The creator of Poetry Is Not a Luxury Instagram account is coming out with a poetry anthology in May: Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons.
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How Much Do I Really Need to Know?
On Inauguration Day in January, Eliza McLamb wrote about her abstention from social media for a month and the challenge of keeping up with current events “without either turning towards ignorance or overwhelming myself with information”:
I’ve been thinking deeply about thi...
The First Three Episodes of Andor Available Online for Free
Disney has uploaded the first three episodes of season one of Andor to YouTube:
No idea how long they will be up or if they’re visible outside of the US. I started an Andor rewatch last week and I am finding it more enjoyable and interesting than I did the first time around. The writers obviously did their research on how fascism, dictatorships, and rebellions work — in almost every scene, you observe characters reacting and interacting with the constraints of bureaucratic totalitarianism. Very interesting to watch in this political moment. (via @rebeccablood.bsky.social)
Eyes on the Street
I ran across this story from Vanessa Guerrero on Instagram recently. She originally posted it to Twitter a few years ago; here’s the full text:
Living in LA, I’ve lived in many a neighborhood in which police helicopters circle all day and they don’t do anything except be l...
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE is interviewing (current & former) federal workers for a series that...
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE is interviewing (current & former) federal workers for a series that “aims to capture both the personal significance of [their] work and its broader impact on the American public”. 8 stories so far — these are great.
“Covid was a privatized pandemic. It is this technocratic, privatized model that...
“Covid was a privatized pandemic. It is this technocratic, privatized model that is its lasting legacy and that will define our approach to the next pandemic,” says Siddhartha Mukherjee. “There are some public goods that should never be privatized.”
I Am Trapped in the Criterion Closet. “How long have I been...
I Am Trapped in the Criterion Closet. “How long have I been in this place? I cannot say. In the darkness, time has lost meaning. The only days I remember are Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978), the only nights, Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957).”
When This [Medical School] Professor Got Cancer, He Didn’t Quit. He Taught...
When This [Medical School] Professor Got Cancer, He Didn’t Quit. He Taught a Class About It. “He wanted his students to understand the humanity at the core of medicine.”
The latest edition of Jodi Ettenberg’s link-drenched Curious About Everything newsletter just...
The latest edition of Jodi Ettenberg’s link-drenched Curious About Everything newsletter just dropped. I was going to steal about a dozens links from this, but you should just go read and subscribe to the source.
Purged gov’t employees, while scrambling to find work & health insurance, face...
Purged gov’t employees, while scrambling to find work & health insurance, face MAGA relatives who are cheering their firing. “Some members of her mostly conservative family have unfriended her on social media. Others are giving her the silent treatment.”
I woke up Saturday wondering how observers of Ramadan time their fasting...
I woke up Saturday wondering how observers of Ramadan time their fasting in polar regions, where sunrise & sunset don’t exist for months on end. “Muslims in the Arctic are generally advised by religious authorities to adopt one of three solutions…”
A forthcoming novel from Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You....
A forthcoming novel from Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You. Really looking forward to this one — her No One Is Talking About This is a favorite of mine from the past few years.
A game called “It is as if you were on your phone”...
A game called “It is as if you were on your phone” is designed to make you look like you’re on your phone. “You’re just pretending to be on your phone! On your phone!”
A collection of movie clips containing inaccurate binocular shots, “(i.e., two overlapping...
A collection of movie clips containing inaccurate binocular shots, “(i.e., two overlapping circles instead of one, as you would see in real life)” — including Rushmore, Das Boot, Ronin, Chinatown, and Superman.
From Ben Fry, a visualization of the 5,000+ covers of the New...
From Ben Fry, a visualization of the 5,000+ covers of the New Yorker from the past 100 years. “The horizontal line/artifact comes from the way that they re-run their first cover (and more recently, a variant of it) each year on their anniversary.”
Star Trek: TNG Opening Credits, But the Theme Music Is Coming From the Enterprise
This is the dumbest thing but it had me rolling in the aisles this morning: Star Trek TNG Theme but the theme music is coming from the Enterprise-D. It takes a bit to get going, but I laughed so hard when the ship whooshed by for the first time.
The same creator has made a number of videos in this vein, including The Imperial March but it’s coming from Vader’s chest control panel and Star Trek DS9 Theme but the theme is coming from DS9 Ops.
This is fantastic and very much worth your time: Marcin Wichary’s deep...
This is fantastic and very much worth your time: Marcin Wichary’s deep dive into a staunchly utilitarian font called Gorton, which you see almost everywhere in American cities, especially NYC. “Gorton is everywhere in Manhattan.”
I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter....
I Took My Work Outside Every Day for a Month This Winter. (“My work” = typing on a laptop.) “Even though I’m not perfectly warm, it lifts my mood to be outside. I can hear the community of songbirds holding their morning conferences, a barking dog…”
The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century (one per show...
The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century (one per show & actor). Ian McShane (Deadwood), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Anna Sawai (Shōgun), Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey), Peter Dinklage (GoT). Who’s your #1?
Watch Eagle Chicks Hatching on the Eagle Cam
High up in a pine tree in California’s Big Bear Valley, a pair of eagles guard their nest…and we can watch them live on YouTube.
The nest is located in Big Bear Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. It is about 145 feet up in a Jeffrey Pine tree. ...
Some graphs showing how people’s Letterboxd ratings of the Star Wars films...
Some graphs showing how people’s Letterboxd ratings of the Star Wars films have changed over the past few years. The prequels’ rankings have increased while the Rey/Ren movies have fallen.
Watch Blue Ghost Land On The Moon in HD
A few days ago, on March 2, the first lunar lander operated by a private company landed successfully on the Moon. The video of the landing is really something — I wonder if I will ever get accustomed to or tired of watching footage of spacecraft landing on other bodies in our solar system? The answer is a resounding NO so far…this is cool as hell.
You can read more about Firefly’s Blue Ghost on Wikipedia. The mission delivered 10 science and technology investigations to the surface of the Moon for NASA. (via phil plait)
Tags: Firefly Aerospace · Moon · NASA · science · space · video
Dolly Parton has released a new song called If You Hadn’t Been...
Dolly Parton has released a new song called If You Hadn’t Been There as a tribute to her late husband, Carl Dean. “If you hadn’t been there / Well, who would I be?”
After 54 years, the organizers of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (which celebrates...
After 54 years, the organizers of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (which celebrates bad opening lines to novels) have brought an end to the contest. So bummed…a friend and I had a pretty good entry we’ve been workshopping!
The Museum of All Things. “Every exhibit in the museum corresponds to...
The Museum of All Things. “Every exhibit in the museum corresponds to a Wikipedia article. The walls of the exhibit are covered in images and text from the article, and hallways lead out to other exhibits based on the article’s links.”
How Are You?
Hey folks. I’m gonna take a break from KDO for the rest the day today (unless we invade Canada this afternoon or something) — I worked for much of last weekend and need a breather.
But I wanted to open up the comments here and ask: How are you doing? What’s your attention on these days? How are you coping with all of this uncertainty? What’s the view from your community? If you’d like to share, the comments are open.
I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully with some Friday Foolishness.
Tags: kottke.org
Report: You Live In An Embarrassing Country. “According to a new report...
Report: You Live In An Embarrassing Country. “According to a new report published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, you live in a deeply embarrassing and barely functional country.” Evergreen piece from The Onion.
Yesterday’s letter from Heather Cox Richardson is a good one, drawing a...
Yesterday’s letter from Heather Cox Richardson is a good one, drawing a line from the Cold War to Putin’s rise in Russia (through “virtual politics”) to Russian interference in the 2016 election to the ongoing coup.
Glass Onion
I recently rewatched Glass Onion and had a couple thoughts about it.
1. Before settling in to watch, I’d remembered that Edward Norton’s mega-billionaire character Miles Bron bore some resemblance to Elon Musk, but I’d forgotten that the whole plot of the movie revolves a...