This post by Matt Webb on “a bunch of stuff that happened”...
This post by Matt Webb on “a bunch of stuff that happened” works best when you imagine the last three lines being read by Ricky Jay (a la in Magnolia).
kottke.org
Jason Kottke’s weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998
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Generator: Movable Type 4.2
“Live, laugh, tape fish on ATMs.” Last year, a Utah teen was...
“Live, laugh, tape fish on ATMs.” Last year, a Utah teen was arrested for taping fish to ATMs and posting pictures of the fishy ATMs to an Instagram account.
From Antiques Roadshow in 1990, a look at a rare first edition...
From Antiques Roadshow in 1990, a look at a rare first edition copy of The Hobbit. It’s got a dust jacket and is accompanied by a personal letter from J.R.R. Tolkien himself.
Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090...
Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries. They say conventional predictions ignore “tipping points, sea temperature rises, migration and conflict as a result of global heating”.
A real-time map of passenger trains in the US and Canada. Good...
A real-time map of passenger trains in the US and Canada. Good for marveling at the teensy, embarrassing number of trains operating in the US.
Comets Are Cool
From astronomer Yuri Beletsky, a photo of Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) arching over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Unfortunately, it seems like the comet disintegrated as it swooped around the Sun, always a danger.
The nucleus of Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) held together dur...
An interview with Questlove on his upcoming documentary on the history of...
An interview with Questlove on his upcoming documentary on the history of music on SNL. “I will never forget seeing Devo as a 7-year-old — laughing like: ‘Are these aliens? What the hell is this?’” The film starts with a 6-min DJ mix by Questlove.
Supercut of Movie Scenes That Break the Fourth Wall
Leigh Singer gathered more than 50 clips from movies that break the fourth wall (where the characters acknowledge they’re in a movie).
Sadly my favorite broken fourth wall moment didn’t make the list: Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places getting a commodities lesson from the Dukes. (via zupped)
Update: Ah, and all is right with the universe again as Trading Places makes it into Singer’s second compilation of fourth wall breaks.
[This is a vintage post originally from Apr 2013.]
Tags: Leigh Singer · movies · timeless posts · video
Wikenigma is an encyclopedia of known unknowns. That is, a listing of...
Wikenigma is an encyclopedia of known unknowns. That is, a listing of “scientific and academic questions to which no-one, anywhere, has yet been able to provide a definitive answer”.
Quietly marveling at the diverse array of ceramic work on view this...
Quietly marveling at the diverse array of ceramic work on view this month at an art fair in Brussels dedicated to the medium.
How Daft Punk Made The Drums For “Starboy” By The Weeknd. They...
How Daft Punk Made The Drums For “Starboy” By The Weeknd. They used a pocket-sized synthesizer from Teenage Engineering.
Rick Steves, Always on the Go
I really enjoyed this interview with traveller and writer Rick Steves by Lulu Garcia-Navarro, which is also available as a YouTube video and podcast episode (Apple, Spotify). Here are some particularly appealing excerpts:
I love to be on a bus that’s so crowded that there...
Tomorrow, Jan 24th: a special 24-hour livestream of the “groundbreaking” generative documentary...
Tomorrow, Jan 24th: a special 24-hour livestream of the “groundbreaking” generative documentary film Eno (about Brian Eno). The film is different each time it’s shown; they’ll be presenting 6 different versions over the 24 hours.
The Evolution of Bugs Bunny Over 80 Years
In his ongoing series Cartoon Evolution, Dave Lee looks at how the character of Bugs Bunny has changed and evolved since his debut in 1938 as an unnamed rabbit in Porky’s Hare Hunt. It didn’t take long for the character to find its stride. From Wikipedia:
While Porky’s Ha...
A calque is a word that has been loaned *and translated* from...
A calque is a word that has been loaned *and translated* from another language. Some English calques: flea market, potsticker, beer garden, iceberg, refried beans, superman, scapegoat, stormtrooper, killer whale.
The Moon is on this year’s list of at-risk sites compiled by...
The Moon is on this year’s list of at-risk sites compiled by the World Monuments Fund. “The group warns that more than 90 important sites on the moon could be harmed”, including the Apollo 11 landing site.
Two “Secret” Mini-Seasons of The X-Files
In 2017, Audible released a pair of immersive audio dramas of The X-Files, with David Duchovny as Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Scully, that fit “somewhere between season 10 and 11” of the TV series. Then at some point, Audible removed them from their site/service, making them completely unavailable. So, a fan put them up on YouTube for X-Files fans to enjoy.
The Cold Cases audio drama is 6 episodes and about 4 hours long; here’s the first episode:
The Stolen Lives audio drama is 7 episodes and about 3h 45m long; here’s the first episode:
(via ironic sans)
Tags: audio · The X-Files · TV · video
A peek inside Robert Caro’s home library, hidden shelves and all. His...
A peek inside Robert Caro’s home library, hidden shelves and all. His collection includes a library book overdue by “at least 50 years”.
Building a Medieval Castle From Scratch
Since 1997, using only Middle Ages tools & technology, a group has been building a medieval castle in a French forest.
In the heart of Guédelon forest, in an abandoned quarry, a team of master-builders is building a 13th-century castle from scratch. Quarrymen, stonemaso...
Instances of haptic nostalgia (“the poignant memory of the physicality of an...
Instances of haptic nostalgia (“the poignant memory of the physicality of an obsolete thing”) include shifting gears in a manual transmission, pulling the edges off of dot matrix printer paper, and twisting the phone cord around your finger.
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days. “In one of the...
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days. “In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy, Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means.”
A sick sunfish stopped eating after its aquarium closed for renovations so...
A sick sunfish stopped eating after its aquarium closed for renovations so the staff put cutouts of humans and pictures of smiling faces outside the tank and then it started eating the next day.
Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens, i.e. “choosing what...
Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens, i.e. “choosing what to ignore, learning how to resist low-quality and misleading but cognitively attractive information, and deciding where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities”.
Kind of Obsessed With Shōgun
I finished the last half of Shōgun, James Clavell’s 1200-page 1975 historical novel, on my recent vacation, riveted the entire time. I loved reading it and possibly enjoyed it more than Hulu’s TV series (which is saying something). The TV version hews pretty closely to the t...
We Only Have Ourselves: The How-Tos and DOs and DON’Ts of Mutual...
We Only Have Ourselves: The How-Tos and DOs and DON’Ts of Mutual Aid. “DO: Find the people who are already doing the work, and follow their lead. DON’T: Assume that you know what people want or need.”
A caffeine calculator that tells you how much of your favorite beverage...
A caffeine calculator that tells you how much of your favorite beverage would kill you. “287.4 cans of Pepsi is a lethal dose.”
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History. A coffee table book about one...
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: A Visual History. A coffee table book about one of my foundational cultural touchstones? Yes please!
Where Do You Put the Camera?
For the final video in their current series, Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting tackle one of the fundamental questions in filmmaking: where do you put the camera? I was especially struck by Greta Gerwig’s comments about camera movement in two of her fi...
Every Star Trek Movie, Ranked. I think the top 5 here are...
Every Star Trek Movie, Ranked. I think the top 5 here are correct, although you could maybe swap them around a bit. I might put First Contact ahead of The Undiscovered Country for instance.
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the...
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers. “[Mark Zuckerberg’s] cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to turn inside out at my bellybutton.”