2024

In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.

Always Go To The Funeral /via SwissMiss

The Death of Music Genres

People are following their “personal taste curation” instead of “mass consensus.” /via Jorge Arango

From Eternity! Eternity! by Vincent Glielmi. /via booooooom.com

A collection of ghost words …

🆕 Ghost Artists: “Spotify, the rumor had it, was filling its most popular playlists with stock music attributed to pseudonymous musicians—variously called ghost or fake artists—presumably in an effort to reduce its royalty payouts.” /via pixel envy

Ghost Hotels: “The “ghost hotel” nomenclature refers to an entire apartment building which is functionally a hotel because most or all units are short-term rentals instead of tenant-occupied.”

Ghost Network Healthcare: “…he, like millions of Americans, was trapped in a “ghost network.” As some of those people have discovered, the providers listed in an insurer’s network have either retired or died. Many other providers have stopped accepting insurance — often because the companies made it excessively difficult for them to do so. Some just aren’t taking new patients. Insurers are often slow to remove them from directories, if they do so at all. It adds up to a bait and switch by insurance companies that leads customers to believe there are more options for care than actually exist.”

Ghost Network Television: “Now MTV is a ghost. Its average prime-time audience of 256,000 people in 2023 was down from 807,000 in 2014, the Nielsen company said. One recent evening MTV aired reruns of “Ridiculousness” from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.”

Ghost Kitchen: “A virtual restaurant, also known as a ghost kitchen, cloud kitchen or dark kitchen, is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up based on phone and online ordering.[1] Virtual restaurants are stand-alone businesses that either operate out of an existing restaurant’s kitchen or from a separate kitchen set-up away from a restaurant.”

See also: American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists “That’s how I feel when I walk through the bare, people-less parking lots of my neighborhood to get to the grocery store. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen other pedestrians while making this trip. If not for the moving cars nearby, it would be like walking through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It’s an isolating experience, one that makes me feel very small and vulnerable.”

The art of Silvia Celiberti / Instagram / via booooooom.com

a recurrent theme is a fatigue with the style of self-narration that the platforms encourage — which, whether we realize it or not, has been heavily influenced by brand storytelling logics. We talk about ourselves like we’re products.

Posting Less

the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best preparation you can do at the level of an individual life is to boost your local resilience. To become a person of place. To connect with the people and land where you live. This is what we’re built to do.

How I became ‘collapse aware’. This is not a depressing read (or listen, the author read option was great)! /via Dense Discovery

Al Brydon

Kinopio is such a neat tool.

A “Christmas” album that resurrects each year. Example comment:

The last time my grandfather and I hangout together 2 Christmas’ ago, I had this on in the car and I’ll never forget when he told me how much he enjoyed The Grinch flip. It made me so happy. I miss him everyday now. What a good human. Rest in peace.

Cancel all my meetings, Said the Gramophone’s best songs of 2024 dropped!

“RENAISSANCE # 05” by Conrad Jon Godly via Colossal

A very gothic morning.

“Truly this book is in memory of my brother, Jeff. When confronted with hatred or violence, he used to say: I don’t get that station, man. His inner radio was all about oranges, dogs, and trucks. We always made up life on our own. I miss him every day.”

From the dedication of Mecca by Susan Straight.

↑ Mississippi River Elevation Study by Tim Wallace.

Listen to the world’s largest and oldest tree.

A list of things to love.

When I tell you the Taco Bell is haunted now, a poem.

r/TheNightFeeling, photos taken at night.

Near death experiences, ghostly visits, growing up in Alaska, this episode of Otherworld was pretty wild.

A cover of Folsom Prison by Rachel Goodrich.

Print a 2025 calendar on a single page.

IMG_0001 is a site where you can watch random (forgotten) YouTube videos from when iPhones had a built-in “Send to YouTube” button.

How (and why) filmmakers like Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan are using miniatures in their movies.

ui.land is a selection of websites, tools, engineers and designers to inspire, learn, and create. I can’t resist a good “list” site.

This is from American Squares by Leah Frances. Amazing work!

This map/diagram from the Parks book slaps. That is all.

From the Paynter Jacket Co. in 2020, but may be just as useful “care” guidelines for now. I’d add “Spend time with old friends” to the list as well. I was lucky enough to do that this past weekend and can say it recharges the batteries.

Future Community Jobs shares interesting open roles in nonprofit communications, content, journalism, fundraising and more.

“SUSA, the small conceptual electronic device can perform many of the functions of a smartphone, tablet or portable computer.” I’m dubious of all things AI, but the actual device is pretty neat. Shades of the Light Phone III.

Organic Software Directory lists software that has no external pressure (eg. from funding sources) to chase funding rounds, grow unsustainably, or to get acquired.

Log of the Bay is a LOG of radio traffic received on Marine VHF channels form a basement window in Oakland, California.

The romotow camping trailer swivels out to form a spacious deck lounge.

D-20 Stainless Steel is a watch that lets you roll a virtual 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20-sided die with the push of a button.

Vintage Tech Logos is a collection of found vintage tech logos circa 1985.

“Collection of found vintage tech logos circa 1985 (USA)”

“We constrain our imaginations when we subordinate our creations to names owned by fascist tycoons.”

Words like this presents beautiful passages of poetry in a beautiful, contemporary way.

Historical travel times from New York City to the rest of the U.S.

Salt Architecture + Interiors

Gallery of Tirana 2030: Watch How Nature and Urbanism Will Co-Exist in the Albanian Capital

Rhenen – Product — The Public Domain Review

“How often is it acknowledged that people thrive better in lower stimulus environments?”

- Lower stimulus environments | A Working Library

Akiya (vacant houses in Japan) “are becoming less like financial assets and more akin to natural resources, available to be harvested by those who wish put in the time and substantial effort to reclaim one from natural decay.”

A far-right attack on a community college reveals a blueprint for destroying higher ed

The problem goes far beyond a three-person majority on the trustee board of a small community college. NIC and many other institutions are in danger because, over the last decade and a half, a core group of extremists has slowly taken over the Idaho Republican Party in the same way that a parasitic wasp slowly takes over its host. This required no astroturfing or Koch-fueled cash infusions, just a regular, everyday indifference to hyperlocal politics. The tactic is underway elsewhere, but Idaho got a head start. This crisis is what happens when insurgency bears fruit.

Emphasis mine. Currently looking for more ways to be involved in my community.

Remind me later is a comic about “technological problems.”

it’s okay if you just pick one thing you really care about, and it’s okay if that thing is “being a good friend” instead of “maximizing your potential”

On what it means to not have time

Walkcast is an ever-changing podcast generated as you walk, revealing the hidden layers that surround you.

I don’t need these people’s psychodramas in my head anymore:

“The closest thing to a political point I want to make is that I’ve dedicated far too much brain-space, in recent years, to marinating in the psyches of the angry, cynical and damaged men currently ascendant in our politics – which is basically what you’re doing when you spend time on Twitter, idly surf online media, or consume most TV news.”

“The closest thing to a political point I want to make is that I’ve dedicated far too much brain-space, in recent years, to marinating in the psyches of the angry, cynical and damaged men currently ascendant in our politics – which is basically what you’re doing when you spend time on Twitter, idly surf online media, or consume most TV news.”

Mornings spent offline:

This is a recent development in the history of human civilization: To wake up with the whole world in your bed

Private “homemade” docs > AI slop:

While Google Docs and Maps are easily shareable, some creators keep them close to their chests. “The docs I make are usually a curation of my friends’, lovers’, and personal recommendations of the cities I’ve been to,” Held says. “For this reason, they’re kinda sacred to me.” She appreciates the time, effort, and gesture of a good city doc, and tries to repay the favor: If anyone shares a doc with her, she’ll offer one of hers in return.

Re-buttonization:

There seems to be this kind of richness of the tactile experience that’s afforded by pushing buttons. They’re not perfect for every situation, but I think increasingly, we’re realizing the merit that the interface offers.

• An illustrated guide to science-backed mood boosters.
• A zine about reclaiming your life from digital technology.
• A tool for searching independent websites.
• A collection of the “best” marketing headlines on the internet.
• Over the Garden Wall’s 10th anniversary stop motion short.
• Max Vogel Gonzalez’s illustrations.
• An experiment with giving out potatoes to trick or treaters.
• A concept to break procrastination.
• Some objects I covet: Nike C1TY “Surplus” shoes, El Oso Bear Tee, the Kobo Clara Colour, and the book Assembling Tomorrow.

In 1976, a television crew filming an episode of the show “The Six Million Dollar Man” descended on a rundown funhouse in Long Beach, California. While filming, they accidentally broke the arm off a wax dummy. Except it wasn’t a wax dummy. It was a real body. The body of a notorious train robber from the early 1900s, named Elmer McCurdy

What a wild story from The Atlas Obscura Podcast!

Any code I’ve written, any glib digital creation, disappears into the infinite feed. But a playground will stubbornly stand for the next twenty years, pointing to big ideas in computer science. It’s something I think about often.

A playground to outlast the feed

De La Soul opened a donut shop for their latest video “Oodles of O’s”. The video features cameos by artists, actors and personalities, all to honor the legacy of Dave, aka Trugoy the Dove.

IKEA Catalog from a Near Future

Some design fiction on the " …possible evolutions of home life, consumer trends and needs, and related topics in the categories of domestic life, food, urban life, travel, leisure, and entertainment."

Halloween by Bo Bartlett /via MLTSHP.

More things of the spooky variety if you are interested.

You Only Have One Life : r/LiminalSpace

Samwise Gangee Backpack by Brad Hansen

Alex Tomlinson

@jonbilous • Scenes in downtown Worcester

OtherNetwork:

OtherNetwork is a new type of cultural institution that connects independent art spaces worldwide.

Forums Are Still Alive, Active, And A Treasure Trove Of Information:

Here are the Internet forums that are still alive and kicking and full of information and interesting people.

“Hell isn’t other people. Hell is people trying to make a group decision. And decisions are fucking exhausting.”

- How to make choices

“The networks we use to communicate across fields and distances, to find our friends and learn from people unlike ourselves—and to organize ourselves to respond to acute crises and long, grinding institutional failures—are the same networks that are making so many of us miserable and/or deranged.”

- into the wreck

The networks we use to communicate across fields and distances, to find our friends and learn from people unlike ourselves—and to organize ourselves to respond to acute crises and long, grinding institutional failures—are the same networks that are making so many of us miserable and/or deranged.

Into the wreck

“There has never been a shortage of people willing to make other people suffer so they can build a monument to themselves.”

“Paper Apps are a fun, smart alternative to screen time. Check out our solo games like DUNGEON and GOLF, as well as gamified tools like TO•DO and NUTRI•TRACK. For the full experience, we recommend grabbing a couple of Pencil Dice as well!”

Websites, Done Cheap “More convenient than a new hobby!”

“If you want readers to do something, tell them what it is.”

“vexing equations with missing variables and euphemistic names. There are numbers everywhere, and they mean nothing”

“all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less.”

Peter Fischli / David Weiss: How to Work Better

“Octopuses would also punch fish to keep the group moving. If the group is very still and everyone is around the octopus, it starts punching, but if the group is moving along the habitat, this means that they’re looking for prey, so the octopus is happy. It doesn’t punch anyone,” Sampaio said.”

- Octopuses seen hunting with fish and punching fish that don’t cooperate

Remakes and sequels are “… enterprises very purposefully stood up for the specific intent of reminding us how great those previous experiences were. “Remember this?” each movies asks. “Wasn’t it great? Here it is again.” It’s as if, instead of sending us on a new holiday abroad, they’re showing us a carousel of vacation slides from great trips we took many years ago. The only “new” thing here is the sale of another movie ticket.”

“A new YouGov study reveals exactly how positively and negatively the population perceives various descriptions to be.”

A public group journal. Pretty neat concept!

“Most fields have a problem with ‘ghost knowledge’, hard-won practical understanding that is mostly passed on verbally between practitioners and not written down anywhere public.”

“See lightning strikes in realtime nearby your area. Get free online access to maps of former and current thunderstorms. A contribution by Blitzortung.org and contributors.”

“A sceptical enquiry into urban legends, from Atlantis to the hollow Earth conspiracy, and everything in between.”

Not Built For This is a 6-part series from 99% Invisible. It explores how climate change is laying bare the vulnerabilities in the American built environment and how communities across the country have been left to bootstrap their own survival.

ytch.xyz

Flip through (YouTube) channels like the old days. /via bencrowder.net

Photo by Asako Narahashi from her collection half awake and half asleep in the water. /via notes.husk.org

“I like to describe my job in terms of “The Door Problem”. Are there doors in your game? Can the player open them? Can the player open every door in the game? Or are some doors for decoration? How does the player know the difference?”

The Door Problem /via barnsworthburning.net

A new edition of Things to Click! This edition covers an 8-bit lens, community connection, research as fun, suburbs’ as horror movies, and more - all jam-packed!

American suburbs are full of ugly, empty, liminal spaces: spaces you are not meant to linger in or enjoy. They’re the creepy hallways of the built environment, and you can’t feel comfortable traversing them unless you’re zooming past them in a car.

American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists

This Crystal Fragment turns everything you see into 8-bit Pixel Art. /via bencrowder.net

America’s 7-Elevens to become ‘Japanese style’: “Japan’s 7-Eleven locations – referred to as konbini – have a different vibe. There, they put a focus on “tantalizing food,” according to TODAY. Items found at Japanese 7-Eleven stores include onigiri (rice balls), fried chicken, sushi, egg sandwiches, fresh pastries, mochi and hot bar items”

fireworks

The internet isn’t for humans anymore. Bots use the internet more than we do; use shapes design.

The internet isn’t for humans anymore

Another Friday, another lump of links for your clicking pleasure. In this issue: saving things, minor league baseball team names, and more.

Across town:

Summer starts

Here are some things for you to click, entries include hand drawn sunspots, googly eyed library robots, and more. You can subscribe via email or RSS.

Here are some things to click for the 22nd week of 2024.

Another edition of Things to Click for your Friday! Subscribe via email or RSS if you are so inclined.

If the web is now a metaphorical barren wasteland, pillaged by commercial interests and growth-at-all-costs management consultants, then I’m all the more motivated to keep my little patch of land lush, and green, and filled with rainbow flowers.

— My own little patch - Rach Smith

The scale of the algorithm exceeds even our own understanding; its returns benefit only its owners and leave the rest of us awash in noise and bereft of understanding.

— Unscalable, Hand-Crafted Lists of Links - Christopher Butler

Every place I’m from is gone because it’s not just a place, it’s a place at a certain time. It would take a time machine to go back.

— Should I move back to France? - Mike Monteiro

“Every place I’m from is gone because it’s not just a place, it’s a place at a certain time. It would take a time machine to go back.”

airtraveldesign.guide

A resource for air travel designers, policy makers and enthusiasts, that describes the design of artifacts / spaces / systems that impact the passenger experience of air travel.

Boring Sound Kit

A sound kit for prototyping and play.

www.fastcompany.com/3047828/w…

linkpantry.com

A collection of links on various topics.

A man and his cigar on whatever comes our way

Air ︎ Travel Design Guide The Air Travel Design Guide is a guidebook for airport stakeholders, designers, and air travel enthusiasts, which…

With backing from Atari’s cofounder, an engineer-navigator brought high-tech driving directions to cars–during the Reagan Administration.

I just sent Things to Click for this week! Subscribe via email or RSS if you are so inclined.

Inflatable Moon Base (dezeen.com)

By way of rocket summer (are.na)

Cargo

Ordered back to the office, top tech talent left instead, study finds.

wapo.st/3UXOJDe (gift link)

Abandoned blogs

www.are.na/lucy-pham…

(mostly) abandoned blogs

The latest version of Things to Click has been sent! Subscribe via email or RSS if you are so inclined.

Jane Kenyon and I were married for twenty-three years. For two decades we inhabited the double solitude of my family farmhouse in New Hampshire, writing poems, loving the countryside. She…

May is the unofficial start of the pottering season. For the uninitiated, pottering involves wandering aimlessly around the house or garden in a pleasingly disassociated meditative state, straightening pictures, wiping plant leaves, or de-bobbling jumpers.

The author imitates a publication. Featuring the usual suspects: interesting internet links, enjoyable media, some art. New this time: a poetry section!

A neat little ASCII town to explore

arborville.glitch.me

A 3D Model of the now deceased Beauly Elm. The tree was “… rumored to be older than Britain itself.” Via Atlas Obscura.

Beauly Priory is one of three priories founded in Scotland in about 1230 for monks of the Valliscaulian order. The area around Beauly, meaning ‘beautiful place’, includes several mature trees, including this ancient elm in the graveyard. It is thought to be around 800 years old, making it one of the oldest Wych Elms in Europe and a piece of heritage in its own right. Sadly, the tree has been suffering from Dutch elm disease in recent years and very little of its fabric is living material. To learn about visiting Beauly Priory, go to our website. Rae Project - Beauly Elm - 3D model by Historic Environment Scotland (@HistoricEnvironmentScotland)

Surrounded by dreck, the digital citizen is discovering that the best way to find what she used to get from social platforms is to type a URL into a browser bar and visit an individual site.

The Revenge of the Home Page (newyorker.com)

More of this is being good at sales than anyone wants to admit.

Erika Hall on the job of a designer (linkedin.com)

Bradley Ziffer’s personal site (bradleyziffer.com)

A view source web (viewsource.info)

Piping at a subway station in Tokyo (migurski.tumblr.com)

Heat Death of the Internet

Enumerating all the ways the internet currently sucks. Example:

You buy a microwave and receive ads for microwaves. You buy a mattress and receive ads for mattresses.

No one wants this.

The article does end on a positive note:

You read the Wikipedia entry and there is a lot of useful information supplied by a community. One of the sources cited is a non-fiction book. You go to your local library’s website and although they don’t have the exact book, they do have others by the same author. You place a hold on two of them, then go get your shoes on.

/via Chris Glass

You want to order from a local restaurant, but you need to download a third-party delivery app, even though you plan to pick it up yourself. The prices and menu on the app are different to what you saw in the window. When you download a second app the prices are different again. You ring

Illustrations by Ben Pearce, more on his site and Instagram.

How a Connecticut middle school won the battle against cellphones (🎁 link)

Gabe Silver, another eighth-grader, echoed that sentiment. When the pouches first arrived, “everyone was miserable and no one was talking to each other,” he said. Now he can hear the difference at lunch and in the hallways. It’s louder. Students are chatting more “face to face, in person,” Gabe said. “And that’s a crucial part of growing up.”

I know there has been pushback against The Anxious Generation’s use of research, but I tend to agree with Zoë Schiffer from Platformer. Too much phone time (for kids or adults) just feels bad:

At the same time, we shouldn’t set aside the lived experiences of so many everyday smartphone users. For many of us, constant connectivity feels bad, and doomscrolling can heighten feelings of anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, getting outside and spending time with loved ones face to face can be the antidote to despair. I’m sympathetic to researchers who call attention to that dynamic, even if disputes remain about which claims are grounded in unassailable evidence.

Brutalist churches (dezeen.com)

— COSMIC 🐙 SLOP (@afrocosmist)

Jamie McGregor Smith has spent the last five years capturing brutalist and modernist churches across Europe for his book Sacred Modernity.

For Guardabosques, the mind-boggling variety of bats inspires ‘Amiguitos de la Oscuridad,’ or “little friends of darkness.”

Music for Programming is nice. Reminds me of the old Left as Rain. 🤞 for the return of music blogs.

A selection of paintings by Cable Griffith from his latest exhibition, “Sightings.”

Is the kottke.org comment section the best community on the web? I’m not a member yet, but I have been a lurker and it seems like a great place to hang out digitally.

Seven Minute Demos:

People do demos of something they’ve built, or give a lightning talk on whatever topic they like. The demo/talk just has be less than 7 minutes long. There’s no minimum time limit. People can talk for 1 minute, 3 minutes, or take the whole 7. The time limit also lowers the barrier to entry and makes it less intimidating for people to sign up and speak.

Yeah, 7 minutes feels about right!

The navigation for issue 3 of the HTML Review is too fun! Oh yeah, good links as well.

MY COMMENTS ARE IN THE GOOGLE DOC LINKED IN THE DROPBOX I SENT IN THE SLACK

Too real.

Some things for week 16 of 2024.

• Anyone else enjoy looking at the tracking details of a package. Watching an item wend it’s way through a system of warehouses, trucks / trains, and multiple states. Maybe I’m the only shipping infrastructure nerd out here.

• “And yet, making observations is a good starting point for giving feedback. The trouble arises when we assume that those observations are both the start and the end, that we’re walking along a very short track.” From What you see by Mandy Brown. Can I say how much I appreciate everything changes? Lot’s of thoughtful writing!

• The website for the restaurant, Madeline’s is just so great. I was thinking the receipt concept would break down with deeper navigation, but nope!

• Lake Superior should really be considered an inland sea that is “wild, masterful, and dreaded.”

• Ok, I want this van.

The Analog Web: “Owning your own piece of the Internet (to borrow a recent phrase from Anil Dash) is itself a radical act. Linking to others at will is subversive all on its own.”

Timex x Raised By Wolves

Paper and pencil: “The tool which allows you to plan, record, create, schedule, sketch, brainstorm and write a love note. Never be without the pair.”

The Death of the Follower: “Something that’s not contorting our online personas in the image of the algorithm to reach ~10% more strangers who probably don’t care, and won’t stick around.”

We Need More Calm Companies: “The path to success isn’t to “grind harder” but to build products that people want that you can sell with healthy profit margins.”

Detail from a geological map of Vermont.

Source: are.na

Standard Ebooks: “A volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost.” /via Austin Kleon

The bus terminal for Huelva: “The bus platforms have been designed around a large circular courtyard juxtaposing the garden and the buses. The result is one of the most outstandingly attractive parts of the plan.”

Taliban Militants Fed Up With Office Culture, Ready to Quiet Quit: “Now, the men find themselves shackled with the bureaucracy of running a country as they work civilian jobs and security positions, spend too much time in traffic and on Twitter, and yearn for the tranquility of village life.” Not an Onion article.

Little Owl is part of the 50 birds project.

End of NY

The Nautilus House.

The truth is that whether or not AI determines our future will be decided by a confoundingly small minority of humans who nevertheless control a counfoundingly vast majority of the world’s wealth. This is not a technology issue, really, but one of structural inequality.

From Out Random the AI.

See also, Jon Stewart on the False Promises of AI

Darial Gorge by Ivan Aivazovsky

“looking down at an undulating fog bank that completely obscures the valley below. It’s like a mysterious sea with a forest-blanketed peak to the rear on a landmass ascending out of it. I don’t know what’s below the gray waves. Whatever is down there, it’s a different place from up here. I’m on a sky island”

“Night Driving” for Volkswagen. Man, I forgot ads used to have the capacity to be amazing. See “Milky Way” also for Volkswagen. Via @genmon on accessing something other: “escape time, escape selfhood, whether that’s driving in the dark or sitting in a hotel lobby or walking.”

Best printer 2024, best printer for home use, office use, printing labels, printer for school, homework printer you are a printer we are all printers

The Sliding Scale of Giving a Fuck

Cherry blossoms by @sadtearsfish

High up on the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe mountains, rarified ecosystems abound in the sky islands of the Trans-Pecos

This research and photography project is an attempt to develop a typology of dwindling “vacant” spaces of Bushwick, Brooklyn. Of course so-called “vacant” land isn’t really vacant. It lacks the all-encompassing artifice associated with consistently maintained, human-centered habitats. It’s also void of certain culturally recognized markers of progress, from cement and steel foundations masking and […]

Source: presentandcorrect.com

No joke, loveless grilled cheese sandwiches suck.

Little Nuggets of Pride

They Didn’t Just Want to Build a Housing Shelter. They Wanted to Shift Public Perception:

Changing the way the public perceives shelters informed the design. From the nearby highway, the first glimpse you get of the structure includes an impressive mural by Australian artist Guido van Helten stretched across its 3,000-square-foot facade. A passerby might think this is an art museum, a shop, or possibly a school.

Nice clouds tonight.

Cross My Heart is a fun Frogger remake.

Organic Software Directory.

Why The Tokyo Metro Plays Bird Whistles.

Sea of Knowledge.

Eucalyptus and Sagebrush via Floorless

(via Pacífico — Felipe Bedoya)

🏘️ Some of these Great British sheds are just awesome.

🎮 Cross My Heart is a fun Frogger “Demake” that you can play in the browser.

🛖 Bothies are “simple shelters in remote country for the use & benefit of all who love wild & lonely places.”

🤖 “Hiding on Slack isn’t all that hard, apparently; you just have to pretend you’re a bot. That’s what IT Brew’s Tom McKay did when he left Gizmodo in 2022, and he went undetected by the site’s management for months.”

📺 “Few cable and satellite networks are a force anymore, the byproduct of sudden changes in how people entertain themselves. Several have lost more than half their audiences in a decade. They’ve essentially become ghost networks, filling their schedules with reruns and barely trying to push toward anything new.”

Walden Pond “is a little paper zine that comes once a month in the mail. It’s full of a selection of the articles you’ve saved to Pocket.”

Jason Kottke on latest design of kottke.org:

In thinking about how I wanted kottke.org to look and, more importantly, feel going forward, I wanted more social media energy than blog energy — one could also say “more old school blog energy than contemporary blog energy”. Blogs now either look like Substack/Medium or Snow Fall and I didn’t want to pattern kottke.org after either of those things. I don’t want to write articles — I want to blog.

My response? 🤘!!!

Knowing Machines “is a research project tracing the histories, practices, and politics of how machine learning systems are trained to interpret the world.”

The art of Felipe Bedoya is pretty amazing. Example:

I’m always on the lookout for good instrumental music to work to and Modern Country by William Tyler is that.

“It’s the fact that you recognized the thing that is important, not the thing itself. It’s your radar.”

Dead Simple Sites is “the most minimal sites on the web, curated in one place.”

The Golden Age of Web Design, some of these sites are still 🔥.

A week in Oaxaca

Some weird little things.

Mixtape garden let’s you make mixtapes with others.

RSS Joy is a little RSS aggregator. Reminds me of start.io.

A collection of alternative or niche search engines.

A list of blog platforms. Lots of options!

Pixel Poetry let’s you release your inner Austin Kleon.

On why Werner Herzog’s memoir finishes mid-sentence, it has to do with bullets and hummingbirds.

A time capsule of tumblelogs from 2007.

I miss human curation. Same, I’m doing my best at thingstoclick.com!

In Loving Memory of Square Checkbox.

Lee Friedlander’s black-and-white photography is odd, occasionally nsfw, and interesting. /via meanwhile

Feeds for your RSS reader. Works well with fraidyc.at.

“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement.

“Fast Car” is not a relic of its time but tragically timeless.

AIxDESIGN LIBRARY is a “library of books on the topics of technology, AI, society, and design.” Nice site.

“Real people sometimes pay to access content, or donate to support a nonprofit publisher, or watch an ad. Those things can be annoying but pay for the content to be produced in the first place. If we strip them away, there’s no writing, information, or expression for the app to summarize. A world where everyone uses an app like this is a death spiral to an information desert.”

- Stripping the web of its humanity

It’s lava like a live volcano
Might wild out like Lyle Alzado

Wax Raps on Bicycle

An “indoor waterfall and garden/forest at Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport.” via What’s Your Favorite Airport Amenity?

Lit Tapes:

Playlists compiled from songs referenced in books.

Listen to music, audio books, and podcasts on a purpose-built device with a tried-and-true form factor, a familiar user interface, and no interest in your data.

(via Tangara)

“I used to listen to your podcast”:

I get it.

It’s fine. I take no offense. In fact, that’s part of the magic of podcasts! There’s an ebb and flow to them.

by Matt Schu

“AI is good at making scary images. Even if the prompt lacks all hints of horror kitsch, you need to get ready to see or feel something disturbing when you look at AI images. It’s like a spell. Part of the scariness comes from the cancer-like pattern that reproduces the same ornament without considering its meaning and consequence.”

- AI Art is The New Stock Image

Source: @technicallymims on threads.net

Hundreds of people arm themselves with vegetables in Piornal, Spain, each year to pelt an evil figure of legend.

Turnips at the ready: Jarramplas festival

“Triple Seven” by Photographer Anne Lass

“A set can tell us what a character cannot. There is no screen time for lengthy exposition about every detail that is Gwen Stacy, but through Set Decoration we can get hints of the events and details of her life that shaped her.”

From Patrick O’Keefe‘s dive into production design. 

Atari Pong Sinclair Hat

It’s 2024 and FiiO is making a portable cassette player with all-analog features

via ArtStation by Maojin.Lee

via Bjorn Steinbekk

“Life is a never-ending succession of NFL teams adding ping pong tables w/stories about how they’re finally coming together as a family and enjoying each other’s company, and NFL teams removing ping pong tables w/stories about how they’re finally taking football seriously.”

- Dan Steinberg