If elected, will Trump end democracy? He Will Try. “How high do his odds of success have to be before you treat this as a genuine emergency? Is a 20 percent chance of losing our democracy too low? Is 30?”
Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998
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The FCC has voted to more closely regulate prison telecom services, a...
The FCC has voted to more closely regulate prison telecom services, a move that will significantly cut the exorbitant fees that families pay to communicate with incarcerated people.
Christina’s World, the Windows XP Wallpaper Version
Cat Graffam combined their love of art and old technology to create a mashup of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World and the Windows XP wallpaper, using MS Paint and a mouse. You can watch how they did it in this video:
Prints of the finished product are available. (via waxy)
Tags: Andrew Wyeth · art · Cat Graffam · remix · video · Windows
I had forgotten that Donald Glover got the name Childish Gambino from...
I had forgotten that Donald Glover got the name Childish Gambino from a Wu-Tang name generator.
No one knows exactly when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the...
No one knows exactly when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon — and we’ll likely never know for sure. “It wasn’t like an Olympic swim race where touching the wall stops the timer.”
Diary Comics, March 30 & April 1
Here are a couple from this past Eastertime. (Previously.)
Tags: diary comics
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The editors of The Lancet Microbe on the origins of Covid-19. “SARS-CoV-2...
The editors of The Lancet Microbe on the origins of Covid-19. “SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that found its way into humans through mundane contact with infected wildlife that went on to cause the most consequential pandemic for over a century.”
Who Goes Nazi?
In 1934, Dorothy Thompson became the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany for writing critically & unfavorably about the regime and its leader, Adolf Hitler:
He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose fram...
The action in Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower begins...
The action in Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower begins on July 20, 2024 — that’s tomorrow. “Beginning in 2024, when society in the United States has grown unstable due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed…”
Deadpan comic icon Bob Newhart has died at age 94. I was...
Deadpan comic icon Bob Newhart has died at age 94. I was a weekly viewer of Newhart in the 80s and, I’m just now realizing, followed in the footsteps of the titular character in being an NYC writer who moves to VT. 🫠
Peregrine Falcon Killing a Duck in Mid-Air
The Peregrine Falcon is the world’s fastest animal;1 it can reach speeds of more than 240 mph during dives. It uses that speed to kill other birds in mid-air. Here’s a video of a Peregrine diving and killing a duck, shot with a camera mounted on the falcon’s back.
It’s co...
Heartbreaking: This Guy Has No Idea That He’s So Strange And Memorable-Looking...
Keanu Reeves & China Miéville have written a novel called The Book...
Keanu Reeves & China Miéville have written a novel called The Book of Elsewhere, centered on an 80,000-year-old warrior who cannot die.
Moving Posters for Studio Ghibli Films
British designer Hayden Wills has created some cool moving posters for Studio Ghibli films like Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises.
You can see more of Wills’ posters on Behance, download the collection on Steam, or learn how to make your own moving posters in Photoshop.
See also Moving Film Posters. (via @0xjessel)
Tags: design · Hayden Wills · movies · remix · Studio Ghibli
California has strengthened its electrical grid significantly in recent years: no rolling...
California has strengthened its electrical grid significantly in recent years: no rolling blackouts or grid emergencies during heatwaves because of solar energy and battery storage (“now equivalent to 5 very large nuclear power plants”).
Interactive map from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science: What...
Interactive map from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science: What will my city’s climate feel like in 60 years? “Many cities could experience a future climate unlike anything present on Earth today.”
Inside the Trump Plan for 2025
In a well-researched piece for the New Yorker, Jonathan Blitzer writes about the “network of well-funded far-right activists” who are making plans for Trump’s second term. It’s more than just Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation — and as his first term showed, it’s not n...
The reintroduction of beavers in southwest England has resulted in a marked...
The reintroduction of beavers in southwest England has resulted in a marked increase in resilience against flooding and droughts and the formation of habitats for endangered wildlife.
An Online Database of Marimekko Patterns
Maripedia is an online database of hundreds of print patterns that Marimekko has used in their products since the 1940s. You can browse by decade, designer, or style…or you can search by image. That’s right, just upload an image of the pattern on your pillowcase or dress and it’ll tell you who designed it and when.
Also, just take a look at these patterns:
Endless design and color palette inspiration. (via @presentcorrect.bsky.social)
Tags: color · design · Marimekko
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A Guide to Miyazaki’s Weird Little Guys: warawara, susuwatari (soot sprites), kodama,...
A Guide to Miyazaki’s Weird Little Guys: warawara, susuwatari (soot sprites), kodama, Ponyo’s sisters. “Their designs are quite simple, but their meaning frequently is not.”
A useful tool for students & researchers (“educational purposes only”): Bypass Paywalls...
A useful tool for students & researchers (“educational purposes only”): Bypass Paywalls Clean extension for Chrome.
Lessons from the recent French elections. “You have to vote! You have...
Lessons from the recent French elections. “You have to vote! You have to. You can’t do anything without voting. The freaking French, who’ll protest for anything, are showing up to vote.”
Project 2025: The Minority Rule by Extremists
I’ve been waiting, sitting at my desk with hands tented, for historian Heather Cox Richardson to write about Project 2025 and just now I found out that she did so back in March, because of course.
In almost 1,000 pages, the document explains what these policies mean for or...
The best Prime Day deal is Apple’s AirPods Pro (2nd gen) on...
The best Prime Day deal is Apple’s AirPods Pro (2nd gen) on sale for $169 (32% off) — I think that’s the lowest price I’ve ever seen.
Immunotherapy Is Changing Cancer Treatment Forever. “Immunotherapy…has produced breakthroughs for previously untreatable...
Immunotherapy Is Changing Cancer Treatment Forever. “Immunotherapy…has produced breakthroughs for previously untreatable forms of the disease, especially in liquid tumors like leukemia and lymphoma and skin cancers like melanoma.”
On Politics and Poetry
In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political
I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent.
Tags: Marwan Makhoul · poetry · politics
Scientists extracted DNA from an exceptionally preserved woolly mammoth. “A complete genome...
Scientists extracted DNA from an exceptionally preserved woolly mammoth. “A complete genome has been extracted from a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth, which might bring us closer to resurrecting the species.”
Jimi Hendrix Goes Acoustic
A true master of the electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix missed the era of MTV Unplugged by almost 20 years and video & audio clips of him playing an acoustic guitar can be difficult to find. Open Culture recently collected a pair of videos of Hendrix unplugged.
While Hendrix did more than anyone before him to turn guitar amps into instruments with his squalls of electric feedback and distorted wah-wah squeals, when you strip his playing down to basics, he’s still pretty much as good as it gets.
A YouTube commenter said:
Jimi could make an acoustic sound like an electric, and an electric like something else.
P.S. Here are several clips of another otherworldly musician playing an acoustic guitar…his name is Prince (and he is funky).
Tags: Jimi Hendrix · music · Prince · video
In this interview, Errol Morris talks about truth, documentary filmmaking, and AI....
In this interview, Errol Morris talks about truth, documentary filmmaking, and AI. “Truth, I like to remind people — whether we’re talking about filmmaking, or film journalism, or journalism, whatever — it’s a quest.”
Important not to forget with all that is going on: Republicans will...
Important not to forget with all that is going on: Republicans will likely try to end almost abortion access in the US if the elections go their way this fall. Those are the stakes, period.