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Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998

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Text • Jason Kottke

Mapping Cinematic Paths

Artist and illustrator Andrew DeGraff makes maps that show where the characters travel during movies — imagine Billy’s trail maps from Family Circus but for films like Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, Pulp Fiction, and Mad Max: Fury Road. DeGraff collected these maps into a book called Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies. Tags: Andrew DeGraff · books · Cinemaps · illustration · infoviz · maps · movies 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

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Not sure why I didn’t know that Chris Ware has released two...

Not sure why I didn’t know that Chris Ware has released two volumes of sketchbooks, but the third one comes out this fall. “Ware finally succumbs to imaginary public pressure by concluding his tiresome experiment in reader trust…”

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A travel reporter tests AI travel services with a trip to Norway....

A travel reporter tests AI travel services with a trip to Norway. “Can artificial intelligence devise a bucket-list vacation that checks all the boxes: culture, nature, hotels and transportation?”

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Hand Drawn: Children’s Shoes, Given Away

drawings of children's shoes, ordered into six rows

This is lovely: illustrator & cartoonist Stephen Collins drew the progression of shoes worn by each of his three kids.

Back in 2020 we had to chuck the kids’ baby shoes out 😱, so I decided to keep the first ones and draw the rest, in order, starting with pre-walking socks.

When I look at photos of my kids from when they were younger, my eye is always drawn to their shoes and clothes — some of them are so iconic in my mind they almost function as logos for my kids at different stages.

Tags: art · fashion · parenting · shoes · Stephen Collins

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On the genius design of Super Mario Bros’ World 1-1, which teaches...

On the genius design of Super Mario Bros’ World 1-1, which teaches players how the game works without needing a tutorial. “In order to pass this first little guardian, the player must learn that the A button makes Mario jump.”

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Sacred Sites. “From Machu Picchu to the Louvre — the book journeys...

Sacred Sites. “From Machu Picchu to the Louvre — the book journeys through sacred sites in art and ancient history.” I’ve always loved places and architecture that feel awe-inspiring or numinous.

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Isometric Drawings of Japanese Bathhouses and Cafes

I love these isometric cutaway drawings by Japanese illustrator & architect Enya Honami. From Spoon & Tamago: Honami is a skilled draughtswoman by trade, having obtained an MFA in architecture and working at a well-known Japanese architecture firm. But the gr...

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Danny MacAskill Does a Wheelie

As one of the top trials riders in the world, Danny MacAskill can certainly do a wheelie. In this fun video, he does wheelies all over the place, joined by a bunch of friends. The behind-the-scenes video is just as fun. And I watched the “how to do a wheelie” companion video with interest because I’ve never been able to do a wheelie on a bike for more than a couple of seconds and it’s probably time to learn — even though a manual would be more useful for mountain biking. (via the kid should see this)

Tags: biking · Danny MacAskill · how to · video

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The life-changing magic of being in the groove. “Scientists have long known...

The life-changing magic of being in the groove. “Scientists have long known the mental and creative benefits of the flow state, in which total absorption in an activity banishes anxiety.”

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“Third Things” Can Make Communication Easier

I ran across an interesting term/concept in Miranda July’s All Fours: third things. A character in the book attributes it to “the Quakers” and describes it like so: It’s a topic of conversation that doesn’t belong to either party. The soul, usually so shy, can speak more ea...

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A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask...

A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask For. “It made my arm seem like a product, rather than my body. The logo made it seem less a part of me, which invited others to treat it that way.”

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Bulgarian beach bar sarcophagus turns out to be genuine Roman artefact. “Despite...

Bulgarian beach bar sarcophagus turns out to be genuine Roman artefact. “Despite its historical value, photos on social media revealed that the sarcophagus was being used as a bar in a popular beach club for some time.”

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Scientists have found liquid water on Mars, located in the planet’s outer...

Scientists have found liquid water on Mars, located in the planet’s outer crust. “This is the first time liquid water has been found on the planet.”

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Good news! The new Covid-19 vacines are scheduled to be approved soon...

Good news! The new Covid-19 vacines are scheduled to be approved soon and could be available by Labor Day (or soon after). The CDC recommends updated shots for everyone 6 months and older.

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The Reason Social Security Currently Has a Funding Shortfall

For as long as I can remember, Americans have been concerned that the government’s Social Security program will run out of money by the time they get to use it because the Baby Boomers will suck the well dry. But as former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains, Social Sec...

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Disney has cancelled The Acolyte after one season. Such a high ratings...

Disney has cancelled The Acolyte after one season. Such a high ratings bar for these series to clear — and few of them have.

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Cilantro used to be a key ingredient in Italian cooking. “Roman chefs...

Cilantro used to be a key ingredient in Italian cooking. “Roman chefs prized both the citrusy seeds and pungent leaves of the plant they called coriandrum for sauces, salads, roasts, and flavored beverages.”

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Vivian Maier: Unseen Work

The first major US retrospective of Vivian Maier’s photography is currently on display at Fotografiska New York through Sept 29. Maier was a street photographer whose work was discovered in 2007 and is now recognized “alongside the greatest masters of the twentieth century”. You can see much more of Maier’s work on this website of her work. Tags: museums · photography · Vivian Maier 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

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The Good Milk List. “These locations, around the world, are where happy...

The Good Milk List. “These locations, around the world, are where happy cheese makers found good milk locally.”

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Smart Anand Giridharadas piece about the Democrats’ shift in political style, one...

Smart Anand Giridharadas piece about the Democrats’ shift in political style, one that “elevates attention over restraint, storytelling over self-explanatory policy mindedness, fight picking over always taking the high road, and thrilling the base…”

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Ephemeral tic-tac-toe. Each player’s moves disappear after 4 turns....

Ephemeral tic-tac-toe. Each player’s moves disappear after 4 turns.

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Are You a Local?

In a recent edition of his newsletter, Noah Kalina highlights some responses he got to this question: How many years do you need to live somewhere before you are considered a local? Here’s a sampling of the answers: My hot take as a military kid who has continued to move ar...

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The search for Celebrity Number Six. The internet has been unable to...

The search for Celebrity Number Six. The internet has been unable to identify the 6th celeb pictured on a piece of fabric from the late 00s (others include Adriana Lima & Jessica Alba). Can you help?

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Pixar’s Inside Out movies have changed how therapists talk about feelings with...

Pixar’s Inside Out movies have changed how therapists talk about feelings with their patients. And not just kids: “I’ve been stealing lines from the movie and quoting them to adults, not telling them that I’m quoting.”

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Winners of the 2024 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Since 1982, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has celebrated the opening lines of imagined horrible novels. The winners of the 2024 competition have been announced and there are some real doozies in there, starting with the overall winner: She had a body that reached out ...

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Never not gobsmacked by how the massive waves at Teahupo’o create an...

Never not gobsmacked by how the massive waves at Teahupo’o create an unnerving cavity in the ocean.

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What Should an Electric Car Sound Like?

The different kinds of sounds that carmakers have had to come up with to make EVs audible to pedestrians, bikers, and other drivers are wild: orchestras, pitch-shifted didgeridoos, gas car noises. For over a century, the internal combustion engine powered vehicles with a...

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Scientists are puzzled by the presence of “little red dots” found by...

Scientists are puzzled by the presence of “little red dots” found by the JW Space Telescope: tiny galaxies that have left no trace. “Why did they vanish? Or what did they morph into? Their sudden disappearance is a profound enigma.”

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Procreate will not be building any generative AI features into their fantastic...

Procreate will not be building any generative AI features into their fantastic iPad app. “We think machine learning is a compelling technology with a lot of merit, but the path generative AI is on is wrong for us.”

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The Disciples

For his project The Disciples, photographer James Mollison took photo montages of fans outside of music concerts. See if you can guess which concerts these groups of fans attended: Here’s Mollison on the project: Over three years I photographed fans outside diff...