High Horse: The Black Cowboy is a “pop culture and historical documentary [that] confronts and reclaims the Wild West while revealing the story of the Black cowboy — a history that has largely been untold”. [kottke.org]

Going to Art Galleries Can Improve Wellbeing. “Enjoying original works of art in a gallery can relieve stress, reduce the risk of heart disease and boost your immune system, according to the first study of its kind.” [theguardian.com]

A zoomable, fully searchable archive of every single page of every single issue of BYTE magazine from 1975-1998. “I hope seeing everything in single, searchable place offers a unique perspective.” (via @jonudell.bsky.social) [byte.tsundoku.io]

Notes on Harold Brodkey’s 1992 essay Notes on American Fascism, which was dismissed at the time but now seems prescient. [thepointmag.com]

A two-hour version of the music played in the Wellness Center in Severance. “Please try to enjoy each listening session equally.” [kottke.org]

A Journey to Vietnam to Uncover the Origins of Phở. “If you want to find the origins, you must go to Nam Ðịnh province and a village called Vân Cù.” [ace.aaa.com]

Video clip of a 17-year-old Notorious B.I.G. freestyle rapping on a corner in Brooklyn. It’s all right there…the talent, the confidence, the skills. [kottke.org]

If you’re looking for a typeface with Radio Shack logo vibes, try Megazoid. [djr.com]

Coulou’s vinyl cafe (no. 2). “Even though we’re traveling from jazz to funk to middle eastern and Indonesian 70s disco then hip hop, then folk and even more genres, to me this felt like a cool experience of finding the throughline in music…” [youtube.com]

“I wish we could ignore Bill Gates on the climate crisis. But he’s a billionaire, so we can’t,” says George Monbiot. “His [recent climate] essay reads like nothing so much as a peace offering to Donald Trump.” [theguardian.com]

here's something cool: the son of the letter carrier on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood (McFeely) is a real letter carrier for the USPS and he's our letter carrier and he's awesome

What Mamdani Learned from His Mother’s Films. “How the ethics of the acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair echo in her son’s politics.” [pghrev.com]

A hypnotic display of robots making tiny springs. “Lemme just bend that a little for you.” [kottke.org]

“A trio of photographers in New Zealand have captured images of ‘red sprites’, or red lightning, one of the rarest light phenomena in the world, in which luminous crimson flashes appear in the sky.” [theguardian.com]

“Members of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra playing Tango Jalousie while eating the worlds hottest chili peppers” (ghost peppers, Carolina Reapers). This is what elite professionalism looks like. [youtube.com]

I Visited Every Country in the World Without Flying. Here Are Eight Things I Learned. “What you want and what you need are not the same thing.” [theguardian.com]

Mushrooms Playing Music. “The attached sensors measure bio-electrical fluctuations in the mushroom. The fluctuations are converted into signals that control the robotic arms.” [kottke.org]

New exhibition at the British Library in London: Secret Maps. “Some of the maps on display reveal hidden landscapes, offering insight into places long forgotten or erased from official histories. Others are purposefully deceptive…” [events.bl.uk]

Royal Family is a daily game where you have to position six chess pieces on a board so that none of the pieces attack each other and there’s only a single piece in each marked zone. [coffeefirst.games]

TIL: “Key man risk refers to the potential threat a company faces when a crucial employee, often a key executive or expert, is no longer available.” I think KDO has key person risk, although maybe I overestimate my VORP. [wrightpeoplehr.com]

Where’s Maggie Simpson when you need her?

Cole Escola (Oh, Mary!) is writing the screenplay for a Miss Piggy movie. Jennifer Lawrence & Emma Stone are producing. (Crossing my fingers for a Pigs in Space scene…) [variety.com]

The Daft Punk Experience in Fortnite is not quite new music from Daft Punk, but it is a cool new interactive audiovisual experience that deserves to be on their official discography. [kottke.org]

Space Type Generator is “a kinetic type generator” that’s a hell of a lot of fun to mess with. [spacetypegenerator.com]

Low Skilled Workers Are a Myth. “[Minimum wage jobs] are not low-skill. They simply require different skills, ones that not just anyone possesses.” (via @tressiemcphd.bsky.social) [dailytarheel.com]

This breakdown of a scene from On the Waterfront takes a close look at Marlon Brando’s face & gestures and explains how he changed acting forever. [kottke.org]

OREO! OREOOREO! RE! ORE! OREORE! OREOREOREOREORE! [youtube.com]

Earth’s got a new moon! (Sort of.) “This asteroid is part of an elite cosmic club which acts like moons but aren’t.” If asteroid, why moon acting? [syfy.com]

Aiming for Fullness. “This is why I always say: Aim for fullness if you want happiness.” [kottke.org]

Australia has so much solar that it’s offering everyone free electricity. “The program would require electricity retailers to provide free electricity to everyone for at least three hours a day…” [electrek.co]

America in a single tweet

Macbook Air M4s Are on Sale Again. This is a fantastic computer (I’m typing on one right now). The base model is only $749 (an absurdly low price for so much computer) and the 15” w/ 16GB RAM, 512GB HD, and 12MP camera is $1,149. [kottke.org]

Researchers created a roof paint (a “nano-engineered polymer coating”) “that not only reflects up to 97% of the sun’s rays, but also passively collects water”. And kept the interior of the building 6°C (~11°F) cooler. [newatlas.com]

Lego will be releasing a fan-created bowl of ramen as an official set. [blocksmag.com]

New book just out: The Cory Arcangel Hack. “This book explores three dominant arrangements in Arcangel’s work — the flow-break hack, the flow-remix hack, and the flow-parody hack…” [mitpress.mit.edu]

There are some internet projects for which no one is clamoring, but when completed produce a masterpiece of creativity. This Rollercoaster Tycoon video tying the tracks to Defying Gravity (from Wicked) is one such masterpiece. [youtube.com]

These Bruce Lee USPS stamps are pretty great too! [kottke.org]

Check out these lowrider stamps the USPS will be releasing in 2026. [kottke.org]

Thing I was not expecting: a 4-star review of Predator: Badlands from Matt Zoller Seitz; he calls it “an exceptional sci-fi action thriller with memorable characters, beautiful and terrifying animals (and plants), a structurally airtight script…” [rogerebert.com]

France enshrines need for consent into rape law in wake of Gisèle Pelicot case. The bill states that consent must be “free and informed, specific, prior and revocable”. [bbc.com]

Edith Zimmerman: How I Broke My Drinking Habit. “How do you fill your time after deciding to get sober?” See also an extended convo on the How to Be a Better Human podcast. [youtube.com]

Berghain by Rosalía, feat. Björk & Yves Tumor. Amazing surrealist classical pop + Björk as a tiny bird. “I feel this needs to replace whatever was stolen from that museum in France.” [kottke.org]

Here's next week's cover of the New Yorker

Here's next week's cover of the New Yorker

America’s Dumbest Billionaires Fail to Stop Zohran Mamdani. “…a bunch of rich guys who have been comically out of touch with normal people for many decades, and more recently have blowtorched their brains into a smoking pile of ash on Twitter…” [prospect.org]

Decision Desk HQ calls the NYC mayoral race for Zohran Mamdani. (Eric Adams: 0.3% of the vote. Worst mayor ever.) [election-night.decisiondeskhq.com]

I wrote about my time in the holy Japanese town of Kōyasan: Every Tree Can Be a Buddha. “You don’t want your pilgrims getting lost — how are you going to find eternal salvation if you can’t even make it to the temple?” [kottke.org]

“Stone Simulator is a meditative idle game where you live as a rock enduring endless seasons and absurd events. Survive storms, unlock quirky achievements, and observe a serene, ever-changing world…” Includes a multi-player mode. [store.steampowered.com]

Pebbling: sending little links and memes to the people that you love. Derived from the behavior of gentoo penguins, who “pick up pebbles in their beak and carry them to their partners or potential partners as a gift”. [redsetteragency.com]

Papers is a 3-minute animated short film made by Yoshinao Satoh from what must be thousands of newspaper scans, set to Different Trains by Steve Reich & Kronos Quartet. [kottke.org]