Engaging read on how the Bugs Bunny cartoon What’s Opera, Doc? was made. “To get the extra work done, Jones and his crew secretly shaved a couple weeks off other, easier films and faked their time cards. It was something they did on occasion.”

The 25 Photos That Changed Fashion Forever. “It didn’t matter if an image was meant as a fashion photograph, so long as the picture later inspired a designer, collection or trend, or it changed how we might think about style.”

Just a short note to say that because of some internet scammer shithousery, I had to bulk-unsubscribe a bunch of email addresses from the KDO Newsletter subscriber rolls. If you subscribed to the newsletter back in Dec 2025 and don’t get the next issue (which I’m sending out a few hours after posting this), you might need to sign up again. Sorry for the inconvenience — my email account got flagged and I needed to rectify this pronto. 🙏

For the rest of yous: you’re doing great, stay the course. If you’re not subscribed to the newsletter and you like reading things in your inbox for some reason, you can subscribe as well. The newsletter goes out twice a week and includes links to everything I post here. Thanks.

Tags: kottke.org

A thoughtful review of Nolan’s The Odyssey, comparing it to the original Planet of the Apes movies. “I was very influenced by seeing The Planet of the Apes when I was a kid. We had the Statue of Liberty half destroyed. That idea of a fallen monument.”

I always learn so much from Evan Puschak’s videos about art. In this one, he takes a look at the work of Mary Cassatt, who, unlike many of her male peers, used the flattened perspective of Impressionism to reveal the thoughts and feelings of her subjects. Like Manet, she...

3D models for every single object in Katamari Damacy, all 1680 of them. You can download models and animated gifs of each one.

Ross Anderson on NASA’s recently launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which may “be able to deliver the first direct images of distant planets in visible light” as well as measure the effects of dark energy.

Canyon Groove. What if the grooves on a record were shaped like actual canyons? What would that sound like? “The floor sets the key. The shape of the walls sets the mood. The width sets how long one pass takes, and the depth sets the echo.”

So that companies can use them to make accessories like cases and bands, Apple maintains a collection of downloadable dimensional drawings and tech specifications for many of their products, including the iPhone, AirPods, Watch, and iPad. They are beautiful. I love their corner & edge measurements…you can see how fiddly Apple is with their curves. Curiously, the only Mac listed is the Macbook Neo. I guess that’s the only one that needs accessorizing? Also, I presume if you’ve got a 3D printer, you could use these to make your own very precise accessories? Tags: Apple · design

What’s your “origin” video game? “I’m talking about the game that flipped that little switch in your brain and made into a life-long gamer.” Mine is Lode Runner. Reflexes + puzzles + constraints + make-your-own levels = hooked for life. You?

TIL Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris (aka The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) was written in part to help save the cathedral from demolition.

“The best next steps are the concrete ones: Big AI needs to follow all current laws—just like everyone else. So far—they haven’t. When Big AI breaks those laws, they must face pros­e­cu­tion and penal­ties—just like everyone else. So far—they haven’t.”

Ed Sheeran tried to stay neutral on a moving train. “If [celebrities] remain neutral (silent), they won’t offend anyone and they will, hopefully, appeal to everyone. They use the facade of neutrality as shelter, as a place to take refuge.”

Monopoly as a metaphor for racial inequity. “During the first half of the game, we said that Cas and I could buy property, but you could not, then halfway through the game, we say, ‘Now the rules are even. Now the rules are the same for everybody.’”

Relationships are key to human happiness. “The top five [determinants of subjective well-being], ranked in order of impact, were romantic and familial relationships, financial situation, work, community and friends, and health.”

In the 70s, photographer Langdon Clay took photos of cars parked on NYC streets at night and compiled them into a project: Cars, New York City | 1974-1976. Using his Leica CL, Kodachrome 25, and a 40 millimeter lens, Clay traversed the streets of 1970’s Manhattan fi...

The Film Experience is a free online course from MIT about movies & cinema. “This course concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, from the early silent period, classic Hollywood genres including musicals, thrillers…”

I didn’t know Beehiiv had a program to support independent journalists. Members get access to tools, a health insurance stipend, legal protection, and waived hosting fees. Oh, and they don’t proudly host Nazis like Substack. ✌️

Imagine playing chess against a seven-year-old who’s dancing around and barely paying attention to the board (bc it’s all in her head) and she just casually checkmates you like this. Oof.

Oh my goodness, I love the look of these cups. They were made by Indonesian potter Nabila Nareswari using the nerikomi technique. From her about page: Nerikomi is a technique in pottery that creates decorative patterns by stacking, rolling, and slicing colored clay. ...

In Prison, White Supremacist Literature Is Required Reading. “White supremacy welcomed his rage, and that made it irresistible.” Excerpted from Cast Out: A Call for a Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration by Joseph Margulies.

“Starring Genden Phuntsok, Tom Hiddleston, and Willem Dafoe, Tenzing follows the true story of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s historic first summit of Mount Everest. History remembers the summit, but not always the man who made it possible.”

I believe I have featured login.jp_ here before — they pair electronic music with different locations around Japan to highlight the Japanese experience. For their latest video, they had English DJ & producer Bonobo play some downtempo ambient electronica in a Shinjuku ...

This story, about a dressage trainer who shot his female student and got away with it, is completely bonkers. “Largely through the medium of Facebook, Kanarek had driven Barisone mad.”

I am stunned that we are still finding new species of cat in 2026. “The analysis revealed that the sanctuary cat belonged to a previously unrecognized species whose lineage split from its relatives about 1.4 million years ago.”

Cole Escola’s Broadway smash Oh, Mary! is coming to HBO in 2027. Excited for this…I’ve never seen the play.

Amazing piece by Nikole Hannah-Jones about the betrayal her child felt at her school choice. “So you had money to send me to one of the best schools, and you chose not to? Because other kids are disadvantaged, you didn’t want to put me in a great school?”

New novel from Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven): Exit Party. “Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted.”

Wes Anderson steps into the mobile Criterion Closet to select some films that he enjoys. One unsurprising thing about this video: Anderson says he has his own Criterion closet at home with all of the Criterion films. That’s maybe a $40-50K investment? (He probably gets th...

“The clan of predators currently in charge of the U.S. federal government” are striving to make the world safe for grift, corruption, and theft, with their mob boss president leading the way.