kottke.org
@kottke.org
📤 30534
📥 318
📝 7076
home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
https://kottke.org
Nothing Works in Trump’s America — Except Racism. “Trump is objectively bad at running the government, but he’s objectively good at running a Klan rally, and his supporters value the latter so much that they forgive the former.”
[thenation.com]
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Nothing Works in Trump’s America—Except Racism
In this week’s Elie v. U.S., our justice correspondent explores Trump’s stunning incompetence. Plus: Baseball is back—for now.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/newsletter-laguardia-tsa-baseball/
about 2 hours ago
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The 2026 issue of the HTML Review, “an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web”.
[thehtml.review]
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the html review 05
the html review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web
https://thehtml.review/05/
about 4 hours ago
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Mark Simonson reminisces about when he discovered type design. “The idea of coming up with an original alphabet design fired my imagination. And learning that it was possible to design type professionally was a revelation.”
[marksimonson.com]
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The Day I Discovered Type Design
Fifty years ago this month, March 1976, at 20 years old, is when my interest in type design began.
https://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/the-day-i-discovered-type-design/
about 6 hours ago
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“By focusing its narrative on the tech industry itself, Halt and Catch Fire’s staying power has only increased. The story it tells still has something to say about our present-day reality.”
[dirt.fyi]
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“Dude, the Internet.”
Prestige Silicon Valley television.
https://dirt.fyi/article/2026/02/dude-the-internet
about 8 hours ago
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For the latest episode of Design Matters, Debbie Millman interviews Timothy Snyder about “how we misunderstand freedom, why truth and empathy are under threat, and what this political moment asks of us”. Millman is an *excellent* interviewer.
[podcasts.apple.com]
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Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Design Podcast · Updated Weekly · Design Matters with Debbie Millman is one of the world’s very first podcasts. Broadcasting independently for over 15 years, the show is about how incredibly creative people design the arc of their liv…
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timothy-snyder/id328074695
about 10 hours ago
0
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Endgame for the Open Web, brought on by LLM bots, content summarizing while driving no traffic, increasing paywalls for information of all kinds, locking down APIs (due to AI abuse), attacks on Wikipedia, disruption of open source communities, etc.
[anildash.com]
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Endgame for the Open Web - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
https://www.anildash.com/2026/03/27/endgame-open-web/
about 11 hours ago
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NASA’s LRO found a new crater on the Moon…it’s 225 meters across and 43 meters deep. “According to predictions based on other lunar landmarks, a crater that big should form only once in 139 years.”
[sciencenews.org]
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In a rare event, the moon got a massive new crater
A crater as wide as two American football fields formed in spring 2024, a size expected roughly once a century. A NASA orbiter got to watch.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-new-crater-nasa-orbiter
about 12 hours ago
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The future of energy is being decided now. "The US is basically aligning itself as the last big petrostate. We're going to go down with the fossil fuel ship, and China is aligning itself as the first electrostate."
[kottke.org]
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The US Is the Last Big Petrostate
In a conversation with economist Paul Krugman, climate journalist David Roberts asserts that the United States and China are going in different directions in energy, one forwards and one back. One of the grand interna
https://kottke.org/26/03/us-the-last-big-petrostate
about 13 hours ago
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Help! My Favorite Athlete Is an Idiot (Alt headline: When Sports Heroes Have Terrible Opinions). “Just root for the jersey and not necessarily the nitwit wearing it?”
[nytimes.com]
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Opinion | When Sports Heroes Have Terrible Opinions
Sports used to be an oasis from political squabbling. But now the bad opinions of star athletes have become impossible to escape.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/opinion/sports-politics-athletes-opinions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.xCEB.T63tNo8s9DtB
about 14 hours ago
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Astronaut Michael Fincke was rendered unable to speak while on the ISS, prompting an evacuation to Earth. “We’re almost 100% sure that this is a space-related thing.” Uh, I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi recently; this is *exactly* how It starts.
[nytimes.com]
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Astronaut’s Condition That Led to Space Station Evacuation Remains a Mystery
The astronaut, Michael Fincke, experienced a medical emergency in January that rendered him unable to speak, he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/28/science/nasa-astronaut-medical-evaluation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.W1A.U255.7DhaSPrHSLDK
1 day ago
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A new study shows that since 1990, the United States has caused $10 trillion in global climate damages. China is responsible for $9T. “Our emissions have caused damage not only to ourselves, but pretty substantial damage in other parts of the world.”
[theguardian.com]
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US has caused $10tn worth of climate damage since 1990, research finds
US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist says
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/25/us-climate-damage-research
1 day ago
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Jesus Clarifies Return Will Be Strictly Limited To Carpentry Business. “My sole focus during this Second Coming will be various woodworking projects and not the establishment of a messianic kingdom.”
[theonion.com]
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Jesus Clarifies Return Will Be Strictly Limited To Carpentry Business
JERUSALEM—In an effort to soften the blow for a human race eagerly awaiting His glorious arrival, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, clarified Monday that His return would be strictly limited to His carpentry business. “While I will soon appear once more upon the earthly realm, My sole focus during this
https://theonion.com/jesus-clarifies-return-will-be-strictly-limited-to-carpentry-business/
1 day ago
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I love these looping GIF animations from perfectl00p that use Windows 3.1 elements (Minesweeper, Solitaire, SkiFree, Notepad).
[threads.com]
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PERFECTLOOP (@perfectl00p) on Threads
Persona
https://www.threads.com/@perfectl00p/post/DTn-GUzkXI_
1 day ago
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reposted by
kottke.org
Ultra-Rare DJ Set From Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter. You can watch the entirety of his collab DJ set with Fred Again on YouTube.
[kottke.org]
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Ultra-Rare DJ Set From Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter
For his recent London run of shows, Fred Again coaxed Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter out of his helmet and in front of the decks for a 2-hour collaborative DJ set. And you can watch the whole thing on YouTube.
https://kottke.org/26/03/rare-dj-set-daft-punk-thomas-bangalter
3 days ago
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reposted by
kottke.org
Carlo Zottmann
3 days ago
Folks, the first 5 mins alone 🤘🏼🤩
#FredAgain
#DaftPunk
#DJset
add a skeleton here at some point
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Ultra-Rare DJ Set From Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter. You can watch the entirety of his collab DJ set with Fred Again on YouTube.
[kottke.org]
loading . . .
Ultra-Rare DJ Set From Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter
For his recent London run of shows, Fred Again coaxed Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter out of his helmet and in front of the decks for a 2-hour collaborative DJ set. And you can watch the whole thing on YouTube.
https://kottke.org/26/03/rare-dj-set-daft-punk-thomas-bangalter
3 days ago
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Test footage from a slime simulator game made by former Epic Games employee Asher Zhu. You try to stay hydrated in the hot Tokyo summer by showering and drinking beverages from vending machines.
[youtube.com]
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I made a physically correct slime simulator
update on my Slime game💚 You sent your trusty minion into the nearby human city to gather intel. But it's summer.. keeping that slime hydrated is a serious commitment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_3mvosV_oU
4 days ago
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A list of chain restaurants whose names contain unusual structures, presented in decreasing order of how appealing it would be to eat in such a structure. (White Castle, Waffle House, etc.)
[onefoottsunami.com]
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A List of Chain Restaurants Whose Names Contain Unusual Structures
Obviously, words like “restaurant” or “grill” do not qualify as unusual.
https://onefoottsunami.com/2026/03/18/a-list-of-chain-restaurants-whose-names-contain-unusual-structures/
5 days ago
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There’s an upside-down “H” on the facade of a Frank Lloyd Wright building in Illinois. Here’s a deep dive into how it got there.
[inconspicuous.info]
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H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery
The famed architect made a surprising error on one of his most notable buildings — or did he? A deep dive to uncover the truth.
https://www.inconspicuous.info/p/h-bomb-a-frank-lloyd-wright-typographic
5 days ago
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A comparison of different sorting algorithms (bubble, merge, heap, timsort). You can run them one at a time or race all seven.
[tools.simonwillison.net]
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Sorting algorithms
https://tools.simonwillison.net/sort-algorithms
6 days ago
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Stephen Colbert is co-writing a Lord of the Rings movie. “The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo. Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure…”
[deadline.com]
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Stephen Colbert Set to Adapt Next 'Lord of the Rings' Movie
'Late Show' host has a gig after leaving the CBS latenight show: He's adapting the next 'Lord of the Rings' movie.
https://deadline.com/2026/03/stephen-colbert-lord-of-the-rings-1236764923/
6 days ago
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“Feminism is far from dead, but people love to write its obituary,” writes Rebecca Solnit. “In reality, it’s naively defeatist to assume millennia of patriarchy…could be or should have been fully disassembled in one lifetime.”
[theguardian.com]
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The one thing everyone gets wrong about feminism
People love to declare the death of the women’s movement, pointing to the ‘failure’ of #MeToo or the Epstein files, but don’t give up the fight just yet, writes Rebecca Solnit
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/feminism-isnt-dead-rebecca-solnit
7 days ago
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We watched Zoolander last night and right before the Derelicte DJ throws on Relax, there’s a 2-second snippet of something that sounded super familiar. It took me a bit to track it down, but it’s trance banger Free by Mono Culture.
[youtube.com]
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Mono Culture - Free (Extended Vocal Mix) [Nerve 1998]
Mono Culture - Free (Extended Vocal Mix) Label: Nerve Released: 1998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFOA6jBBcU0
7 days ago
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A new edition of On Liberty, a canonical work of political philosophy, “is the first to officially name Harriet Taylor Mill as a co-author alongside John Stuart Mill”.
[dailynous.com]
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“On Liberty” Now Officially Has Two Authors - Daily Nous
An edition of On Liberty published this month is the first to officially name Harriet Taylor Mill as a co-author alongside John Stuart Mill. The new volume is edited by Piers Norris Turner (Ohio State), Jo Ellen Jacobs (Millikin), Helen McCabe (Nottingham), Lilly Osburg (Karlsruhe Institute of Techn
https://dailynous.com/2026/03/19/on-liberty-now-officially-has-two-authors/
7 days ago
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“COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show”. Not surprising when you look at excess mortality numbers for that period.
[scientificamerican.com]
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COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show
We have severely undercounted the number of COVID deaths, scientists say
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-killed-150-000-more-people-in-its-first-two-years-than-official-toll/
7 days ago
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“Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software.”
[plaintextaccounting.org]
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Plain Text Accounting (PTA) - plaintextaccounting.org
Welcome! Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software, such as Ledger, hledger, or Beancount. This site collects the PTA community's tools, docs and practices. It is maintained by Simon Michael (hledger projec
https://plaintextaccounting.org/
8 days ago
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19
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Just renewed my membership for The Kid Should See This, a genuine internet treasure.
[thekidshouldseethis.com]
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The Kid Should See This • Smart videos for curious minds of all ages
Over 7,000 Videos: TKSST shares stories about art activities, astronauts, auroras, ballet, chocolate, classical music, composting, cookies, dance, desserts, farms, food chains, fossils, harvesting, instruments, the Milky Way, the moon, NASA, national parks, orchestras, the sun, the Overview Effect,
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/
8 days ago
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22
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I'm taking some time off. In the meantime, we're doing another open thread: what's going on in your world? What are you working on? Reading or watching or listening to anything good these days?
[kottke.org]
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It’s an Open Thread #2
Hey folks. The site is going to be very light this week and early next week — I’m spending some time with my family and accompanying my daughter on some spring break college visits. I’ll be back to full force
https://kottke.org/26/03/its-an-open-thread-2
8 days ago
3
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An interview with Andy Weir about the accuracy of the science in Project Hail Mary. “I’m proud that the only true violation of physics in the story is something you have to go down to the quantum level to find.”
[nytimes.com]
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A ‘Hail Mary’ for Earth, Built on Solid Science
Andy Weir discusses his science-fueled novel “Project Hail Mary,” which has been adapted into a film that opens in theaters on Friday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/science/hail-mary-andy-weir.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UFA.YzOO.C4gLpJuMR6BF
8 days ago
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“Stop naming things after people, living or dead. No schools. No streets. No courthouses. No fountains. Just quit it.”
[fritinancy.substack.com]
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Stop naming buildings (and streets, and parks, and ships, and mountains) after people
Eventually, inevitably, someone will decide that your well-meaning gesture was a terrible error.
https://fritinancy.substack.com/p/stop-naming-buildings-and-streets
8 days ago
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reposted by
kottke.org
This is great: MTV Rewind allows you to watch music videos from the 70s to the 20s, organized by decade. There are also “channels” for 120 Minutes, MTV Unplugged, Yo! MTV Raps, etc. 33,000+ videos in all. Nostalgia bomb.
[kottke.org]
loading . . .
MTV Rewind
MTV Rewind is an interface through which you can watch music videos from the 70s to the 20s, organized by decade. There are also “channels” for 120 Minutes, MTV Unplugged, Yo! MTV Raps, Headbangers Ball, and the first
https://kottke.org/26/01/mtv-rewind
3 months ago
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reposted by
kottke.org
Shel Silverstein’s short poem Homework Machine (1981) was prescient about the limitations of LLMs. “I guess it’s not as perfect / As I thought it would be.”
[kottke.org]
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The Imperfect Homework Machine
Shel Silverstein’s Homework Machine was one of my kids’ favorite poems of his when they were little. First published in 1981, the short poem turned out to be rather prescient about AI, especially the earlier LLMs, whic
https://kottke.org/25/12/the-imperfect-homework-machine
3 months ago
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A cartographer posits that our maps should be messier. “The idea that we must have a crisp line dividing one country from another is often inaccurate when it comes to what states are actually claiming.”
[chathamhouse.org]
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‘We need messier maps’
From President Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland to Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea, cartographer William Rankin tells Mike Higgins how maps sometimes don’t help geopolitical decision-making.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2026-03/we-need-messier-maps
11 days ago
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2006
kottke.org
: RSS feed, member supported, free to read for everyone, lengthy blogroll to other great blogs 2026
kottke.org
: RSS feed, member supported, free to read for everyone, lengthy blogroll to other great blogs
add a skeleton here at some point
11 days ago
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This is a diabolical phishing attack. “That generated a real case ID, and triggered real Apple emails to my inbox, properly signed, from Apple’s actual servers.”
[ma.tt]
loading . . .
Gone (Almost) Phishin’
This is a little embarrassing to share, but I’d rather someone else be able to spot a dangerous scam before they fall for it. So, here goes. One evening last month, my Apple Watch, iPhone, an…
https://ma.tt/2026/03/gone-almost-phishin/
11 days ago
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This is hilarious. A man was pictured in two different photos on the same front page of a local newspaper: one of him painting a holiday sign and a gs station security cam still of him taking a wallet.
[nowiknow.com]
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The Man Who Made the Front Page Twice
They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And at first, that proved true for Michael Millhouse, a sign painter from Lewiston, Idaho. In December 2007, he was out painting Christmas greetings on storefront windows around downtown. A photographer from the Lewiston Tribune happened to spot him a
https://nowiknow.com/the-man-who-made-the-front-page-twice/
11 days ago
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“Some countries are better positioned to weather this energy crisis than they would have been just a few years ago. That’s because of the rapid growth of renewable energy, battery systems and electric vehicles…”
[npr.org]
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Oil and gas prices are soaring. Some countries are ready with solar panels and EVs
As an energy crisis grows, some countries are more prepared because of renewable energy and electric vehicles. Pakistan reduced its reliance on imported natural gas because of the growth of solar.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/16/nx-s1-5732984/energy-iran-war-solar-pakistan-crisis-renewable-evs
11 days ago
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"Of the current 200 nations in the world, the British have invaded all but 22 of them."
[kottke.org]
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Britain Has Invaded All but 22 Countries
Of the current 200 nations in the world, the British have invaded all but 22 of them. The lucky 22 include Sweden, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Bolivia, and Belarus. The full analysis is available in Stuart Laycock’s book
https://kottke.org/12/11/britain-has-invaded-all-but-22-countries
11 days ago
1
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An online museum of Chinese cigarette packaging art.
[ciggies.app]
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中国卷烟博物馆 · Chinese Cigarette Museum
The only comprehensive English-language archive of Chinese cigarettes — 3,200+ SKUs across 200+ brands with pack imagery, specs, pricing, and ratings. Browse Zhonghua, Panda, Liqun, Yellow Crane Tower, and thousands more.
https://www.ciggies.app/
11 days ago
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The words shark (the animal) and shark (a predatory scoundrel) may have two different origins. “This would make ‘shark’ possibly the only word borrowed from a Mayan language into English directly.” (via @kissane.myatproto.social)
[bsky.app]
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Word Family Friday (@wordfamilyfriday.bsky.social)
The English word "shark" was two different meanings: a predatory cartilaginous fish and a predatory scoundrel. We sometimes understand the predatory scoundrel to be by metaphor from the predatory fish, but evidence suggests these two meanings have entirely separate origins—German … and Maya?? 🧵 1/18
https://bsky.app/profile/wordfamilyfriday.bsky.social/post/3mgfwl4qxvk2j
11 days ago
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Parachord is “a new kind of music player that invites all your streams, local audio files, and playlists scattered across multiple services to the same party”. Interesting!
[parachord.com]
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Parachord
Your music is everywhere... now you don't have to be.
https://parachord.com/
12 days ago
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Every Fashion Designer, Explained. If you don’t know anything about fashion, this video will get you up to speed quickly. Vivienne Westwood, Nigo, Issey Miyake, Miuccia Prada, Dapper Dan, Hubert de Givenchy, etc. etc.
[youtube.com]
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Every Fashion Designer, Explained
This video is an overarching guide on getting familiar with the most historically important, best of all time fashion designers, and most importantly why their work has shaped fashion and all fashion weeks at all major cities since. Luxury fashion would not be the same without the likes of Lee Alexa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjOMFo_026A
12 days ago
0
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300+ issues of the UK music magazine NME from 1969-1983. The ads alone are incredible. (via @bourgwick.bsky.social)
[archive.org]
12 days ago
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“The Tenth Muse is an art discovery engine. Over 120,000 artworks from museums and institutions — searchable by feeling, mood, atmosphere, era, and medium.”
[10m.co]
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10M — Feel inspired to create again.
The Tenth Muse connects your taste to timeless art, giving you ideas that feel new, personal, and alive.
https://www.10m.co/
12 days ago
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Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. There’s the 1631 Bible that says “thou shalt commit adultery” but James Joyce resisted some of his corrections: “These are not misprints but beauties of my style hitherto undreamt of.”
[smithsonianmag.com]
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Typos Have Plagued Us for Centuries. Just Ask the Publishers Who Printed the Seventh Commandment as 'Thou Shalt Commit Adultery' in 1631
A new exhibition at Yale Library explores the history of typos across five centuries. Visitors will see corrections that were listed inside copies of works by James Joyce, Upton Sinclair and Nicolaus Copernicus
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/typos-have-plagued-us-for-centuries-just-ask-the-publishers-who-printed-the-seventh-commandment-as-thou-shalt-commit-adultery-in-1631-180988353/
12 days ago
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Paris now has a cycling network bigger than Amsterdam and “more daily trips in Paris are now made by bike than by car”.
[economist.com]
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In Paris’s mayoral race, it’s drivers against cyclists
A decade of greening leaves the capital less congested but more divided
https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/03/12/in-pariss-mayoral-race-its-drivers-against-cyclists
12 days ago
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From above, the Sicilian city of Centuripe looks like a person.
[kottke.org]
loading . . .
The Human City
Photographer and drone pilot Pio Andrea Peri captured this overhead photo of a Sicilian city called Centuripe. Perched atop hilltops, the city looks like a person from above — even on Google Maps. (via daily overview)
https://kottke.org/26/03/the-human-city
12 days ago
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Gender Play in Nineteenth-Century Theater. “The most popular Shakespearean roles for women in the tragic repertoire were Romeo and Hamlet, but women also played Macbeth, Cardinal Wolsey, Shylock, Richard III, and Iago…”
[daily.jstor.org]
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Gender Play in Nineteenth-Century Theater - JSTOR Daily
In the 1800s, women playing tragic leads captivated crowds while critics struggled to reconcile talent with gender norms.
https://daily.jstor.org/gender-play-in-nineteenth-century-theater/
12 days ago
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A study pitted adults vs little kids to see which was better at making paintings in the style of Jackson Pollack. “The researchers found that the kids’ paintings made in this manner resembled genuine Pollacks more than did those from adult painters.”
[nautil.us]
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The Math Shows Jackson Pollock Painted Like a Child Would
The Math Shows Jackson Pollock Painted Like a Child Would: And that might be what made the artist so famous.
https://nautil.us/the-math-shows-jackson-pollock-painted-like-a-child-would-1249335
12 days ago
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Dawn Wilcox’s quest to chronicle the life & death of every woman in the US killed by a man. “Did women have no choice, Wilcox wondered, but to wander the world hoping never to step on a landmine of a man?”
[magazine.atavist.com]
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14,445 and Counting
Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America.
https://magazine.atavist.com/author/christa-hillstrom
13 days ago
0
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