Hello, it's Jason back in your inbox again. As a reminder, we're on more of a relaxed newsletter schedule this summer, so here are some of the best links and things from the past couple of weeks.

P.S. This is a friendly reminder to check out what Jackson Bird has been up to on the Kottke Ride Home podcast. Recent topics include intelligent slime molds, 12-year-old Olympian skateboarders, and dinosaurs on the Moon.

Bone Music

Bone music, forbidden Soviet records clandestinely made from used x-ray films. "You'd have Elvis on the lungs, Duke Ellington on Aunt Masha's brain scan - forbidden Western music captured on the interiors of Soviet citizens."

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Dark Fish, the Dark Matter of the Ocean

"Dark fish": Biologists suspect that up to 95% of the world's total fish population lives in a deep layer of the ocean that is difficult to detect and we know very little about.

Grief and the Little Chores Left Behind

Note: I shared this story on Instagram earlier this week and got such an amazing response that I'm sharing it here as well.

I lost a kottke.org member the other day. Usually a few people fail to renew their membership every week (normal member churn stuff), but that's not what happened in this case. I got an email from a women whose husband had died a few months ago. He was an avid reader & a member and his credit card had just gotten charged for a membership renewal. She was understandably asking for a refund. I obviously put the refund through right away and wrote her a short note offering my condolences.

Days later, I'm still thinking about her, the cheerfulness of her email, and the way she talked about her husband and his curiosity for the world in such a tender and loving way. But also of her getting hit with this tiny reminder of his death via the uncaring global financial system, having to perform this task, having to find my email address and ask me politely for her money back. It broke me while reading her note and it's breaking me again now.

I don't know the details of how this person died but in the wake of the ongoing pandemic, chances are you've lost someone meaningful to you in the past year and a half – or if not, someone you know has lost someone. Millions of deeply grieving partners and parents and children are dealing with little chores like this, trying to navigate a typically uncaring system while somehow holding it together. So hug your loved ones and maybe go a bit easier on everyone else – you truly do not know what anyone might be going through on a particular day.

Bold & Colorful Minimalistic Portraits

Check out these bold & colorful minimalistic portraits by Brazilian artist Luciano Cian.

Sourcing Design Objects Used in Star Trek

Sourcing the futuristic-looking design objects (chairs, cups, silverware, sofas, etc.) that production designers used for Star Trek movies and TV series.

See also: What if every time Captain Picard pulled his shirt down, his comm badge popped off? This will forever alter my TNG viewing experience.

See also also: Patrick Stewart performing a parody of Hamlet's soliloquy on Sesame Street in 1996.

Gerrymander Jewelry

Pendant necklaces in the shape of oddly shaped Congressional districts. They take custom orders but "some districts are too breakable" to sell because they're so gerrymandered.

Embroidered Forests

Lovely embroidered forest landscapes by self-taught embroiderer Katrin Vates. The subtle depth created by the stitching is a neat effect.

And Finally...

"To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be." –Heidi Priebe

This goes for yourself too. Have a good weekend everyone.