uv-init-demos uv has a useful uv init command for setting up new Python projects, but it comes with a bunch of different options like --app and --package and --lib and I wasn't sure how they dif…

RiotGrlErin made some great mashups of Christmas movie posters featuring Muppets. I think my favorite is Oscar the Elf but the Die Hard one is so good too. Many more in this thread.…

Reminder: NASA’s holiday yule log fireplace video is delightful — it’s a rocket engine (in a fireplace). “8.8 million pounds of total thrust…”…

From Mr. Bean’s official YouTube channel, the show’s hilarious Christmas episode. While Christmas shopping, Mr Bean purchases a bulky string of tree lights before making a shambles of…

If this [MicroQuickJS] had been available in 2010, Redis scripting would have been JavaScript and not Lua. Lua was chosen based on the implementation requirements, not on the language ones... (sm…

For finding a good book, there is no substitute for going into your local independent bookstore and browsing what’s on the front tables, the bestsellers shelf, and the staff picks. But bo…

The Truth Physics Can No Longer Ignore. “To truly understand living systems as self-organized, autonomous agents, physicists need to abandon their ‘just the particles, ma’am’ mentalit…

Allspice is a single spice?! “Allspice is the dried fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →…

We Asked Four AI Coding Agents to Rebuild Minesweeper… “Cloning Minesweeper isn’t a trivial task that can be done in just a handful of lines of code, but it’s also not an incredibly c…

MicroQuickJS New project from programming legend Fabrice Bellard, of ffmpeg and QEMU and QuickJS and so much more fame: MicroQuickJS (aka. MQuickJS) is a Javascript engine targetted at embedded…

The Case for a Public Social Media Platform. “What if the United States government decided to, overnight, nationalize Facebook and make it a digital division of the post office. What would…

Watch Jonas Wolf and three friends sing a choral arrangement of the Bee Gee’s Stayin’ Alive in the style of a madrigal. Just in case (like the me of 1 minute ago) you don’t know what…

Finland uses a progressive scale for speeding tickets; the fine amount is based in part on income. In 2023, a businessman got hit with a €121,000 fine. 💬 Jo…

It's been ten years since 'Hickensian Christmas II' on Troika, probably because I get more curmudgeonly about 'Christmas Music' every year. This even includes quirky 'indie' versions of Christmas favo…

I've been having an absurd amount of fun recently using LLMs for cooking. I started out using them for basic recipes, but as I've grown more confident in their culinary abilities I've leaned into…

From Sight & Sound, a list of the best video essays of 2025. I have barely seen or linked to or even heard of most of these. What am I even doing here, besides utterly failing you? (I wonder…

From Kurzgesagt, an hour-long animated music video that shows all of human history in an hour. So here’s an experiment: every second, 2 generations or 50 years will pass. You are on a mu…

Why Japan’s internet looks weird — unless you live here. “Japanese customers are used to seeing a lot of information packed into tiny spaces — consider how much text you can find on t…

Underwater photographer Álvaro Herrero positioned himself in the midst of a humpback whale pod and captured on video several of the whales breaching high out of the water, including one th…

American Classmates Having Difficulty Understanding Better Educated Foreign Exchange Student. “Kids say it’s really hard to understand what he’s talking about due to his precise English…

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Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is my #1 most anticipated film of 2026 and this trailer has got me revved up! Nolan’s trailers never reveal much, but still, it looks goooo…

Runaway supermassive black hole? Did not know this could be a thing. It’s moving at 2.2M mph and “is pushing forward a literal galaxy-sized ‘bow-shock’ of matter in front of it, while…

A full archive of The Hairpin (iykyk). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →…

I just had my first success using a browser agent - in this case the Claude in Chrome extension - to solve an actual problem. A while ago I set things up so anything served from the https://stati…

Every time you are inclined to use the word “teach”, replace it with “learn”. That is, instead of saying, “I teach”, say “They learn”. It’s very easy to determine what you teach…

with Medukha A Grateful Dead cover band wouldn’t ordinarily get me out of the house, but a friend invited me, and the list of shows I’ve been to this year is depressingly short, so off I went…

Here’s my 22nd annual roundup: sixty short reviews across five categories, plus shows, stats and playlists. It gets more ridiculous every year, but I do it to myself,…