Jason KottkeModify

2025-09-19 03:34:48

Of Oz the Wizard is the entire Wizard of Oz movie presented in alphabetical order by dialogue. So it starts with all the scenes where Dorothy and the gang say “a”, “aaiee”, “along”, and proceeds through “you’re” and “zipper”. Even the words on each of the title cards are sorted alphabetically.

(I feel like I’ve posted this before — or something like it — but I can’t find it in the archives. Anyone?)

Update: Ah yes, I was thinking of this alphabetized version of Star Wars (which I’ve seen before but somehow never posted):

Another example is Thomson & Craighead’s The Time Machine. Matt Bucy, the creator of Of Oz the Wizard, seems to have pioneered this technique (the Vimeo page indicates it was completed in April 2004) but didn’t post the video online until a few days ago. (via @Mister_Milligan, @sannahahn)

[This is a vintage post originally from Jan 2016.]

Tags: Matt Bucy · movies · remix · Star Wars · The Wizard of Oz · timeless posts · video

2025-09-19 02:42:29

Gina Trapani writes about taking a sabbatical. “Take afternoon naps. Bigger things like foster a box of 6 kittens, do a 10-day silent retreat, quit coffee, start lifting, train for a triathlon, take vacations to explore…”

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2025-09-19 01:42:48

This sounds like a cool project: Pocket Fiche is a pocket-sized microscope that comes with a ultra-high resolution, nano-fabricated image. “Think of Pocket Fiche as the Earth bound version of the Voyager golden record.”

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2025-09-18 23:39:31

Some unusual rocks observed by NASA’s Perseverance rover “could be the clearest signs of life ever found” on Mars.

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2025-09-18 22:47:11

Hey folks, I know there’s a lot going on these days, but I wanted to update you on a few things I’ve been doing for the site lately. Alright, looking through my Git commits from the last couple of months:

• I already told you about the Rolodex. Hoping to provide access to the full list at some point.
• Replying to comments is now possible after sorting threads by date or popularity.
• Members can now see the last ~40 posts they have faved on their profile page (when logged in, click on your name in the upper right-hand menu and then “Profile”).

• There are a few new gift‑link indicators that I added to the site — for links to sites like Defector, Aftermath, Hellgate, Slate, Medium, Talking Points Memo, in addition to the older ones like the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic. When I link to paywalled stuff, I try to post a gift link — here’s how the indicator looks if you’re reading on the site. (RSS readers, live a little and come in from the cold!)

• The video embeds for YouTube and Vimeo now use Lite YouTube Embed and Lite Vimeo Embed, which should decrease load times for those videos and eliminate much of the tracking those companies jam into their embeds.
• I revamped the footnotes so they no longer appear in a pop‑up; they now appear inline in the text and can be toggled on and off. You can try it right here ->¹ I really like how it looks/works.
• There are avatars for each commenter in the comment threads. Right now, it’s just a simple, colorful circle with the first initial of the person’s display name. But hopefully in the future you’ll be able to customize it with a photo or whatever. A small first step.
• Most recently, I upgraded the share menu on posts. Previously, clicking the share button just copied the URL to your clipboard. Now you can copy the link, open it in a new window, translate the post (which sends you to Google Translate), and easily share the post on social media (Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads), email, text/SMS/Messages, and WhatsApp.

I’ve been a little busy, I guess. The day-to-day posting has not been consistently sparking joy recently but digging into the guts of the site & making improvements has provided me with the heads-down, flowy focus that I need to stay emotionally and intellectually afloat these days. Thank you to KDO members for supporting this work and keeping the site free to read for all.²

I’d love to know what you think. Criticism and nice words are equally welcome. I’ve heard that some of you dislike the auto-expanding video player — does anyone actually love it as much as I do? I’ve gotten some early feedback that the comment avatars are too big (and I might agree with that).

1. What do you call a footnote or endnote that isn’t at the bottom of the text? An inline note? An in-text citation? A reader’s note?↩
2. When I was typing this, I accidentally wrote “free to dread for all”. Come on, that’s a little too on the nose. 😂↩

Tags: kottke.org

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2025-09-18 22:01:21

Let’s be clear about what just happened: Jimmy Kimmel, a prominent late-night comedian, was just taken off the airwaves because the Trump administration didn’t like what he had to say — and threatened his employer until they shut him up.