kottke.org - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Harvard Tells Trump to Go Pound Sand. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” [kottke.org]

submitted 29 minutes ago • 0 comments

Ars Technica is doing a three-part series on the history of the internet; here’s part one, which covers ARPANET, IMPs, TCP/IP, RFCs, DNS, CompuServe, etc. “It was the first time that autocomplete had ruined someone’s day.” [arstechnica.com]

submitted 59 minutes ago • 2 comments

Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained by ICE in Vermont today as he arrived to take his US citizenship test. “He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.” [kottke.org]

submitted 19 hours ago • 3 comments

In a meeting today, dictators Donald Trump & Nayib Bukele talked about building Salvadoran concentration camps for US citizens and defying a Supreme Court order to return Abrego Garcia from unlawful detention. “You gotta build about five more places.” [techdirt.com]

submitted 18 hours ago • 1 comment

I do not have the imagination to understand how anyone can applaud something like this.

submitted 19 hours ago • 2 comments

On his way to his citizenship test.

submitted 19 hours ago • 11 comments

Mohsen Mahdawi was unlawfully detained by ICE in Vermont today as he arrived to take his US citizenship test. “He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.” [kottke.org]

submitted 19 hours ago • 3 comments

Sinners, by director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), is out this week and it’s endearing to watch him nerd out about all the different types of film, aspect ratios, and projection options the movie will be available in (IMAX digital & film, 70mm, etc.) [kottke.org]

submitted 19 hours ago • 1 comment

Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? “The fluidity and warmth of human-centered thinking through the use of circles is perhaps the most elegant way anyone has ever described making a logo that resembles an anus.” [velvetshark.com]

submitted 21 hours ago • 6 comments

Are you looking for work? Are you looking to fill a job opening? I’m once again running a makeshift job board in the comments of this blog post so if you’re looking for work or employees (full-time, freelance, whatever), come by and drop your links here. [kottke.org]

submitted 21 hours ago • 1 comment

M. Gessen: “This is my radical proposal for universities: Act like universities, not like businesses. Spend your endowments. Accept more, not fewer students. Open up your campuses and [bring] education to communities. Create a base. Become a movement.” [nytimes.com]

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

“Once you give up the idea that we are all equal before the law and have the right to due process, you have given up the whole game. You have admitted the principle that some people have more rights than others.” [kottke.org]

submitted 23 hours ago • 0 comments

Letter from a high-ranking FBI official who recently resigned. “I took an oath to defend the Constitution. The unqualified leaders Donald Trump chose to lead the bureau act like they took an oath to Trump personally.” [substack.com]

submitted 23 hours ago • 0 comments

I was chuffed to see that KDO’s own Edith Zimmerman has a cartoon in the New Yorker today! Go Edith! [newyorker.com]

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

George Monbiot: Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature. “Economic inequality breeds resentment and a desire to get even. That’s what fuels support for even incompetent regimes.” [theguardian.com]

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

I am catching up on what happened in season one of The Last of Us by watching and reading recaps. Season 2 starts tonight on HBO & Max at 9pm ET. [youtube.com]

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

New Study Finds Average American Stands No Chance Against What’s Coming. “The typical American is toast.” [theonion.com]

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Regressive tax with opportunities for Trump grift & kickbacks.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

This is absolutely perfect

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

The Tariff Saga Is About One Thing. “Trump’s desire to dominate others is the driving psychological force of his administration.” [nytimes.com]

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Cy Kuckenbaker compressed five hours of landing planes into 30 seconds of video. [kottke.org]

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

The NYT folks I know get testy about all the criticism re: framing & headlines, but then they casually drop a 36 Perfect Hours In Bavaria With Goebbels banger like this and… 🤷‍♂️

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

The Overton window is now moving at 99.999% the speed of light

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

I was scared to first put up a queer pride flag (red state resident) but the biggest surprise was how much more often people stopped by my house asking for help: stuck motorists, unhoused neighbors, etc. Some told me outright that the flag made them guess that I cared about them and that's correct

submitted 5 days ago • 30 comments

Post a movie from the year you turned 18

submitted 5 days ago • 11 comments

All the headlines are following Trump’s messaging of a “pause”, but the fact is that goods imported from practically every country in the world are taxed at 10% and Chinese goods at 125%. These damaging tariffs are all Trump’s doing. Nothing is “fixed”. [theguardian.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Clean energy powered 40% of global electricity in 2024, report finds. “The milestone was powered by a boom in solar power capacity, which has doubled in the last three years.” [theguardian.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

What It Feels Like, Right Now. “It’s hard to focus. It’s hard to focus on the things in front of me, that I need to do. It’s hard to focus on the news, because it’s not just one thing, it’s a hundred things, news like fire ants…” [terribleminds.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid. “The administration could create its own gulags with no more judicial review than existed when Stalin did the same thing in the Soviet Union.” [nytimes.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

If You Heard What I Heard is a collection of Holocaust stories as told by survivors to their grandchildren. “Our generation is the last to ever hear our grandparents’ stories firsthand, in the same room, over the course of decades, directly from them.” [ifyouheardwhatiheard.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

You could also swap "Insiders" for "Signal chat group". Untraceable corruption.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

From the NYT’s Overlooked obituary series: Katharine McCormick, Force Behind the Birth Control Pill. In the 20s, she smuggled 1000 diaphragms into the US in her luggage and later funded the development of the birth control pill. [nytimes.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Putting aside debates about macroeconomics for a moment In a way, everything you need to know about why tariffs and why not is right here in this trading chart from this afternoon.

submitted 5 days ago • 16 comments

The List Keepers, on the informal efforts to keep track of the toll of AIDS in the theater industry. “Sometime around 1982, McAssey had opened a pocket-size spiral-bound diary and written LOST FRIENDS at the top of a page.” [vulture.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Former Substack creators say they're earning more on new platforms. "Paying someone $100,000 a year to host your blog. Come on buddy. I said I hate being a businessman, but even I know that's fucking stupid." via @monteiro.bsky.social digiday.com/media/former...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I would not be surprised if the price America has to pay for full participation in the global economy after this is a change in leadership and a change in system of government (to one that's not so susceptible to oligarchic autocracy).

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

ICE director’s dream: “Squads of trucks rounding up immigrants for deportation the same way that Amazon trucks crisscross American cities delivering packages […] like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.” This is pure evil. (via @marisakabas.bsky.social) [michiganadvance.com]

submitted 5 days ago • 5 comments

OTOH, this administration is world class in the sheer density of punchable faces. I mean, look at this guy! Haymaker city.

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

I am going to pop a vein here bc Trump is still holding the American economy (and a chunk of the global economy) hostage. He just went from waving his gun around to putting it in the holster. The market is fucking delulu; +2700 for the Dow while we're all still hostages!

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

With the trade war unleashed by Trump’s tariffs, the US is speedrunning Brexit and other hyper-inflationary financial crises. “Like what if your money just suddenly didn’t work anymore.” [kottke.org]

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Can somebody just fucking do something about this

submitted 6 days ago • 7 comments