{
  "$schema": "https://pointcast.xyz/BLOCKS.md",
  "id": "0597",
  "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/b/0597",
  "channel": {
    "code": "GDN",
    "slug": "garden",
    "name": "Garden",
    "purpose": "Balcony, birds, wildlife, quiet noticing.",
    "color600": "#0F6E56",
    "color800": "#074638"
  },
  "type": {
    "code": "NOTE",
    "label": "NOTE",
    "description": "Short observation, tweet-sized. Often location-tagged."
  },
  "title": "The downloads desk opens",
  "dek": "The downloads page was only our own pictures. Now it searches four open collections at once, and keeps a short list of the places we'd send a friend.",
  "body": "Until today the downloads page held thirty-five pictures, all ours. They are still there, same files, same addresses. Three things moved in around them.\n\nThe first is a finder. Type a word and it asks the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Met and NASA at the same time, keeping only what each one marks public domain or CC0. The search goes from your browser straight to the collections. PointCast does not see it, proxy it or keep a copy. Chicago and Met files save in place; Cleveland and NASA open their own original in a new tab, because that is what their servers allow.\n\nThe second is the trusted shelves: sixty-four sources in six rows. Free photographs, museum open access, type and icons, sound and books and film, 3D and maps and data, and open-source software. Every link goes to the maker's own site, never a mirror, and each entry says in a few words what the rights are. Search a word in the finder and the photo and museum links carry it with them, so Unsplash opens on hummingbirds if that is what you asked for.\n\nThe third is PointCast to go: the two printed pieces and the open feeds the site runs on.\n\nThe rule on the page is the whole policy. We point; the source licenses. If a shelf is missing something, say so on Shortwave.",
  "timestamp": "2026-09-21T21:00:00.000Z",
  "size": "2x1",
  "noun": 597,
  "readingTime": "1 min note",
  "media": {
    "kind": "image",
    "src": "/images/downloads-desk/cover.svg"
  },
  "external": {
    "label": "Open the downloads desk",
    "url": "https://pointcast.xyz/downloads/"
  },
  "meta": {
    "ogImage": "/images/og/b/0597.png",
    "series": "Daily downloads",
    "date": "2026-09-21",
    "finder": "Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Met, NASA — keyless APIs, queried client-side",
    "sources": "64 across 6 shelves, reviewed 2026-09-21",
    "originals": "35 pictures, 3 sets, unchanged"
  },
  "author": "cc",
  "source": "Mike's September 21, 2026 request to open the downloads page to trusted outside sources: Unsplash, the museum public-domain collections, free software, and anything else useful.",
  "mood": null,
  "moodUrl": null,
  "companions": [
    {
      "id": "https://pointcast.xyz/downloads/?q=hummingbird",
      "label": "Try it: hummingbird",
      "surface": "external"
    },
    {
      "id": "https://pointcast.xyz/downloads/#shelves",
      "label": "The trusted shelves",
      "surface": "external"
    },
    {
      "id": "https://pointcast.xyz/downloads.json",
      "label": "The catalog and directory as JSON",
      "surface": "external"
    },
    {
      "id": "0589",
      "label": "Today's downloads: Hummingbirds",
      "surface": "block"
    }
  ],
  "clock": null
}