A roundup of the words/phrases of the year for 2025, including “rage...
A roundup of the words/phrases of the year for 2025, including “rage bait”, “vibe coding”, “Mar-a-Lago face”, “chaos”, “performative male”, and “Kavanaugh stop”.
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Born Poor
Born Poor (PBS/Frontline) is a documentary filmed across 14 years about three kids in the US as they grow into young adults while “dealing with an economy where they face more obstacles than opportunities”. Free to watch online (probably US-only, so fire up your VPN if you...
America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People. “We’ll tolerate this...
America Is an Unserious Country Filled With Unserious People. “We’ll tolerate this just like we tolerate everything else. Because this is who we are, collectively, as a country.”
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens....
Alan Sepinwall wrote a lovely remembrance of Rob Reiner and his career....
Alan Sepinwall wrote a lovely remembrance of Rob Reiner and his career. “A legend. No doubt about it.” Reiner and his wife Michele Singer were found dead at their home in LA yesterday. Which Reiner movie are we watching tonight?
How does lake ice do this? Incredible! (Mirror Lake, New Hampshire)...
How does lake ice do this? Incredible! (Mirror Lake, New Hampshire)
The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life by Ian...
The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life by Ian Bogost. “How modern conveniences not only fail to deliver on their promises but also rob us of small, satisfying tasks and moments that keep us grounded and human.”
“Eating the right foods in the proper quantities, 16th-century Britons believed, balanced...
“Eating the right foods in the proper quantities, 16th-century Britons believed, balanced mind and soul. So in Shakespeare’s plays, roasts, ales, and pies are not props, but clues to characters’ souls, moods, and motivations.”
This Is Why Everyone Is a DJ Now
I guess this is as good an explanation of contemporary culture as anything.
Hungover from a world that told us we could be anything, we decided to be DJs. We don’t create our own music. We curate playlists, recirculating songs that will make people think we’re cool. And we do this through the labels we wear, the books we read, the people we hang out with, and the opinions we parrot. The DJ figure, ruled by the same logic, is just another celebration of self.
The Flow State podcast recently celebrated their 300th episode with a 2h41m...
The Flow State podcast recently celebrated their 300th episode with a 2h41m mix of instrumental music sourced from a group of “musicians, curators, label heads, music fans”. They even let me pick a song.
X-Ray Visions
I first posted about Nick Veasey’s work back in 2005 and thought it was worth another look. Veasey uses x-ray photography to get inside views of familiar objects, sometimes on a large scale.
And here’s a peek behind-the-scenes at his process, which includes, critically, a “bespoke concrete chamber” to keep the radiation at bay.
See also Bone Music: Forbidden Soviet Records Made From Used X-Ray Films.
Tags: Nick Veasey · photography · x-rays
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Oilwell is a (fake) wellness app “to help you embrace climate chaos”...
Oilwell is a (fake) wellness app “to help you embrace climate chaos” that includes features like “Drowning Mindfully”, “Lo-Fi Beats to Frack To”, and “12 Hour Wildfire Relaxation”.
I just updated the 2025 Kottke Gift Guide with some new suggestions,...
I just updated the 2025 Kottke Gift Guide with some new suggestions, including inflatable tube men (for your front yard; your neighbors will love!), some of the year’s best cookbooks, ramen kits from Japan, and some low- of no-spend gifts.
The US Downgraded in Civic Freedoms Rating
Civicus monitors the health of civic societies and their freedoms around the world. In their annual assessment on civic freedoms for 2025, they downgraded the United States from “narrowed” to “obstructed”.
The CIVICUS Monitor has downgraded the United States of America’s...
Post-Japan Depression. “People feel it after coming home from a trip that...
Post-Japan Depression. “People feel it after coming home from a trip that feels magical, safe, clean, punctual, aesthetic, peaceful… and suddenly — boom — back to reality.” (Not sure if this person is kidding but yep! 💯🎯)
What is happening? Orcas started wearing dead salmon as hats again and...
What is happening? Orcas started wearing dead salmon as hats again and chimps are once again putting grass in their ears. “We were even more shocked that they were doing their own spin on this by also inserting the grass and sticks in a different orifice.”
How Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Are Made
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are probably my favorite big brand candy (perhaps only bested by Reese’s Pieces), so it was a real treat (groan) to see how the company makes them cups.
But did you know Reese’s purposely over-roasts their peanuts just enough to bring out a bold...
MacKenzie Scott announces that she’s donated almost $7.2 billion of her personal...
MacKenzie Scott announces that she’s donated almost $7.2 billion of her personal fortune to organizations worldwide this year. That brings her total giving up to more than $26 billion.
Shop Around Globally for Better Deals on Streaming Services
A streaming services savings tip from the Nomadico newsletter that I was not aware of:
I’m going to add Apple TV at home after watching only part of Severance on a United flight, but I’ll likely subscribe in Mexico where it’s 28% cheaper than the USA. You can play this arbi...
Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the...
Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan. “Hiroko awakens readers to the idea of a traditional spiritual flexibility that seamlessly coexists with the modern secular world…”
Liam Neeson Narrates Anti-Vax, Pro-RFK Documentary. In the narration, he calls the...
Liam Neeson Narrates Anti-Vax, Pro-RFK Documentary. In the narration, he calls the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines “dangerous experiments”.
Photographing the Andromeda Galaxy for 10 Seconds vs 10 Hours
This video by Ian Lauer is an excellent accessible explanation of the basics of astrophotography as he runs through the process of how he captures a long-exposure image of the Andromeda galaxy.
This picture is still black and white — and no, the galaxy is not devoid of c...
Funniest McSweeney’s piece I’ve read in awhile: The Mastermind Box Cover: What...
Funniest McSweeney’s piece I’ve read in awhile: The Mastermind Box Cover: What the Hell Were They Thinking? “Warmth is for Sorry! This is not a hug. This is a chess clock in a stranger’s living room telling you your parents are getting divorced.”
90 Minutes of Knitting ASMR
From the V&A Museum, here’s a 90-minute video of someone knitting a pair of gloves using a knitting pattern from the 1940s from the museum’s archive.
Featuring soft-spoken moments, natural yarn sounds, needles gently tapping, and the soothing rhythm of slow, careful m...
Aging Out of Fucks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend...
Aging Out of Fucks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore. “…that point in midlife when your capacity to pretend, perform, and please others starts shorting out like an electrical system that’s finally had enough.”
Thread: What was typography like in the Soviet Union? “They did not...
Thread: What was typography like in the Soviet Union? “They did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39.”
New evidence suggests that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000...
New evidence suggests that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000 years ago. The previous earliest date of human fire-making was a mere 50,000 years ago.
Victorian-Era Mourning Objects From the V&A’s Collection
From the archives of London’s V&A Museum, a selection of items that were used by Victorian-era mourners to remember and pay tribute to loved ones who had died, including jewelry with human hair, black dresses, jet black jewelry, mourning cards, and postmortem photograp...
The trailer for It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary film about...
The trailer for It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary film about the late singer/songwriter.
Timothy Snyder: “What comes next? For the Nazis, the deportation and the...
Timothy Snyder: “What comes next? For the Nazis, the deportation and the pogrom of autumn 1938 were steps towards creating a centralised national police agency. In the US, something similar is unfolding with ICE.”