A Meta employee who works on AI safety let an AI agent named OpenClaw loose on her inbox and it deleted all her email. (This tracks; companies like Meta actually don’t care about AI safety and hire accordingly.)

I Hate Trump’s Awful Policies, but I Love That He’s a Huge Asshole. “I don’t like Trump’s immigration laws; they’re racist and economically disastrous. But I do love how evil he is.”

Writer Lauren Groff on how she works. “After she completes a first draft, she puts it in a bankers box — and never reads it again.” And: “We all need to fill ourselves with the ghosts of other writers.” Her new book is out now.

“We” Haven’t Lost Our Sense of Shame. Only Republicans Have. “I remember when Republicans used to lecture us all the time about the disappearance of shame in our culture…”

Token Anxiety. “This voice in my head that says ‘something could be running right now’ just doesn’t shut off. I’m not even building a company. I’m just addicted to building my random ideas.”

Alan Taylor has shared a bunch of photos of the just-concluded Winter Olympics “featuring infrared imaging, vintage cameras, optical filters, digital composites, unusual angles, unexpected subjects, and more”. Two of my favorites: The first photo is of a curling match t...

“Antibodies harvested from the blood of paediatricians are up to 25 times better at protecting against the common respiratory infection RSV than existing antibody therapies, and are now being developed as preventative treatments.”

“What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?”

During her time aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara took a series of photos of the Earth from directly overhead. Seán Doran has stitched those images together into a gorgeous 4K video of a journey across North America, from San Diego to cloud-covered Quebec.

The footage is a simulation, converting an image sequence into video footage using image processing and animation. In reality this journey from California to Quebec took 11 minutes to traverse. In order to better appreciate the view this film slows that speed by a factor of 4.

Along the way, we’re treated to views of Joshua Tree National Park, the Grand Canyon, and the Rocky Mountains. Even the clouds are mesmerizing.

Tags: Earth · ISS · Loral O'Hara · mesmerizing · NASA · photography · Sean Doran · space · video

Is Donald Trump Alive? Now, this is a site that knows how to write factual headlines, e.g. “Donald Trump is alive and ranting and raving about foreign interests infiltrating the Supreme Court that he created”. Take note, NYT.

The hum of a grocery store’s freezers delights ambient music fans: “It’s like being in an electrical gong bath”. And: “The obvious reference is Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports.”

“A new ethic is quietly emerging among modern travelers. It is called Digital Silence. It is the conscious decision to share the art and the emotion of a place without giving away its exact coordinates… It is a radical act of conservation.”

In this lovely short film, the traditional Tibetan drink butter tea (bho jha) becomes a bridge between generations, outreach across cultures, and a reminder of the value of mindfulness. From Clarissa Wei at Eater, more about butter tea and its place in Tibetan culture: I...

A ripple of excitement pulsed through the crowd. Paul Ford is blogging regularly again.

The folks behind Dark Sky spun themselves out of Apple and have built a new weather app: Acme Weather. “We missed those days as a small scrappy shop. So let’s try this again…”

An Introduction to Outsider Artist Henry Darger and His Bizarre 15,000-Page Illustrated Masterwork.

Do you know your Gaia from your Cronus from your Zeus? In fewer than 15 minutes, this video provides a comprehensive overview of all the important Greek & Roman gods, goddesses, nymphs, heroes, monsters, demigods, and other assorted spiritual beings, who begat who, and what all of their domains were. (via open culture)

Tags: infoviz · mythology · religion · video

The Color Game. “Humans can’t reliably recall colors. This is a simple game to see how good (or bad) you are at it. We’ll show you five colors, then you’ll try and recreate them.” I scored 39/50 but got a perfect score on one color.

Some of the best drone shots from the 2026 Winter Olympics.

‘Viking’ was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows. “These identities aren’t genetic or ethnic, they’re social. To have backup for that from DNA is powerful.”

Loop is an award-winning animated short featuring a society where people live a perfectly looping existence, all in rhythm. Then one day…

Tags: animation · video

An app called NonUSA is surging in popularity in Denmark; it “helps you identify and avoid American products in everyday life”. (Ironically, iOS-only for now…)

The Trump regime is still deporting people to wherever they want, facilitated by a corrupt Supreme Court.

“I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself.”

The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s Rapists United France and Fractured Her Family. “‘Look at the Pelicot family.’ They had been ‘confronted with the impossible dilemma,’ he said. ‘How to make suffering coexist.’”

In a video for the V&A Museum, stone carver Miriam Johnson hand-carves a pair of hieroglyphs “using both sunken relief and raised relief techniques”.

The video has minimal narration; mostly it’s just a master craftsperson quietly tapping away at the stone — and getting bits of rock all over the sleeve of her jumper. The effect is pretty relaxing, especially with the more rhythmic tapping for the second carving. (via the kid should see this)

Tags: art · Egypt · language · Miriam Johnson · museums · sculpture · V&A Museum · video

An appreciation of Flickr’s URL structure. “It was a beautiful and predictable scheme. Once you knew how it worked, you could guess other URLs.”

Toy Story 5 joins the fight against screentime for kids. “Toys are for play, but tech…is for everything.”

In-browser puzzle game: “Enclose the horse in the biggest possible pen!”

A data analysis of how women’s clothing doesn’t actually fit women. “That leaves millions of people — over half of all adult women — who are excluded from standard size ranges” in their 20s and beyond.