-yard box, but these were all fun to watch.
Tags: best of · best of 2024 · soccer · sports · video
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On Standby is a piece of sound art “based on data collected by seven different people in Malmö, Sweden. Each of those people used a smart plug to collect data on the energy consumption of a device in their home over the course of a single night”.
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Maybe you’d like to read Patricia Lockwood on the X-Files? “So then the show becomes about something else, something deep and dark as water, it is carried rapidly past all other unsolved mysteries to ask: what if a woman were irreplaceable?”
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