Twin adventurers are cleverly testing modern vs. historic gear. “If they went on an expedition, and Ross wore modern kit while Hugo wore historic replicas, any difference in performance…could be attributed solely to the gear, not genetics.” https://www.carryology.com/insights/how-the-turner-twins-are-mythbusting-modern-gear/

The teaser trailer for Dune: Part Three. I am nonplussed by this trailer, both in the traditional and modern senses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_9vCamtuPY

Extreme Macro Photos of Insect Wings. Hundreds of images are stacked to create a deep depth of field that’s impossible to do optically, ensuring everything is in focus. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/chris-perani-macro-photography-insects-wings/

I love this planet & stars chart from XKCD because it's technically correct but also completely useless. https://kottke.org/26/03/planets-bright-stars-id-chart

Nobody Gets Promoted for Simplicity. “You can’t write a compelling narrative about the thing you didn’t build. Nobody gets promoted for the complexity they avoided.” https://terriblesoftware.org/2026/03/03/nobody-gets-promoted-for-simplicity/

Battery prices continue to fall. “Lithium-ion battery prices don’t get constantly discussed the way crude is, but these declines add up to a decisive shift that will determine the energy landscape of the next decade.” https://archive.ph/G8vhm

“The US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey”. The Varieties of Democracy Institute: “Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever…” https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog

Gorgeous: rural Kyoto in the heavy snow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd-Fy3LHJF8

Gullible, Cynical America. “They’ll insist that you can’t trust scientists, because they’re part of the conspiracy. The podcaster selling you his special creatine gummies, though? He seems trustworthy.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/cynical-gullible-american-man/686079/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ42l9MNbAg-9xXHmgFRIyxo

“In today’s new Gilded Age, the 900-plus billionaires in the US have far too much influence over our elections, our economy, our government policies and our news media, and it’s urgent for Americans to create a movement to curb their power…” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/15/billionaire-curb-power-movement

The Holocaust History Podcast: “In this episode, I talk with Andrea Pitzer about the long, global history of the concentration camp and its evolution over time. We talk about what the definition is, what qualifies something as a concentration camp…” https://thhp.buzzsprout.com/2291653/episodes/18853576-ep-74-the-global-history-of-concentration-camps-witih-andrea-pitzer

The Louvre has the Mona Lisa. Here’s what other institutions consider their Mona Lisas. For instance: the National Portrait Gallery in London has a portrait of William Shakespeare and MoMA has the Gold Marilyn Monroe. https://ironicsans.ghost.io/its-t-mona-lisa/

The 20 Best Food Scenes in Movies. Ratatouille, Big Night, When Harry Met Sally, Tampopo, etc. What’s missing? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/dining/best-food-movie-scenes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.d-_H.NP7UF6y-Rjtn

Tiny Puppet Sound. "Would you like to watch a puppet DJ a chill set of French house music in cool workplace meeting space? Trick question because of course you would." https://kottke.org/26/03/tiny-puppet-sound

“Pay enough, and you can jump to the front of the queue for almost anything.” Concierge Nation: Welcome to White-Glove America. “Exclusivity — even if it comes at the cost of social cohesion — is the business model.” https://archive.ph/gi8SW

Brilliant product review of the Macbook Neo. "Nobody starts in the right place. You don’t begin with the correct tool and work sensibly within its constraints until you organically graduate to a more capable one. That is not how obsession works." https://kottke.org/26/03/not-the-computer-for-you

The Trump regime is deliberately destroying the scientific community in the US. “This is not efficiency. This is not streamlining. This is the systematic elimination of scientific stewardship at the world’s largest biomedical research funder.” https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/i-wrote-research-funding-announcements

KDO is 28 years old today. "Older than Google. Older than The Matrix. Older than Christopher Nolan's feature film career. Older than Elle Fanning. Older than Kurt Cobain when he died. It might outlast American democracy." https://kottke.org/26/03/kdo-28-years-later

For the first time in awhile, copies of two lost episodes of classic Doctor Who have been discovered. Both are from the William Hartnell era and feature the Daleks. https://www.polygon.com/lost-doctor-who-episodes-daleks-master-plan-william-hartnell/

The Great Friendship Flattening. “I amass bits of knowledge about my loved ones — my sister’s boyfriend published a poem; my friend left her job — as a spectator, in the same way that I might learn about an influencer’s favorite books…” https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/10/social-media-relationships-parasocial/684551/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZ606rXO3GbWdg9lVmnLOvJg