How We’ll Fight the Platform War Against Big AI. “Here are some of the proven tactics that have helped shift the balance of power in prior tech reckonings…”

Not surprising to KDO readers and I don’t really know who still needs to hear this in June 2026 but: the US is in the middle of a “rolling coup” by ultra-conservatives who are “well along the path of destroying our democracy”.

Yet another unsurprising article about how bigger SUVs and trucks have resulted in more pedestrian deaths in the US over the past two decades.

For each of their on-camera interviews with filmmakers, actors, critics, and other film nerds, Criterion records 30 seconds of “room tone” that is used to cut the footage into a seamless video. When trying to explain what room tone is to someone unfamiliar with the concept...

Giant Banana Pulled Over in Montana: Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Of Times. “The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.”

Amazon is doing their Prime Day sale again this summer and for those with Prime memberships, it’s a chance to upgrade some tech items at rarely seen prices. Here are a few items I’ve got my eye on: The AirPods Pro 3 are still my daily headphones; I really do love them s...

Brexit vote: 10 years on. “‘Absolute nightmare, shambles, and still is to this day,’ says Tony Rutherford a decade after he voted leave to save the British fishing industry.”

I love this playable 3D-rendered reel-to-reel player made by Dunstan Orchard and Kristina Dutton. Despite their virtuality, the buttons are delightfully clicky and the attention to detail is impressive.

Step into a virtual Criterion Closet. “A walk-in closet of 1,327 real Criterion editions, shelved in spine-number order — exactly as a true collector keeps them. Look around, read the spines, and pull any one off the shelf to inspect the case.”

Scientists have found evidence of mass death due to the plague 5000 years ago, which goes against the prevailing theory that plague wasn’t that deadly until more recently.

A long oral history of Steven Spielberg and his career. “He’s a terrific collaborator. He himself is a continuous lightbulb flickering on and off with one idea after another, but he’s not terribly protective of an idea.”

I appreciate what 2K/DENMARK’s Klaus Krogh says about their ambitions when he and his wife started the company:

When I started this company together with my wife, I said we got to become a very very small company. Why? Because we are going to put so much effort into each and every assignment that nobody’s going to pay for it. So we are not going to grow any. Now almost 40 years later, we have the very best customers. We have customers in 43 countries. We do typesetting in Chinese and Japanese. Why? Well, because we take care. We do our very best every time.

Tags: 2K/DENMARK · design · Klaus Krogh · typography

The trailer for Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi and based on the bestseller by Kazuo Ishiguro.

AI Economics for Dummies. “The Wall Street Journal’s business editor moves into Alex’s house, having accepted a part-time position as Alex’s human footstool. He never asks to see the books.”

Great piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates on how “the portrait of America as an imperial power cuts against its self-image as a righteous cradle of democracy” and what that means for the next Black president.

A new seismic phenomenon: seismic waves from the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake ricocheted off the Earth’s core and shifted the entirety of Japan 6 millimeters to the east, enough to disrupt GPS measurements.

Architect and urban & computational designer Abhinav Bhardwaj made this great set of slides comparing urban design in the US and Europe, peppered with pithy observations like: European space is shaped on purpose: American open space is what’s left over. Small blocks make more corners, more routes, more street life. A fine grid offers hundreds of routes; the tree offers one way out. (thx, meg) Tags: Abhinav Bhardwaj · architecture · cities · design · urban planning

Are You in the Weights? “LLMs encode their knowledge and reasoning through billions of numbers called ‘the weights.’ ‘In the weights’ means that a model is able to recall someone without using tools like web search.”

Human brains were not designed to deal with an endless supply of bad news. “We are the same species as we were thousands of years ago. What’s changed is the size of the world it’s asked to scan for threats.”

Although I’ve seen a highlight or two, I have not overcome my FIFA+Fox+Trump disgust to watch any of the World Cup so far. MAGA dipshit Alexi Lalas is high on the list of reasons not to tune into any of Fox’s braindead coverage, but it sounds like he’s being dragged on the r...

This is probably the definitive post about web browsers on video game consoles.

The Side That Won the Civil War is Now Banning Books About Why the Civil War Was Fought. “It is a well-known feature of civil society that nervous middle managers often act far more radically than top executives out of a sense of self-preservation.”

Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown. “This is absolutely crazy. It is also about 20C above normal for this time of the year. That is a huge anomaly.”

As the World Cup gets underway here in the Americas, here’s a look back at a football battle for the ages: Germany vs. Greece in The Philosophers’ Football Match. Germany’s lineup included Nietzsche , Kant, Hegel, Wittgenstein, and Marx while the likes of Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, and Archimedes took the field for Greece.

Hegel is arguing that reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant — via the categorical imperative — is holding that ontologically, it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside.

(thx, meg)

Tags: Monty Python · remix · soccer · sports · video

“The prevailing emotions among scientists right now are rage and shock.” U.S. Science Is in Chaos. “This compact that has existed since World War II, that made the U.S. the successful, prosperous nation that it is, is being dismantled.”

The Founding Story Behind Japan’s Oldest Whisky Maker. “Success in the Japanese market required a lighter, more delicate flavor profile than Western spirits typically offered.” And so Suntory was born.

Twice in the Earth’s history, massive ranges of supermountains have formed on ancient continents. Studies like these point to something we do know for sure: from the highest peaks to the smallest cells, geology and biology are deeply intertwined. And while it’s often said...

Due to FIFA’s poor security practices, this guy stumbled into their wide-open broadcast portal w/ full access. “An attacker could have rickrolled the entire FIFA World Cup. Or played Subway Surfers gameplay. Live. On every TV network worldwide.”

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has given away half a billion dollars against a backdrop “where a growing number of billionaires are lashing out against philanthropy”.

Inspired by Ukraine, and Worried by China: Taiwan Teaches Its Citizens How to Fly Drones. “I may not be a soldier, but if [a China invasion] ever happened here, as a citizen, I’d like to have the ability to help in some way.”