blakewatson.com – omg.lol: an oasis on the internet
If you enjoyed the old web of the 90s and 00s; if you love tinkering with your personal website; or if you just like quirky, fun things on the internet, you will love this.
Archive
The invisible problem – Scott Jenson
I Accidentally Saved Half A Million Dollars — Ludicity
The Art of “Negative Capability”: Keats on Embracing Uncertainty and Celebrating the Mysterious
On the art of remaining in doubt “without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.”
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance – Robin Wall Kimmerer
As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy.
Climate change is a product of this extractive economy and is forcing us to confront the inevitable outcome of our consumptive lifestyle: genuine scarcity for which the market has no remedy. Indigenous story traditions are full of these cautionary teachings. When the gift is dishonored, the outcome is always material as well as spiritual. Disrespect the water and the springs dry up. Waste the corn and the garden grows barren.
The Grug Brained Developer
Hixie's Natural Log: Reflecting on 18 years at Google
Playtoob :: Your friendly & simple Youtube Companion!
Play Deprivation Is A Major Cause of the Teen Mental Health Crisis
Allowing more unsupervised free play is among the most powerful and least expensive ways to bring down rates of mental illness
How to foster ‘shoshin’ | Psyche Guides
It’s easy for the mind to become closed to new ideas. Cultivating a beginner’s mind helps us rediscover the joy of learning
Your Mystery: Have Attention Spans Been Declining?
[This is one of the finalists in the SMTM Mysteries Contest, by a reader writing under the pseudonym Cennfaeladh. We’ll be posting about one of these a week until we have gotten through all th…
Youtube’s Anti-adblock and uBlock Origin - And a Dinosaur
Recently, YouTube has been ramping up its anti-adblock effort, and I’ve been watching this closely due to personal interest. This blog post is where I write down what I know. Some Background Here’s...
On Winning—and Not Winning—Design Competitions
It’s the Competition Conundrum: You Can’t Lose If You Don’t Play.
Credit card debt collection
Credit card debt is the waste stream of consumer finance. The debt collection industry ends up being sordid, for complex structural and microeconomic reasons.
Let kids play
The world can be terrifying. But we should still give kids the freedom to explore it.
“Anxiety seeks certainty,” Lyons said. “The more that we restrict, the more that we don’t let our kids move into the world, the better we feel in terms of our own anxiety.”
Why I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency | Nela Dunato Art & Design
I'm often asked if I plan to hire more people and grow my own design agency? I don't, and in this article I explain why.
✨every app that adds AI looks like this✨
and just like that - poof! - we scammed you into thinking this shit was cool
Why are men seemingly always naked in ancient Greek art? | Aeon Essays
Men in ancient Greek art exercise, fight battles, pursue lovers and mourn lost friends, all without their pants on. Why?
GitHub - cipher387/API-s-for-OSINT: List of API's for gathering information about phone numbers, addresses, domains etc
List of API's for gathering information about phone numbers, addresses, domains etc - GitHub - cipher387/API-s-for-OSINT: List of API's for gathering information about phone numbers...
What really happens when babies are left to cry it out?
Some parents see "sleep training" as the key to a good night's rest. Others argue that it's distressing for babies. What do scientists say about its risks and benefits?
Report: Amazon made $1B with secret algorithm for spiking prices Internet-wide
Report reveals details about Amazon's secret algorithm redacted in FTC complaint.
India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia
A self-proclaimed pickle enthusiast explores India’s familial pickle-making traditions, which stretch back generations.
The Age of the Grift Shift
For a book proposal I am currently working on (German, no proposal isn’t done yet because I keep reworking stuff, my agent hates me) I am thinking a lot about late stage capitalism and technologies, about how the kinda terminal economic system shapes the technologies it brings forward etc. And there are of course a […]
rackhackers — Durable and waterproof: Advantages of plastic can bike panniers
Reliable bike panniers from recycled plastic cans – Designs, sourcing and tutorials
The Peculiar Manicule
Enter the Day-Glo world of The Peculiar Manicule and explore an awe-inspiring archive of vintage psychedelic and mod graphics. Witness miraculous feats of ink on paper by known and unknown designers, illustrators, and typographers in four galleries – Books & Magazines, Ephemera & Mis
Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill
Given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system.
Why Runa Indigenous people find ‘natural parenting’ troubling | Aeon Essays
Why my Runa Indigenous family and friends found my child-centred, ‘natural’ parenting practices so strange and troubling
Jazz Comping - A Complete Beginners Guide
When I first started to get comfortable playing jazz on the piano, I was eager to learn how to play with an ensemble. I knew my way through lots of tunes, and how to voice each chord. But, I didn't understand what my role was supposed to be in the rhythm section, or what I was supposed to do in order to support the other players.
Qualities of life - Erin Kissane's small internet website
In an unfortunately fascinating 1963 collection of essays on computer-simulated personality, Silvan Tomkins, the founder of affect theory, wrote
What Happened to Wirecutter?
Longtime fans have turned on the product-recommendation website. An evolving internet may be to blame.