Chindōgu: The Japanese Art of “Unuseless” Inventions

Chindōgu is the Japanese practice of inventing things that are not exactly useful but neither are they useless; they’re more unuseless, a term coined by chindōgu’s originator Kenji Kawakami. Some examples are tiny umbrellas for shoes, chopsticks with a tiny fan on them to…

My Car Is Becoming a Brick. “Cars used to be entirely mechanical...

My Car Is Becoming a Brick. “Cars used to be entirely mechanical objects” but now “certain models are destined to age their way out of compatibility with the latest software” (like smartphones). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

To Explore Violence Against Women, She Drugs Herself Onstage. “It’s an attempt...

To Explore Violence Against Women, She Drugs Herself Onstage. “It’s an attempt to explore whether performance can give form to the disorganizing experience of trauma, its gaps and obsessional thinking.”

What’s the difference between an artist and a creator? “An artist is...

What’s the difference between an artist and a creator? “An artist is a self-directed artistic expressor” vs. “a creator is a self-directed market expressor”. (Wondering where I fit on the 4-quadrant graph…) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Pope’s Leica Proves Hype Culture Has Hit Rare Cameras

Vienna's Leitz Photographica Auction has been the best place for collectors. From iconic cameras to stunning lenses, each edition brings something exciting to the forefront. The 47th edition concluded with a new record, but it also highlighted how far the hype culture can influe…

Does Harrison Ford Know His Lines?

Vanity Fair sat down with Harrison Ford and asked him to identify which of his lines he’d said in which movie, mostly as a way of getting him to talk about his career. A few observations: I love that they trolled him with The Star Wars Holiday Special…and he knew the line…

Small Japanese Pickup Truck Shows Bigger is Definitely Not Better. “Kei trucks...

Small Japanese Pickup Truck Shows Bigger is Definitely Not Better. “Kei trucks are city-sized, not highway-sized.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Panasonic Pushes Big LUMIX S Series Update for Hybrid Shooters

Panasonic cameras continue to be ideal options for hybrid creators. Not only are they very popular for their video needs, but they also offer an exciting feature: real-time LUTs. For those who have recently purchased Panasonic's full-frame mirrorless camera, there is also some g…

Laowa Announces The 35mm f2.8 Zero D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro

Laowa has officially added a new lens to its tilt-shift lineup. The new Laowa 35mm f2.8 Zero D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro is the widest and most versatile tilt-shift lens Venus Optics has made. Complementing the well-known 50mm and 100mm tilt-shift lenses in their catalog, this new l…

America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle. “Social media monetization programs...

America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle. “Social media monetization programs have incentivized this effort and are almost entirely to blame.” Team USA just scoring own goal after own goal these days.

Requiem for Early Blogging. “I still look for people with early blogger...

Requiem for Early Blogging. “I still look for people with early blogger energy, though — people willing to make an effort to understand the world and engage in a way that isn’t a performance, or trolling, or outright grifting.” 💬 Join the discussion on…

The Best Screenless Digital Cameras of 2025

A new genre of camera has popped up in the past few years: the screenless digital camera. It started really with the original Camp Snap and then a whole bunch of others started popping up. Now, it's a robust category with lots of options for photographers to choose from. I'll ad…

Speaking at ThingsCon 25 in Amsterdam: “Back to BASAAP”

I’ll be giving the closing keynote at ThingsCon 2025 in Amsterdam on Friday December 12th. Thank you Iskander Smit and crew for inviting me! The working title I gave them: “Back to BASAAP” “BASAAP stands for “Be As Smart As A Puppy” – something I originally wrote o…

The Panasonic Lumix FZ47: Was 12 Megapixels Enough?

When it was first announced in 2011, the Panasonic LUMIX FZ47 was considered a “fun” bridge camera that sacrificed some of the features that made its sibling, the FZ150, a premium bridge camera. Among the features sacrificed on the altar of better affordability were the lack…

The Fujifilm X Pro 1 Was Basically the Digital Contax G2

"With a design that harkens back to the old Contax G2, it also has stunning retro-style good looks," we said in our Fujifilm X Pro 1 review. But you don’t buy a camera like this just for the looks unless you’re Justin Bieber. Behind the very good glass currently available fo…

The Surprising Benefits of Giving Up. A recent meta-analysis reveals that “adjusting...

The Surprising Benefits of Giving Up. A recent meta-analysis reveals that “adjusting our goals in response to stress or challenges, rather than grinding on, is often ‘a more appropriate and beneficial response’”. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

A thread of “feel good” YouTube channels to watch. E.g.: “CinemaTherapy. Two...

A thread of “feel good” YouTube channels to watch. E.g.: “CinemaTherapy. Two former college roommates (one a filmmaker, the other a therapist) analyze movies.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

One of Sony’s Most Iconic Cameras: In a Preset

We totally miss the days of the Sony a900, and that's why we worked hard to recreate the look it gave in our preset. Our presets are designed to make editing a minimal task so you can get back to shooting! We're in love with Retro Digital. Luckily, that's when we founded the web…

Poetic Textural Landscapes by Lee Hyun-Joung

I’ve posted about Korean artist Lee Hyun-Joung’s swirling and swooping work before, but I recently saw one of her pieces in person and decided to feature some of her most recent stuff. It’s always a good time to look at art. Tags: art · Lee Hyun-Joung…

Lots to like about Variety’s list of 100 Best Comedy Movies of...

Lots to like about Variety’s list of 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time, but Coming to America at #46 and no Trading Places at all make me question the list’s credibility. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Fifteen Years

How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein...

How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails. They reveal “a power elite practiced at disregarding pain” who have “learned to look away from so much other abuse and suffering” to protect their network of power.

What’s All the Fuss About Pluribus?

So I’ve been watching Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus on Apple TV and this review from Inkoo Kang resonated with me (emphasis mine): Millions of offscreen casualties aside, it’s clear that Gilligan is aiming for a lighter — and stranger — outing than…

“The Little Movie That Couldn’t”: ‘Mallrats’ Turns 30. I can’t remember if...

“The Little Movie That Couldn’t”: ‘Mallrats’ Turns 30. I can’t remember if I was one of the few that saw this in the theater, but I loved this movie on VHS/DVD. Haven’t seen it for, what, 20 years though… 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

“Today, the only naked bodies that many Americans will likely ever see...

“Today, the only naked bodies that many Americans will likely ever see are their own, a partner’s, or those on a screen. Gone are our unvarnished points of physical comparison — the ordinary, unposed figures of other people.” 💬 Join the discussion on ko…

Meet the Aphantasics, Those Who Can’t See Mental Images

We’ve talked before about how some people can picture things in their heads quite vividly and others can’t at all. The latter group has a condition called aphantasia. As soon as I close my eyes, what I see are not everyday objects, animals, and vehicles, but the dark unde…

A New Era Begins

Imagine no more cookie notices. Imagine no more Internet of Nothing But Accounts. Imagine no more surveillance panopticons. Imagine no more privacy in the hands of everybody but you. Imagine no more creepy adtech. Then thank MyTerms. When the time comes. We start that clock toda…

Here’s Your Chance To Buy Leica At Discounted Price!

Leica Camera has been coming up with new ways to engage with a newer audience. The company recently announced a flexible payment plan, which is a great way for the company to become accessible to a younger group of photographers. And today, they continue to explore this with the…

Should You Bother with the Sony a7 V over the Canon EOS R6 III?

There are tons of reports going around about the Sony a7 V right now. And the big thing that everyone is wondering about is whether or not they should get the Sony a7 V or the Canon R6 III. We've seen already with the R6 III that photographers don't really care about it as much…

Activists are role-playing ICE raids in games like Fortnite & GTA to...

Activists are role-playing ICE raids in games like Fortnite & GTA to teach people what to do IRL situations. “Many people may not have seen an interaction with ICE yet, it’s a way to get folks to know or get used to what that might look like.”

The World Lost the Climate Gamble. Now It Faces a Dangerous New...

The World Lost the Climate Gamble. Now It Faces a Dangerous New Reality. “We are heading into ‘overshoot’ within the next few years. The world is going to become more turbulent and more dangerous. So, what comes after failure?”

The Bad UX World Cup 2025. “Build a date picker with bad...

The Bad UX World Cup 2025. “Build a date picker with bad UX (the worse, the better).” The winning entry used a Tinder-like interface to swipe your desired days, months, and years. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

nikitonsky is being grumpy

nikitonsky: Interesting case of a website that blocks access to its own content with full-screen hover menu #Hover #Menu #Packt

Was Nikon’s Best DSLR Really the D850?

If you ask many working or professional photographers, they'll tell you that the last great Nikon DSLR was the Nikon D850. And I very much would agree with them. This camera could easily find people in low light, had great image quality that was very versatile, and overall, it w…