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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="https://feeds.kottke.org/feed.xsl"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<title>kottke.org</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/"/>
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://feeds.kottke.org/main"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2009-08-11:05118</id>
<updated>2026-07-28T11:23:00Z</updated>
<subtitle>Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998</subtitle>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ All US Cities Which Used to Have More Than 100,000 People But Don’t Anymore ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/all-us-cities-which-used-to-have-more-than-100000-people-but-dont-anymore"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49399</id>
<published>2026-07-28T15:23:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T15:23:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/phfpjd/all_us_cities_which_used_to_have_more_than_100000">Here’s a map</a> of the 21 US cities that used to have a population of 100,000 people but don’t anymore. Many of these are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt">Rust Belt</a> cities, in which manufacturing employment fell steeply during the latter part of the 20th century.</p>
<p>The thread at Reddit mentions Detroit and St. Louis as two other cities whose population has dropped during that same time period. Detroit went from 1.85 million in 1950 to 639,000 in 2020 and St. Louis dropped from 857,000 to 300,000 over the same time period:</p>
<blockquote><p>St. Louis was once the country’s 4th largest city. Worlds Fair and Olympics in 1904. Two Major League Baseball teams. It didn’t boom as much as the Great Lakes cities in between the wars and it declined just as much after.</p></blockquote>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/demographics">demographics</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/maps">maps</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/population">population</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/usa">usa</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ How the Words We Teach English Language Learners... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049395-how-the-words-we-teach-en"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49395</id>
<published>2026-07-28T14:33:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T14:33:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://pudding.cool/2026/07/essential-words">How the Words We Teach English Language Learners Changed, and What That Says About Us</a>. “The shifts reflect a life that moved further from its own making: less tied to tools, animals, food…; more tied to global institutions, categories, systems…”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Don’t use AI until you’re 40 . “We have been so... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049401-dont-use-ai-until-youre-4"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49401</id>
<published>2026-07-28T13:37:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T13:37:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/opinion/teaching-kabbalah-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.01A.fuLr.ereE_327-6mI">Don’t use AI until you’re 40</a>. “We have been so quick to treat access to new technology as an inevitability that we have failed to question whether every powerful tool should be placed in the hands of every developing mind the moment it becomes available.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country .... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049397-we-used-to-be-able-to-buy"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49397</id>
<published>2026-07-27T21:18:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T21:18:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things">We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country</a>. “Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Shortlist of Potential Future Euro Banknote Designs ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/a-shortlist-of-potential-future-euro-banknote-designs"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49400</id>
<published>2026-07-27T19:58:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T19:58:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html">The European Central Bank is providing a sneak peek at the next design of the Euro banknotes</a>. From a shortlist of 10 designs created by artists and designers from across the EU, one will be selected as the basis of how Euro banknotes from €5 to €200 will look in the future. Here are a few I pulled out from all of the designs:</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>It’s notable (*cough*) that some of the banknotes are designed vertically vs horizontally. The influence of portrait mode on smartphones?
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/currency">currency</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/design">design</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/European%20Union">European Union</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/money">money</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049391-datatype-is-an-opentype-v"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49391</id>
<published>2026-07-27T19:15:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T19:15:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://franktisellano.github.io/datatype">Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts</a>. No JavaScript, no images, no rendering library — just type the syntax and Datatype’s ligature substitution does the rest.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Batman Effect : people in an experiment acted more... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049382-the-batman-effect"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49382</id>
<published>2026-07-27T18:25:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T18:25:11Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-of-talking-with-children/202511/the-batman-effect-youre-more-changeable-than-you-think">The Batman Effect</a>: people in an experiment acted more altruisticly when the caped crusader was present.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Once Upon a Time in Space ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/once-upon-a-time-in-space"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49392</id>
<published>2026-07-27T17:08:22Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T17:08:22Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2D-ew87MiS4" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>From the filmmakers who made the excellent <a href="https://kottke.org/23/09/once-upon-a-time-in-northern-ireland">Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland</a> comes a four-part series on space exploration, Once Upon a Time in Space. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D-ew87MiS4">A short trailer</a> is above; here’s a synopsis:</p>
<blockquote><p>Drawing on intimate, unseen archive and powerful first-hand testimony, this landmark 4-part series tells the human stories behind our quest to explore space, offering a unique perspective on our changing world and where we are headed.</p></blockquote>
<p>The series <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hyt5">first aired on the BBC</a> and the first two episodes are <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/once-upon-a-time-in-space">now available on PBS</a>. (thx, mitch)
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Once%20Upon%20a%20Time%20in%20Space">Once Upon a Time in Space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/space">space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/trailers">trailers</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ An Uncomplicated Man , Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049396-an-uncomplicated-man"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49396</id>
<published>2026-07-27T15:56:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T15:56:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man">An Uncomplicated Man</a>, Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s The Odyssey. “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Astronauts returning from long missions report a “jet... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049376-jet-lag-of-the-self"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49376</id>
<published>2026-07-27T15:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T15:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Astronauts returning from long missions report a <a href="https://spacedaily.com/sd-v-astronauts-returning-from-six-month-missions-describe-a-persistent-observer-sensation-the-feeling-of-watching-their-own-lives-from-a-half-step-outside-the-frame-weeks-after-theyr">“jet lag of the self”</a>: “a sense of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame”.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Trump’s Assault on Science Continues ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/trumps-assault-on-science-continues"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49394</id>
<published>2026-07-27T14:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T14:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>I appreciate the plain speech of Science magazine’s Derek Lowe in his recent piece, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-funding-continues">The Assault On Science Funding Continues</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>When I talk to people about this subject (and that includes some journalists as well) and say what I’m about to at the end of this paragaph I am sometimes met with disbelief. But I mean what I say and I am trying my best to say what I mean: <strong>The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.</strong></p><p>That’s it. That’s the story. They are naturally not putting it in those words, but instead talking about “gold standard science” and the “reproducibility crisis” and funding “bold inquiry” for “transformational breakthroughs”. This is all bullshit, and it’s important to realize that. Shameless hand-waving bullshit, delivered in a how-dare-you-think-otherwise manner is the defining style of the entire Trump administration. You can see it in every appointee, in every part of the executive branch, and in the pronouncements of all of Trump’s supporters. I realize that this is a simple heuristic to apply, and a very unambiguous and unflattering one, but I find it to be all too useful and all too accurate. Give it a try.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yep. He’s the mob boss president — everything is about favors, taking his cut, deals, tough guy-ness, bending the world to his will, power, and white male supremacy.
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Derek%20Lowe">Derek Lowe</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Donald%20Trump">Donald Trump</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/politics">politics</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/science">science</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Welp, right at the top of the CDC page on autism and... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049393-the-cdc-page-on-autism-an"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49393</id>
<published>2026-07-27T13:46:17Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T13:46:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Welp, right at the top of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html">the CDC page on autism and vaccines</a>: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” 🫨
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049387-now-theyre-ramming-fish-s"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49387</id>
<published>2026-07-23T23:09:01Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T23:09:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink boats and wear salmon for hats; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/orcas-ramming-prey-hard-explodes-playing-game">now they’re ramming fish so hard they explode</a>. “Orcas were observed to hold sunfish in their jaws while a second whale smashed into the target at high speed…”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers .... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049381-its-our-ethical-duty-to-u"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49381</id>
<published>2026-07-23T22:41:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T22:41:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.not-ship.com/large-numbers">It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers</a>. “Our world is increasingly moving towards extreme values: Damages from climate change, deaths due to genocide, wealth that knows no bounds. We can’t tackle them if we can’t wrap our heads around [them].”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049385-a-teen-reporter-searched-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49385</id>
<published>2026-07-23T21:21:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T21:21:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/epstein-files-redwood-bark-school-newspaper">A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out.</a> “Once everyone was back at school on Tuesday, the high schoolers lawyered up during their lunch hour.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049386-was-crushed-between-two-f"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49386</id>
<published>2026-07-23T20:21:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T20:21:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by a competent, honest person for nearly thirty years, <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/what-just-happened-to-thenumberscom-should-worry-us-all">was crushed between two features of the new AI economy</a>.” (AI bots and prediction market dipshits.)
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “In extreme cases, it can create a phantom... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049374-on-the-good-and-bad-types"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49374</id>
<published>2026-07-23T19:41:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T19:41:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom homeland, for the sake of which one is ready to die or kill. Unreflective nostalgia can breed monsters.” <a href="https://bigthink.com/mini-philosophy/how-the-wrong-kind-of-nostalgia-can-endanger-a-society">On the good and bad types of nostalgia</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049384-rebecca-solnit-on-the-tat"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49384</id>
<published>2026-07-23T18:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T18:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/listening-to-cassandra-misogyny-classical-and-modern">Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and the misogyny of classical literature & the contemporary world</a>. “Classical culture is a lot of things including, literally, rape culture.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What’s On the Sandwich Named After You at the Local Deli? ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/whats-on-the-sandwich-named-after-you-at-the-local-deli"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49383</id>
<published>2026-07-23T17:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T17:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Following <a href="https://cupofjo.com/2026/07/22/what-would-be-on-your-larry-david-sandwich">a prompt from Joanna at Cup of Jo</a>… The local deli or sandwich shop names a sandwich after you. What would be on it? Perhaps another way of asking the question: what’s your favorite sandwich that’s a little bit unusual?</p>
<p>I love a classic BLT, banh mi, or jambon beurre, but a sandwich that is fairly unique to me is tuna salad (made with pickles, pickle juice, and scallions), havarti, lettuce, and tomatoes on good white bread or a kaiser roll. I think that would be The Kottke at the local deli. Either that or something <a href="https://kottke.org/24/03/welcome-to-choppkes">chopped</a>?
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/food">food</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/sandwiches">sandwiches</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Why are American ambulances so expensive? In part... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049375-why-are-american-ambulanc"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49375</id>
<published>2026-07-23T17:17:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T17:17:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are">Why are American ambulances so expensive?</a> In part because Medicare pays only a fraction of the actual cost of an ambulance ride and the uninsured often don’t pay at all, so the privately insured get bills of $13,000 for a $2600 ride.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049372-were-squandering-leds-pot"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49372</id>
<published>2026-07-23T16:27:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T16:27:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/led-light-pollution">We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night Skies</a>. “Our main failure isn’t a technical one. It’s that we have yet to revise our thinking about lighting at night. We use LED technology just as we did the old sources of light.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Matter of Form (1984) ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/a-matter-of-form-1984"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49379</id>
<published>2026-07-23T15:40:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T15:40:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nRvgKe__WXQ" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>In addition to leading the animation studio at the National Film Board of Canada, René Jodoin made several animated films that explored geometric forms and motion, including the one above, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRvgKe__WXQ">A Matter of Form</a> from 1984.</p>
<blockquote><p>Set to the rousing notes of Schubert’s Military March, this animation film is an ingenious example of how a single point can be the building-block for a multiplicity of shapes and configurations. Lines and forms grow out of the point, eventually covering the entire screen in splashes of colour. This is geometric wizardry at its colourful best. A film without words.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m not saying my affinity for such animations is because I watched so much Sesame Street as a kid, but <a href="https://kottke.org/09/10/philip-glass-on-sesame-street">I’m not not saying it</a> either.</p>
<p>Here’s another of Jodoin’s films, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUzfOlpwexg">Dance Squared</a>:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUzfOlpwexg" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>You can watch more of Jodoin’s work <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHerjfWGX0CXKlFzcIm9dwgf12MJNTnYb">in this YouTube playlist</a>. (via <a href="https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/a-matter-of-form-a-1984-rene-jodoin-animation">the kid should see this</a>)
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/geometry">geometry</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Ren%C3%A9%20Jodoin">René Jodoin</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers ,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049380-an-online-edition-of-all-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49380</id>
<published>2026-07-23T14:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T14:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://federalistreader.org">An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers</a>, presented as they were originally serialized in newspapers, with on eye on <a href="https://federalistreader.org/colophon">good typography</a> and <a href="https://federalistreader.org/notes/justif">readability</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ This map shows the predicted density of... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049373-this-map"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49373</id>
<published>2026-07-23T14:16:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T14:16:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth/story/mycorrhizal-infrastructure-map">This map</a> shows the predicted density of underground networks created by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These networks form one of Earth’s circulatory systems, moving massive amounts of carbon, nutrients, and water across plant communities.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Oh wow, The Verge made a 70-minute video on how The... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049377-a-70-minute-video-on-how-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49377</id>
<published>2026-07-22T22:20:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T22:20:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Oh wow, The Verge made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhwX9i5UPac">a 70-minute video on how The Clapper became a viral sensation</a>. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a Clapper, no one I knew had one, and I couldn’t understand why every single household didn’t have one of these magical devices.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Frozen Polygon Waves ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/frozen-polygon-waves"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49378</id>
<published>2026-07-22T20:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T20:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/35S6IM_aQ5Q" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JQaZaUSS0E" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Well, this is just absolutely lovely: photographer and artist <a href="https://www.northlandscapes.com">Jan Erik Waider</a> shot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35S6IM_aQ5Q">these</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JQaZaUSS0E">videos</a> of cracked-but-unbroken Baltic Sea ice undulating with the gentle motion of the sea. Mesmerizing…I could watch these for hours.
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Jan%20Erik%20Waider">Jan Erik Waider</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/mesmerizing">mesmerizing</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049370-what-do-americas-earliest"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49370</id>
<published>2026-07-22T19:58:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T19:58:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://pudding.cool/2026/06/menu-story">What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?</a> “A menu describes what a restaurant serves — but a menu also describes who is being served. They reflect the class, gender, political, technological, and environmental shifts of history.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049369-a-list-of-jurassic-park-c"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49369</id>
<published>2026-07-22T19:18:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T19:18:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://fabiensanglard.net/jurrasic_park_computers/index.html">A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail</a>, including an Apple Powerbook 100, a SGI R4000 Indigo, the Motorola Envoy (PDA), and some Thinking Machines CM-5s. “This is a Unix system, I know this!”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ There is nothing more I love in this world right now than... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049371-these-two-lunch-ladies-pe"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49371</id>
<published>2026-07-22T18:28:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T18:28:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>There is nothing more I love in this world right now than <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEnOBFvza7">these two lunch ladies performing Firestarter by The Prodigy</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Unclassifiable Artists ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/unclassifiable-artists"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49368</id>
<published>2026-07-22T17:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T17:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XUmgIQIpg-E" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake">William Blake</a> (aka “the patron saint of unclassifiable artists”) as an example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUmgIQIpg-E">Evan Puschak’s latest video</a> explores how society often rejects artists whose work doesn’t fit neatly into established categories and frameworks of criticism and commerce.</p>
<blockquote><p>What you’re seeing here, these are not paintings. They’re prints of engravings from Blake’s illuminated books, which he designed, wrote, etched, colored, and printed himself using a technique that he invented. These extraordinary books are works of art that mix and synthesize categories. And as a result, the art world of the late 17 and early 1800s didn’t really know what to make of them. And Blake never sold more than a handful.</p></blockquote>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/art">art</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Evan%20Puschak">Evan Puschak</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/poetry">poetry</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/William%20Blake">William Blake</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A digital museum of video game levels …you can move... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049367-a-digital-museum-of-video"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49367</id>
<published>2026-07-22T17:09:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T17:09:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://noclip.website">A digital museum of video game levels</a>…you can move freely around each level using your keyboard. Heavy on Nintendo games (Mario Kart 64, Wii Sports, etc.) but also includes Portal, Halo, Katamari Damacy, GTA III, and World of Warcraft.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049366-there-are-two-copies-of-t"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49366</id>
<published>2026-07-22T16:24:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T16:24:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this Earth and somehow I didn’t know that <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/07/four-score-and-seven-years-ago-lincolns-handwritten-gettysburg-address">there are two copies of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincoln’s own hand in the Library of Congress</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Manuscripts">and five overall</a>).
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration , a collection... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049365-the-cassette-tapes-of-the"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49365</id>
<published>2026-07-22T15:30:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T15:30:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-cassette-tapes-of-the-great-migration">The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration</a>, a collection of oral histories recorded in Michigan in the 1970s of Black people who had previously escaped the Jim Crow South. “If we don’t get it from those individuals, then we can’t get it from anyone else.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ Researchers let AI models run a simulated society... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049364-researchers-let-ai-models"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49364</id>
<published>2026-07-22T14:50:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T14:50:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://fortune.com/2026/05/28/ai-model-simulation-claude-chatgpt-grok-gemini">Researchers let AI models run a simulated society</a>. Claude was the safest — and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Brian Eno on the Cherished Sounds of Failure ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/brian-eno-on-the-cherished-sounds-of-failure"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49363</id>
<published>2026-07-22T14:08:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T14:08:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Near the end of 1995, the artist and producer Brian Eno <a href="https://diariesofnote.com/2023/12/19/the-sound-of-failure">wrote the following about new media</a> in his diary, which entries were later collected in a book called <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780571374625">A Year with Swollen Appendices</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. </p><p>It’s the sound of failure: so much of modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them. </p><p>Note to the artist: when the medium fails conspicuously, and especially if it fails in new ways, the listener believes something is happening beyond its limits.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nailed it.
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Brian%20Eno">Brian Eno</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049362-google-is-building-an-ai-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49362</id>
<published>2026-07-22T12:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T12:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/technology/google-ai-open-web.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.A1LZ.AwMkNDLrNcPc">Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed</a>. “Google has often said it was ‘sending out more traffic & the web is bigger than ever. And then right next to that is a bunch of publishers whose businesses are getting destroyed.’”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049353-elephants-may-hear-ground"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49353</id>
<published>2026-07-21T21:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T21:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/elephants-may-hear-ground-vibrations-through-their-bones-helping-them-to-communicate-over-6-miles-49385">Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their Bones, Helping Them to Communicate Over 6 Miles</a>. “Studying elephant hearing isn’t as simple as asking an elephant to wear headphones…”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Vertical Panoramas of Churches ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/15/10/vertical-panoramas-of-churches"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2015-10-02:26971</id>
<published>2015-10-02T17:51:58Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T20:10:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="1829" border="0" alt="Richard Silver Churches" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="1920" border="0" alt="Richard Silver Churches" /></p>
<p>From photographer Richard Silver, <a href="https://www.richardsilverphoto.com/collections/vertical-churches">vertical panoramic photos of churches</a> that emphasize their often incredible ceilings. (via <a href="http://www.ignant.de/2015/10/01/incredible-vertical-panoramic-photos-of-churches-by-richard-silver">ignant</a>)
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Oct 2015.]</em></p>]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/architecture">architecture</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/photography">photography</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/religion">religion</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Richard%20Silver">Richard Silver</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts">timeless posts</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049361-im-a-scholar-of-genocide-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49361</id>
<published>2026-07-21T19:23:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T19:23:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opinion/israel-gaza-palestinians-genocide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.GSML.IoLesCipLwhs">I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.</a> “It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies knowing they will not only get away with murder but may even benefit from it.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What to Read & Listen to After Seeing The Odyssey ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/what-to-read-listen-to-after-seeing-the-odyssey"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49360</id>
<published>2026-07-21T17:57:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T17:57:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>I’m currently doing the thing I do after seeing a movie (<a href="https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey">The Odyssey</a>) I really enjoyed or found interesting: digging into related media. Yesterday I had an hour in the car, so I listened to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/podcasts/the-daily/whats-epic-about-the-odyssey-everything.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.LU45.d3CQqu_DE6fp">this episode of The Daily podcast with Madeline Miller and Emily Wilson</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>I think it’s quite odd to think that one book or one translation erases the others. I mean, if people prefer some other translation or if people want to read the Greek, I would love for them to do that. I think it’s great. I have no desire to legislate about which versions of “The Odyssey,” or of any ancient text, people want to engage with. So I think there’s something quite strange about the idea that the canon doesn’t have room for many, many different interpretations, translations, engagements, reinventions.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’ve also flagged <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/15/daniel-mendelsohn-the-odyssey-podcast">this New York Review of Books podcast with Daniel Mendelsohn</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/podcasts/madeline-miller-odyssey.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.5Ety.QXM4HN2iY4Lm">another NYT podcast with Madeline Miller</a>, and <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/all-of-it/articles/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-on-bringing-the-ancient-tale-to-life-in-christopher-nolans-new-film">this WNYC podcast with Emily Wilson</a> for future listening.</p>
<p>As for reading, Wilson and Mendelsohn both did contemporary translations of The Odyssey within the past few years: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780393356250">The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson</a> (I loved this, <a href="https://kottke.org/18/04/tracking-the-appearances-of-rosy-fingered-dawn-in-the-odyssey">read it aloud to my kids</a>) and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780226849225">The Odyssey translated by Daniel Mendelsohn</a>. Actor Stephen Fry recently did <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781797215303">a more approachable reimagining of The Odyssey</a>. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780763642686">The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds</a> is even more accessible, especially for younger readers.</p>
<p>Miller is the author of two great novels based on the Iliad and the Odyssey: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780316556323">Circe</a> (my personal favorite of the two…I love this book and tell everyone to read it)<sup id="fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7"><a href="#fn:fmruxcc9bgru7" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780062060624">The Song of Achilles</a>.</p>
<p>Other novels based on Homer’s works: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781786892485">The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780063065406">A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes</a>.</p>
<p>Mendelsohn also wrote <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780345806215">An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic</a> back in 2018; it sounds really interesting:</p>
<blockquote><p>When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician’s unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his “one last chance” to learn the great literature he’d neglected in his youth—and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist.</p></blockquote>
<p>Do you have any recommendations for podcasts or favorite Odyssey translations/retellings?</p>
<ol>
<li class="footnote" id="fn:fmruxcc9bgru7"><p>I would love to see a $200 million blockbuster adaptation of Circe directed by, say, Céline Sciamma, Sarah Polley, Chloé Zhao, Celine Song, Patty Jenkins, or Greta Gerwig…no shortage of great options. <a href="#fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7" title="return to article">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/books">books</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Daniel%20Mendelsohn">Daniel Mendelsohn</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Emily%20Wilson">Emily Wilson</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Madeline%20Miller">Madeline Miller</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Margaret%20Atwood">Margaret Atwood</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Natalie%20Haynes">Natalie Haynes</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/remix">remix</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey">The Odyssey</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The trailer for Behemoth! , a forthcoming film written... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049359-the-trailer-for-behemoth"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49359</id>
<published>2026-07-21T17:03:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T17:03:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrMGdrCJ5Ck">The trailer for Behemoth!</a>, a forthcoming film written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor) and starring Pedro Pascal & Olivia Wilde. Great trailer: it pulls you in without revealing anything about the plot.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ On the use of AI for creative work (type design in this... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049356-on-the-use-of-ai-for-crea"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49356</id>
<published>2026-07-21T16:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T16:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://mass-driver.com/article/from-human-hands">On the use of AI for creative work</a> (type design in this case). “A tool that shields us from the friction of the work is compelling, but if we don’t experience the friction, we will never change the work.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “No CGI” Is Really Just Invisible CGI ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/no-cgi-is-really-just-invisible-cgi"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49358</id>
<published>2026-07-21T15:10:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T15:10:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Mission Impossible. Oppenheimer. F1. The Odyssey. Top Gun: Maverick. Mad Max: Fury Road. Inception. Dune. Filmmakers and studios who make movies like these love to emphasize their heavy use of practical effects, i.e. real cars jumping real bridges or real people hanging off of real airplanes. “No CGI”, they say, despite the hundreds of names in the visual effects section of the films’ credits.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgdTaHO8FLEve_XFiRBEcOSkRdd-Txjne">In his six-part series</a>, Jonas Ussing, who co-owns <a href="https://spaceoffice.dk">a visual effects studio</a> in Denmark, takes a look at these “No CGI” films and shows us just how much digital graphical effects goes into them. For instance, did you know that every single flying jet in Top Gun: Maverick, a movie we were assured was all practical effects, was built with CGI? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttG90raCNo">Take a look</a>:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ttG90raCNo" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLcP-t0-kI">His latest video</a> is all about Christopher Nolan:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AFLcP-t0-kI" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>I’ve only watched bits and pieces of these videos so far (the Nolan one is 71 minutes long), but when <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/tvaziri.com/post/3mqwzfmsrfs2p">ILM’s Todd Vaziri says</a> something film-related is good, it’s good.
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/cgi">cgi</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/film%20school">film school</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Jonas%20Ussing">Jonas Ussing</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday . They’ve... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049357-the-official-trailer-for-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49357</id>
<published>2026-07-21T14:20:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T14:20:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irVNGjRFZGk">The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday</a>. They’ve gotten (some of) the band back together — perhaps this will be a return to form for Marvel?
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049352-hitler-and-stalin-today"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49352</id>
<published>2026-07-21T13:40:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T13:40:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy Snyder: <a href="https://snyder.substack.com/p/new-lecture-series-for-the-public">Hitler and Stalin Today</a>. “The course begins with the colonial background that made totalitarianism possible, and which remains an essential element of our politics now.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Lost Joy of Music Piracy . “Still to this day,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049350-the-lost-joy-of-music-pir"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49350</id>
<published>2026-07-20T23:47:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T23:47:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/music-piracy-what-cd-oink-nine-inch-nails-streaming">The Lost Joy of Music Piracy</a>. “Still to this day, I’ve never seen such an actively maintained network of knowledge and output, it really sucked me in.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Goofy Oversized Wicker Costumes ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/goofy-oversized-wicker-costumes"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49355</id>
<published>2026-07-20T21:48:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T21:48:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Artist <a href="https://www.lewisprosser.com">Lewis Prosser</a> describes himself <a href="https://www.instagram.com/clovisvosser">on Instagram</a> as an “absurdist basket-maker”. His costumes for a project called <a href="https://www.lewisprosser.com/work/makingmerrie">Making Merrie</a> reflect that self-description.</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<blockquote><p>Making Merrie explores the material culture of folk theatre. Inspired by mummers’ plays and masked traditions along the Wales/England border, Making Merrie combines craft, performance, and language to reflect on cultural heritage and exchange.</p><p>Mummers’ plays are traditional folk performances with roots over 500 years old, often tied to Christmas and New Year. Full of humour and spontaneous revelry, these plays were staged in streets, homes, or pubs by amateur troupes, telling simple stories of combat, death, and miraculous revival. Unlike the religious Mystery Plays, mummers’ plays are secular, carnivalesque, and performed for community fun.</p><p>The project features large-scale wicker costumes, handcrafted using regional willow basketry techniques, highlighting basketry as an essential human skill we’re at risk of forgetting—a skill that, if lost, means losing part of what it is to be human.</p></blockquote>
<p>(via <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/lewis-prosser-baskets-costumes-folklore-performance">colossal</a>)
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/art">art</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Lewis%20Prosser">Lewis Prosser</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049354-how-he-used-to-work-at-ma"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49354</id>
<published>2026-07-20T21:01:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T21:01:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John Waters about <a href="https://lithub.com/john-waters-on-working-for-mary-oliver-in-her-bookstore">how he used to work at Mary Oliver’s bookstore in Provincetown</a>. “They had this bookshop where you were allowed to be mean to the customers. It was really fun.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is making a documentary about the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049351-making-a-documentary-abou"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49351</id>
<published>2026-07-20T20:10:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T20:10:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/07/ava-duvernay-netflix-citizenship-documentary-14-amendment-1236983852">making a documentary about the 14th amendment</a>, “spotlighting America’s long running and sometimes bloody battle with itself over who is a citizen and how much freedom they get”.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ On Japan’s visible evidence of care . “American... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049349-on-japans-visible-evidenc"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49349</id>
<published>2026-07-20T19:27:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T19:27:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/japans-design-for-humans">On Japan’s visible evidence of care</a>. “American service providers, private and public, increasingly run like ghost ships. Japanese technology and design seemed in greater service to humans, their journeys, and enterprises.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Watch 1969’s Apollo 11 Moon Landing “Live!” ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/watch-1969s-apollo-11-moon-landing-live-2"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49348</id>
<published>2026-07-20T18:37:39Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T18:37:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>57 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and went for a little walk. For the 18th year in a row, you can <a href="https://kottke.org/apollo-11">watch the original CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first Moon walk</a> on a small B&W television, synced to the present-day time. Just open this page in your browser today, July 20th, and the coverage will start playing at the proper time. Here’s the schedule (all times EDT):</p>
<p>4:10:30 pm: Moon landing broadcast starts<br />
4:17:40 pm: Lunar module lands on the Moon</p>
<p>4:20:15 pm - 10:51:26 pm: Break in coverage</p>
<p>10:51:27 pm: Moon walk broadcast starts<br />
10:56:15 pm: First step on Moon<br />
11:51:30 pm: Nixon speaks to the Eagle crew<br />
12:00:30 am: Broadcast end (on July 21)</p>
<p>Set an alarm on your phone or calendar! Also, this works best on an actual computer but I think it functions ok on phones and tablets if necessary.</p>
<p><a href="https://kottke.org/18/07/live-tv-coverage-of-apollo-11">Back in 2018</a>, I wrote a bit about what to look out for when you’re watching the landing:</p>
<blockquote><p>The radio voices you hear are mostly Mission Control in Houston (specifically Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke, who acted as the spacecraft communicator for this mission) and Buzz Aldrin, whose job during the landing was to keep an eye on the LM’s altitude and speed — you can hear him calling it out, “3 1/2 down, 220 feet, 13 forward.” Armstrong doesn’t say a whole lot…he’s busy flying and furiously searching for a suitable landing site. But it’s Armstrong that says after they land, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”. Note the change in call sign from “Eagle” to “Tranquility Base”. :)</p><p>Two things to listen for on the broadcast: the 1201/1202 program alarms I mentioned above and two quick callouts by Charlie Duke about the remaining fuel towards the end: “60 seconds” and “30 seconds”. Armstrong is taking all this information in through his earpiece — the 1202s, the altitude and speed from Aldrin, and the remaining fuel — and using it to figure out where to land.</p></blockquote>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo">Apollo</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo%2011">Apollo 11</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Buzz%20Aldrin">Buzz Aldrin</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Moon">Moon</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Neil%20Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/space">space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Walter%20Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I love the 1-bit aesthetic of this story-driven city... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049326-this-story-driven-city-bu"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49326</id>
<published>2026-07-20T15:30:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T15:30:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>I love the 1-bit aesthetic of <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4198840/GlagStone">this story-driven city builder game called GlagStone</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Meaning of Nolan’s The Odyssey ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49347</id>
<published>2026-07-20T13:59:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T13:59:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>I suspect like many of you, I saw The Odyssey this weekend. I really liked it and the more I read & think about the film, the more it grows in my esteem. <a href="https://www.threads.com/@thoughtspresso/post/Da_vHvEmo9e">This thread by Mmina Maclang-Tamayo</a> (spoilers!) is pretty much how I interpreted what Nolan was trying to convey.</p>
<blockquote><p>As it turns out, it was 10,000% important that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was delivered in American accents, beyond just the Emily Wilson linguistics of it all.</p><p>It’s because it was about America.</p><p>I didn’t think it’d be possible to spoil a 3000 year-old epic, but here’s a 🧵</p><p>The emphasis on what’s happening back in Ithaca, with the royal courts and suitors to Penelope reflect upon the internal politics of taking the anxieties of the people about external invaders to attempt to seize power.</p><p>Then, Odysseus returns with the revelation: the feared invaders, “The Sea People”, were them all along.</p><p>Zeus’ Law has an uncanny resemblance to Christian teaching. “Whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, that you do unto Me”. (Matthew 25:40)</p><p>That America proudly keeps envoking the Abrahamic God in its identity as a nation, and its government attempting to justify their actions in the name of such a God, yet turn around and gravely mistreat the immigrants on their doorstep, and antagonize their own allies, is a betrayal of its identity.</p><p>The film warns: America has broken Zeus’ Law.</p></blockquote>
<p>Steve Donner <a href="https://www.threads.com/@steve_dooner/post/Da_OgUInJLe">shared some interesting thoughts</a> in his reading of the film:</p>
<blockquote><p>20. The point: Nothing is sacred in war, and we have lost all respect for basic decency and hospitality. We’re all the violators; we are all the suitors, we are all the cyclops. Consequently, all the towers and temples burn (“the burning roof and tower, and Agamemnon dead”). It’s Odysseus’ guilt about his foreign wars manifesting again and he’s spent years avoiding the truth. </p><p>21. That’s why he’s unconsciously avoided home for twenty years: he simply cannot face what he has become, nor does he wish to show his shame to his wife and son.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m looking forward to seeing the movie again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, what did you think of The Odyssey? And if you read or listened to something interesting or provocative about the film, please share links!
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Christopher%20Nolan">Christopher Nolan</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey">The Odyssey</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ From BBC Earth, the trailer for Evolution , a... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049263-the-trailer"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49263</id>
<published>2026-07-20T13:14:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T13:14:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>From BBC Earth, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8sypHinds">the trailer</a> for <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/evolution">Evolution</a>, a five-part series <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/evolution">premiering on PBS in October</a>. “Ponder this: All the incredible diversity of animal life on Earth sprang from a single organism. Every animal, no matter how weird, is related to every other.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ TV Appearance of Lincoln Assassination Witness ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/11/08/tv-appearance-of-lincoln-assassination-witness"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2011-08-04:21251</id>
<published>2011-08-04T14:21:20Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T21:00:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>In 1956, 96-year-old Samuel Seymour appeared on a game show called I’ve Got A Secret…his secret was that he saw Lincoln’s assassination when he was five years old.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1RPoymt3Jx4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Mind-blowing…the Civil War & Lincoln’s assassination directly linked to something as modern as a TV game show. Two years earlier, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-i-saw-lincoln-sh/55871642">Seymour gave an interview</a> about witnessing the assassination. His father, an overseer on a Maryland estate, and his boss Mr. Goldsboro needed to travel to Washington to check on “the legal status of their 150 slaves”. Seymour got to go along.</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="543" border="0" alt="I Saw Lincoln Shot" /></p>
<blockquote><p>It was going on toward supper time — on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 — when we finally pulled up in front of the biggest house I ever had seen. It looked to me like a thousand farmhouses all pushed together, but my father said it was a hotel.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>[…] When I finally had been rushed upstairs, shushed and scrubbed and put into fresh clothes, Mrs. Goldsboro said she had a wonderful surprise.</p><p>“Sammy, you and Sarah and I are going to a play tonight,” she explained. “A real play — and President Abraham Lincoln will be there.”</p></blockquote>
<p>After Lincoln was shot, Seymour saw Booth fall from the balcony and run off.
</p>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Aug 2011.]</em></p>]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Abraham%20Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Samuel%20Seymour">Samuel Seymour</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Great%20Span">The Great Span</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts">timeless posts</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049286-what-training-my-chaotic-"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49286</id>
<published>2026-07-16T20:12:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T20:12:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/what-training-my-chaotic-dog-taught-me-about-power-control-and-human-beings">What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power, Control — and Human Beings</a>. “As any parent of a toddler knows, being morally liable for something that is incapable of moral liability is a fraught and stressful business.”
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes . ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049282-building-a-world-map-with"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49282</id>
<published>2026-07-16T19:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T19:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.experimentlog.com/blog/building-a-world-map-with-only-500-bytes">Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ How Are Memories Stored Inside Your Brain? ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/how-are-memories-stored-inside-your-brain"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49345</id>
<published>2026-07-16T18:29:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T18:29:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PqtggjVAi8M" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqtggjVAi8M">This video from Kurzgesagt</a> is a great little primer on how the human brain stores memories.</p>
<blockquote><p>Memory is one of the strangest abilities you possess. Your brain uses an incredibly complex biological system to preserve moments from your past that no longer exist, allowing you to revisit experiences from years ago. But memories are not always recordings of reality. In fact, every time a memory comes under the spotlight of your attention, it can melt and change a tiny bit.</p><p>What exactly is a memory, how is a moment in time stored inside your brain, and why does remembering something slowly rewrite the story of your life?</p></blockquote>
]]><![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/brains">brains</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/neuroscience">neuroscience</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/science">science</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ From the Brooklyn Public Library, a list of “the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049343-a-list-of-the-250-most-in"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49343</id>
<published>2026-07-16T17:39:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T17:39:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>From the Brooklyn Public Library, <a href="https://www.bklynlibrary.org/america-250/booklist">a list of “the 250 most influential books in United States history”</a>. Incl. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780441007462">Neuromancer</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780679744726">The Fire Next Time</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781250808318">Nickel and Dimed</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780394720241">The Power Broker</a>, and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780140501827">The Snowy Day</a>.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: Time... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049279-time-sensitive"/>
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49279</id>
<published>2026-07-16T17:00:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T17:00:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/"><![CDATA[ <p>New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: <a href="https://www.timesensitive.fm">Time Sensitive</a>, “a podcast featuring candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time”.
</p>
]]></content>
</entry>
</feed>
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<title>kottke.org</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://feeds.kottke.org/main" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2009-08-11:05118</id>
<updated>2026-07-28T11:23:00Z</updated>
<subtitle>Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998</subtitle>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ All US Cities Which Used to Have More Than 100,000 People But Don’t Anymore ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/all-us-cities-which-used-to-have-more-than-100000-people-but-dont-anymore" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49399</id>
<published>2026-07-28T15:23:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T15:23:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/phfpjd/all_us_cities_which_used_to_have_more_than_100000">Here’s a map</a> of the 21 US cities that used to have a population of 100,000 people but don’t anymore. Many of these are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt">Rust Belt</a> cities, in which manufacturing employment fell steeply during the latter part of the 20th century.</p>
<p>The thread at Reddit mentions Detroit and St. Louis as two other cities whose population has dropped during that same time period. Detroit went from 1.85 million in 1950 to 639,000 in 2020 and St. Louis dropped from 857,000 to 300,000 over the same time period:</p>
<blockquote><p>St. Louis was once the country’s 4th largest city. Worlds Fair and Olympics in 1904. Two Major League Baseball teams. It didn’t boom as much as the Great Lakes cities in between the wars and it declined just as much after.</p></blockquote>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/demographics">demographics</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/maps">maps</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/population">population</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/usa">usa</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ How the Words We Teach English Language Learners... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049395-how-the-words-we-teach-en" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49395</id>
<published>2026-07-28T14:33:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T14:33:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://pudding.cool/2026/07/essential-words">How the Words We Teach English Language Learners Changed, and What That Says About Us</a>. “The shifts reflect a life that moved further from its own making: less tied to tools, animals, food…; more tied to global institutions, categories, systems…”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Don’t use AI until you’re 40 . “We have been so... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049401-dont-use-ai-until-youre-4" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49401</id>
<published>2026-07-28T13:37:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-28T13:37:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/opinion/teaching-kabbalah-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.01A.fuLr.ereE_327-6mI">Don’t use AI until you’re 40</a>. “We have been so quick to treat access to new technology as an inevitability that we have failed to question whether every powerful tool should be placed in the hands of every developing mind the moment it becomes available.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country .... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049397-we-used-to-be-able-to-buy" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49397</id>
<published>2026-07-27T21:18:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T21:18:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things">We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country</a>. “Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Shortlist of Potential Future Euro Banknote Designs ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/a-shortlist-of-potential-future-euro-banknote-designs" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49400</id>
<published>2026-07-27T19:58:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T19:58:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html">The European Central Bank is providing a sneak peek at the next design of the Euro banknotes</a>. From a shortlist of 10 designs created by artists and designers from across the EU, one will be selected as the basis of how Euro banknotes from €5 to €200 will look in the future. Here are a few I pulled out from all of the designs:</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>It’s notable (*cough*) that some of the banknotes are designed vertically vs horizontally. The influence of portrait mode on smartphones?
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/currency">currency</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/design">design</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/European%20Union">European Union</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/money">money</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049391-datatype-is-an-opentype-v" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49391</id>
<published>2026-07-27T19:15:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T19:15:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://franktisellano.github.io/datatype">Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts</a>. No JavaScript, no images, no rendering library — just type the syntax and Datatype’s ligature substitution does the rest.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Batman Effect : people in an experiment acted more... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049382-the-batman-effect" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49382</id>
<published>2026-07-27T18:25:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T18:25:11Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-of-talking-with-children/202511/the-batman-effect-youre-more-changeable-than-you-think">The Batman Effect</a>: people in an experiment acted more altruisticly when the caped crusader was present.
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Once Upon a Time in Space ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/once-upon-a-time-in-space" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49392</id>
<published>2026-07-27T17:08:22Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T17:08:22Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2D-ew87MiS4" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>From the filmmakers who made the excellent <a href="https://kottke.org/23/09/once-upon-a-time-in-northern-ireland">Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland</a> comes a four-part series on space exploration, Once Upon a Time in Space. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D-ew87MiS4">A short trailer</a> is above; here’s a synopsis:</p>
<blockquote><p>Drawing on intimate, unseen archive and powerful first-hand testimony, this landmark 4-part series tells the human stories behind our quest to explore space, offering a unique perspective on our changing world and where we are headed.</p></blockquote>
<p>The series <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hyt5">first aired on the BBC</a> and the first two episodes are <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/once-upon-a-time-in-space">now available on PBS</a>. (thx, mitch)
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Once%20Upon%20a%20Time%20in%20Space">Once Upon a Time in Space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/space">space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/trailers">trailers</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ An Uncomplicated Man , Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049396-an-uncomplicated-man" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49396</id>
<published>2026-07-27T15:56:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T15:56:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man">An Uncomplicated Man</a>, Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s The Odyssey. “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Astronauts returning from long missions report a “jet... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049376-jet-lag-of-the-self" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49376</id>
<published>2026-07-27T15:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T15:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Astronauts returning from long missions report a <a href="https://spacedaily.com/sd-v-astronauts-returning-from-six-month-missions-describe-a-persistent-observer-sensation-the-feeling-of-watching-their-own-lives-from-a-half-step-outside-the-frame-weeks-after-theyr">“jet lag of the self”</a>: “a sense of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame”.
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Trump’s Assault on Science Continues ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/trumps-assault-on-science-continues" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49394</id>
<published>2026-07-27T14:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T14:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>I appreciate the plain speech of Science magazine’s Derek Lowe in his recent piece, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-funding-continues">The Assault On Science Funding Continues</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>When I talk to people about this subject (and that includes some journalists as well) and say what I’m about to at the end of this paragaph I am sometimes met with disbelief. But I mean what I say and I am trying my best to say what I mean: <strong>The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.</strong></p><p>That’s it. That’s the story. They are naturally not putting it in those words, but instead talking about “gold standard science” and the “reproducibility crisis” and funding “bold inquiry” for “transformational breakthroughs”. This is all bullshit, and it’s important to realize that. Shameless hand-waving bullshit, delivered in a how-dare-you-think-otherwise manner is the defining style of the entire Trump administration. You can see it in every appointee, in every part of the executive branch, and in the pronouncements of all of Trump’s supporters. I realize that this is a simple heuristic to apply, and a very unambiguous and unflattering one, but I find it to be all too useful and all too accurate. Give it a try.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yep. He’s the mob boss president — everything is about favors, taking his cut, deals, tough guy-ness, bending the world to his will, power, and white male supremacy.
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Derek%20Lowe">Derek Lowe</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Donald%20Trump">Donald Trump</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/politics">politics</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/science">science</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Welp, right at the top of the CDC page on autism and... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049393-the-cdc-page-on-autism-an" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49393</id>
<published>2026-07-27T13:46:17Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-27T13:46:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Welp, right at the top of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html">the CDC page on autism and vaccines</a>: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” 🫨
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049387-now-theyre-ramming-fish-s" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49387</id>
<published>2026-07-23T23:09:01Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T23:09:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink boats and wear salmon for hats; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/orcas-ramming-prey-hard-explodes-playing-game">now they’re ramming fish so hard they explode</a>. “Orcas were observed to hold sunfish in their jaws while a second whale smashed into the target at high speed…”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers .... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049381-its-our-ethical-duty-to-u" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49381</id>
<published>2026-07-23T22:41:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T22:41:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.not-ship.com/large-numbers">It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers</a>. “Our world is increasingly moving towards extreme values: Damages from climate change, deaths due to genocide, wealth that knows no bounds. We can’t tackle them if we can’t wrap our heads around [them].”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049385-a-teen-reporter-searched-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49385</id>
<published>2026-07-23T21:21:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T21:21:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/epstein-files-redwood-bark-school-newspaper">A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out.</a> “Once everyone was back at school on Tuesday, the high schoolers lawyered up during their lunch hour.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049386-was-crushed-between-two-f" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49386</id>
<published>2026-07-23T20:21:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T20:21:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by a competent, honest person for nearly thirty years, <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/p/what-just-happened-to-thenumberscom-should-worry-us-all">was crushed between two features of the new AI economy</a>.” (AI bots and prediction market dipshits.)
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “In extreme cases, it can create a phantom... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049374-on-the-good-and-bad-types" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49374</id>
<published>2026-07-23T19:41:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T19:41:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom homeland, for the sake of which one is ready to die or kill. Unreflective nostalgia can breed monsters.” <a href="https://bigthink.com/mini-philosophy/how-the-wrong-kind-of-nostalgia-can-endanger-a-society">On the good and bad types of nostalgia</a>.
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049384-rebecca-solnit-on-the-tat" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49384</id>
<published>2026-07-23T18:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T18:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/listening-to-cassandra-misogyny-classical-and-modern">Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and the misogyny of classical literature & the contemporary world</a>. “Classical culture is a lot of things including, literally, rape culture.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What’s On the Sandwich Named After You at the Local Deli? ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/whats-on-the-sandwich-named-after-you-at-the-local-deli" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49383</id>
<published>2026-07-23T17:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T17:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Following <a href="https://cupofjo.com/2026/07/22/what-would-be-on-your-larry-david-sandwich">a prompt from Joanna at Cup of Jo</a>… The local deli or sandwich shop names a sandwich after you. What would be on it? Perhaps another way of asking the question: what’s your favorite sandwich that’s a little bit unusual?</p>
<p>I love a classic BLT, banh mi, or jambon beurre, but a sandwich that is fairly unique to me is tuna salad (made with pickles, pickle juice, and scallions), havarti, lettuce, and tomatoes on good white bread or a kaiser roll. I think that would be The Kottke at the local deli. Either that or something <a href="https://kottke.org/24/03/welcome-to-choppkes">chopped</a>?
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/food">food</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/sandwiches">sandwiches</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Why are American ambulances so expensive? In part... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049375-why-are-american-ambulanc" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49375</id>
<published>2026-07-23T17:17:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T17:17:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are">Why are American ambulances so expensive?</a> In part because Medicare pays only a fraction of the actual cost of an ambulance ride and the uninsured often don’t pay at all, so the privately insured get bills of $13,000 for a $2600 ride.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049372-were-squandering-leds-pot" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49372</id>
<published>2026-07-23T16:27:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T16:27:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/led-light-pollution">We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night Skies</a>. “Our main failure isn’t a technical one. It’s that we have yet to revise our thinking about lighting at night. We use LED technology just as we did the old sources of light.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A Matter of Form (1984) ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/a-matter-of-form-1984" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49379</id>
<published>2026-07-23T15:40:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T15:40:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nRvgKe__WXQ" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>In addition to leading the animation studio at the National Film Board of Canada, René Jodoin made several animated films that explored geometric forms and motion, including the one above, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRvgKe__WXQ">A Matter of Form</a> from 1984.</p>
<blockquote><p>Set to the rousing notes of Schubert’s Military March, this animation film is an ingenious example of how a single point can be the building-block for a multiplicity of shapes and configurations. Lines and forms grow out of the point, eventually covering the entire screen in splashes of colour. This is geometric wizardry at its colourful best. A film without words.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m not saying my affinity for such animations is because I watched so much Sesame Street as a kid, but <a href="https://kottke.org/09/10/philip-glass-on-sesame-street">I’m not not saying it</a> either.</p>
<p>Here’s another of Jodoin’s films, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUzfOlpwexg">Dance Squared</a>:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUzfOlpwexg" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>You can watch more of Jodoin’s work <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHerjfWGX0CXKlFzcIm9dwgf12MJNTnYb">in this YouTube playlist</a>. (via <a href="https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/a-matter-of-form-a-1984-rene-jodoin-animation">the kid should see this</a>)
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/geometry">geometry</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Ren%C3%A9%20Jodoin">René Jodoin</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers ,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049380-an-online-edition-of-all-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49380</id>
<published>2026-07-23T14:54:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T14:54:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://federalistreader.org">An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers</a>, presented as they were originally serialized in newspapers, with on eye on <a href="https://federalistreader.org/colophon">good typography</a> and <a href="https://federalistreader.org/notes/justif">readability</a>.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ This map shows the predicted density of... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049373-this-map" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49373</id>
<published>2026-07-23T14:16:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-23T14:16:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth/story/mycorrhizal-infrastructure-map">This map</a> shows the predicted density of underground networks created by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These networks form one of Earth’s circulatory systems, moving massive amounts of carbon, nutrients, and water across plant communities.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Oh wow, The Verge made a 70-minute video on how The... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049377-a-70-minute-video-on-how-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49377</id>
<published>2026-07-22T22:20:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T22:20:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Oh wow, The Verge made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhwX9i5UPac">a 70-minute video on how The Clapper became a viral sensation</a>. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a Clapper, no one I knew had one, and I couldn’t understand why every single household didn’t have one of these magical devices.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Frozen Polygon Waves ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/frozen-polygon-waves" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49378</id>
<published>2026-07-22T20:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T20:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/35S6IM_aQ5Q" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JQaZaUSS0E" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Well, this is just absolutely lovely: photographer and artist <a href="https://www.northlandscapes.com">Jan Erik Waider</a> shot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35S6IM_aQ5Q">these</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JQaZaUSS0E">videos</a> of cracked-but-unbroken Baltic Sea ice undulating with the gentle motion of the sea. Mesmerizing…I could watch these for hours.
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Jan%20Erik%20Waider">Jan Erik Waider</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/mesmerizing">mesmerizing</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049370-what-do-americas-earliest" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49370</id>
<published>2026-07-22T19:58:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T19:58:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://pudding.cool/2026/06/menu-story">What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?</a> “A menu describes what a restaurant serves — but a menu also describes who is being served. They reflect the class, gender, political, technological, and environmental shifts of history.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049369-a-list-of-jurassic-park-c" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49369</id>
<published>2026-07-22T19:18:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T19:18:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://fabiensanglard.net/jurrasic_park_computers/index.html">A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail</a>, including an Apple Powerbook 100, a SGI R4000 Indigo, the Motorola Envoy (PDA), and some Thinking Machines CM-5s. “This is a Unix system, I know this!”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ There is nothing more I love in this world right now than... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049371-these-two-lunch-ladies-pe" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49371</id>
<published>2026-07-22T18:28:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T18:28:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>There is nothing more I love in this world right now than <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEnOBFvza7">these two lunch ladies performing Firestarter by The Prodigy</a>.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Unclassifiable Artists ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/unclassifiable-artists" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49368</id>
<published>2026-07-22T17:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T17:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XUmgIQIpg-E" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake">William Blake</a> (aka “the patron saint of unclassifiable artists”) as an example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUmgIQIpg-E">Evan Puschak’s latest video</a> explores how society often rejects artists whose work doesn’t fit neatly into established categories and frameworks of criticism and commerce.</p>
<blockquote><p>What you’re seeing here, these are not paintings. They’re prints of engravings from Blake’s illuminated books, which he designed, wrote, etched, colored, and printed himself using a technique that he invented. These extraordinary books are works of art that mix and synthesize categories. And as a result, the art world of the late 17 and early 1800s didn’t really know what to make of them. And Blake never sold more than a handful.</p></blockquote>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/art">art</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Evan%20Puschak">Evan Puschak</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/poetry">poetry</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/William%20Blake">William Blake</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ A digital museum of video game levels …you can move... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049367-a-digital-museum-of-video" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49367</id>
<published>2026-07-22T17:09:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T17:09:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://noclip.website">A digital museum of video game levels</a>…you can move freely around each level using your keyboard. Heavy on Nintendo games (Mario Kart 64, Wii Sports, etc.) but also includes Portal, Halo, Katamari Damacy, GTA III, and World of Warcraft.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049366-there-are-two-copies-of-t" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49366</id>
<published>2026-07-22T16:24:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T16:24:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this Earth and somehow I didn’t know that <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/07/four-score-and-seven-years-ago-lincolns-handwritten-gettysburg-address">there are two copies of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincoln’s own hand in the Library of Congress</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Manuscripts">and five overall</a>).
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration , a collection... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049365-the-cassette-tapes-of-the" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49365</id>
<published>2026-07-22T15:30:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T15:30:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-cassette-tapes-of-the-great-migration">The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration</a>, a collection of oral histories recorded in Michigan in the 1970s of Black people who had previously escaped the Jim Crow South. “If we don’t get it from those individuals, then we can’t get it from anyone else.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “ Researchers let AI models run a simulated society... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049364-researchers-let-ai-models" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49364</id>
<published>2026-07-22T14:50:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T14:50:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>“<a href="https://fortune.com/2026/05/28/ai-model-simulation-claude-chatgpt-grok-gemini">Researchers let AI models run a simulated society</a>. Claude was the safest — and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Brian Eno on the Cherished Sounds of Failure ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/brian-eno-on-the-cherished-sounds-of-failure" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49363</id>
<published>2026-07-22T14:08:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T14:08:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Near the end of 1995, the artist and producer Brian Eno <a href="https://diariesofnote.com/2023/12/19/the-sound-of-failure">wrote the following about new media</a> in his diary, which entries were later collected in a book called <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780571374625">A Year with Swollen Appendices</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. </p><p>It’s the sound of failure: so much of modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them. </p><p>Note to the artist: when the medium fails conspicuously, and especially if it fails in new ways, the listener believes something is happening beyond its limits.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nailed it.
</p>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Brian%20Eno">Brian Eno</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049362-google-is-building-an-ai-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49362</id>
<published>2026-07-22T12:45:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-22T12:45:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/technology/google-ai-open-web.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.A1LZ.AwMkNDLrNcPc">Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed</a>. “Google has often said it was ‘sending out more traffic & the web is bigger than ever. And then right next to that is a bunch of publishers whose businesses are getting destroyed.’”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049353-elephants-may-hear-ground" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49353</id>
<published>2026-07-21T21:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T21:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/elephants-may-hear-ground-vibrations-through-their-bones-helping-them-to-communicate-over-6-miles-49385">Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their Bones, Helping Them to Communicate Over 6 Miles</a>. “Studying elephant hearing isn’t as simple as asking an elephant to wear headphones…”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Vertical Panoramas of Churches ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/15/10/vertical-panoramas-of-churches" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2015-10-02:26971</id>
<published>2015-10-02T17:51:58Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T20:10:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="1829" border="0" alt="Richard Silver Churches" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="1920" border="0" alt="Richard Silver Churches" /></p>
<p>From photographer Richard Silver, <a href="https://www.richardsilverphoto.com/collections/vertical-churches">vertical panoramic photos of churches</a> that emphasize their often incredible ceilings. (via <a href="http://www.ignant.de/2015/10/01/incredible-vertical-panoramic-photos-of-churches-by-richard-silver">ignant</a>)
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Oct 2015.]</em></p>]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/architecture">architecture</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/photography">photography</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/religion">religion</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Richard%20Silver">Richard Silver</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts">timeless posts</a></p>]]>
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</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049361-im-a-scholar-of-genocide-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49361</id>
<published>2026-07-21T19:23:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T19:23:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opinion/israel-gaza-palestinians-genocide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.GSML.IoLesCipLwhs">I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.</a> “It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies knowing they will not only get away with murder but may even benefit from it.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What to Read & Listen to After Seeing The Odyssey ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/what-to-read-listen-to-after-seeing-the-odyssey" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49360</id>
<published>2026-07-21T17:57:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T17:57:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>I’m currently doing the thing I do after seeing a movie (<a href="https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey">The Odyssey</a>) I really enjoyed or found interesting: digging into related media. Yesterday I had an hour in the car, so I listened to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/podcasts/the-daily/whats-epic-about-the-odyssey-everything.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.LU45.d3CQqu_DE6fp">this episode of The Daily podcast with Madeline Miller and Emily Wilson</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>I think it’s quite odd to think that one book or one translation erases the others. I mean, if people prefer some other translation or if people want to read the Greek, I would love for them to do that. I think it’s great. I have no desire to legislate about which versions of “The Odyssey,” or of any ancient text, people want to engage with. So I think there’s something quite strange about the idea that the canon doesn’t have room for many, many different interpretations, translations, engagements, reinventions.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’ve also flagged <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/15/daniel-mendelsohn-the-odyssey-podcast">this New York Review of Books podcast with Daniel Mendelsohn</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/podcasts/madeline-miller-odyssey.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.5Ety.QXM4HN2iY4Lm">another NYT podcast with Madeline Miller</a>, and <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/all-of-it/articles/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-on-bringing-the-ancient-tale-to-life-in-christopher-nolans-new-film">this WNYC podcast with Emily Wilson</a> for future listening.</p>
<p>As for reading, Wilson and Mendelsohn both did contemporary translations of The Odyssey within the past few years: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780393356250">The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson</a> (I loved this, <a href="https://kottke.org/18/04/tracking-the-appearances-of-rosy-fingered-dawn-in-the-odyssey">read it aloud to my kids</a>) and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780226849225">The Odyssey translated by Daniel Mendelsohn</a>. Actor Stephen Fry recently did <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781797215303">a more approachable reimagining of The Odyssey</a>. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780763642686">The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds</a> is even more accessible, especially for younger readers.</p>
<p>Miller is the author of two great novels based on the Iliad and the Odyssey: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780316556323">Circe</a> (my personal favorite of the two…I love this book and tell everyone to read it)<sup id="fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7"><a href="#fn:fmruxcc9bgru7" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780062060624">The Song of Achilles</a>.</p>
<p>Other novels based on Homer’s works: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781786892485">The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood</a> and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780063065406">A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes</a>.</p>
<p>Mendelsohn also wrote <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780345806215">An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic</a> back in 2018; it sounds really interesting:</p>
<blockquote><p>When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician’s unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his “one last chance” to learn the great literature he’d neglected in his youth—and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist.</p></blockquote>
<p>Do you have any recommendations for podcasts or favorite Odyssey translations/retellings?</p>
<ol>
<li class="footnote" id="fn:fmruxcc9bgru7"><p>I would love to see a $200 million blockbuster adaptation of Circe directed by, say, Céline Sciamma, Sarah Polley, Chloé Zhao, Celine Song, Patty Jenkins, or Greta Gerwig…no shortage of great options. <a href="#fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7" title="return to article">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/books">books</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Daniel%20Mendelsohn">Daniel Mendelsohn</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Emily%20Wilson">Emily Wilson</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Madeline%20Miller">Madeline Miller</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Margaret%20Atwood">Margaret Atwood</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Natalie%20Haynes">Natalie Haynes</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/remix">remix</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey">The Odyssey</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The trailer for Behemoth! , a forthcoming film written... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049359-the-trailer-for-behemoth" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49359</id>
<published>2026-07-21T17:03:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T17:03:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrMGdrCJ5Ck">The trailer for Behemoth!</a>, a forthcoming film written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor) and starring Pedro Pascal & Olivia Wilde. Great trailer: it pulls you in without revealing anything about the plot.
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ On the use of AI for creative work (type design in this... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049356-on-the-use-of-ai-for-crea" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49356</id>
<published>2026-07-21T16:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T16:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://mass-driver.com/article/from-human-hands">On the use of AI for creative work</a> (type design in this case). “A tool that shields us from the friction of the work is compelling, but if we don’t experience the friction, we will never change the work.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ “No CGI” Is Really Just Invisible CGI ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/no-cgi-is-really-just-invisible-cgi" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49358</id>
<published>2026-07-21T15:10:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T15:10:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Mission Impossible. Oppenheimer. F1. The Odyssey. Top Gun: Maverick. Mad Max: Fury Road. Inception. Dune. Filmmakers and studios who make movies like these love to emphasize their heavy use of practical effects, i.e. real cars jumping real bridges or real people hanging off of real airplanes. “No CGI”, they say, despite the hundreds of names in the visual effects section of the films’ credits.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgdTaHO8FLEve_XFiRBEcOSkRdd-Txjne">In his six-part series</a>, Jonas Ussing, who co-owns <a href="https://spaceoffice.dk">a visual effects studio</a> in Denmark, takes a look at these “No CGI” films and shows us just how much digital graphical effects goes into them. For instance, did you know that every single flying jet in Top Gun: Maverick, a movie we were assured was all practical effects, was built with CGI? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttG90raCNo">Take a look</a>:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ttG90raCNo" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLcP-t0-kI">His latest video</a> is all about Christopher Nolan:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AFLcP-t0-kI" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>I’ve only watched bits and pieces of these videos so far (the Nolan one is 71 minutes long), but when <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/tvaziri.com/post/3mqwzfmsrfs2p">ILM’s Todd Vaziri says</a> something film-related is good, it’s good.
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/cgi">cgi</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/film%20school">film school</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Jonas%20Ussing">Jonas Ussing</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday . They’ve... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049357-the-official-trailer-for-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49357</id>
<published>2026-07-21T14:20:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T14:20:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irVNGjRFZGk">The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday</a>. They’ve gotten (some of) the band back together — perhaps this will be a return to form for Marvel?
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049352-hitler-and-stalin-today" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49352</id>
<published>2026-07-21T13:40:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-21T13:40:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy Snyder: <a href="https://snyder.substack.com/p/new-lecture-series-for-the-public">Hitler and Stalin Today</a>. “The course begins with the colonial background that made totalitarianism possible, and which remains an essential element of our politics now.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Lost Joy of Music Piracy . “Still to this day,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049350-the-lost-joy-of-music-pir" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49350</id>
<published>2026-07-20T23:47:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T23:47:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/music-piracy-what-cd-oink-nine-inch-nails-streaming">The Lost Joy of Music Piracy</a>. “Still to this day, I’ve never seen such an actively maintained network of knowledge and output, it really sucked me in.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Goofy Oversized Wicker Costumes ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/goofy-oversized-wicker-costumes" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49355</id>
<published>2026-07-20T21:48:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T21:48:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Artist <a href="https://www.lewisprosser.com">Lewis Prosser</a> describes himself <a href="https://www.instagram.com/clovisvosser">on Instagram</a> as an “absurdist basket-maker”. His costumes for a project called <a href="https://www.lewisprosser.com/work/makingmerrie">Making Merrie</a> reflect that self-description.</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<blockquote><p>Making Merrie explores the material culture of folk theatre. Inspired by mummers’ plays and masked traditions along the Wales/England border, Making Merrie combines craft, performance, and language to reflect on cultural heritage and exchange.</p><p>Mummers’ plays are traditional folk performances with roots over 500 years old, often tied to Christmas and New Year. Full of humour and spontaneous revelry, these plays were staged in streets, homes, or pubs by amateur troupes, telling simple stories of combat, death, and miraculous revival. Unlike the religious Mystery Plays, mummers’ plays are secular, carnivalesque, and performed for community fun.</p><p>The project features large-scale wicker costumes, handcrafted using regional willow basketry techniques, highlighting basketry as an essential human skill we’re at risk of forgetting—a skill that, if lost, means losing part of what it is to be human.</p></blockquote>
<p>(via <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/lewis-prosser-baskets-costumes-folklore-performance">colossal</a>)
</p>
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<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/art">art</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Lewis%20Prosser">Lewis Prosser</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049354-how-he-used-to-work-at-ma" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49354</id>
<published>2026-07-20T21:01:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T21:01:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John Waters about <a href="https://lithub.com/john-waters-on-working-for-mary-oliver-in-her-bookstore">how he used to work at Mary Oliver’s bookstore in Provincetown</a>. “They had this bookshop where you were allowed to be mean to the customers. It was really fun.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is making a documentary about the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049351-making-a-documentary-abou" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49351</id>
<published>2026-07-20T20:10:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T20:10:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/07/ava-duvernay-netflix-citizenship-documentary-14-amendment-1236983852">making a documentary about the 14th amendment</a>, “spotlighting America’s long running and sometimes bloody battle with itself over who is a citizen and how much freedom they get”.
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ On Japan’s visible evidence of care . “American... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049349-on-japans-visible-evidenc" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49349</id>
<published>2026-07-20T19:27:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T19:27:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/japans-design-for-humans">On Japan’s visible evidence of care</a>. “American service providers, private and public, increasingly run like ghost ships. Japanese technology and design seemed in greater service to humans, their journeys, and enterprises.”
</p>
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Watch 1969’s Apollo 11 Moon Landing “Live!” ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/watch-1969s-apollo-11-moon-landing-live-2" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49348</id>
<published>2026-07-20T18:37:39Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T18:37:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" /></p>
<p>57 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and went for a little walk. For the 18th year in a row, you can <a href="https://kottke.org/apollo-11">watch the original CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first Moon walk</a> on a small B&W television, synced to the present-day time. Just open this page in your browser today, July 20th, and the coverage will start playing at the proper time. Here’s the schedule (all times EDT):</p>
<p>4:10:30 pm: Moon landing broadcast starts<br />
4:17:40 pm: Lunar module lands on the Moon</p>
<p>4:20:15 pm - 10:51:26 pm: Break in coverage</p>
<p>10:51:27 pm: Moon walk broadcast starts<br />
10:56:15 pm: First step on Moon<br />
11:51:30 pm: Nixon speaks to the Eagle crew<br />
12:00:30 am: Broadcast end (on July 21)</p>
<p>Set an alarm on your phone or calendar! Also, this works best on an actual computer but I think it functions ok on phones and tablets if necessary.</p>
<p><a href="https://kottke.org/18/07/live-tv-coverage-of-apollo-11">Back in 2018</a>, I wrote a bit about what to look out for when you’re watching the landing:</p>
<blockquote><p>The radio voices you hear are mostly Mission Control in Houston (specifically Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke, who acted as the spacecraft communicator for this mission) and Buzz Aldrin, whose job during the landing was to keep an eye on the LM’s altitude and speed — you can hear him calling it out, “3 1/2 down, 220 feet, 13 forward.” Armstrong doesn’t say a whole lot…he’s busy flying and furiously searching for a suitable landing site. But it’s Armstrong that says after they land, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”. Note the change in call sign from “Eagle” to “Tranquility Base”. :)</p><p>Two things to listen for on the broadcast: the 1201/1202 program alarms I mentioned above and two quick callouts by Charlie Duke about the remaining fuel towards the end: “60 seconds” and “30 seconds”. Armstrong is taking all this information in through his earpiece — the 1202s, the altitude and speed from Aldrin, and the remaining fuel — and using it to figure out where to land.</p></blockquote>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo">Apollo</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo%2011">Apollo 11</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Buzz%20Aldrin">Buzz Aldrin</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Moon">Moon</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Neil%20Armstrong">Neil Armstrong</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/space">space</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Walter%20Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ I love the 1-bit aesthetic of this story-driven city... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049326-this-story-driven-city-bu" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49326</id>
<published>2026-07-20T15:30:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T15:30:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>I love the 1-bit aesthetic of <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4198840/GlagStone">this story-driven city builder game called GlagStone</a>.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ The Meaning of Nolan’s The Odyssey ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49347</id>
<published>2026-07-20T13:59:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T13:59:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>I suspect like many of you, I saw The Odyssey this weekend. I really liked it and the more I read & think about the film, the more it grows in my esteem. <a href="https://www.threads.com/@thoughtspresso/post/Da_vHvEmo9e">This thread by Mmina Maclang-Tamayo</a> (spoilers!) is pretty much how I interpreted what Nolan was trying to convey.</p>
<blockquote><p>As it turns out, it was 10,000% important that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was delivered in American accents, beyond just the Emily Wilson linguistics of it all.</p><p>It’s because it was about America.</p><p>I didn’t think it’d be possible to spoil a 3000 year-old epic, but here’s a 🧵</p><p>The emphasis on what’s happening back in Ithaca, with the royal courts and suitors to Penelope reflect upon the internal politics of taking the anxieties of the people about external invaders to attempt to seize power.</p><p>Then, Odysseus returns with the revelation: the feared invaders, “The Sea People”, were them all along.</p><p>Zeus’ Law has an uncanny resemblance to Christian teaching. “Whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, that you do unto Me”. (Matthew 25:40)</p><p>That America proudly keeps envoking the Abrahamic God in its identity as a nation, and its government attempting to justify their actions in the name of such a God, yet turn around and gravely mistreat the immigrants on their doorstep, and antagonize their own allies, is a betrayal of its identity.</p><p>The film warns: America has broken Zeus’ Law.</p></blockquote>
<p>Steve Donner <a href="https://www.threads.com/@steve_dooner/post/Da_OgUInJLe">shared some interesting thoughts</a> in his reading of the film:</p>
<blockquote><p>20. The point: Nothing is sacred in war, and we have lost all respect for basic decency and hospitality. We’re all the violators; we are all the suitors, we are all the cyclops. Consequently, all the towers and temples burn (“the burning roof and tower, and Agamemnon dead”). It’s Odysseus’ guilt about his foreign wars manifesting again and he’s spent years avoiding the truth. </p><p>21. That’s why he’s unconsciously avoided home for twenty years: he simply cannot face what he has become, nor does he wish to show his shame to his wife and son.</p></blockquote>
<p>I’m looking forward to seeing the movie again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, what did you think of The Odyssey? And if you read or listened to something interesting or provocative about the film, please share links!
</p>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Christopher%20Nolan">Christopher Nolan</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/movies">movies</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey">The Odyssey</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ From BBC Earth, the trailer for Evolution , a... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049263-the-trailer" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49263</id>
<published>2026-07-20T13:14:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-20T13:14:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>From BBC Earth, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8sypHinds">the trailer</a> for <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/evolution">Evolution</a>, a five-part series <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/evolution">premiering on PBS in October</a>. “Ponder this: All the incredible diversity of animal life on Earth sprang from a single organism. Every animal, no matter how weird, is related to every other.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ TV Appearance of Lincoln Assassination Witness ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/11/08/tv-appearance-of-lincoln-assassination-witness" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2011-08-04:21251</id>
<published>2011-08-04T14:21:20Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T21:00:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>In 1956, 96-year-old Samuel Seymour appeared on a game show called I’ve Got A Secret…his secret was that he saw Lincoln’s assassination when he was five years old.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1RPoymt3Jx4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Mind-blowing…the Civil War & Lincoln’s assassination directly linked to something as modern as a TV game show. Two years earlier, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-i-saw-lincoln-sh/55871642">Seymour gave an interview</a> about witnessing the assassination. His father, an overseer on a Maryland estate, and his boss Mr. Goldsboro needed to travel to Washington to check on “the legal status of their 150 slaves”. Seymour got to go along.</p>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="543" border="0" alt="I Saw Lincoln Shot" /></p>
<blockquote><p>It was going on toward supper time — on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 — when we finally pulled up in front of the biggest house I ever had seen. It looked to me like a thousand farmhouses all pushed together, but my father said it was a hotel.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>[…] When I finally had been rushed upstairs, shushed and scrubbed and put into fresh clothes, Mrs. Goldsboro said she had a wonderful surprise.</p><p>“Sammy, you and Sarah and I are going to a play tonight,” she explained. “A real play — and President Abraham Lincoln will be there.”</p></blockquote>
<p>After Lincoln was shot, Seymour saw Booth fall from the balcony and run off.
</p>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Aug 2011.]</em></p>]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Abraham%20Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/Samuel%20Seymour">Samuel Seymour</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Great%20Span">The Great Span</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts">timeless posts</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/TV">TV</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power,... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049286-what-training-my-chaotic-" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49286</id>
<published>2026-07-16T20:12:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T20:12:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/what-training-my-chaotic-dog-taught-me-about-power-control-and-human-beings">What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power, Control — and Human Beings</a>. “As any parent of a toddler knows, being morally liable for something that is incapable of moral liability is a fraught and stressful business.”
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes . ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049282-building-a-world-map-with" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49282</id>
<published>2026-07-16T19:22:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T19:22:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><a href="https://www.experimentlog.com/blog/building-a-world-map-with-only-500-bytes">Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes</a>.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ How Are Memories Stored Inside Your Brain? ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/how-are-memories-stored-inside-your-brain" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49345</id>
<published>2026-07-16T18:29:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T18:29:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PqtggjVAi8M" title="YouTube video" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqtggjVAi8M">This video from Kurzgesagt</a> is a great little primer on how the human brain stores memories.</p>
<blockquote><p>Memory is one of the strangest abilities you possess. Your brain uses an incredibly complex biological system to preserve moments from your past that no longer exist, allowing you to revisit experiences from years ago. But memories are not always recordings of reality. In fact, every time a memory comes under the spotlight of your attention, it can melt and change a tiny bit.</p><p>What exactly is a memory, how is a moment in time stored inside your brain, and why does remembering something slowly rewrite the story of your life?</p></blockquote>
]]>
<![CDATA[ <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/brains">brains</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/neuroscience">neuroscience</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/science">science</a> · <a href="https://kottke.org/tag/video">video</a></p>]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ From the Brooklyn Public Library, a list of “the... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049343-a-list-of-the-250-most-in" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49343</id>
<published>2026-07-16T17:39:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T17:39:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>From the Brooklyn Public Library, <a href="https://www.bklynlibrary.org/america-250/booklist">a list of “the 250 most influential books in United States history”</a>. Incl. <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780441007462">Neuromancer</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780679744726">The Fire Next Time</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781250808318">Nickel and Dimed</a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780394720241">The Power Broker</a>, and <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780140501827">The Snowy Day</a>.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: Time... ]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://kottke.org/26/07/0049279-time-sensitive" />
<id>tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49279</id>
<published>2026-07-16T17:00:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-07-16T17:00:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>Jason Kottke</name>
<uri>http://www.kottke.org</uri> </author>
<content type="html" xml:lang="en-us" xml:base="https://kottke.org/">
<![CDATA[ <p>New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: <a href="https://www.timesensitive.fm">Time Sensitive</a>, “a podcast featuring candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time”.
</p>
]]>
</content>
</entry>
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{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49399",
"title": "All US Cities Which Used to Have More Than 100,000 People But Don’t Anymore",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/all-us-cities-which-used-to-have-more-than-100000-people-but-dont-anymore",
"published": "2026-07-28T15:23:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-28T15:23:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785173589-8bded4d4.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/phfpjd/all_us_cities_which_used_to_have_more_than_100000\">Here’s a map</a> of the 21 US cities that used to have a population of 100,000 people but don’t anymore. Many of these are <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt\">Rust Belt</a> cities, in which manufacturing employment fell steeply during the latter part of the 20th century.</p>\n\t<p>The thread at Reddit mentions Detroit and St. Louis as two other cities whose population has dropped during that same time period. Detroit went from 1.85 million in 1950 to 639,000 in 2020 and St. Louis dropped from 857,000 to 300,000 over the same time period:</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>St. Louis was once the country’s 4th largest city. Worlds Fair and Olympics in 1904. Two Major League Baseball teams. It didn’t boom as much as the Great Lakes cities in between the wars and it declined just as much after.</p></blockquote>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/demographics\">demographics</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/maps\">maps</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/population\">population</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/usa\">usa</a></p>",
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"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49395",
"title": "How the Words We Teach English Language Learners...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049395-how-the-words-we-teach-en",
"published": "2026-07-28T14:33:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-28T14:33:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://pudding.cool/2026/07/essential-words\">How the Words We Teach English Language Learners Changed, and What That Says About Us</a>. “The shifts reflect a life that moved further from its own making: less tied to tools, animals, food…; more tied to global institutions, categories, systems…”\n</p>",
"image": null,
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"authors": [
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{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-28:49401",
"title": "Don’t use AI until you’re 40 . “We have been so...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049401-dont-use-ai-until-youre-4",
"published": "2026-07-28T13:37:47.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-28T13:37:47.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/opinion/teaching-kabbalah-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.01A.fuLr.ereE_327-6mI\">Don’t use AI until you’re 40</a>. “We have been so quick to treat access to new technology as an inevitability that we have failed to question whether every powerful tool should be placed in the hands of every developing mind the moment it becomes available.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
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{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49397",
"title": "We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country ....",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049397-we-used-to-be-able-to-buy",
"published": "2026-07-27T21:18:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T21:18:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-things\">We Used to Be Able to Buy Things in This Country</a>. “Locking up toothpaste was a warning sign that our executive class was crazy.”\n</p>",
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{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49400",
"title": "A Shortlist of Potential Future Euro Banknote Designs",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/a-shortlist-of-potential-future-euro-banknote-designs",
"published": "2026-07-27T19:58:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T19:58:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html\">The European Central Bank is providing a sneak peek at the next design of the Euro banknotes</a>. From a shortlist of 10 designs created by artists and designers from across the EU, one will be selected as the basis of how Euro banknotes from €5 to €200 will look in the future. Here are a few I pulled out from all of the designs:</p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176015-95d9b986.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176036-9f7f6e59.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176058-5e573e24.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176159-90e72594.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176097-f811b824.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176106-5dcf1644.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176122-477719cd.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176129-1e60307e.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176142-87d1d05b.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176173-bee6d58a.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176191-8dc460d5.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176207-c24f539d.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1785176222-61bf023a.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p>It’s notable (*cough*) that some of the banknotes are designed vertically vs horizontally. The influence of portrait mode on smartphones?\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/currency\">currency</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/design\">design</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/European%20Union\">European Union</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/money\">money</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49391",
"title": "“ Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049391-datatype-is-an-opentype-v",
"published": "2026-07-27T19:15:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T19:15:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>“<a href=\"https://franktisellano.github.io/datatype\">Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts</a>. No JavaScript, no images, no rendering library — just type the syntax and Datatype’s ligature substitution does the rest.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49382",
"title": "The Batman Effect : people in an experiment acted more...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049382-the-batman-effect",
"published": "2026-07-27T18:25:11.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T18:25:11.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-art-of-talking-with-children/202511/the-batman-effect-youre-more-changeable-than-you-think\">The Batman Effect</a>: people in an experiment acted more altruisticly when the caped crusader was present.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49392",
"title": "Once Upon a Time in Space",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/once-upon-a-time-in-space",
"published": "2026-07-27T17:08:22.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T17:08:22.000Z",
"content": "<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/2D-ew87MiS4\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>From the filmmakers who made the excellent <a href=\"https://kottke.org/23/09/once-upon-a-time-in-northern-ireland\">Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland</a> comes a four-part series on space exploration, Once Upon a Time in Space. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D-ew87MiS4\">A short trailer</a> is above; here’s a synopsis:</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>Drawing on intimate, unseen archive and powerful first-hand testimony, this landmark 4-part series tells the human stories behind our quest to explore space, offering a unique perspective on our changing world and where we are headed.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>The series <a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hyt5\">first aired on the BBC</a> and the first two episodes are <a href=\"https://www.pbs.org/show/once-upon-a-time-in-space\">now available on PBS</a>. (thx, mitch)\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Once%20Upon%20a%20Time%20in%20Space\">Once Upon a Time in Space</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/space\">space</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/trailers\">trailers</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/TV\">TV</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49396",
"title": "An Uncomplicated Man , Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049396-an-uncomplicated-man",
"published": "2026-07-27T15:56:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T15:56:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man\">An Uncomplicated Man</a>, Emily Wilson’s review of Nolan’s The Odyssey. “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49376",
"title": "Astronauts returning from long missions report a “jet...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049376-jet-lag-of-the-self",
"published": "2026-07-27T15:22:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T15:22:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Astronauts returning from long missions report a <a href=\"https://spacedaily.com/sd-v-astronauts-returning-from-six-month-missions-describe-a-persistent-observer-sensation-the-feeling-of-watching-their-own-lives-from-a-half-step-outside-the-frame-weeks-after-theyr\">“jet lag of the self”</a>: “a sense of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame”.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49394",
"title": "Trump’s Assault on Science Continues",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/trumps-assault-on-science-continues",
"published": "2026-07-27T14:22:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T14:22:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>I appreciate the plain speech of Science magazine’s Derek Lowe in his recent piece, <a href=\"https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/assault-science-funding-continues\">The Assault On Science Funding Continues</a>.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>When I talk to people about this subject (and that includes some journalists as well) and say what I’m about to at the end of this paragaph I am sometimes met with disbelief. But I mean what I say and I am trying my best to say what I mean: <strong>The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.</strong></p><p>That’s it. That’s the story. They are naturally not putting it in those words, but instead talking about “gold standard science” and the “reproducibility crisis” and funding “bold inquiry” for “transformational breakthroughs”. This is all bullshit, and it’s important to realize that. Shameless hand-waving bullshit, delivered in a how-dare-you-think-otherwise manner is the defining style of the entire Trump administration. You can see it in every appointee, in every part of the executive branch, and in the pronouncements of all of Trump’s supporters. I realize that this is a simple heuristic to apply, and a very unambiguous and unflattering one, but I find it to be all too useful and all too accurate. Give it a try.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>Yep. He’s the mob boss president — everything is about favors, taking his cut, deals, tough guy-ness, bending the world to his will, power, and white male supremacy.\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Derek%20Lowe\">Derek Lowe</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Donald%20Trump\">Donald Trump</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/politics\">politics</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/science\">science</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-27:49393",
"title": "Welp, right at the top of the CDC page on autism and...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049393-the-cdc-page-on-autism-an",
"published": "2026-07-27T13:46:17.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-27T13:46:17.000Z",
"content": "<p>Welp, right at the top of <a href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html\">the CDC page on autism and vaccines</a>: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” 🫨\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49387",
"title": "New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049387-now-theyre-ramming-fish-s",
"published": "2026-07-23T23:09:01.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T23:09:01.000Z",
"content": "<p>New orca behavior unlocked. They’ve been known to sink boats and wear salmon for hats; <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/orcas-ramming-prey-hard-explodes-playing-game\">now they’re ramming fish so hard they explode</a>. “Orcas were observed to hold sunfish in their jaws while a second whale smashed into the target at high speed…”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49381",
"title": "It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers ....",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049381-its-our-ethical-duty-to-u",
"published": "2026-07-23T22:41:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T22:41:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.not-ship.com/large-numbers\">It’s our ethical duty to understand large numbers</a>. “Our world is increasingly moving towards extreme values: Damages from climate change, deaths due to genocide, wealth that knows no bounds. We can’t tackle them if we can’t wrap our heads around [them].”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49385",
"title": "A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049385-a-teen-reporter-searched-",
"published": "2026-07-23T21:21:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T21:21:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/epstein-files-redwood-bark-school-newspaper\">A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out.</a> “Once everyone was back at school on Tuesday, the high schoolers lawyered up during their lunch hour.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49386",
"title": "“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049386-was-crushed-between-two-f",
"published": "2026-07-23T20:21:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T20:21:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>“A beloved, useful, free website, run carefully by a competent, honest person for nearly thirty years, <a href=\"https://stephenfollows.com/p/what-just-happened-to-thenumberscom-should-worry-us-all\">was crushed between two features of the new AI economy</a>.” (AI bots and prediction market dipshits.)\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49374",
"title": "“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049374-on-the-good-and-bad-types",
"published": "2026-07-23T19:41:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T19:41:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>“In extreme cases, it can create a phantom homeland, for the sake of which one is ready to die or kill. Unreflective nostalgia can breed monsters.” <a href=\"https://bigthink.com/mini-philosophy/how-the-wrong-kind-of-nostalgia-can-endanger-a-society\">On the good and bad types of nostalgia</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49384",
"title": "Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049384-rebecca-solnit-on-the-tat",
"published": "2026-07-23T18:54:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T18:54:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/listening-to-cassandra-misogyny-classical-and-modern\">Rebecca Solnit on the Tate brothers, The Odyssey, and the misogyny of classical literature & the contemporary world</a>. “Classical culture is a lot of things including, literally, rape culture.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49383",
"title": "What’s On the Sandwich Named After You at the Local Deli?",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/whats-on-the-sandwich-named-after-you-at-the-local-deli",
"published": "2026-07-23T17:54:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T17:54:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Following <a href=\"https://cupofjo.com/2026/07/22/what-would-be-on-your-larry-david-sandwich\">a prompt from Joanna at Cup of Jo</a>… The local deli or sandwich shop names a sandwich after you. What would be on it? Perhaps another way of asking the question: what’s your favorite sandwich that’s a little bit unusual?</p>\n\t<p>I love a classic BLT, banh mi, or jambon beurre, but a sandwich that is fairly unique to me is tuna salad (made with pickles, pickle juice, and scallions), havarti, lettuce, and tomatoes on good white bread or a kaiser roll. I think that would be The Kottke at the local deli. Either that or something <a href=\"https://kottke.org/24/03/welcome-to-choppkes\">chopped</a>?\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/food\">food</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/sandwiches\">sandwiches</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49375",
"title": "Why are American ambulances so expensive? In part...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049375-why-are-american-ambulanc",
"published": "2026-07-23T17:17:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T17:17:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are\">Why are American ambulances so expensive?</a> In part because Medicare pays only a fraction of the actual cost of an ambulance ride and the uninsured often don’t pay at all, so the privately insured get bills of $13,000 for a $2600 ride.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49372",
"title": "We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049372-were-squandering-leds-pot",
"published": "2026-07-23T16:27:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T16:27:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://spectrum.ieee.org/led-light-pollution\">We’re Squandering LEDs’ Potential to Save Our Night Skies</a>. “Our main failure isn’t a technical one. It’s that we have yet to revise our thinking about lighting at night. We use LED technology just as we did the old sources of light.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49379",
"title": "A Matter of Form (1984)",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/a-matter-of-form-1984",
"published": "2026-07-23T15:40:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T15:40:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/nRvgKe__WXQ\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>In addition to leading the animation studio at the National Film Board of Canada, René Jodoin made several animated films that explored geometric forms and motion, including the one above, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRvgKe__WXQ\">A Matter of Form</a> from 1984.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>Set to the rousing notes of Schubert’s Military March, this animation film is an ingenious example of how a single point can be the building-block for a multiplicity of shapes and configurations. Lines and forms grow out of the point, eventually covering the entire screen in splashes of colour. This is geometric wizardry at its colourful best. A film without words.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>I’m not saying my affinity for such animations is because I watched so much Sesame Street as a kid, but <a href=\"https://kottke.org/09/10/philip-glass-on-sesame-street\">I’m not not saying it</a> either.</p>\n\t<p>Here’s another of Jodoin’s films, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUzfOlpwexg\">Dance Squared</a>:</p>\n\t<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUzfOlpwexg\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>You can watch more of Jodoin’s work <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHerjfWGX0CXKlFzcIm9dwgf12MJNTnYb\">in this YouTube playlist</a>. (via <a href=\"https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/a-matter-of-form-a-1984-rene-jodoin-animation\">the kid should see this</a>)\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/geometry\">geometry</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Ren%C3%A9%20Jodoin\">René Jodoin</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49380",
"title": "An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers ,...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049380-an-online-edition-of-all-",
"published": "2026-07-23T14:54:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T14:54:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://federalistreader.org\">An online edition of all 85 of the Federalist Papers</a>, presented as they were originally serialized in newspapers, with on eye on <a href=\"https://federalistreader.org/colophon\">good typography</a> and <a href=\"https://federalistreader.org/notes/justif\">readability</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-23:49373",
"title": "“ This map shows the predicted density of...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049373-this-map",
"published": "2026-07-23T14:16:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T14:16:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>“<a href=\"https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth/story/mycorrhizal-infrastructure-map\">This map</a> shows the predicted density of underground networks created by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These networks form one of Earth’s circulatory systems, moving massive amounts of carbon, nutrients, and water across plant communities.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49377",
"title": "Oh wow, The Verge made a 70-minute video on how The...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049377-a-70-minute-video-on-how-",
"published": "2026-07-22T22:20:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T22:20:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Oh wow, The Verge made <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhwX9i5UPac\">a 70-minute video on how The Clapper became a viral sensation</a>. When I was a kid, we didn’t have a Clapper, no one I knew had one, and I couldn’t understand why every single household didn’t have one of these magical devices.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49378",
"title": "Frozen Polygon Waves",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/frozen-polygon-waves",
"published": "2026-07-22T20:45:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T20:45:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/35S6IM_aQ5Q\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JQaZaUSS0E\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>Well, this is just absolutely lovely: photographer and artist <a href=\"https://www.northlandscapes.com\">Jan Erik Waider</a> shot <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35S6IM_aQ5Q\">these</a> <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JQaZaUSS0E\">videos</a> of cracked-but-unbroken Baltic Sea ice undulating with the gentle motion of the sea. Mesmerizing…I could watch these for hours.\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Jan%20Erik%20Waider\">Jan Erik Waider</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/mesmerizing\">mesmerizing</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49370",
"title": "What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049370-what-do-americas-earliest",
"published": "2026-07-22T19:58:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T19:58:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://pudding.cool/2026/06/menu-story\">What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?</a> “A menu describes what a restaurant serves — but a menu also describes who is being served. They reflect the class, gender, political, technological, and environmental shifts of history.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49369",
"title": "A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049369-a-list-of-jurassic-park-c",
"published": "2026-07-22T19:18:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T19:18:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://fabiensanglard.net/jurrasic_park_computers/index.html\">A list of Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail</a>, including an Apple Powerbook 100, a SGI R4000 Indigo, the Motorola Envoy (PDA), and some Thinking Machines CM-5s. “This is a Unix system, I know this!”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49371",
"title": "There is nothing more I love in this world right now than...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049371-these-two-lunch-ladies-pe",
"published": "2026-07-22T18:28:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T18:28:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>There is nothing more I love in this world right now than <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEnOBFvza7\">these two lunch ladies performing Firestarter by The Prodigy</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49368",
"title": "Unclassifiable Artists",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/unclassifiable-artists",
"published": "2026-07-22T17:45:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T17:45:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/XUmgIQIpg-E\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>Using <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake\">William Blake</a> (aka “the patron saint of unclassifiable artists”) as an example, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUmgIQIpg-E\">Evan Puschak’s latest video</a> explores how society often rejects artists whose work doesn’t fit neatly into established categories and frameworks of criticism and commerce.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>What you’re seeing here, these are not paintings. They’re prints of engravings from Blake’s illuminated books, which he designed, wrote, etched, colored, and printed himself using a technique that he invented. These extraordinary books are works of art that mix and synthesize categories. And as a result, the art world of the late 17 and early 1800s didn’t really know what to make of them. And Blake never sold more than a handful.</p></blockquote>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/art\">art</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Evan%20Puschak\">Evan Puschak</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/poetry\">poetry</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/William%20Blake\">William Blake</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49367",
"title": "A digital museum of video game levels …you can move...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049367-a-digital-museum-of-video",
"published": "2026-07-22T17:09:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T17:09:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://noclip.website\">A digital museum of video game levels</a>…you can move freely around each level using your keyboard. Heavy on Nintendo games (Mario Kart 64, Wii Sports, etc.) but also includes Portal, Halo, Katamari Damacy, GTA III, and World of Warcraft.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49366",
"title": "I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049366-there-are-two-copies-of-t",
"published": "2026-07-22T16:24:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T16:24:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>I have lived more than two score and twelve years on this Earth and somehow I didn’t know that <a href=\"https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/07/four-score-and-seven-years-ago-lincolns-handwritten-gettysburg-address\">there are two copies of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincoln’s own hand in the Library of Congress</a> (<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Manuscripts\">and five overall</a>).\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49365",
"title": "The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration , a collection...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049365-the-cassette-tapes-of-the",
"published": "2026-07-22T15:30:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T15:30:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://daily.jstor.org/the-cassette-tapes-of-the-great-migration\">The Cassette Tapes of the Great Migration</a>, a collection of oral histories recorded in Michigan in the 1970s of Black people who had previously escaped the Jim Crow South. “If we don’t get it from those individuals, then we can’t get it from anyone else.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49364",
"title": "“ Researchers let AI models run a simulated society...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049364-researchers-let-ai-models",
"published": "2026-07-22T14:50:59.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T14:50:59.000Z",
"content": "<p>“<a href=\"https://fortune.com/2026/05/28/ai-model-simulation-claude-chatgpt-grok-gemini\">Researchers let AI models run a simulated society</a>. Claude was the safest — and Grok committed 180 crimes and went extinct within 4 days.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49363",
"title": "Brian Eno on the Cherished Sounds of Failure",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/brian-eno-on-the-cherished-sounds-of-failure",
"published": "2026-07-22T14:08:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T14:08:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Near the end of 1995, the artist and producer Brian Eno <a href=\"https://diariesofnote.com/2023/12/19/the-sound-of-failure\">wrote the following about new media</a> in his diary, which entries were later collected in a book called <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780571374625\">A Year with Swollen Appendices</a>.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. </p><p>It’s the sound of failure: so much of modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them. </p><p>Note to the artist: when the medium fails conspicuously, and especially if it fails in new ways, the listener believes something is happening beyond its limits.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>Nailed it.\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Brian%20Eno\">Brian Eno</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-22:49362",
"title": "Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049362-google-is-building-an-ai-",
"published": "2026-07-22T12:45:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-22T12:45:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/technology/google-ai-open-web.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.A1LZ.AwMkNDLrNcPc\">Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed</a>. “Google has often said it was ‘sending out more traffic & the web is bigger than ever. And then right next to that is a bunch of publishers whose businesses are getting destroyed.’”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49353",
"title": "Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049353-elephants-may-hear-ground",
"published": "2026-07-21T21:22:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T21:22:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.discovermagazine.com/elephants-may-hear-ground-vibrations-through-their-bones-helping-them-to-communicate-over-6-miles-49385\">Elephants May Hear Ground Vibrations Through Their Bones, Helping Them to Communicate Over 6 Miles</a>. “Studying elephant hearing isn’t as simple as asking an elephant to wear headphones…”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2015-10-02:26971",
"title": "Vertical Panoramas of Churches",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/15/10/vertical-panoramas-of-churches",
"published": "2015-10-02T17:51:58.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T20:10:01.000Z",
"content": "<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-01.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"1829\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Richard Silver Churches\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/richard-silver-churches-02.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"1920\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Richard Silver Churches\" /></p>\n\t<p>From photographer Richard Silver, <a href=\"https://www.richardsilverphoto.com/collections/vertical-churches\">vertical panoramic photos of churches</a> that emphasize their often incredible ceilings. (via <a href=\"http://www.ignant.de/2015/10/01/incredible-vertical-panoramic-photos-of-churches-by-richard-silver\">ignant</a>)\n</p>\n \n\n <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Oct 2015.]</em></p>\n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/architecture\">architecture</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/photography\">photography</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/religion\">religion</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Richard%20Silver\">Richard Silver</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts\">timeless posts</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49361",
"title": "I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049361-im-a-scholar-of-genocide-",
"published": "2026-07-21T19:23:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T19:23:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opinion/israel-gaza-palestinians-genocide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.GSML.IoLesCipLwhs\">I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era.</a> “It is a future in which other nations or leaders may have an incentive to pursue genocidal policies knowing they will not only get away with murder but may even benefit from it.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49360",
"title": "What to Read & Listen to After Seeing The Odyssey",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/what-to-read-listen-to-after-seeing-the-odyssey",
"published": "2026-07-21T17:57:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T17:57:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784655967-2fda0d28.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p>I’m currently doing the thing I do after seeing a movie (<a href=\"https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey\">The Odyssey</a>) I really enjoyed or found interesting: digging into related media. Yesterday I had an hour in the car, so I listened to <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/12/podcasts/the-daily/whats-epic-about-the-odyssey-everything.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.LU45.d3CQqu_DE6fp\">this episode of The Daily podcast with Madeline Miller and Emily Wilson</a>.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>I think it’s quite odd to think that one book or one translation erases the others. I mean, if people prefer some other translation or if people want to read the Greek, I would love for them to do that. I think it’s great. I have no desire to legislate about which versions of “The Odyssey,” or of any ancient text, people want to engage with. So I think there’s something quite strange about the idea that the canon doesn’t have room for many, many different interpretations, translations, engagements, reinventions.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>I’ve also flagged <a href=\"https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/15/daniel-mendelsohn-the-odyssey-podcast\">this New York Review of Books podcast with Daniel Mendelsohn</a>, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/podcasts/madeline-miller-odyssey.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zVA.5Ety.QXM4HN2iY4Lm\">another NYT podcast with Madeline Miller</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/all-of-it/articles/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-on-bringing-the-ancient-tale-to-life-in-christopher-nolans-new-film\">this WNYC podcast with Emily Wilson</a> for future listening.</p>\n\t<p>As for reading, Wilson and Mendelsohn both did contemporary translations of The Odyssey within the past few years: <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780393356250\">The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson</a> (I loved this, <a href=\"https://kottke.org/18/04/tracking-the-appearances-of-rosy-fingered-dawn-in-the-odyssey\">read it aloud to my kids</a>) and <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780226849225\">The Odyssey translated by Daniel Mendelsohn</a>. Actor Stephen Fry recently did <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781797215303\">a more approachable reimagining of The Odyssey</a>. <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780763642686\">The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds</a> is even more accessible, especially for younger readers.</p>\n\t<p>Miller is the author of two great novels based on the Iliad and the Odyssey: <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780316556323\">Circe</a> (my personal favorite of the two…I love this book and tell everyone to read it)<sup id=\"fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7\"><a href=\"#fn:fmruxcc9bgru7\" rel=\"footnote\">1</a></sup> and <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780062060624\">The Song of Achilles</a>.</p>\n\t<p>Other novels based on Homer’s works: <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781786892485\">The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood</a> and <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780063065406\">A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes</a>.</p>\n\t<p>Mendelsohn also wrote <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780345806215\">An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic</a> back in 2018; it sounds really interesting:</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician’s unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his “one last chance” to learn the great literature he’d neglected in his youth—and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>Do you have any recommendations for podcasts or favorite Odyssey translations/retellings?</p>\n\t<ol>\n<li class=\"footnote\" id=\"fn:fmruxcc9bgru7\"><p>I would love to see a $200 million blockbuster adaptation of Circe directed by, say, Céline Sciamma, Sarah Polley, Chloé Zhao, Celine Song, Patty Jenkins, or Greta Gerwig…no shortage of great options. <a href=\"#fnref:fmruxcc9bgru7\" title=\"return to article\">↩</a></p></li>\n</ol>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/books\">books</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Daniel%20Mendelsohn\">Daniel Mendelsohn</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Emily%20Wilson\">Emily Wilson</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Madeline%20Miller\">Madeline Miller</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Margaret%20Atwood\">Margaret Atwood</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/movies\">movies</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Natalie%20Haynes\">Natalie Haynes</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/remix\">remix</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey\">The Odyssey</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49359",
"title": "The trailer for Behemoth! , a forthcoming film written...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049359-the-trailer-for-behemoth",
"published": "2026-07-21T17:03:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T17:03:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrMGdrCJ5Ck\">The trailer for Behemoth!</a>, a forthcoming film written and directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Andor) and starring Pedro Pascal & Olivia Wilde. Great trailer: it pulls you in without revealing anything about the plot.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49356",
"title": "On the use of AI for creative work (type design in this...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049356-on-the-use-of-ai-for-crea",
"published": "2026-07-21T16:22:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T16:22:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://mass-driver.com/article/from-human-hands\">On the use of AI for creative work</a> (type design in this case). “A tool that shields us from the friction of the work is compelling, but if we don’t experience the friction, we will never change the work.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49358",
"title": "“No CGI” Is Really Just Invisible CGI",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/no-cgi-is-really-just-invisible-cgi",
"published": "2026-07-21T15:10:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T15:10:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Mission Impossible. Oppenheimer. F1. The Odyssey. Top Gun: Maverick. Mad Max: Fury Road. Inception. Dune. Filmmakers and studios who make movies like these love to emphasize their heavy use of practical effects, i.e. real cars jumping real bridges or real people hanging off of real airplanes. “No CGI”, they say, despite the hundreds of names in the visual effects section of the films’ credits.</p>\n\t<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgdTaHO8FLEve_XFiRBEcOSkRdd-Txjne\">In his six-part series</a>, Jonas Ussing, who co-owns <a href=\"https://spaceoffice.dk\">a visual effects studio</a> in Denmark, takes a look at these “No CGI” films and shows us just how much digital graphical effects goes into them. For instance, did you know that every single flying jet in Top Gun: Maverick, a movie we were assured was all practical effects, was built with CGI? <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttG90raCNo\">Take a look</a>:</p>\n\t<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ttG90raCNo\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFLcP-t0-kI\">His latest video</a> is all about Christopher Nolan:</p>\n\t<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/AFLcP-t0-kI\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>I’ve only watched bits and pieces of these videos so far (the Nolan one is 71 minutes long), but when <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/tvaziri.com/post/3mqwzfmsrfs2p\">ILM’s Todd Vaziri says</a> something film-related is good, it’s good.\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/cgi\">cgi</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/film%20school\">film school</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Jonas%20Ussing\">Jonas Ussing</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/movies\">movies</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49357",
"title": "The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday . They’ve...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049357-the-official-trailer-for-",
"published": "2026-07-21T14:20:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T14:20:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irVNGjRFZGk\">The official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday</a>. They’ve gotten (some of) the band back together — perhaps this will be a return to form for Marvel?\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-21:49352",
"title": "New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049352-hitler-and-stalin-today",
"published": "2026-07-21T13:40:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-21T13:40:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>New lecture series from authoritarianism scholar Timothy Snyder: <a href=\"https://snyder.substack.com/p/new-lecture-series-for-the-public\">Hitler and Stalin Today</a>. “The course begins with the colonial background that made totalitarianism possible, and which remains an essential element of our politics now.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49350",
"title": "The Lost Joy of Music Piracy . “Still to this day,...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049350-the-lost-joy-of-music-pir",
"published": "2026-07-20T23:47:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T23:47:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/music-piracy-what-cd-oink-nine-inch-nails-streaming\">The Lost Joy of Music Piracy</a>. “Still to this day, I’ve never seen such an actively maintained network of knowledge and output, it really sucked me in.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49355",
"title": "Goofy Oversized Wicker Costumes",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/goofy-oversized-wicker-costumes",
"published": "2026-07-20T21:48:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T21:48:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Artist <a href=\"https://www.lewisprosser.com\">Lewis Prosser</a> describes himself <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clovisvosser\">on Instagram</a> as an “absurdist basket-maker”. His costumes for a project called <a href=\"https://www.lewisprosser.com/work/makingmerrie\">Making Merrie</a> reflect that self-description.</p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579497-6e308df9.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579522-b88ee56c.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784579531-79ac8c2b.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<blockquote><p>Making Merrie explores the material culture of folk theatre. Inspired by mummers’ plays and masked traditions along the Wales/England border, Making Merrie combines craft, performance, and language to reflect on cultural heritage and exchange.</p><p>Mummers’ plays are traditional folk performances with roots over 500 years old, often tied to Christmas and New Year. Full of humour and spontaneous revelry, these plays were staged in streets, homes, or pubs by amateur troupes, telling simple stories of combat, death, and miraculous revival. Unlike the religious Mystery Plays, mummers’ plays are secular, carnivalesque, and performed for community fun.</p><p>The project features large-scale wicker costumes, handcrafted using regional willow basketry techniques, highlighting basketry as an essential human skill we’re at risk of forgetting—a skill that, if lost, means losing part of what it is to be human.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>(via <a href=\"https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/lewis-prosser-baskets-costumes-folklore-performance\">colossal</a>)\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/art\">art</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Lewis%20Prosser\">Lewis Prosser</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49354",
"title": "Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049354-how-he-used-to-work-at-ma",
"published": "2026-07-20T21:01:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T21:01:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Excerpt from a longer (podcast) conversation with John Waters about <a href=\"https://lithub.com/john-waters-on-working-for-mary-oliver-in-her-bookstore\">how he used to work at Mary Oliver’s bookstore in Provincetown</a>. “They had this bookshop where you were allowed to be mean to the customers. It was really fun.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49351",
"title": "Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is making a documentary about the...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049351-making-a-documentary-abou",
"published": "2026-07-20T20:10:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T20:10:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is <a href=\"https://deadline.com/2026/07/ava-duvernay-netflix-citizenship-documentary-14-amendment-1236983852\">making a documentary about the 14th amendment</a>, “spotlighting America’s long running and sometimes bloody battle with itself over who is a citizen and how much freedom they get”.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49349",
"title": "On Japan’s visible evidence of care . “American...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049349-on-japans-visible-evidenc",
"published": "2026-07-20T19:27:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T19:27:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://nobody-wants-this.ghost.io/japans-design-for-humans\">On Japan’s visible evidence of care</a>. “American service providers, private and public, increasingly run like ghost ships. Japanese technology and design seemed in greater service to humans, their journeys, and enterprises.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49348",
"title": "Watch 1969’s Apollo 11 Moon Landing “Live!”",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/watch-1969s-apollo-11-moon-landing-live-2",
"published": "2026-07-20T18:37:39.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T18:37:39.000Z",
"content": "<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/editor-1784572439-e0b7b289.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" /></p>\n\t<p>57 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and went for a little walk. For the 18th year in a row, you can <a href=\"https://kottke.org/apollo-11\">watch the original CBS News coverage of Walter Cronkite reporting on the Moon landing and the first Moon walk</a> on a small B&W television, synced to the present-day time. Just open this page in your browser today, July 20th, and the coverage will start playing at the proper time. Here’s the schedule (all times EDT):</p>\n\t<p>4:10:30 pm: Moon landing broadcast starts<br />\n4:17:40 pm: Lunar module lands on the Moon</p>\n\t<p>4:20:15 pm - 10:51:26 pm: Break in coverage</p>\n\t<p>10:51:27 pm: Moon walk broadcast starts<br />\n10:56:15 pm: First step on Moon<br />\n11:51:30 pm: Nixon speaks to the Eagle crew<br />\n12:00:30 am: Broadcast end (on July 21)</p>\n\t<p>Set an alarm on your phone or calendar! Also, this works best on an actual computer but I think it functions ok on phones and tablets if necessary.</p>\n\t<p><a href=\"https://kottke.org/18/07/live-tv-coverage-of-apollo-11\">Back in 2018</a>, I wrote a bit about what to look out for when you’re watching the landing:</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>The radio voices you hear are mostly Mission Control in Houston (specifically Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke, who acted as the spacecraft communicator for this mission) and Buzz Aldrin, whose job during the landing was to keep an eye on the LM’s altitude and speed — you can hear him calling it out, “3 1/2 down, 220 feet, 13 forward.” Armstrong doesn’t say a whole lot…he’s busy flying and furiously searching for a suitable landing site. But it’s Armstrong that says after they land, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”. Note the change in call sign from “Eagle” to “Tranquility Base”. :)</p><p>Two things to listen for on the broadcast: the 1201/1202 program alarms I mentioned above and two quick callouts by Charlie Duke about the remaining fuel towards the end: “60 seconds” and “30 seconds”. Armstrong is taking all this information in through his earpiece — the 1202s, the altitude and speed from Aldrin, and the remaining fuel — and using it to figure out where to land.</p></blockquote>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo\">Apollo</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Apollo%2011\">Apollo 11</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Buzz%20Aldrin\">Buzz Aldrin</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Moon\">Moon</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Neil%20Armstrong\">Neil Armstrong</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/space\">space</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/TV\">TV</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Walter%20Cronkite\">Walter Cronkite</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49326",
"title": "I love the 1-bit aesthetic of this story-driven city...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049326-this-story-driven-city-bu",
"published": "2026-07-20T15:30:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T15:30:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>I love the 1-bit aesthetic of <a href=\"https://store.steampowered.com/app/4198840/GlagStone\">this story-driven city builder game called GlagStone</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49347",
"title": "The Meaning of Nolan’s The Odyssey",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/the-meaning-of-nolans-the-odyssey",
"published": "2026-07-20T13:59:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T13:59:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>I suspect like many of you, I saw The Odyssey this weekend. I really liked it and the more I read & think about the film, the more it grows in my esteem. <a href=\"https://www.threads.com/@thoughtspresso/post/Da_vHvEmo9e\">This thread by Mmina Maclang-Tamayo</a> (spoilers!) is pretty much how I interpreted what Nolan was trying to convey.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>As it turns out, it was 10,000% important that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was delivered in American accents, beyond just the Emily Wilson linguistics of it all.</p><p>It’s because it was about America.</p><p>I didn’t think it’d be possible to spoil a 3000 year-old epic, but here’s a 🧵</p><p>The emphasis on what’s happening back in Ithaca, with the royal courts and suitors to Penelope reflect upon the internal politics of taking the anxieties of the people about external invaders to attempt to seize power.</p><p>Then, Odysseus returns with the revelation: the feared invaders, “The Sea People”, were them all along.</p><p>Zeus’ Law has an uncanny resemblance to Christian teaching. “Whatsoever you do to the least of My brothers, that you do unto Me”. (Matthew 25:40)</p><p>That America proudly keeps envoking the Abrahamic God in its identity as a nation, and its government attempting to justify their actions in the name of such a God, yet turn around and gravely mistreat the immigrants on their doorstep, and antagonize their own allies, is a betrayal of its identity.</p><p>The film warns: America has broken Zeus’ Law.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>Steve Donner <a href=\"https://www.threads.com/@steve_dooner/post/Da_OgUInJLe\">shared some interesting thoughts</a> in his reading of the film:</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>20. The point: Nothing is sacred in war, and we have lost all respect for basic decency and hospitality. We’re all the violators; we are all the suitors, we are all the cyclops. Consequently, all the towers and temples burn (“the burning roof and tower, and Agamemnon dead”). It’s Odysseus’ guilt about his foreign wars manifesting again and he’s spent years avoiding the truth. </p><p>21. That’s why he’s unconsciously avoided home for twenty years: he simply cannot face what he has become, nor does he wish to show his shame to his wife and son.</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>I’m looking forward to seeing the movie again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, what did you think of The Odyssey? And if you read or listened to something interesting or provocative about the film, please share links!\n</p>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Christopher%20Nolan\">Christopher Nolan</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/movies\">movies</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Odyssey\">The Odyssey</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-20:49263",
"title": "From BBC Earth, the trailer for Evolution , a...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049263-the-trailer",
"published": "2026-07-20T13:14:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-20T13:14:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>From BBC Earth, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8sypHinds\">the trailer</a> for <a href=\"https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/evolution\">Evolution</a>, a five-part series <a href=\"https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/evolution\">premiering on PBS in October</a>. “Ponder this: All the incredible diversity of animal life on Earth sprang from a single organism. Every animal, no matter how weird, is related to every other.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2011-08-04:21251",
"title": "TV Appearance of Lincoln Assassination Witness",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/11/08/tv-appearance-of-lincoln-assassination-witness",
"published": "2011-08-04T14:21:20.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T21:00:01.000Z",
"content": "<p>In 1956, 96-year-old Samuel Seymour appeared on a game show called I’ve Got A Secret…his secret was that he saw Lincoln’s assassination when he was five years old.</p>\n\t<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/1RPoymt3Jx4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p>Mind-blowing…the Civil War & Lincoln’s assassination directly linked to something as modern as a TV game show. Two years earlier, <a href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-i-saw-lincoln-sh/55871642\">Seymour gave an interview</a> about witnessing the assassination. His father, an overseer on a Maryland estate, and his boss Mr. Goldsboro needed to travel to Washington to check on “the legal status of their 150 slaves”. Seymour got to go along.</p>\n\t<p><img src=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg\" srcset=\"/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/i-saw-lincoln-shot.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"543\" border=\"0\" alt=\"I Saw Lincoln Shot\" /></p>\n\t<blockquote><p>It was going on toward supper time — on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 — when we finally pulled up in front of the biggest house I ever had seen. It looked to me like a thousand farmhouses all pushed together, but my father said it was a hotel.</p></blockquote>\n\t<blockquote><p>[…] When I finally had been rushed upstairs, shushed and scrubbed and put into fresh clothes, Mrs. Goldsboro said she had a wonderful surprise.</p><p>“Sammy, you and Sarah and I are going to a play tonight,” she explained. “A real play — and President Abraham Lincoln will be there.”</p></blockquote>\n\t<p>After Lincoln was shot, Seymour saw Booth fall from the balcony and run off.\n</p>\n \n\n <p><em>[This is a vintage post originally from Aug 2011.]</em></p>\n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Abraham%20Lincoln\">Abraham Lincoln</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/Samuel%20Seymour\">Samuel Seymour</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/The%20Great%20Span\">The Great Span</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/timeless%20posts\">timeless posts</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/TV\">TV</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49286",
"title": "What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power,...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049286-what-training-my-chaotic-",
"published": "2026-07-16T20:12:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T20:12:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/what-training-my-chaotic-dog-taught-me-about-power-control-and-human-beings\">What Training My Chaotic Dog Taught Me About Power, Control — and Human Beings</a>. “As any parent of a toddler knows, being morally liable for something that is incapable of moral liability is a fraught and stressful business.”\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49282",
"title": "Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes .",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049282-building-a-world-map-with",
"published": "2026-07-16T19:22:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T19:22:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://www.experimentlog.com/blog/building-a-world-map-with-only-500-bytes\">Building a World Map With Only 500 Bytes</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49345",
"title": "How Are Memories Stored Inside Your Brain?",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/how-are-memories-stored-inside-your-brain",
"published": "2026-07-16T18:29:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T18:29:00.000Z",
"content": "<p><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/PqtggjVAi8M\" title=\"YouTube video\" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>\n\t<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqtggjVAi8M\">This video from Kurzgesagt</a> is a great little primer on how the human brain stores memories.</p>\n\t<blockquote><p>Memory is one of the strangest abilities you possess. Your brain uses an incredibly complex biological system to preserve moments from your past that no longer exist, allowing you to revisit experiences from years ago. But memories are not always recordings of reality. In fact, every time a memory comes under the spotlight of your attention, it can melt and change a tiny bit.</p><p>What exactly is a memory, how is a moment in time stored inside your brain, and why does remembering something slowly rewrite the story of your life?</p></blockquote>\n \n\n \n <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/brains\">brains</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/neuroscience\">neuroscience</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/science\">science</a> · <a href=\"https://kottke.org/tag/video\">video</a></p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49343",
"title": "From the Brooklyn Public Library, a list of “the...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049343-a-list-of-the-250-most-in",
"published": "2026-07-16T17:39:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T17:39:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>From the Brooklyn Public Library, <a href=\"https://www.bklynlibrary.org/america-250/booklist\">a list of “the 250 most influential books in United States history”</a>. Incl. <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780441007462\">Neuromancer</a>, <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780679744726\">The Fire Next Time</a>, <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9781250808318\">Nickel and Dimed</a>, <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780394720241\">The Power Broker</a>, and <a href=\"https://bookshop.org/a/2966/9780140501827\">The Snowy Day</a>.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:kottke.org,2026-07-16:49279",
"title": "New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: Time...",
"description": null,
"url": "https://kottke.org/26/07/0049279-time-sensitive",
"published": "2026-07-16T17:00:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-16T17:00:00.000Z",
"content": "<p>New-to-me podcast that looks really interesting: <a href=\"https://www.timesensitive.fm\">Time Sensitive</a>, “a podcast featuring candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time”.\n</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Jason Kottke",
"email": null,
"url": "http://www.kottke.org/"
}
],
"categories": []
}
]
}