Throbsday

On AI wronging and writing I hate AI writing and can spot it in a second. It's not just the piles one-line paragraphs, the contrasty "not that, but this" argument constructions, the excessive use of em dashes. It's a tone that sounds like a million well-put hunks of text publish…

The video rental store as “third place” . “Decades...

The video rental store as “third place”. “Decades before recommendation algorithms, video stores served as social hubs where conversation and camaraderie became a form of taste-making.”

The End of Google Search . The internet giant is...

The End of Google Search. The internet giant is “changing the formula” of its products and media folks are beginning to assume that there will be no search traffic in the future…and fretting about their survival.

Any Photographer Can Now Apply for 5 Boro Foto Fest

The 5 Boro Foto Fest is now open for any photographer to be able to apply. What's that? We'll tell you. This year, we're throwing something special in celebration of photographers: it's called the 5 Boro Foto Fest. We've been working on something very big here at the Phoblograph…

Media Matters : “ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a...

Media Matters: “ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 194 segments about the three major heat events” that hit the US this summer and not a single one of them mentioned climate change. Not one!

Fun little review by Marcin Wichary of a 1984 flying...

Fun little review by Marcin Wichary of a 1984 flying video game called Sopwith, which was never supposed to be released to the public (an event that the game’s creator didn’t learn about until years later).

I love this little video of burbling pasta sauces...

I love this little video of burbling pasta sauces (sound on). Wish there was a 10-hour YT version for work background noise…

I’d Be Lead Harpooner on the Pequod If It Wasn’t for...

I’d Be Lead Harpooner on the Pequod If It Wasn’t for These DEI Hires. “I’m just telling you that it’s getting hard out there for us blue-collar Nantucket lads when all the ships’ owners are catching the Abolitionist Mind Virus.”

Sony Might Finally Be Making Its Own Fisheye Lens

Sony has some magnificent lenses in its portfolio. Models such as the 24-70mm f2.8 GM, 85mm f1.4 GM, and 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS are worth investing in. While Sony has a broad range of lenses, it now appears that they are planning to achieve the impossible: a fish-eye zoom. What ca…

25 things that explain America , including personal...

25 things that explain America, including personal injury lawyer advertisements, Crest Whitestrips, Costco rotisserie chicken, and the Pizza Hut lamp. “The T-shirt cannon merges three American obsessions: guns, sports and freebie giveaways.”

How Does an Enigma Machine Work?

This is a completely fantastic look at how the Enigma Machine works. Jared Owen constructed a 3D model of the German cipher device and clearly walks the viewer through how the electricity flows through the machine to scramble and unscramble secret messages. When electricity…

The Nikon J5 Is Still Their Most Underrated Camera

Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras are everywhere now. They are definitely being touted as the future, with the not-so-old DSLR being looked at like a dinosaur now. While brands are bringing out more and more full-frame and APS-C models these days, a decade and a half ago N…

How Wildfire Smoke Is Reshaping Childhood ....

How Wildfire Smoke Is Reshaping Childhood. “Repeated smoke events are changing children’s daily routines, limiting opportunities for outdoor play and social interaction and reshaping how many families experience summer.”

This guy hooked his hamster’s wheel up to Strava —...

This guy hooked his hamster’s wheel up to Strava — Mollie is logging 5-6 miles per day.

Fujifilm’s Most Complicated Lens Turns 10 This Year

"Something about this lens just simply doesn’t have the magic that the 23mm f1.4 R does," is what I wrote in my Fujifilm 23mm f2 R WR lens review back in 2016 when I evaluated the optic. Many photographers have loved it for its small size, weather resistance, fast autofocus pe…

Is Canon About to Kill Its Own RF 16mm F2.8?

Over the past few months, we have seen multiple patents from camera brands. Panasonic has patented switching rings, Nikon has patented prime lenses, while Canon offers some designs of 45mm and 70-200mm amongst others. As part of their new filings, Canon has released a patent tha…

A Letter to Our Audience From the Founder

It's really odd to hear from an Editor in Chief and Publisher in the way that I'd about to speak to you. Most of us tend to address people as their community, their friends, etc. in a way that breaks off as soon as you stop spending money with them. But is that really a friend?…

Antiques Roadshow

Astronomers have measured the size of the largest galaxy...

Astronomers have measured the size of the largest galaxy: it’s 1.7 million light years across (17x the diameter of the Milky Way) and contains ~3.4 trillion solar masses in stars.

“ In this video , I’ll take you from farm to...

“In this video, I’ll take you from farm to factory to show you how chocolate is made, and at the end, we’ll use all the chocolate you’ll see in this video to attempt the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest chocolate bar.”

We’ve Got a Way to Get Through Post-Production Faster

Over the years, the Phoblographer has tested cameras and lenses with every major camera manufacturer and lens maker. And so we've got a massive database of images. We've used that massive database to test the presets that we've made for Capture One and Lightroom. So trust us whe…

The Computer That Helped Win World War II . “…it...

The Computer That Helped Win World War II. “…it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the fascination of a Colossus at work: its sheer bulk and apparent complexity; the fantastic speed of thin paper tape round the glittering pulleys…”

Whetherday

Digressions & shit, or vice versa Willy Staley in the NYTimes: To O’Mara, the diet is not just a temporary means of losing weight but a way to eat for good. He has been doing it for 10 years, and credits it with turning his life around. At one point in our conversation he pull…

How to Store Ebooks in Instagram Reels and Other Covert Data Storage Tricks

Do you remember the video I posted last summer of YouTuber Benn Jordan where he “uploaded a picture of a bird to a bird and then downloaded the bird picture from the bird”? So cool. Jordan is back with more data encoding tricks in his latest video, There Are Files Stored in…

Lidar and other discoveries continue to show that the...

Lidar and other discoveries continue to show that the Amazon rainforest was home to a “sprawling ancient civilization much bigger than researchers expected” (possibly up to 3 million people around 100-300 CE).

Heading On Out…

Hey folks. I just wanted to hop in here quickly to let a cat out of a bag: I am in the midst of moving. Not going to get into the wheres, whys, and hows right now; there’s a bigger post coming at some point about all of that. I’m excited and anxious about the transition (it�…

This New Falcam Battery Has an Airtag in it

Camera accessories do not often shake us up, but Falcam's latest introduction, TagBatt, is one such product that changes that. The accessory is a third-party camera battery with a built-in Apple AirTag. How does it work? And who can it benefit? Let's have a look at what it offer…

This is an old list but still interesting: the 12 most...

This is an old list but still interesting: the 12 most linguistically influential American movies since 1980. If you were compiling a list of linguistically influential movies since 2000, what would be on it?

Tressie McMillan Cottom’s reading list for fighting back...

Tressie McMillan Cottom’s reading list for fighting back against Big Tech. “Put simply, there is too much money, some of it too untraceable, giving a small group of unelected people too much power over the people.”

Emily Wilson takes another crack at a critique of...

Emily Wilson takes another crack at a critique of Nolan’s “visually stunning, emotionally empty” Odyssey. “Verbally, we are told that people matter; visually, we are shown that they do not.”

The Sony 100-400mm Just Became a Landscape Photographer’s Best Friend

Sony has always created updated iterations of its popular lenses. The 100-400mm is one such focal length, which welcomes its third iteration on August 3 (after 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 GM and 100-400mm f4.5 GM OSS). While it may seem off for a company to introduce a focal range of thi…

Surfing Alaska’s Turnagain Arm (home to a twice-daily...

Surfing Alaska’s Turnagain Arm (home to a twice-daily tidal bore wave) can be fun (10-foot waves you can ride for miles) but also dangerous: “You need a Plan B, a Plan C and a Plan D because no one is coming to rescue you.”