Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir about working at Facebook, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, is on the bestseller charts after Meta tried to get the book pulled from sale. The Streisand effect strikes again.
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Ted Lasso is returning for a fourth season. Not every actor is...
Ted Lasso is returning for a fourth season. Not every actor is on board (yet)…it’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Trailer for season two of Poker Face. If you haven’t seen it,...
Trailer for season two of Poker Face. If you haven’t seen it, it’s directed by Rian Johnson (Knives Out/Glass Onion) and Natasha Lyonne plays an itinerant Benoit Blanc sort of character. Very good.
Harvey Silikovitz tried 10 times to get on Jeopardy! over 24 years...
Harvey Silikovitz tried 10 times to get on Jeopardy! over 24 years and finally made it. (And won!) “He’s pretty sure he has made history as the first Jeopardy! contestant to play with Parkinson’s.”
Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is a Trial Run. “You may believe that Khalil...
Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Is a Trial Run. “You may believe that Khalil does not deserve free speech or due process. But if he does not have them, then neither do you. Neither do I.”
404 Media has obtained a list of 200+ sites monitored by a...
404 Media has obtained a list of 200+ sites monitored by a contractor for ICE (Amazon, Apple Music, BabyCenter, Bluesky, Facebook, Github, GoFundMe, etc.). They can “pull a target individual’s publicly available data” from these sites “all at once”.
US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms. The...
US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms. The Us joins a list of countries with “deteriorating civic space conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression”.
OMG, there’s an “S” in today’s Spelling Bee puzzle! (Is this the...
OMG, there’s an “S” in today’s Spelling Bee puzzle! (Is this the first time?)
Things have been a little weird lately so I missed this when...
Things have been a little weird lately so I missed this when it came out but lolol: mustaaaaaaaaaard!
It’s Infrastructure Week!
Following on from my post this morning, I think this is a good time to step back from the site for a bit and focus on some long-neglected backend things that just don’t get the attention they deserve when I’m busy with the day-to-day posting. There are a couple of projects in particular that I’ve been noodling with that need some focus, so I’m gonna do that for the rest of the week. I’ll probably pop in with a few links here and there, but for the most part, I will see you back here on Monday. Until then, be excellent to each other and party on dudes!
Tags: kottke.org
The creator of Poetry Is Not a Luxury Instagram account is coming...
The creator of Poetry Is Not a Luxury Instagram account is coming out with a poetry anthology in May: Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons.
Skywriter takes Bluesky threads and makes webpages out of them....
How Much Do I Really Need to Know?
On Inauguration Day in January, Eliza McLamb wrote about her abstention from social media for a month and the challenge of keeping up with current events “without either turning towards ignorance or overwhelming myself with information”:
I’ve been thinking deeply about thi...
The First Three Episodes of Andor Available Online for Free
Disney has uploaded the first three episodes of season one of Andor to YouTube:
No idea how long they will be up or if they’re visible outside of the US. I started an Andor rewatch last week and I am finding it more enjoyable and interesting than I did the first time around. The writers obviously did their research on how fascism, dictatorships, and rebellions work — in almost every scene, you observe characters reacting and interacting with the constraints of bureaucratic totalitarianism. Very interesting to watch in this political moment. (via @rebeccablood.bsky.social)
Eyes on the Street
I ran across this story from Vanessa Guerrero on Instagram recently. She originally posted it to Twitter a few years ago; here’s the full text:
Living in LA, I’ve lived in many a neighborhood in which police helicopters circle all day and they don’t do anything except be l...
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE is interviewing (current & former) federal workers for a series that...
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE is interviewing (current & former) federal workers for a series that “aims to capture both the personal significance of [their] work and its broader impact on the American public”. 8 stories so far — these are great.
“Covid was a privatized pandemic. It is this technocratic, privatized model that...
“Covid was a privatized pandemic. It is this technocratic, privatized model that is its lasting legacy and that will define our approach to the next pandemic,” says Siddhartha Mukherjee. “There are some public goods that should never be privatized.”
I Am Trapped in the Criterion Closet. “How long have I been...
I Am Trapped in the Criterion Closet. “How long have I been in this place? I cannot say. In the darkness, time has lost meaning. The only days I remember are Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978), the only nights, Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957).”
When This [Medical School] Professor Got Cancer, He Didn’t Quit. He Taught...
When This [Medical School] Professor Got Cancer, He Didn’t Quit. He Taught a Class About It. “He wanted his students to understand the humanity at the core of medicine.”
The latest edition of Jodi Ettenberg’s link-drenched Curious About Everything newsletter just...
The latest edition of Jodi Ettenberg’s link-drenched Curious About Everything newsletter just dropped. I was going to steal about a dozens links from this, but you should just go read and subscribe to the source.
Purged gov’t employees, while scrambling to find work & health insurance, face...
Purged gov’t employees, while scrambling to find work & health insurance, face MAGA relatives who are cheering their firing. “Some members of her mostly conservative family have unfriended her on social media. Others are giving her the silent treatment.”
I woke up Saturday wondering how observers of Ramadan time their fasting...
I woke up Saturday wondering how observers of Ramadan time their fasting in polar regions, where sunrise & sunset don’t exist for months on end. “Muslims in the Arctic are generally advised by religious authorities to adopt one of three solutions…”
A forthcoming novel from Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You....
A forthcoming novel from Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You. Really looking forward to this one — her No One Is Talking About This is a favorite of mine from the past few years.
A game called “It is as if you were on your phone”...
A game called “It is as if you were on your phone” is designed to make you look like you’re on your phone. “You’re just pretending to be on your phone! On your phone!”
A collection of movie clips containing inaccurate binocular shots, “(i.e., two overlapping...
A collection of movie clips containing inaccurate binocular shots, “(i.e., two overlapping circles instead of one, as you would see in real life)” — including Rushmore, Das Boot, Ronin, Chinatown, and Superman.
From Ben Fry, a visualization of the 5,000+ covers of the New...
From Ben Fry, a visualization of the 5,000+ covers of the New Yorker from the past 100 years. “The horizontal line/artifact comes from the way that they re-run their first cover (and more recently, a variant of it) each year on their anniversary.”
Star Trek: TNG Opening Credits, But the Theme Music Is Coming From the Enterprise
This is the dumbest thing but it had me rolling in the aisles this morning: Star Trek TNG Theme but the theme music is coming from the Enterprise-D. It takes a bit to get going, but I laughed so hard when the ship whooshed by for the first time.
The same creator has made a number of videos in this vein, including The Imperial March but it’s coming from Vader’s chest control panel and Star Trek DS9 Theme but the theme is coming from DS9 Ops.
This is fantastic and very much worth your time: Marcin Wichary’s deep...
This is fantastic and very much worth your time: Marcin Wichary’s deep dive into a staunchly utilitarian font called Gorton, which you see almost everywhere in American cities, especially NYC. “Gorton is everywhere in Manhattan.”
I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter....
I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter. (“My work” = typing on a laptop.) “Even though I’m not perfectly warm, it lifts my mood to be outside. I can hear the community of songbirds holding their morning conferences, a barking dog…”
The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century (one per show...
The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century (one per show & actor). Ian McShane (Deadwood), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Anna Sawai (Shōgun), Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey), Peter Dinklage (GoT). Who’s your #1?