US News Blogs

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Unseen Places: Rediscovering the Art of Observation by

Unseen Places: Rediscovering the Art of Observation by Anna Kodé. Looking forward to this one…Kodé is one of my favorite journalists covering urban culture. “Observation…is not a passive act, but a powerful and radical way of connecting…”

Inverse2026-10-09✓ Read

10 Years Later, Star Wars Is Fixing A Glaring Timeline Issue

The story of Star Wars is so affecting because it has some dire stakes. Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t just one of Princess Leia’s hopes; he’s her only hope. So when Darth Vader destroys the entire planet of Alderaan, you feel it. Over a billion people were obliterated in an instant, including Leia’s adoptive family and the subjects she was supposed to rule over as queen.

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Every US Electrical Outlet Explained

This video from Practical Engineering was very illuminating to me, a naive person who thought there were only three types of electrical outlets used in the US — the two-prong, the three-prong, and the 240V — and not the real number, which is more than 35 types of electrical outlets! Oh and “two-prong”? Not that plug’s actual name! (via unsung) Tags: electricity · engineering · video

America’s good hurricane luck is about to run out

This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.

Cracked: All Posts2026-10-09✓ Read

Mike Ditka Was a Surprise Sports-Comedy Icon

Fans of the underrated 2005 family sports comedy ‘Kicking & Screaming’ mourn the loss of a legend

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Online Pornography Created the Model for Platform Capitalism

Online pornography is often seen as a corner of the web that doesn’t bear much analysis. And yet it can hardly be ignored. Firstly, that’s because of the sheer size of the adult-content industry — a sector that in itself is worth around $97 billion annually worldwide and that, at peak times, commands 10 percent of all internet traffic. But more than that, a discussion of its inner workings sheds light on the mechanisms that govern the special kind of attention economy and platform capitalism that we are all wrapped up in.

Inverse2026-10-09✓ Read

What Is ‘Zodiac’? Everything You Need To Know About The MCU’s New Show

At this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are a lot of heroes. That’s not a complaint — it’s through this massive roster that we got all those epic team-up moments in Avengers: Endgame and a five-hour livestream announcing the cast of Avengers: Doomsday. But not everyone can be an official member of the Avengers. What do you do with the rest? The MCU may have found an answer with Zodiac, an upcoming spy thriller announced at New York Comic-Con.

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Japanese book rave. A club in Tokyo spread carpets on the

Japanese book rave. A club in Tokyo spread carpets on the dance floor, played ambient music, and invited daytime clubgoers to chill out and read. Would 100% frequent a bookstore/cafe that did this regularly.

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Weball allows you to roll up websites into a Katamari

Weball allows you to roll up websites into a Katamari ball. You can even roll up KDO. This is too much fun. See also Destroy Any Website.

Who are the violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank?

In the weeks and months following Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza that followed, the world’s attention turned away from the West Bank.

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Shawn Fain’s Slate Has Swept the UAW Elections

Shawn Fain and the United UAW slate are headed toward a sweeping victory in the union’s internal elections for its International Executive Board. The results will not be finalized for some time, but the unofficial results are unequivocal: United Auto Workers members are overwhelmingly backing Fain and the militant direction he is taking the union.

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Is This Weird Quiz Game the Toughest F1 Video Game Ever?

It might be that this text-only quiz game from 1993 is the most challenging F1 video game of all time. Here are a couple of the 23 questions from Gerhard Berger’s Formula 1 Quiz:

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

I just went down a rabbit hole of incense seals. So cool

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Eric Hobsbawm, Historian of Defeat

Five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm published his best-selling history of the twentieth century, The Age of Extremes. The book presented a man coming to terms with the fate of the political project to which he had committed his adult life while trying to understand the twentieth century as a historical epoch.

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Abdul El-Sayed Isn’t Backing Down on Medicare for All

The discourse around Abdul El-Sayed’s position on Medicare for All is mostly confused. Reading most of the reporting on the matter would lead one to believe that El-Sayed initially supported Medicare for All but now merely supports a “public option.” This is not really true under conventional meanings of the phrase “public option.” El-Sayed seems to be inviting this understanding for rhetorical effect, but all he has really done is drop his opposition to a type of duplicative insurance that nobody would ever want to buy.

Main - Kottke.org2026-10-09✓ Read

Bill McKibben: I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We

Bill McKibben: I’m Exhausted. You’re Demoralized. We Weren’t Built for a World Like This. The human nervous system wasn’t designed for the polycrisis. “Among all the other dangers these developments represent, they’re simply wearing us out.”

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Anwar Shaikh’s Analysis of Capitalism Is Vital for the Left

Most economists assume that when workers with similar skills earn very different pay, something must be blocking normal competition. But for Howard Botwinick, capitalist competition itself creates those gaps. His book Persistent Inequalities: Wage Disparity under Capitalist Competition, first published in 1993 and reissued in 2017, shows how the everyday workings of capitalism split the working class into better- and worse-paid groups — no monopoly power required.

Inverse2026-10-09✓ Read

Star Wars Fans Are Cranky. But Star Wars Fan Fic Writers Are Having A Blast

The Star Wars fandom hasn't been united in years — but can fan fiction be the key to harmony?

Jacobin2026-10-09✓ Read

Pedro Sánchez Makes His Last Gamble

Less than two weeks after a wave of housing protests broke out across Spain, on Monday center-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called an early general election. Upending the country’s political agenda in just days, the protests created an opportunity for an embattled Sánchez to go to the polls on more favorable terms. He is now framing the election as a choice between his defense of the social majority and right-wing parties aligned with speculators and vulture funds.

Inverse2026-10-09✓ Read

5 Years Ago, James Bond Pulled A Massive Course Correction — And Changed Pop Culture History

Léa Seydoux and Daniel Craig's lack of chemistry is kind of the point. Let's talk about 'No Time to Die.'