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Jason Kottke’s weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998
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Laura Dern was forced to drop out of UCLA’s film school to...
Laura Dern was forced to drop out of UCLA’s film school to star in Blue Velvet and the head of dept. called her “insane” for doing so. Now, the film is a requirement at the school. Dern: “Pisses me off.”
“We Choose Freedom”
Vice President Kamala Harris has debuted her first ad for her presidential run and it’s a good one. First of all: Beyoncé. But also: “freedom” is a great theme for Harris. For too long Republicans have defined what that word means in America and now’s the time for Democrat...
A recent book, Van Gogh and the End of Nature, is a...
A recent book, Van Gogh and the End of Nature, is a “radical revisioning” of van Gogh’s work “in relation to industrial pollution and climate change”.
Simple Advice for Personal Finance
The Index Card is a new book by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack about simple advice for personal finance. The idea for the book came about when Pollack jotted down financial advice that works for almost everyone on a 4x6 index card.
Now, Pollack teams up with Olen to expl...
“In supposedly affluent Western nations, the dire state or absence of public...
“In supposedly affluent Western nations, the dire state or absence of public toilets has become a universal nightmare, impacting the health and quality of life of all of us, but particularly for marginalised groups.”
A study of the world’s most, and least, walkable cities (and those...
A study of the world’s most, and least, walkable cities (and those that rely most on public transport). Shocking but not shocking: “The 100 least active cities in the study are all found in North America.”
Some good climate news: the pace of decarbonization in the US is...
Some good climate news: the pace of decarbonization in the US is increasing (due in part to Biden policies); we’re on track to “reduce GHG emissions by 38-56% below 2005 levels in 2035”, which is 2-4X the pace from 2005 to 2023.
All About U.S. — A Look at the Lives of 50 Real Kids from Across the United States
Matt Lamothe and Jenny Volvovski wrote an illustrated a new book called All About U.S. (Bookshop), which features a look into the lives of 50 kids from the US, one from each state. From the website:
All About U.S. is a non-fiction children’s book, featuring 50 real kids ...
If you’re feeling nostalgic, here’s a version of MS Paint that works...
If you’re feeling nostalgic, here’s a version of MS Paint that works in the browser.
The Gods of Logic: Benjamín Labatut (When We Cease to Understand the...
The Gods of Logic: Benjamín Labatut (When We Cease to Understand the World) on artificial intelligence. “It is never safe to call on the gods, or even come close to them.”
Books to Read to Understand Where Project 2025 Came From
Dr. Mara Einstein is an author and media studies professor with a special interest in religion & cults and she recently shared a list of books to read and movies to watch “in order to get up to speed on Project2025 and where it came from” (specifically the evangelical ...
In the latest data release, the UN’s global population peak projection was...
In the latest data release, the UN’s global population peak projection was revised downward to 10.3 billion people in 2084. “The global fertility rate has more than halved since the 1960s, from over 5 children per woman to 2.3.”
Martin Pollack writes about his Gestapo father and his family, who remained...
Martin Pollack writes about his Gestapo father and his family, who remained Nazis in spirit after the war. “My father did terrible things during the second world war, and my other relatives were equally unrepentant.”
13-Year-Old Daredevil Jumps Trash Cans in Alley on “Junker Special” Bike
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that encapsulates the feeling of America in the 1970s more than this local news report about 13-year-old Terry “Evel Knievel” Bolinger and his attempt to jump over 10 trash cans on his bike “made from the parts of several other bikes”.
At the beginning of the segment, the reporter on the scene says of Bolinger, “There are some youngsters that know what they want to do in life from the time they can talk and walk.” And so it appears that his daredevil ways never left him:
Terry Michael “Spike” Bolinger 42, of Indianapolis, lived, loved and died riding his Harley. “Spike” passed away Tuesday, September 6, 2005 in Wishard Hospital. He was born October 7, 1962 in Indianapolis, IN.
(via the dice)
Tags: biking · Terry Bolinger · video
Chronic Pain is Psychedelic. “In moments of extreme pain, physical or psychological,...
Chronic Pain is Psychedelic. “In moments of extreme pain, physical or psychological, we become stitched to the present moment. It becomes impossible not to be radically present.” See also Experiencing Grief Can Feel Like Tripping on Hallucinogens.
Flint, MI is giving pregnant residents a “cash prescription” of $1500 during...
Flint, MI is giving pregnant residents a “cash prescription” of $1500 during pregnancy and $500/mo for the 1st year of the baby’s life. “In Flint, the poorest city in [Michigan], we are on track to eliminating infant poverty.”
How Sci-Fi Movies Have Changed Since the 50s
In this visual essay (and video embedded above), Alvin Chang shows how science fiction movies have gotten darker and more complex since the 1950s, when many movies were set in the present with a clear existential threat that was then overcome.
But these days, it’s much m...
Livestream of a blooming corpse flower (you know, the big stinky one)...
Livestream of a blooming corpse flower (you know, the big stinky one) from Milk Barn Farm. “It’s an unusual thing to find in a greenhouse in Oregon. In fact, it may be the first time one has flowered here.”
“Trump’s Massive Deportation Plan Echoes Concentration Camp History”
Andrea Pitzer, who wrote about about the history of concentration camps in her 2017 book One Long Night, has a piece in Scientific American about the historical parallels between Trump’s desire to expel as many as 20 million people from the country and previous concentration...
A generic version of a drug that’s “as close as we’ve ever...
A generic version of a drug that’s “as close as we’ve ever been to an HIV vaccine” could be made for $40 a year per patient (with a 30% profit). Current pricing by Gilead: $42,250 per year.
Kamala Harris is to the left of Joe Biden on health care...
Kamala Harris is to the left of Joe Biden on health care issues, particularly when it comes to reproductive freedom, support for Medicare for All, drug pricing, and health care antitrust.
From Scientific American: What to Know about Project 2025’s Dangers to Science....
From Scientific American: What to Know about Project 2025’s Dangers to Science. Project 2025 “would sabotage science-based policies that address climate change, the environment, abortion, health care access, technology and education.”
“Dark oxygen” source discovered on ocean floor. “The metal nodules are able...
“Dark oxygen” source discovered on ocean floor. “The metal nodules are able to make oxygen precisely because they act like batteries”, splitting seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
A Less Rigorous Version of Friendship
I read Kathryn Jezer-Morton’s newsletter about “a more lateral approach to Mother’s Day” back when it came out in May, and while I’m not the target audience, I keep thinking about this bit on friendship:
After my mother died in 2021, my family returned home from the memori...
Bodycam footage of Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans shows how quick and...
Bodycam footage of Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans shows how quick and demanding Premier League football is, even in the preseason.
An explainer and organizational toolkit from Red Wine & Blue about Project...
An explainer and organizational toolkit from Red Wine & Blue about Project 2025. “It is frighteningly anti-democratic and goes against what the vast majority of Americans want for our country.”
Kamala Harris and her views on the climate crisis. “Harris has made...
News Happening Faster Than Man Can Generate Uninformed Opinions. “It’s getting harder...
News Happening Faster Than Man Can Generate Uninformed Opinions. “It’s getting harder and harder to come up with enough incoherent perspectives to meet the moment.”
Watch 1969’s Apollo 11 Moon Landing “Live!”
55 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and went for a little walk. For the 16th year in a row, you can watch the original CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first Moon walk on a smal...