Now We Begin

Yesterday, Customer Commons and MyData Global launched MyTerms at a London event correctly titled The Only Way to Get Real Privacy Online. (I explain only and real at that link.) MyTerms is the nickname for 7012-2025 – IEEE Standard for Machine Readable Personal Privacy Terms.…

This guy built an autonomous flying umbrella (powered by drones) that automagically...

This guy built an autonomous flying umbrella (powered by drones) that automagically follows you around in the rain. (A possible counter to a personal raincloud?)

Spurious Correlations

For his Spurious Correlations project, Tyler Vigen compares data sets that are the very definition of “correlation is not causation”. For instance, the number of Walmart stores worldwide correlates very strongly with the current distance between the Earth & Saturn. Or Google…

The Best 5 Viltrox Lenses for Nikon Users

Nikon cameras are great, and their lenses work perfectly well with the mirrorless cameras. However, when it comes to third-party options, Tamron seems like an ideal pair, given how the autofocus works. Viltrox is another player who has been in the game, and they continue to offe…

Minnesota community leaders are calling for an “ICE Out” general strike and...

Minnesota community leaders are calling for an “ICE Out” general strike and protests on Friday, January 30. “No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE.” KDO will be participating.

A huge collection of graphic design archives and resources, like The People’s...

A huge collection of graphic design archives and resources, like The People’s Graphic Design Archive, Book Cover Archive, and Letterform Archive. This is great!

“There isn’t a lot of reliable information out there about how to...

“There isn’t a lot of reliable information out there about how to buy a gas mask, especially for the specific purpose of living under state repression. But hopefully after reading this guide you’ll feel equipped to make an educated decision.”

Prettifying Graffiti

For a project called Tag Clouds, street artist Mathieu Tremblin paints over graffiti tags and makes them more legible. The result looks like when Word says that the Hardkaze and Aerosol fonts are used in the document you’re trying to open but are missing from your compute…

“AI skeptics need to update their priors: Plenty of cause for concern,...

“AI skeptics need to update their priors: Plenty of cause for concern, plenty of room to hit these companies for unethical behavior, resource demands, etc, but we are so, so far past the era of ‘stochastic parrots’”.

Vimeo was recently acquired by a private equity firm and you know...

Vimeo was recently acquired by a private equity firm and you know what comes next: Vimeo Lays Off ‘Most’ of Its Staff, Allegedly Includes ‘the Entire Video Team’.

This is tomorrow

“While something is “tomorrow,” institutions can hold it at arm’s length: debate it, study it, delay it, run pilots, treat it as optional. The moment it becomes “today,” the debate stops being about feasibility and becomes about distribution, governance, and conseque…

Watts Up

You're welcome NASA: Asteroid 2024 YR4 will certainly miss Earth and has a 96.2% chance of missing the Moon. I share this in faint hope that when one sees BS on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or social media wherever saying the asteroid is going to have a spectacular impact on th…

Leica Breaks Tradition With Its First-Ever 35mm Noctilux f1.2

Leica lenses have been in a league of their own. The company has incorporated some iconic names that have changed the way we look at image-making. Examples such as the Leica 50mm f2 Summicron-M ASPH and the Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f2.8 prove that high image quality comes at a price…

Leica 35mm f1.2 Review: The Best 35mm Lens on the Market

I'm going to be frank here: I don't know how to start this review. And that's because all that I'd end up saying is that I love this lens. The Leica 35mm f1.2 that I had in for review felt like some of the most fun I've had with photography in a while. The big Japanese manufactu…

Your Friends Are Still Acting Like Everything is Normal in America. What...

Your Friends Are Still Acting Like Everything is Normal in America. What Do You Do? “The first obligation we all have is an epistemic one: It’s to know what kind of reality we are actually inhabiting.” (gift link)

Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education. “We have a very focused and...

Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education. “We have a very focused and intense effort across the board to set America back a generation, at least, for education, health, research, climate policy.”

Thing I did not know I was looking for (but totally was):...

Thing I did not know I was looking for (but totally was): a deep dive into ASCII rendering. Super interesting!

Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood

Towards the end of 2025, I wrote: I think I might change things up in 2026. Instead of waiting until the end of the year to write all the little reviews at once, I think I should write a review as soon as I finish a book. Instead of holding onto my reckons for months, I can j…

Lomography Launches Two of the Year’s Most Unique Lenses

Lomography has been known for doing this differently than everyone else for a very long time. And with that said, they've just launched their new 27mm f1.7 and 135mm f2.4 Joseph Petzval lenses. This is a higher-end line than their previous petzval lenses, and makes photography r…

This Panasonic Camera is Nearly 20 Years Old and Holds Its Value

The year 2025 changed our perceptions of cameras. While a new camera is what most people want, there have also been instances when one prefers to work with vintage gear. An example of this is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, a camera launched over 15 years ago that continues to comm…

How I Changed as a Photographer From 10 Years Ago

I've been a working photographer in some capacity or another for 21 years now. I think that it's incredibly important to gauge yourself as a photographer. And by that, I don't mean that you should compare yourself to others -- comparison is the theft of joy. But instead, I think…

Chemical Formula

Vintage Tourist Maps of Japan

The gang at Present & Correct found a cache of pre-war tourist maps of Japan while rummaging around in Tokyo’s Jinbōchō used book district. They photographed them for a new self-published book called Paper Trails. Tags: books · design · Japan · maps · Pa…

The Copyrightability of Fonts Revisited by Matthew Butterick, a type designer &...

The Copyrightability of Fonts Revisited by Matthew Butterick, a type designer & copy­right liti­gator. “If a court were asked to directly consider the copy­righta­bility of an ordi­nary digital font, it would likely rule in the nega­tive.”

Clint Smith visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery,...

Clint Smith visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. “The goal of the sites is to force visitors to confront the violence of the past without the counterweight of a more uplifting narrative to assuage their distress.”

Bruce Springstein wrote & recorded a song about Minnesota’s battle against tyranny:...

Bruce Springstein wrote & recorded a song about Minnesota’s battle against tyranny: Streets Of Minneapolis. “Our city’s heart and soul persists / Through broken glass and bloody tears / On the streets of Minneapolis.”

David Lynch Went to the First Beatles Concert in the US (1964)

In one of his final on-camera interviews, David Lynch recounts going to the very first Beatles concert in the US in 1964. I ended up going to this concert. I didn’t really have any idea that it was the first concert. I didn’t have any idea how big this event was. And it w…

The Most Beautiful Full-Frame Camera Just Got Nicer

I remember when I first saw the Panasonic LUMIX S9 in the green colorway. I was so excited that I had to call it in. To this day, it's still on my shelf, and I continue to use it. It is still one of the most beautiful full-frame cameras on the market and that's available within…

Is Nikon Reviving its Iconic 120-300mm Lens For Z Mount?

When it comes to telephoto lenses, Nikon has some exciting options: the 400mm f2.8 TC, the 600mm f4 TC, and the 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S. While each is great in its own way, it appears it is not entirely satisfying for Z system users. Per a new report, Nikon seems to be keen on r…

Why do RSS readers look like email clients? “When we applied that...

Why do RSS readers look like email clients? “When we applied that same visual language to RSS (the unread counts, the bold text for new items, the sense of a backlog accumulating) we imported the anxiety without the cause.”

A collection of “well-made apps and sites” gathered by Marcin Wichary....

A collection of “well-made apps and sites” gathered by Marcin Wichary.