Using high-definition open source videos and photos from NASA, John Boswell created this 8-minute-long video recap of this past April's Artemis II mission that executed a flyby of the moon, marking the furthest man has ever been from Earth.
Can't wait to watch this on Vision Pro's YouTube app: the device's micro-OLED panels each produce a 4K image which together deliver 6K resolution — not 8K, a common misconception since two 4K panels don't yield 8K in pixel-count terms.
[via Kottke]
Simone Giertz is a designer and hardware hacker famous for doing hilarious, offbeat projects. (Lots of videos of her builds on YouTube.)
Her latest? A plant inside a bell jar that contains a grow-light. There’s a slot at the bottom of the bell jar, into which she slides her phone. The grow-light only goes on if the phone is in the slot — so, in essence …
… if she doesn’t put her phone down for four hours a day, the plant will die.
As Giertz says at the end of the video:
There's something kind of poetic about it. Like if I'm on my phone, I'm not only taking away from my own life, I'm also taking away from the life of this plant.
This idea has promise.
Giertz has only made this one-off prototype, but I bet she could bring it to market.
[via Clive Thompson]
In 1911, a stick of gum made by the Common Sense Gum Company came with this handy guide to kissing a girl.
[via The Presurfer and vintag.es]
Scott Bradlee and his Postmodern Jukebox take us through the history of tap dancing since 1899, with dancer and choreographer Sarah Reich shuffling and tapping her way through various songs, from 1899's "Maple Leaf Rag" to 2014's "Uptown Funk."
[via The Presurfer]
It's that of Greenland.
Designed by Greenland politician Thue Christiansen, it was officially adopted in 1985 and features the Danish colors.
The white is symbolic of the ice and snow that covers most of the island, and the red is symbolic of the sun.
By Laura Moorhead, this appeared on the last page of the August 2006 issue of Wired Magazine.
From websites:
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Chess Teacher
At last — chess pieces with the rules for how they move printed right on them!
Now everyone can play.
You get a complete set of plastic chess pieces with print-on rules for moving, a chess board, and an instruction booklet — which you won't need because the pieces are so clearly marked!
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From my longtime Crack bookofjoe Mississippi Correspondent©®™ Shawn Lea comes a characteristically deep diving investigation into the little-known origins of two great vowel-deprived comic characters of the 20th century, Mr. Mxyztptlk (above) and Joe Btfsplk (below).
Her report follows — and you can bet your bottom dollar that not one word has been.
Who came first... Mr. Mxyztplk vs. Joe Btfsplk?
Joe Btfsplk preceded Mr. Mxyztplk. Joe Btfsplk's first appearance was June 11, 1942. Mxyztptlk ((roughly pronounced Mix-yez-pit-lick, also nicknamed Mxy) first appeared in September of 1944. Joe's creator, Al Capp, pronounced Btfsplk with a "raspberries" sound, also known as a "Bronx cheer."
Mxyztplk appeared originally as a small bald man in a purple suit, green bow tie and purple derby hat. This was changed to a futuristic looking orange outfit with purple trim in the mid-1950s, although the hat remained. At around this time the spelling of Mxyztplk's name changed (by mistake) to "Mxyz pt lk".
From Wikipedia:
After the establishment of DC Comics' multiverse in the 1960s, it was later explained that the purple-suited Mxyzptlk lived in the fifth dimension connected to Earth-Two and the orange-costumed Mxyzptlk in the fifth dimension connected to Earth-One. The Earth-One version was also retconned into Superboy stories as Master Mxyzptlk.
From www.supermanhomepage.com:
The imp known as Mr. Mxyztplk first appeared in our dimension in Superman #30 (1st series, 1944) in a story by Jerry Siegel with art by John Sikela. For those who haven't seen the original story, you can find it in "The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" trade paperback. The bald little fellow in the purple suit and green bowtie creates all kind of havoc -- including animating a naked statue he calls McGurk. Mxyztplk describes himself as a "court-jester" from another dimension. The not very bright imp laughingly tells Superman that there is no way he can be tricked into saying the magic word "Klptzyxm" that will return him to his own dimension. Oops. Saying the word, Mr. Mxyztplk vanishes.
A note at the end of the tale says, "If you enjoyed the antics of Mr. Mxyztplk and would like to read of his further encounters with Superman, let us know on a penny postcard." Obviously, Mr. Mxyztplk was a big hit and returned many times.
The imp's name was later changed to Mxyzptlk (for the consonant-challenged among you, the letters "t" and "p" are reversed). He had a long history of antagonizing Superman, supposedly every 90 days, until Superman inevitably tricked him into saying his name backwards. This restored everything back to normal and banished Mxyztplk back to the Fifth Dimension for another 90 days. Until the Crisis On Infinite Earths series rewrote DC history.
From the website:
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Create your own unique Darth Tater character with interchangeable parts.
Includes a variety of accessories to customize your potato figure.
Perfect for imaginative play and creativity.
Suitable for children and collectors alike.
A fun twist on the classic Mr. Potato Head toy.
For ages 2+ so all my readers can have great fun with it.
I've had this 2025 film directed by Oliver Assayas on my watchlist for months and finally took a flutter last night.
It's excellent!
I had no idea the cast included my favorite actor in the world, Jeffrey Wright (whose portrayal of a conflicted high-level CIA executive in "The Agency" [Season 2] was sensational), and Alicia Vikander as a punk goddess in the fragmenting post-Gorbachev Russia.
Lagniappe: you don't have to subscribe to a streaming service to see it — rent it on YouTube.
Spectacular.
Archaeologists in southwestern Germany have unearthed two miniature bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory, among the smallest and most delicate examples of Ice Age art ever found.
The two ancient figurines, each about 0.8 inches long and weighing about 1 gram apiece, were discovered in 2025 in the Aurignacian layers of Hohle Fels Cave.
The site is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Cluster in the Swabian Jura known for yielding some of the earliest figurative art in human history.
Dated to be about 40,000 years old, the artifacts were found about 5 feet apart in the same layer, suggesting they may be roughly contemporaneous and possibly even the work of the same hand.
One figurine appears to show a bird crouched low, perhaps brooding over eggs; the other, incomplete, shows outstretched wings that could depict a bird taking flight, landing, or displaying in courtship.
"The figurines demonstrate that the earliest artists were skilled ivory-carvers, who could depict delicate motifs in miniature form," said Professor Nicholas Conard, director of excavations and an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen.
"Additionally, it seems that specific depictions are associated with specific sites."
The objects' naturalistic detail points to a ptarmigan as the likely model for the brooding bird, with the second figure possibly a ptarmigan, grouse, or bird of prey.
"The carvings are not highly stylized but instead include many specific and unique features," Professor Conard said.
"Here the artist has recorded detailed observations that allow us to consider which kind of bird is represented and what the bird could be doing."
The finds show that humans working in the region roughly 40,000 years ago, near the time modern humans first arrived in the Upper Danube region, were already accomplished ivory carvers capable of rendering fine detail at a tiny scale.
"The figurines in their present state weigh only 1.3 and 0.7 grams and are the smallest and finest depictions from this period 40,000-years-ago, but despite their size, they raise many new questions," Professor Conard said.
"Even 40,000-years-ago birds were here. Their song filled the air and some species came to the region in the course of annual migrations."
"Their calls signaled warnings, and the residents of the region often used their hollow bones and even mammoth ivory to make flutes that produced magical sounds."
[via SciNews]
The epiphany cited in the headline above came to me sometime in the past few months.
I was chatting with my neighbor from across the street while we were out walking her dog, and I told her that when I was out running through our hood one day and saw a pretty big pothole [above], it occurred to me that after driving over it at high speed once, you wouldn't do it again.
Every few years our homeowners association spends a few thousand dollars accrued from annual dues to repair our two streets, each about a half mile long, which are considered private roads for maintenance purposes yet are fully open to the public.
The potholes, some good sized, are the result of heavy equipment that's brought into the neighborhood for various home renovations/construction/etc. that proceeds to tear up our roads.
Apart from the fact I believe people who hire such machines should be responsible for road damage they cause — which will never fly — I like the concept of potholes as inverted speed bumps which will result in the same sort of driver reaction, i.e. GO SLOW!
The next time the topic of pothole repair is raised by our homeowners association, I am going to pay my share BUT I am also going to send a letter to each resident of our neighborhood urging them to take a fresh look at potholes.
I noticed this last night for the umpteenth time while watching Apple TV's excellent 10-part production of "Cape Fear."
I didn't keep count but as best I can recall, phones and their information were the focus/cause/driver of around a quarter of onscreen time.
Above and below, two screenshots from the trailer.
Compare that to the superb 1991 movie of "Cape Fear" starring Robert DeNiro: zero smartphones — because they hadn't been invented.
The penny only dropped for me earlier this year on how phones have become a standard and ubiquitous feature of thrillers.
Anyone else notice?
"Where in the world, and when, does this human artifact belong?"
"Each day, ten objects. Guess where and when each was made. Then see how you ranked against everyone else who played today."
Fair warning.
From websites:
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Sets up in 2 seconds flat.
Accomodates two adults.
Combines excellent ventilation and light blocking for a good night's sleep.
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$149.
