Anthropic has new rules for its Opus 5.5 model to “steer it away from recreating someone else’s specific [video] game”. (From a few days ago but I just saw it…) https://www.gamedeveloper.com/programming/anthropic-appears-to-have-ordered-ai-tool-claude-to-stop-remaking-video-games

And in other news, the NY Times is trying to buy Letterboxd for a reported price of $330 million. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/05/business/media/letterboxd-new-york-times-company.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OFE.zntL.Pvdhf3xRiKdM

Salon, one of the last OG general interest web publications, is shutting down. “When Salon launched in November 1995, the web was a very different place.” And: “We have reached the difficult decision that our publishing model is no longer sustainable.” https://www.salon.com/2026/11/05/goodbye-from-salon

In 1980, Rosa Parks appeared on the TV game show To Tell the Truth. https://kottke.org/16/01/rosa-parks-on-to-tell-the-truth

Video captured by Amy Yolland of three humpback whales breaching one after another. Incredible. Also available on YouTube. https://www.instagram.com/p/DdAuunNu7EM

Subvocal’s glasses turn your silent speech into text at 200 wpm — it measures mouth movements with radar? Like many things these days, this is very technically interesting but also creepy and dystopian. https://subvocal.company

Foursquare was recently acquired and co-founder Dennis Crowley wrote about it. “Dozens of current and former Foursquare employees have reached out to me to express their frustration with the leadership that led the company to this outcome.” https://teendrama.substack.com/p/some-final-words-on-foursquare

For a 1992 art piece, Christian Jankowski survived on goods he shot at the local market w/ a bow & arrow. "[He] shot down frozen chickens, butter, toilet paper, and various other essentials. His game, if edible, was not just dead, it was processed..." https://kottke.org/26/11/grocery-shopping-with-a-bow-arrow

Paul Ford: “The web browser is very, very, very powerful software for building applications, and the cost of accessing that power is going down seemingly every day.” https://ftrain.com/aboard-the-web-is-more-than-enough

Women who die postpartum often do so because they lose too much blood. An 80-cent plastic bag is helping solve the problem. “The drape is not an A.I. thing — it’s the absolute opposite: It’s a simple, simple, intervention that can solve our problems.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/03/health/maternal-drapes-nigeria-childbirth.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OFE.WG3k.C6Rrll8RVxHi

A growing list of brands to avoid because they are “actively engaged in the enshittification playbook” (many post-acquisition by private equity), including Dr. Martens, Pyrex, Hoka, rag & bone, Ray-Ban, Black+Decker, Hunter Boot, Craftsmen, and more. https://ledger.worseonpurpose.com/status/avoid

Stunning Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies. It took astrophotographer Brendan Larsen 45 hours to manually edit this image from almost 600 photos; it shows over 14,000 satellite trails. https://kottke.org/26/11/stunning-image-of-our-satellite-choked-night-skies

I Thought I’d Left Authoritarianism Behind. “To anyone who has lived under dictatorship, the pattern is instantly recognizable. Dictators start by instilling fear. They exploit uncertainty to manufacture loyalty.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/11/escaping-communist-czechoslovakia-america/689232?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZz2gVzUiwccpYTUNYRh01Jk

“I'm taking the day off from the site today — feeling crispy from a little too much work lately. Besides, everyone's gonna be too busy huffing US midterm election results to pay any attention to anything else." https://kottke.org/26/11/see-you-thursday

How Human Civilization Began. “Thanks to new techniques for DNA sequencing, dating ancient detritus, mathematical models, and aerial & lidar archaeology, we are now able to get a faint idea of what this world might have looked and felt like." https://kottke.org/26/11/how-human-civilization-began

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.” https://www.instagram.com/p/DfIFD8-lqeD

“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? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvikGCepgNY

What’s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars? https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-november-2-a-long-cloud-on-mars

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! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeHxWUe6XeM

I launched the KDO membership program 10 years ago! 10 years! It is impossible for me to overstate the impact membership has had on my work. Thanks so much for reading and for your support! https://kottke.org/26/11/10-years-of-kottkeorg-membership