Kottke.org Posts and Links for Aug 16, 2024
Hi, Jason here. This newsletter is a digest of posts and links from kottke.org, published every Tuesday and Friday. It's not absolutely everything from the site, but it's durn close. Unsubscribing is easy if you'd like to get off this ride. As always, you can read kottke.org on the web, via RSS, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, and in several other ways. Ok, onto the links!
What's everyone reading these days? I finished the superb Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham and Miranda July's excellent All Fours within the last few weeks. I'm about halfway through Long Island Compromise... [kottke.org]
How Are Calories in Food Really Measured? "It's not just a matter of burning food to see how much energy is produced...you need to measure the output and compare it to the input." [kottke.org]
Ace drone video by Turkish photographer İbrahim Şimşek. "The wheat is laid out in the sun to dry before being grounded in the mill to make bulgur." [instagram.com]
Artificial General Intelligence Might Be Humanity's Last Invention. If AGI is achieved, "humanity is not ready for what will happen next — not socially, not economically, not morally." [kottke.org]
A website for taking selfies using NYC traffic cameras. "People can then use the traffic camera like a photo booth by posing for three seconds and tapping on the screen. The webpage will then show the most recent image from the traffic camera." [petapixel.com]
Jamelle Bouie: "If Democrats win control of Washington in November, they should make reforming our democracy a priority" because the Republicans' "ability to win power without winning votes is a powerful disincentive to change" their extremist ways. [nytimes.com 🎁]
I promise, your day will be better if you spend a few minutes with this letter from Nick Cave to a fan who is feeling cynical. "Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism." [kottke.org]
Not a joke: The Onion is bringing back its monthly print newspaper. It's $60/yr for the print subscription. [nytimes.com 🎁]
I'd missed that Time magazine is naming a "Kid of the Year" now and this year's recipient is 15-year-old scientist Heman Bekele, who has invented a soap that could treat and even prevent skin cancer. [kottke.org]
Saw this in the bookstore yesterday: The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World. It looks great — the nonfiction equivalent of fiction like Circe and A Thousand Ships that centers women in ancient mythology. [amazon.com]
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Kind of Bloop: An 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis, it's being released on vinyl. "A full circle moment to honor the weird little chiptune album that changed my life for the better." [waxy.org]
The Intense Process of Designing Political Campaign Logos. "It's a strange and fascinating agility sport, marked by limited information, a ticking clock, unimaginable pressures, and serious consequences. It's Iron Chef, but in Adobe Illustrator." [kottke.org]
Omer Bartov: "As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel." [theguardian.com]
A 4K time lapse drone video that "climbs" up Everest from the base camp at 17,400 feet all the way to the summit. [kottke.org]
Is Ben scrolling TikTok right now? "This site reveals, in real-time, whether I — artist and professor Ben Grosser — am currently scrolling TikTok. Think of it as a last-ditch effort, a sort of public confessional as therapeutic tool..." [stuckinthescroll.com]
A number of NYC restaurant wine buyers explain how they price bottles of wine on their wine list. "I generally stick with the norm as far as markups go: 3x to 3.5x." [punchdrink.com]
"When Google increased paid maternity leave to 18 from 12 weeks in 2007, the rate at which new moms left the company fell by 50%." Paid leave, universal healthcare, and related programs would be such a boon to workers & the economy. [fortune.com]
Building the world's fastest jigsaw puzzle solving robot isn't as easy as it sounds. But Mark Rober and his team spent a year perfecting it and then pit it against one of the fastest human solvers. The design and build process is fascinating. [kottke.org]
Recent CDC report: "Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths..." [cdc.gov]
👀 👋 🎉
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