How Human Civilization Began

In a recent video, Kurzgesagt explores what we know about the first human civilizations that formed some 12,000 years ago and how they led to the first cities and the invention of writing. What we know about human history is only a fraction of the full story. Much of the re…

The Ricoh GR III Is Seven Years Old. Is It Still the Best Pocket Camera in 2026?

The Ricoh GR III featured some great things: nice colors, small size, zone focusing, and nice lens. But it also has its own cons: a lack of weather sealing, no flash, and the menus were confusing. The GR IV costs a lot, making the GR III worthwhile for people who want to dabble…

Do you think you could write down the names of 3000...

Do you think you could write down the names of 3000 people? “As part of a competition with a few friends, I attempted the very dumb challenge of trying to write the names of 3,000 real people in one sitting. It took 7 hours, but I did it.”

“Our attention is all we have. And we already gave away a...

“Our attention is all we have. And we already gave away a huge percentage of it to machine learning algorithms 10 years ago, and we are living in an intensely different and I think worse world because of it.” Was 2016 a sneaky inflection point?

What’s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars?

What’s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars?

The soundtrack for Wipeout XL (aka Wipeout 2097) was...

The soundtrack for Wipeout XL (aka Wipeout 2097) was crazy for a video game; it featured tracks from groups like Underworld, Orbital, The Prodigy, Daft Punk, and Chemical Brothers. I had this on CD! Ripped it and played ‘em on Winamp!

The Phoblographer Pharaonic Preset Pack Is Our Biggest Bundle Yet

We just launched our biggest preset bundle yet, and it brings together everything we've built so far in one place. The Phoblographer Pharaonic Preset Pack combines our Photojournalism Presets in both color and monochrome, our Film presets, and our Retro presets, all in one pack…

10 Years of Kottke.org Membership

An important KDO milestone whooshed by the other day and I was so heads-down on tuning up the new search engine (more on that below) that I missed it. So: it’s been 10 years since I started the KDO membership program! (Quick recap of the value proposition from the membership p…

Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data...

Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires by Paris Marx. “He exposes the deceptive, exploitative ways tech companies are siphoning energy and resources from vulnerable communities in their pursuit of digital power…”

Film Meets Art

Vugar Efendi has made a pair of videos showing scenes from films that have been inspired by famous paintings. The second video is especially good, showing references in There Will Be Blood, Lost In Translation, and a Jacques-Louis David reference from About Schmidt.…

The Best Film Point and Shoot Camera Ever Made

I know that this may sound like a sensation title, but I really do mean it. The Fujifilm Natura S is the single best film point and shoot camera that was ever made. And more importantly, it's also the only one that I've kept over the years. For a long time, I dabbled between one…

The Beloved Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro Lens Could Make a Return

Canon, like many other manufacturers, has a limited number of lenses for close-up photographers. The company's current RF range, for example, is only limited to four lenses, which leaves a lot of room for photographers. According to a newly published patent, the company has anno…

nikitonsky is being grumpy

nikitonsky: Why would I want to merge a status? #GitHub #Button

Simon Willison: The October Inflection Point for Vibe...

Simon Willison: The October Inflection Point for Vibe Game Development. “The thing I find both exciting and shameful about this is that I have got interesting results from so little creative input.”

Elevators

The Nikon D800 Is 14 Years Old. Does It Still Hold Up in 2026?

The Nikon D800 is an excellent camera and if you own one, then you'll already know this. It surely is still very capable in 2026 though the newer D850 is arguably a better camera. Nikon DSLRs hold a special place in the hearts of many photographers. These cameras work best for v…

Arkivism is a search and visual discovery engine for...

Arkivism is a search and visual discovery engine for millions of public domain works from the collections of the Smithsonian, The Met, NASA, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Rijksmuseum, and more.

Ted Chiang: “There’s no way to write fiction and...

Ted Chiang: “There’s no way to write fiction and guarantee your readers will understand it correctly. There is no way you will ever be able to write something so straightforward that Elon Musk will understand it the way that you intend it.”

Let’s get this out of the way: Olivia Colman will be...

Let’s get this out of the way: Olivia Colman will be great as Mrs. Bennet in the new Pride and Prejudice series; here’s the trailer. But the rest of it has some awfully large shoes to fill — both the 1995 and 2005 adaptations are rightly beloved.

Are contemporary technologies like GPS, phones, and AI...

Are contemporary technologies like GPS, phones, and AI deskilling the human body? “In surrendering to a quick technological fix, we are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending.”