Diane Corriette's News Aggregator
My daily dose of tech, content creation, SEO and AI news from across the web, all in one place.
Latest News
Photographer Spends Ten Years Capturing Black Cowboys and Cowgirls Across America
A photographer spent over a decade living with Black cowboys and cowgirls in the U.S., capturing a culture that is often overlooked. [Read More]
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6 niche horror posters that are sharper than the originals
From minimalist silk prints to hand-painted masterpieces, these are to die for.
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A censored library logo design just took the war on woke to a new level of weird
Colour is now banned?
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"Nobody has it figured out, and that’s the point": Radim Malinic on the power of creative risk
The creative director makes the case for backing yourself in his new book, Daring Forever.
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Quick Study
Tool: Quick Study Prompt to Claude Opus 5.5 High: Build an artifact where you open a photo and it rapidly (in a few seconds) paints a version of that photo using a canvas element and simulated paintbrush See also my previous experiment getting Claude Fable to simulate a watercolor illustration with P5.js. Quick Study uses Sobel edge detection, with no external libraries beyond Google Fonts. Tags: tools
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Webb Photographs a ‘Turbulent Cauldron of Star Formation’
The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) newest Picture of the Month shows what the European Space Agency (ESA) describes as a "turbulent cauldron of star formation." The star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, also known as N159, is located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). [Read More]
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Introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro
Introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro Kimi K3.1 Pro landed on the Kimi API today - it's not yet open weights, but Moonshot promise "Full model weights will be released by Nov 4, 2026". They're also offering a "Highspeed" version that's 2-3x faster, at twice the price (except for input token cache hits, which are priced the same). The US dollar pricing is $2.00/million tokens for input and $10/million for output - the same as GPT-6.1 Sol and half the price of Claude Opus 5.5. Moonshot's own benchmarks show Kimi as approximately level with Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra - beating them on a few benchmarks, coming close on others. Artificial Analysis scored Kimi at 55 - ahead of Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, and Gemini 4 Argon (all at 53) and behind only Claude Opus 5.5 (58). This is the first time a (soon-to-be) open weight model has scored this highly against the frontier. I tried it out via the Moonshot API using the llm openai endpoint command I added to LLM 0.32 back in August: llm openai endpoint \ https://api.moonshot.ai/v1 \ --key kimi \ -m kimi-k3.1-pro \ "Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle" \ --responses \ -o reasoning_effort low \ > kimi-k3.1-pro-pelican-low.stdout.txt \ 2> kimi-k3.1-pro-pelican-low.stderr.txt llm openai endpoint can run prompts against any OpenAI-compatible endpoint but doesn't log the results, hence the extra options to save stdout and stderr (the reasoning trace). Here are the pelicans I got for Kimi K3.1 Pro on the three reasoning levels it supports - low, medium, and max. This is max: For comparison, I ran fresh pelicans against Kimi K3 on those three reasoning levels. Via Hacker News Tags: ai, generative-ai, llms, llm, llm-pricing, pelican-riding-a-bicycle, llm-release, ai-in-china, moonshot, kimi
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Ranking the 5 Best 'Hitchcock Blondes'
I think the first time I felt something stir inside me was when I saw a woman watching a Hitchcock movie. The director had a certain way of showing, a leer you could call the male gaze, but it felt like it went even deeper than that. And he became famous for using that feeling around blondes. The Hitchcock Blonde became an enduring cultural symbol of his thrillers and gave us the archetype of the icy, glamorous, intelligent, fiercely independent woman at the center of his movies. Today, I want to cover five of the best Hitchcock Blondes and the mark they left on cinema history.Let's dive in. 1. Grace Kelly (Rear Window) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Alfred HitchcockWriter: John Michael Hayes (Screenplay), Cornell Woolrich (Based on the short story "It Had to Be Murder")Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond BurrGrace Kelly remains the definitive archetype of the Hitchcock Blonde. And the one who stirred my heart all those years ago. I mean, in this movie, she might be the hottest an actress has ever been on screen. Her entrance, illuminated in close-up as she leans in to kiss James Stewart, is pure cinematic magic. But what makes her the top investigator in a murder, and how her cleverness saves he day again and again. 2. Kim Novak (Vertigo) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Alfred HitchcockWriter: Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor (Screenplay), Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (Based on the novel D'entre les morts)Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom HelmoreKim Novak playing her own ghost remains one of cinema's coolest Hitchcock reveals. And then the triple reveal of it all being orchestrated to kill a wife is exquisite. Novak embodies the unreachable, haunting dream-woman Hitchcock has chased in his mind throughout his career. 3. Janet Leigh (Psycho) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Alfred HitchcockWriter: Joseph Stefano (Screenplay), Robert Bloch (Based on the novel Psycho)Cast: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin BalsamYou want to talk about the shower scene, but I think the power of Janet Leigh iz that you kind of want ot be bad with her. You want her to take the money; you want her to get away with it. Crushing our hearts when she goes makes her a specter that hangs over the entire film afterward. 4. Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Alfred HitchcockWriter: Ernest LehmanCast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Martin LandauIn North by Northwest, Eva Marie Saint plays Eve Kendall, who is the kind of secret agent I'd let kill me. Saint delivers one of the most confident and overtly sexual performances in Hitchcock's body of work, but she's also the only one who steps ahead of everyone else in the room. The banter between her and Grant sizzles. 5. Tippi Hedren (The Birds) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Alfred HitchcockWriter: Evan Hunter (Screenplay), Daphne du Maurier (Based on the story "The Birds")Cast: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica CartwrightIn her feature debut, Tippi Hedren stars as Melanie Daniels, a wealthy San Francisco socialite who follows a romantic interest to Bodega Bay, only to find the coastal town under siege by birds. You buy into her as an heiress who has never dealt with the real world, only to watch it fall apart as she might want something from it. Summing It All Up They say blondes have more fun, and in Hitchcock movies, that may be true. Even if they dodn;t have as mich fun n the sts. These were incredible actresses who made their mark on the big screen with performances and stories that are undeniable.
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GEO Is A Distraction: Here’s Where The Real Opportunity Is via @sejournal, @marie_haynes
Universal Cart, UCP, WebMCP, intelligent eyewear: the agentic web is arriving. Marie Haynes maps the opportunities most businesses are ignoring. The post GEO Is A Distraction: Here’s Where The Real Opportunity Is appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
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Thypoch’s 100mm T1.9 Lens Completes the Ultra-Affordable Simera-C Cine Prime Series
Thypoch has announced the Simera-C 100mm T1.9 Cine lens, completing the company's seven-lens full-frame cinema prime lineup. [Read More]
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10 Best Tom Skerritt Movies
Tom Skerritt is one of American cinema’s most quintessential character actors. We lost him yesterday, and I have spent the last twenty-four hours going over his massive list of starring roles, trying to pick the ones I love most. Skerrit could play anything or anyone. He brought gravity to every genre and knew how to channel our hopes and dreams, as well as our biggest fears. He built a reputation for elevating every scene he entered without ever needing to steal the spotlight.Today, I want to go over 10 of the best Tom Skerritt movies every film buff and aspiring filmmaker should study.Let's dive in. 1. Alien (1979) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Ridley ScottWriter: Dan O'Bannon (screenplay), Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett (story)Cast: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet KottoSkerritt plays Captain Arthur Dallas of the commercial towing vessel Nostromo. The film centers on Skerritt remaining calm during all the chaos. He grounds the whole film and makes the alien's arrival all the more shocking and scary. 2. Contact (1997) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Robert ZemeckisWriter: James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg (based on the novel by Carl Sagan)Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William FichtnerMan, I love him in this role. I think he should have gotten an Academy Award here for being kind of a villain, but also the perfect foil for Foster in this movie. David Drumlin is a politically savvy government advisor who undercuts Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) at every turn. We hate him, but he's not evil; he's just showing her how it's done on some level. It's a game she refuses to play, and he knows that. 3. A River Runs Through It (1992) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Robert RedfordWriter: Richard Friedenberg (based on the novella by Norman Maclean)Cast: Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, Emily LloydProof that Skerritt can do it all, this movie takes place in 1920s Montana. He plays Reverend John Maclean, a Presbyterian minister who teaches his sons life lessons through fly fishing. It's quiet and beautiful, a look at aging, grace, and a father struggling to guide his rebellious son.4. M*A*S*H (1970) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Robert Altman Writer: Ring Lardner Jr. (based on the novel by Richard Hooker)Cast: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert DuvallSkerritt's breakout film role came as Captain Augustus Bedford "Duke" Forrest in Robert Altman’s classic. He's so young here; I don't think I recognized him the first time I saw it. It's crazy to see him so energetic in a comedy and going so big. He matches Sutherland and Gould's charisma perfectly. 5. The Dead Zone (1983) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: David CronenbergWriter: Jeffrey Boam (based on the novel by Stephen King)Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony ZerbeBefore the USA series, David Cronenberg directed this pretty spooky movie, adapted from a Stephen King thriller. Skerritt plays Sheriff George Bannerman, a small-town lawman who seeks help from a psychic (Christopher Walken) to catch a serial killer. Skerritt plays the officer's desperation and skepticism perfectly, and it only raises our suspicions of who is to blame for all these killings. 6. Steel Magnolias (1989) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Herbert RossWriter: Robert Harling (based on his play)Cast: Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, Tom SkerrittMan, this movie is underseen. I feell ike it gets referenced a lot, but more people need to embrace this weeper. It's really wonderful. Skerritt plays Drum Eatenton, Sally Field's gun-toting but good man husband. He's a man you can rely on, even when things get bad. And they just get bad in this over and over, but the people you can count on help you make them good again. Skerritt brings lighthearted humor and warmth that makes you feel like it'll all be okay.7. Top Gun (1986) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Tony ScottWriter: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.Cast: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom SkerrittIn Tony Scott’s iconic 1980s action blockbuster, Skerritt plays Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf, TOPGUN's chief instructor. He's great in this; it could have been number one. I just put it back here to shake things up. He is like the perfect Navy man. And he keeps Maverick in check. 8. Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Lou AdlerWriter: Cheech Marin and Tommy ChongCast: Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Tom Skerritt, Stacy KeachAgain, his role in both Contact and Cheech and Chong demonstrates his range; Skerritt plays "Strawberry," Anthony's (Chong) shell-shocked Vietnam-veteran cousin who struggles to get over the war. It's this legendary stoner performance. 9. The Turning Point (1977) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: Herbert RossWriter: Arthur LaurentsCast: Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Browne, Tom SkerrittIn this Oscar-nominated ballet drama, Skerritt plays Wayne Rogers, the supportive husband to Shirley MacLaine. He's again the grounded husband who is there to support a woman experiencing grief and trauma. and to help his family. 10. Lucky (2017) - YouTube www.youtube.com Director: John Carroll LynchWriter: Logan Sparks and Drago SumonjaCast: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom SkerrittWatch this movie! It's full of old legends just crushing it on screen. In it, Skerritt reunites with his Alien co-star, Harry Dean Stanton, in this poignant indie drama about what life hands you again. Skerritt plays Fred, a fellow WWII veteran who shares stories over coffee at a local diner and waits to die, like the rest of them. Summing It All Up Tom Skerritt is an actor who it feell ike will live forever through his work. He played so many different roles over his life, and it was a pleasure to see what he brought to each one. While we mourn his loss, it's great to celebrate his legacy and to hope young actors can follow in his footsteps.
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20 Winners of European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026
Hungarian photographer Imre Potyó is the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026. The competition, organized by the German Society for Nature Photography (GDT), celebrates the best European nature photography each year, and Potyó's striking photo beat over 26,000 others for the grand prize. [Read More]
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