I’m usually pretty go-with-the-flow as far as OS updates go, but iOS 26 / Liquid Glass is terrible: incoherent, ugly, and difficult to use. Obviously a massive design effort, but they missed the mark IMO.
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Physics of Fluids journal article: ‘Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce’....
Physics of Fluids journal article: ‘Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce’. The authors found the dish entered the “Mozzarella Phase” when starch concentrations (relative to cheese) dropped below 1%, “corresponding to an unpleasant and separated sauce”.
Matt Webb: “Gin & tonic was invented by the East India Company...
Matt Webb: “Gin & tonic was invented by the East India Company to keep its colonising army safe [from malaria] in India. Bet the covid vaccine would have been more popular if it got you drunk.”
A Brief History of The Flatiron Building
A photo of NYC’s Flatiron Building, taken in 1904 by Edward Steichen.
Fun fact: the Flatiron Building was not so named because of its resemblance to a clothes iron. It was actually named after the building’s owner, Archibald W. Flatiron.
Ok, not really. But *puts on mans...
Inside the Top Secret Virgil Abloh Archive. For the first time, a...
Inside the Top Secret Virgil Abloh Archive. For the first time, a look into the fashion collection of the late Off-White and Louis Vuitton creative director.
“AI developers haven’t figured out a way to train their models not...
“AI developers haven’t figured out a way to train their models not to scheme. That’s because such training could actually teach the model how to scheme even better to avoid being detected.” (The same is true for children.)
Damn Interesting celebrates its 20th birthday. “In 2005, YouTube, reddit, and Facebook...
Damn Interesting celebrates its 20th birthday. “In 2005, YouTube, reddit, and Facebook were all still wet and screaming infants.”
Gear Brands With a Lifetime Warranty like Darn Tough Vermont, Osprey, Orvis,...
Gear Brands With a Lifetime Warranty like Darn Tough Vermont, Osprey, Orvis, Patagonia, and Timbuk2.
Crying Glacier
A short documentary with the recorded sounds of a melting glacier.
When you look at this gigantic mass of ice, it’s hard to get a personal relationship to it. So we wanted to document this landscape to give us an idea of what it sounds like inside a glacier. There is also the sadness because you know that all these sounds are disappearing right now. Of course, melting is something natural for glaciers, but the problem is that nothing new is coming back.
Tags: climate crisis · sound · video
A 1965 television interview with a 107-year-old Irish farmer (born in 1858)...
A 1965 television interview with a 107-year-old Irish farmer (born in 1858) on all the changes he’s seen during his life. Q: “What would you say was the biggest change?” A: “Well, machinery.”
The defining experience of fascism is “getting yelled at by dumbasses”....
The defining experience of fascism is “getting yelled at by dumbasses”.
The 2025 Audubon Photography Awards Emphasize Epic and Endangered Migrations. I love...
The 2025 Audubon Photography Awards Emphasize Epic and Endangered Migrations. I love the shot of the acorn woodpecker.
How the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz Survived the Death Camps. “I have...
How the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz Survived the Death Camps. “I have been gripped by a need to understand more not only about the women in the Auschwitz orchestra…but also what hearing music in this inferno meant to the other prisoners.”
Of Oz the Wizard, an Alphabetized Version of The Wizard of Oz
Of Oz the Wizard is the entire Wizard of Oz movie presented in alphabetical order by dialogue. So it starts with all the scenes where Dorothy and the gang say “a”, “aaiee”, “along”, and proceeds through “you’re” and “zipper”. Even the words on each of the title cards are s...
Gina Trapani writes about taking a sabbatical. “Take afternoon naps. Bigger things...
Gina Trapani writes about taking a sabbatical. “Take afternoon naps. Bigger things like foster a box of 6 kittens, do a 10-day silent retreat, quit coffee, start lifting, train for a triathlon, take vacations to explore…”
This sounds like a cool project: Pocket Fiche is a pocket-sized microscope...
This sounds like a cool project: Pocket Fiche is a pocket-sized microscope that comes with a ultra-high resolution, nano-fabricated image. “Think of Pocket Fiche as the Earth bound version of the Voyager golden record.”
Some unusual rocks observed by NASA’s Perseverance rover “could be the clearest...
Some unusual rocks observed by NASA’s Perseverance rover “could be the clearest signs of life ever found” on Mars.
Some KDO Updates: We’ve Got Ourselves a Stew
Hey folks, I know there’s a lot going on these days, but I wanted to update you on a few things I’ve been doing for the site lately. Alright, looking through my Git commits from the last couple of months:
I already told you about the Rolodex. Hoping to provide access to th...
Let’s be clear about what just happened: Jimmy Kimmel, a prominent late-night...
Let’s be clear about what just happened: Jimmy Kimmel, a prominent late-night comedian, was just taken off the airwaves because the Trump administration didn’t like what he had to say — and threatened his employer until they shut him up.
Man pulls off daring scuba heist of Disney paddleboat restaurant, netting $10K-$20K...
Man pulls off daring scuba heist of Disney paddleboat restaurant, netting $10K-$20K before successfully escaping into the water from whence he came.
The “Debate Me Bro” Grift: How Trolls Weaponized The Marketplace Of Ideas....
The “Debate Me Bro” Grift: How Trolls Weaponized The Marketplace Of Ideas. “The fundamental issue with “debate me bro” culture [is] that it creates a false equivalence between good-faith expertise and bad-faith trolling.”
How Agates Form, Why Minnesota Lakes Have So Many, & Where To...
How Agates Form, Why Minnesota Lakes Have So Many, & Where To Look For Them. I was always excited as a kid to go find agates at the lake (typically Lake Superior), but I didn’t know a) how they formed, or b) that you couldn’t find them just anywhere.
Inspired by a question over at Cup of Jo, what are the...
Inspired by a question over at Cup of Jo, what are the five things that are essential in your kitchen? Mine lean black & tan: balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, parmesan, olive oil, mayonnaise. (Honorable mention: chili oil.)
Blending In
These are some of my favorite portrait illustrations from Sofia Bonati.
In her art you’ll find female portraits that invite you into a dreamlike world where the woman and her surroundings intertwine, connect. They are women with deep, mysterious looks, who want to tell us something.
I especially like the more geometric ones that radiate. Prints and original works are available in her shop. (via colossal)
Tags: art · illustration · Sofia Bonati
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The Climate Change Paradox. “Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change...
The Climate Change Paradox. “Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true?” Complexity & chaos theory are so interesting.
On the latest wave of AI/LLM tools. “It is a transition from...
On the latest wave of AI/LLM tools. “It is a transition from working with a co-intelligence to working with a wizard. Magic gets done, but we don’t always know what to do with the results.”
Smart Tracker Cards
Here’s a thing I didn’t know existed until the other day: credit-card sized trackers that you put into your wallet (or bag) that can be located with Apple Find My. Some come with long-life batteries and others are rechargeable. Some can play a sound when lost. This seems pretty handy for when an AirTag is too bulky.
The first one I stumbled across was this one from Paperwallet but there are also many other options.
“Trump told voters that they could indulge their resentments and still walk...
“Trump told voters that they could indulge their resentments and still walk away richer and more prosperous. But they can’t. To embrace nativism in a global, connected economic world is to sacrifice prosperity for the sake of exclusion…”
Early next year, Sesame Street is making hundreds of full episodes available...
Classic Airlines Apparel
Remember the collection of classic airline logos I linked to a few years ago? The folks at 08 Left have taken some of those old logos and put them on hats, t-shirts, and hoodies.