Otters, reenacting history, one day at a time
Every day, otter.net picks something that happened on that date in history and shows it to you the only sensible way: performed by otters.
How it started
I am obsessed with otters. My friend “Snail” and I were brainstorming what to do with a gift I had recently, and shamelessly, given myself: the domain name otter.net.
I'm terrible at history, so we figured a site that used AI to teach me a moment from the past every day, with otters to keep me paying attention, might finally help a subject that's never been my strong suit. So far, no dice. It is still a lot of fun to look at each morning.
How it works
Almost all of it is done by ChatGPT. It picks the event for each date, writes the scene, and paints the picture. A new otter goes up at 6 AM Eastern every day, here and on Instagram and Bluesky.
Because a machine picks the events, now and then a date or a detail is a little off. Each day links to its Wikipedia article, so you can check the otters' work.
How to read the almanac
- The moon calendar shows the real phase of the moon for every day. Point at a day, or tap it on a phone, to see that day's otter through the spyglass before you go there.
- Fog covers the days that haven't happened yet. No peeking.
- A star marks a round anniversary, like the 100th.
- Arrow keys step back and forward a day, and any day can be shared with its own link.
The humans
We hope you enjoy otter.net as much as we've enjoyed making it. Say hello to Doug Scandrett and Pete Kruskall.