Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998
Featured
The data is clear: congestion pricing in NYC has been a “huge success”. “Pollution: -22%. Revenue for mass transit: $548M.”
Reminder: NASA’s holiday yule log fireplace video is delightful — it’s a rocket engine (in a fireplace). “8.8 million pounds of total thrust…”
From Mr. Bean’s official YouTube channel, the show’s hilarious Christmas episode.
While Christmas shopping, Mr Bean purchases a bulky string of tree lights before making a shambles of a department store toy section. He later manages to acquire a free turkey and Christmas tree, and attempts to conduct a Salvation Army band. Finally, during Christmas dinner, Bean has quite a surprise in store for his long-suffering girlfriend.
Finland uses a progressive scale for speeding tickets; the fine amount is based in part on income. In 2023, a businessman got hit with a €121,000 fine.
From Sight & Sound, a list of the best video essays of 2025. I have barely seen or linked to or even heard of most of these. What am I even doing here, besides utterly failing you? (I wonder what would make my list…?)
From Kurzgesagt, an hour-long animated music video that shows all of human history in an hour.
So here’s an experiment: every second, 2 generations or 50 years will pass. You are on a musical train ride looking out the window, as you watch our ancestors hunt large animals, tell stories around campfires, and slowly spread around the globe. Experience all of human history in one hour. You can have this in the background, study with it, or just enjoy the ride. From time to time, I’ll say a few words.
Tags: history · Kurzgesagt · video
Underwater photographer Álvaro Herrero positioned himself in the midst of a humpback whale pod and captured on video several of the whales breaching high out of the water, including one that landed incredibly close to him. Since he was floating in the water, you get to see the whales underwater before they jump, breaching, and then diving down underwater again. Given how cool this looks on video, it must have been amazing to witness in person.
Tags: Álvaro Herrero · video · whales
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is my #1 most anticipated film of 2026 and this trailer has got me revved up! Nolan’s trailers never reveal much, but still, it looks gooood.
I am still skeptical of Matt Damon at Odysseus. Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Hoyte van Hoytema doing the cinematography tho! And how do you fit this entire story into 2.5 hours? (Unless Nolan’s gonna go for 3.5 to 4 hours?) Opens in theaters July 17, 2026.
Tags: Christopher Nolan · movies · The Odyssey · trailers · video
In 2002, Aardman Animations produced a series of short episodes called Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions. In each episode, Wallace unveils a new invention, which Gromit then has to deal with. For the holiday season, Aardman has packaged a few of these short shorts into this compilation, Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Christmas, free to watch on YouTube.
You can watch a longer compilation of (I believe) all of the episodes here.
Aardman even produced a new episode this year, in the form of a clothing commercial:
I hadn’t seen most of these before; I legit laughed out loud several times while watching.
See also: Nick Park demonstrates how to draw Gromit.
Tags: Aardman Animations · advertising · animation · Christmas · holidays · stop motion · TV · video · Wallace and Gromit
“The embrace of the unitary executive theory by both the president and the [Supreme Court] has given us the worst of all worlds: an ultrapowerful presidency without an actual president at the helm.”
