Clive Thompson

Writer, musician/songwriter, hobbyist coder. Contributing writer to New York Times Magazine and Wired. Author of "Coders". Blogging at clivethompson.medium.com, archive of writing at www.authory.com/clivethompson -- email: clive@clivethompson.net; Signal: @clivethompson.98 -- #science #technology #coding #software #writing #literature #poetry clive@clivethompson.net

Blogging: https://medium.com/@clivethompson
Music: https://lipstickdriver.bandcamp.com
Writing archive: https://authory.com/clivethompson
Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson

Public Key

npub1k9gzzeaywuqavjwu0rgw2jk7qyg204hl20367c24p8he33209v6s848ylh

NIP-05 Address

clive_at_saturation.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstz5ppv7j8wqwkf8w83589ft0qzy986ml48ca0v92snmucc48jkdgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswr066l

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1k9gzzeaywuqavjwu0rgw2jk7qyg204hl20367c24p8he33209v6s848ylh

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Last Notes

2026-06-25 16:43:49 UTC

These sentences that pivot around activists creating, reading and distributing political zines ...
... are a straightforward attack on free speech ...
... and seem pretty clearly designed to intimidate others from creating, distributing or reading politically challenging lit
it's a huge mess
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines
more here ...
https://archive.is/VRfej
https://files.saturation.social/media_attachments/files/116/811/739/899/103/780/original/ac4c75427ce3c147.png

2026-04-19 23:22:31 UTC

I'd been reading about the surge in prices for computer RAM, but only paying partial attention
but *wow* the increases are huge!
last july 2025 I built a new PC for myself, with 32 gigs of RAM from Microcenter -- the RAM was $83.22
i just googled the precise SKU info from my receipt, and the same RAM configuration is now $379
https://www.microcenter.com/product/664095/gskill-ripjaws-s5-32gb-(2-x-16gb)-ddr5-6000-pc5-48000-cl36-dual-channel-desktop-memory-kit-f5-6000j3636f16gx2-rs5k-black
that's an increase of over 4X in 9-10 months

2026-04-17 21:03:16 UTC

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i don't know
a base one, one would suspect

2026-04-17 02:03:09 UTC

Behold the "challenge coin" that the federal government is handing out to employees who worked on the deportations and detentions around Minneapolis this winter
it is both predictable -- the sort of garish video-game conflict imagery in which Trump's administration revels -- and grotesque
for people who don't like being called "fascist", their imagery is squarely and risibly in that camp
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/staff-at-minnesota-deportation-hub-received-obscene-trump-themed-challenge-coins-adorned-with-skulls
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/417/562/674/867/105/original/dd53ee1c453904a5.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/417/574/952/173/342/original/e91600bef698bf2e.png

2026-04-10 18:01:45 UTC

hey kids
you may want to tune into the NASA livestream for the Artemis 2 mission
it's rapidly approaching home and the earth is getting *big*
they're set to splashdown at 8:07 pm tonight
https://www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBtepa4
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/381/718/460/096/722/original/32ee8c88f9cf6dfc.png

2026-04-10 15:40:35 UTC

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The walls I can’t claim credit for, when we arrived in the house they were already painted that way and we just kept them!

2026-04-09 16:25:33 UTC

i don’t think you people have ever seen this magnificent squid messenger bag made for me by @npub16gn…rt89
it is so cool
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/375/671/038/347/269/original/5f09b2de97401719.jpeg

2026-04-07 19:21:47 UTC

NASA's photo galley from yesterday's lunar fly-by are bonkers gorgeous
full gallery here: https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/365/039/465/044/674/original/816ec77b9991007d.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/365/045/660/820/351/original/dec6570663a6bae9.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/365/046/524/105/792/original/1bae40e823000948.png

2026-03-27 19:06:25 UTC

Behold the gorgeous daily art produced by @npub1asm…646p
... which he draws using the Notes app on an iphone
its drawing toolset is awfully limited, but he pushes it to a dizzying limit
item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-43-archaeoacoustics-nocotourism-and-the/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/302/699/334/718/886/original/d7fc4e43a9bbe76f.png

2026-03-02 18:56:48 UTC

People of mastodon!
Super weird question, but ...
... is anyone out there conversant in Assembly for a 1960s-era IBM 7090, or machines of that lineage?
I'm working on an article that includes some Assembly of that vintage ...
... and want to make sure I'm describing what it does correctly
(I'm a programmer but have no experience with Assembly)
if this describes you or someone you know ...
... hit me up, I'd love to tap your expertise!
clive@clivethompson.net is the fastest

2026-02-21 18:46:19 UTC

An interesting piece here noting that in the Epstein files, quite a few of the rich elites insisted that climate change either a) wasn't happening or b) would be good because the mass deaths would help depopulate the world, a classic argument of ecofacism
https://www.fastcompany.com/91490280/epstein-files-how-ultra-wealthy-peddle-climate-denialism

2026-02-19 17:44:02 UTC

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I loved David Foster Wallace‘s nonfiction writing, in fact that’s how I was introduced to his work! Then I tried reading infinite jest and stalled out about 1/3 of the way through
I really admired his sentences, but for some reason the book just didn’t click with me
but yeah, I am Gen X, and a lot of Gen X literary types I know truly love his fiction

2026-02-09 01:24:40 UTC

I'm watching Bad Bunny perform on the TV (I'm a bar writing), and it's awesome and it's reminding me of how batshit it is that puerto ricans can't vote in federal elections in the US
what ... what is the putative argument for that? I mean know the actual reason is a historic and *radioactive* level of racism on the part of the republican party, but ...
... what's the polite reason, given out loud by supposedly Veddy Serious People?

2026-01-30 23:03:17 UTC

A terrific essay by my friend @npub1z4e…d92l ...
... in which he adds some useful new ideas to our understanding of enshittification
check it out! https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/the-fragmentation-flywheel

2026-01-28 03:44:54 UTC

Super piece by Adam Serwer, who reported on the everyday Minnesotans who are observing and protesting ICE's actions, while delivering food to their neighbors who are afraid to leave their houses
His key, bang-on point, is this: All assumptions the White House makes -- about how society works, how culture works, the nature of bravery and identity --- are completely wrong
it's why Trump's attack on Minnesota is foundering
The piece: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/the-neighbors-defending-minnesota-from-ice/685769/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/TRsdI
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/657/166/336/710/original/008cd45a331f5d4d.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/659/181/606/712/original/f83e8d21feff2e66.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/660/706/810/286/original/f734d0749e2f386b.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/662/495/677/606/original/aba2c22cb1c5bfef.png

2026-01-13 18:00:14 UTC

What's it like applying for a job for ICE?
Over at Slate, a writer -- who's both a US veteran and has a long record of being very vocally anti-ICE online -- went to an ICE recruitment expo
Link if you subscribe to Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/ice-recruitment-minneapolis-shooting.html
Free link, if you don't: https://archive.is/791rH
the tl;dr is ...
... they offered her a job, in a process that seemed so haphazard and sloppy that she concludes they're not doing serious background checks
as she puts it ...
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/889/088/982/672/625/original/a1aad040e5e2324b.png

2026-01-11 04:04:13 UTC

"Maduro in Minneapolis" ...
.... an excellent essay by Timothy Synder -- the scholar of authoritarian politics -- noting that when Maduro's death squads killed Venezuelans, they typically offered the same justifications that ICE did in killing Renee Nicole Good ...
... i.e. the agents were defending themselves against radical assailants
https://snyder.substack.com/p/maduro-in-minneapolis

2026-01-11 01:17:06 UTC

I’m having dinner at a ramen restaurant and there are three or four incredibly bland R&B ballads playing on infinite loop, over and over again
they have that olestra-like feeling of being genAI music
So I try using shazam to recognize it — nothing
I google some snippets of the lyrics — zero hits
yeah, this is a mix of genAI music
bleah

2025-12-17 20:47:59 UTC

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whoa! I’ve never heard of this one!

2025-12-08 04:36:59 UTC

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It’s lovely, eh?

2025-12-05 16:24:56 UTC

Casio just celebrated its 50th anniversary by producing a huge gallery of dozens of its digital watches, from the 70s to today
they are gorgeous beasts
here are are three, including the "tv remote" one from 1993
item #8 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read/subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-42-phytomining-adversarial-poetry-and/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/667/877/079/322/986/original/b654d0e6bd04a008.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/667/884/737/531/899/original/d298f2ccbc56f9d5.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/667/886/448/274/862/original/f4ccaa7d85ccd48e.png

2025-12-04 20:34:29 UTC

behold the gorgeous "aerial embroidery" of Victoria Rose Richards
it's the landscape as seen from a plane, except as stitchwork
Item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read/subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-42-phytomining-adversarial-poetry-and/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/663/205/222/544/437/original/04fa07c122348b22.png

2025-11-13 01:50:36 UTC

okay people, it's time ⏰
once again
for "the opposite of doomscrolling" 😎
the latest issue of my "Linkfest" newsletter just dropped 📬
free to read/subscribe here here here ☘️ : https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-40-the-chthulucene-doom-on-a-satellite/
Includes:
🌋 the "Chthulucene"
🎲 crosswords mixed with Tetris
🐦 a global birdsong map
🧠 "mind captioning"
✍️ making a font of your handwriting
📡 Doom running on a satellite
🍸 the evolutionary value of getting drunk
👻 the ethics of selling a haunted house
and SO MUCH MORE
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/539/876/325/458/192/original/f2c55e11b5a0a154.png

2025-11-04 15:35:48 UTC

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great thread!!

2025-10-24 14:31:59 UTC

Want to travel to an exoplanet?
NASA made gorgeous retro-styled posters for seven
they're downloadable in high res for printing!
Item #1 in my latest "Linkfest": https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-40-microlightning-quantum-navigation-and/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/429/621/549/842/822/original/95e255f088aca928.jpg

2025-09-24 15:56:45 UTC

it turns out that if you video-tape mathematicians working on really hard problems at the chalkboard ...
... their bodies give out a physical "tell" just before they have an "aha" breakthrough
which is to say, you could observe and predict a breakthrough slightly before the mathematicians themselves are aware it's about to happen
super cool research
item #7 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-39-xenoparity-navajo-microchips-and-in/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/260/082/310/099/543/original/40b5516d4591f393.png

2025-09-22 22:14:37 UTC

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Whoa!!

2025-09-18 02:37:28 UTC

The latest in the Trump administration’s work to remove material that discusses American slavery
Now it’s in state parks, and specifically targeting the famous photo of the “scourged back”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/09/15/national-parks-slavery-information-removal/

2025-08-31 22:34:02 UTC

Trump's government has been arguing that if they claim that someone in the US isn't a citizen, they're not entitled to due process
this is clearly unconstitutional
in March, Timothy Snyder noted the logical endpoint: This means even *citizens* do not reliably have due process, because all the feds have to do is *say* you're not a citizen and ... you can't go to court to prove it
Screenshot below: https://x.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1904296565562343430
a federal judge just agreed (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/us/politics/judge-fast-track-deportations.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iU8.W4_D.WrvAkc7nZ-hP&smid=url-share
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/125/746/520/952/831/original/7282124d8aa17d4e.jpg
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/125/753/508/771/537/original/24cdeb034cc81c3e.jpg

2025-08-25 04:23:22 UTC

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I found the stuff so fascinating, and can’t wait to read that book!
and yes, I think I’ve heard the same thing about hunter gatherer societies, and it runs in complete contrast to the traditional story of humanity thriving only once agrarian society emerges

2025-08-23 15:13:17 UTC

okay you lucky people 🍀
it's time ... 🕰️
... for "the opposite of doomscrolling" 🌻
my latest "Linkfest" newsletter just dropped 📬
free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-38-tk-tk-and-tk/
Includes:
☁️ the "ignorosphere"
🐸 how a 1958 album of frog sounds became a multigenerational hit
🚗 wedge cars
💿 the "Sabu Disk"
🌋 the upsides of societal collapse
🎥 a zoetrope vinyl album
🧄 garlic hackers
and SO MUCH MORE
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/078/706/378/970/538/original/82be94f80346a8eb.png

2025-08-21 20:10:52 UTC

I’m down
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/068/564/268/784/918/original/68553d59213cf6cc.jpeg

2025-08-19 17:38:21 UTC

I'm working on a magazine piece about how -- and if -- AI coding tools are altering the work of software development
if you're a dev, love to get your 2 cents on it -- whether you use 'em; absolutely *avoid* them and hate them; anything in between
Also: Very interested to hear from new CS grads -- whether you feel the advent of AI coding tools is affecting the job market for you
hit me up at clive@clivethompson.net!
(and please boost this if it's relevant to your followers)

2025-08-18 18:22:10 UTC

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And then there's this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/12/national-guard-civil-unrest/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/051/154/914/185/344/original/43ee7c9e7d14b876.png

2025-08-18 18:13:34 UTC

Trump's administration is describing -- quite openly -- their desire to deploy the military in major blue-state cities ...
They're not even slightly covert about it
This does not come as news to most folks roundabouts mastodon, I suspect ...
... but this post at Rolling Stone is nonetheless a good roundup of some of the more blatant and open statements:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-military-crackdown-get-worse-1235406382/

2025-08-15 15:19:04 UTC

first they added variables to CSS
then if-then statements
now functions
people, people
I have *warned* you
sentient killer AI isn't going to be built at a skunkworks corporate lab in SF or Beijing
it's going to spontaneously self-assemble in the CSS file for the web site of a rural Tennessee bank
https://una.im/5-css-functions/

2025-08-05 22:37:02 UTC

behold the "HTML bomb"
it's a defensive counterattack on AI web-scrapers that persistently scrape and rescrape your web site, even when you tell them not to
the bomb file *looks* like a tiny HTML page, but when scraped -- or even requested by a regular browser ...
... it unpacks into a huge-ass 10-gig HTML page ...
... which quickly crashes any browser or scraper
Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-37-wind-theft-an-html-bomb-and-the-rice/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/978/547/682/882/882/original/fbe4ba224bac1bc8.png

2025-08-05 15:15:08 UTC

You know those sms scam messages we all get -- "we've got a job for you"
what *is* the scam, precisely? How do these "jobs" work?
Over at Slate, Alex Sammon took on one of the jobs ... and the story is absolutely fascinating: https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/indeed-job-recruiter-text-message-scam.html

2025-07-15 14:52:23 UTC

TIL that in Hong Kong, scaffolding for construction isn't made of metal
it's handcrafted from bamboo
by artisans who've been passing down the techniques for generations
Item #4 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-36-moon-rice-mountaineering-in-high/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/857/812/066/040/541/original/15a2cf6486924585.jpg

2025-07-12 14:25:43 UTC

A cathedral dress
briliant invention of the designer/maker Christina Ernst
Item # 11 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-36-moon-rice-mountaineering-in-high/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/840/717/122/152/066/original/3afdd2d5f498676d.png

2025-07-11 15:16:34 UTC

I realized I hadn't heard any news about bird flu lately
it turns out the seeming reduction in cases being reported ...
... is likely a side-effect of Trump's desire to expel immigrants
As this physician notes, most bird flu is encountered in farm work ...
... so you want to test farm workers, to figure out if it's spreading!
but farm workers now have a very good reason to avoid all authorities
The piece: https://undark.org/2025/07/10/opinion-bird-flu-emergency-end/
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/835/256/158/432/950/original/2cecfb43850f6b42.png

2025-07-11 04:16:10 UTC

Speaking of Wired's excellent coverage:
They just reported on a Department of Homeland Security memo that went out to local police forces ...
... urging them to consider even the most innocuous and bog-standard protest activity as dangerous ...
... like skateboarding, or walkigng around "on foot"
no joke
The story: https://www.wired.com/story/dhs-tells-police-that-common-protest-activities-are-violent-tactics/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/4Dgw5
An excerpt:
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/832/651/671/946/410/original/2ca4a9c32910247f.png

2025-07-04 16:31:52 UTC

Timothy Snyder argues that the immigrants and refugees being sent to the new US-based camps will -- if history is any guide -- be offered to US firms as slave labor
so it'll be up to us, and corporates, to say no
https://snyder.substack.com/p/concentration-camp-labor
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/795/915/333/631/238/original/4d156f90468fd200.png

2025-06-30 04:37:52 UTC

I had a friend who worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
At its peak, it was an amazing force helping to protect everyday americans from the usurious behavior of banks, lenders, and anyone in the money business
Annie Lowrey also has a friend who works there -- but who was caught up in Musk/DOGE/Trump's push to dismantle the agency ...
... even as her friend got cancer
Lowrey wrote a remarkable story: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/fired-by-doge-and-sick-with-cancer/683361/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/BmG7e

2025-06-28 14:08:09 UTC

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Yep — it has been an issue for every president for decades now!
But the scale of Trump’s unconstitutional actions, and thus the rulings against him, easily dwarf that of any previous president, Republican and Democratic

2025-06-28 13:53:49 UTC

I doubt folks around here need more explainers about the disastrous Supreme Court ruling that makes it essentially impossible for lower courts to overturn blatantly unconstitutional moves by the president
But this is clearest explanation I’ve seen: https://archive.is/S74FW

2025-06-22 15:38:54 UTC

There is nothing I love more than research finding that coffee is good for your health
in this case, a four-decade-long study of 50,000 women
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2025/06/16/coffee-healthy-aging-women/84225332007/

2025-06-16 16:55:33 UTC

I always find this chart by Hannah Ritchie -- of Our World In Data -- deeply informative of how disjointed is our sense of personal risk
https://x.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1133703638432526337
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/114/694/030/792/419/197/original/c503fd1aaa943252.png

2025-06-05 11:45:53 UTC

A pediatrician reads the "Make America Healthy Again" report and discovers it is wildly contradictory
It spends pages meticulously documenting how corporations spend billions of dollars developing highly addictive ultra-processed foods and marketing them to children ...
... and how this has caused child illnesses and obesity to boom
It documents how other countries better regulate this
But then it says "the US shouldn't regulate things":
https://slate.com/technology/2025/06/rfk-jr-maha-report-kids-health-chronic-illness-medication.html

2025-06-04 17:22:28 UTC

Among the many dangerous things the Trump administration is doing ...
... this one's a doozy:
the executive order giving his political appointees the power to determine what are "correct" scientific findings, and "the power to 'discipline' anyone who violates the way the administration views science"
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/climate/executive-order-gold-standard-science.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU8.OyDj.Zg9c1rftvl0c&smid=url-share

2025-06-04 16:40:24 UTC

Hey NYC-area folks!
Tonight (June 4), my friend Kevin Smokler is going to be at Greenlight Books in Brooklyn ...
... to do an event for his new book "Break the Frame", a collection of his interviews with pioneering female directors
Tonight he'll be in conversation with Debra Granik, director of -- among other fabulous movies -- "Winter's Bone"
Event details here: https://greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-06-04/kevin-smokler-debra-granik
super worth attending if you can!

2025-05-27 18:46:16 UTC

Trump pardoned a man who'd been convicted of tax cheating -- he withheld over $10 million from the paychecks of nurses, doctors and other employees, money that was intended to make their tax contributions ...
... and blew it on a $2 million yacht and shopping
he was caught, fined $4.4 million and given an 18-month jail term
then his mother attended a $1 million Trump dinner ...
... and soon after he was pardoned
Full story here: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trump-pardoned-tax-cheat-after-mother-attended-1-million-maga-dinner/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/581/278/879/712/445/original/ee0b69a67cc0d7c8.png

2025-05-16 17:26:04 UTC

Flock -- an automatic license-plate-reading service -- is adding tons of data sources ...
... so police could, upon scanning your license, get linked to tons more info about your life, relationships, etc
where did Flock get these additional sources of info?
they're using standard people-lookup tools and data brokers, but also ...
... info from *data breaches*
so great
@npub1psa…j5uh has the story: https://www.404media.co/license-plate-reader-company-flock-is-building-a-massive-people-lookup-tool-leak-shows/
unpaywalled version: https://archive.is/GmuUk

2025-05-13 19:26:17 UTC

USDA says it'll restore climate info to its web site after farmers and environmental groups sued
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/usda-reverses-course-commits-to-restore-purged-climate-webpages-in-response-to-farmers-lawsuit
I'll believe it when I see the pages restored, but provisionally this is good news
climate data gathered by federal agencies is crucial for farmers, insurers, airlines ... pretty much any industry that has to deal with the weather
#climate

2025-05-13 15:13:40 UTC

Kseniia Petrova is the Russian scientist who came to the US in 2023 to study biology ...
... and three months ago was detained by ICE after failing to delcare some frog biological samples she took from France into the US
(an infraction that normally has a fine of $50 to $500)
She's still in ICE detention
she wrote a fantastic op-ed that focuses on her science -- a remarkable new form of imaging with huge promise for mitigating disease
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/opinion/ice-detention-russian-scientist.html?unlocked_article_code=1.G08.p4x_.bh3nvtNofjUC&smid=url-share

2025-05-09 16:58:55 UTC

New coinage just dropped, folks
"enshittogenic"
as in ...
... when the ecology of the online world loses crucial stabilizers, such that enshittification has not yet happened, but the conditions are ripe for it
@npub1fdr…lvhs on his new podcast series "Who Broke the Internet?"
https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/478/934/537/672/662/original/b48d7498cf1eca21.png

2025-05-08 12:00:14 UTC

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What's also notable here too -- as the professor notes -- is how quickly and completely the leadership of West Point rolled over and conceded to all of Trump/Hegseth's demands

2025-05-08 11:58:10 UTC

This is an op-ed by a professor at West Point, describing the Trump/Hegseth crackdown on any sort of instruction that questions power ...
gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/west-point-trump-military.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Fk8.nAsH.FJBUeCyms015&smid=url-share
I highlighted this part here -- they just completely disbanded the sociology major
sociology and anthropology are really, really hated by Trump and his fellow travellers
they hate anything that seeks to examine the fabric of society
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/472/088/626/786/359/original/132bb9c2dc203c4e.png

2025-04-27 02:01:28 UTC

China is sharing its rare moon rocks -- collected from the far side of the moon and returned to earth -- with scientific agencies from six different countries, including the US
the rocks are "a shared treasure for all humanity", as China's space-agency chief said
gotta say, it's always cool to see scientists collaborating around the world and across borders
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8v691qmg5o?utm_source=semafor

2025-04-26 16:57:47 UTC

"Conservatives *hate* complexity"
a superb post by @npub1fdr…lvhs that distills a core aspect of why right-wing ideas about how to manage things like the economy, immigration and our personal lives collide so rapidly with reality
key passage here, but do read the whole thing
https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/24/hermit-kingdom/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/405/318/562/112/894/original/16810594bb673135.png

2025-04-21 19:41:02 UTC

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I am hardly the first person to observe/predict this, but holy crap tourism to the US is gonna get -- rightfully -- destroyed

2025-04-21 19:34:48 UTC

US border officials are so twitchy and paranoid that they detained and imprisoned two German teenagers ...
... even though they'd applied for -- and received -- their electronic approval for a five-week visit
Why were they detained? Because they hadn't booked accommodations for their full five weeks
they'd figured they'd travel around a bit and make decisions on the fly ... *like tourists do all the time, in most normal and free countries*
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/german-tourists-deported-hawaii-cbp-b2736655.html

2025-04-20 16:18:08 UTC

A good piece about the value of hobbies ...
... for linking together people from disparate backgrounds and walks of life
I've long noticed this about online interactions -- every time I'm in a hobby-focused forum (guitar pedals, origami, knitting, etc), it's very background-diverse and also -- usually -- exceptionally civil ...
... because everyone has at least one major thing in common
The essay: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/04/hobby-inflation-fishing-knitting/682497/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/4OxlC

2025-04-16 14:41:43 UTC

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Oooo what’s Dvorak like?
I’ve always idly considered learning it

2025-04-15 22:15:20 UTC

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we are probably nearly the same age
it was middle school typing class for me too
and, also for me, maybe the most catalytic class I ever took

2025-04-15 15:43:08 UTC

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I'm the same way -- I just type two dashes together, with a space before and after
I think it's a vestige of the fact that I first began doing word-processing using DOS software that was not yet WYSIWYG
no m-dash was possible -- two dashes was one's only alternative
the habit stuck

2025-04-15 14:56:07 UTC

Apparently the use of m-dashes is now seen -- by some -- as a mark of genAI writing?
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-hypen-em-dash-ai-writing-1235314945/
Man I dunno I use *ton* of m-dashes!
In fact a couple of years ago I created a little web tool that let you take a piece of your writing and strip out *just* the punctuation ...
1/x

2025-04-08 15:19:28 UTC

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What I love about this essay is how it speaks to how deeply entwined modern life is with other people, other countries, other processes ...
... and for "entwined" we can substitute "dependent on", which is a short hop to "vulnerable to"
the US is currently led by a regime that is snarlingly insistent that it is vulnerable to no-one and nothing -- quite the opposite, everything is vulnerable to it

2025-04-08 15:15:59 UTC

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Over on Bluesky, @npub1rdz…94n2 noted the relevance of the famous Brian Buckley essay "Who Knows How To Make A Mouse?"
https://briandbuckley.com/2012/09/12/who-knows-how-to-make-a-mouse/
My favorite line is highlighted here
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/302/996/974/155/915/original/e6e2a4b841e11282.png

2025-04-08 13:39:07 UTC

Keyboard.io makes high-end angled and "split" keyboards
they wrote a letter to customers explaining how Trump's new tariffs will affect them
it's bad news for them -- prices have already shot up, and new tariffs Trump is threatening would *double* prices
their description of "why building something as complex as a keyboard is an inherently cross-border enterprise" is really interesting
they have to ship wood to China! that sort of wood isn't readily available there
https://shop.keyboard.io/blogs/news/an-open-letter-to-u-s-customers
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/302/608/668/086/859/original/8cf6355a8d5facdf.png

2025-04-07 23:56:22 UTC

A very good and unsettling interview with the lawyer for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident that the Trump administration grabbed and sent to El Salvador -- and later admitted they did so in error
as the lawyer notes, he has dealt several times in the past with administrations that wrongly deported residents ...
... and in those previous cases, even during Trump's first term, they got them back immediately upon realizing their error
no longer
https://archive.is/gfVty
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/299/381/838/879/801/original/8800738508171d3f.png

2025-04-05 21:51:49 UTC

I can confirm this – I was there today and the streets were absolutely packed … tons of people all fired up and excited to be in each other’s company https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:p56fqcvdu32phbpagcrweavg/post/3lm3kypniqs2r

2025-04-04 15:30:49 UTC

"Technocracy" was a movement in the early 20th century ...
... that insisted that democracy was terrible ...
... and society should be run by elite engineers, scientists and businesspeople
A major figure in that movement?
step forward, Joshua Haldeman ...
.... grandfather of Elon Musk
When you read the list of stuff that Technocracy folks believed and wanted, you can see a *direct* line to Musk and DOGE
gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/opinion/elon-musk-doge-technocracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9E4.2asB.SMukM9zSZZdy&smid=url-share
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/280/407/540/712/835/original/848cfa3d4b8333e5.png

2025-04-02 03:02:15 UTC

"Welcome to Donald Trump’s America, where the Cabinet texting about war plans on a nongovernmental messaging app is “not a big deal,” but an op-ed in a school paper is a threat to national security."
this nails: it https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/students-national-security/682255/
unpaywalled: https://archive.is/TnnfT

2025-04-01 15:23:40 UTC

who could have seen *this* coming
https://futurism.com/neoscope/23andme-selling-data
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/263/390/040/480/942/original/8aeb77b56bd42d1e.jpg

2025-03-26 21:42:27 UTC

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It hardly bears repeating at this point -- many folks made this observation after the Signal story broke, but ...
... these buffoonish, incompetent security moves were all executed by members of an administration that claims DEI destroyed government ...
... and that only serious white men are reliable
bleah

2025-03-26 21:41:56 UTC

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It's a clown-show security error, of course, but does being able to see someone's Venmo contacts matter?
Sure
as security pros note in this story, it shows lots of soft targets that a malevolent actor could spoof
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/230/904/771/092/639/original/fea8d28df7e2967b.png
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/230/905/236/825/922/original/7c6b0912f1f5deba.png

2025-03-26 21:25:09 UTC

So it turns out that Michael "Reply All" Waltz, Trump's national-security advisor -- the guy who accidentally invited the editor of The Atlantic into a Signal chat to reveal top-secret military plans in realtime ...
... also had left his Venmo "friends" list comppletely public
Wired discovered this and reported it, whereupon the account went instantly private: https://www.wired.com/story/michael-waltz-left-his-venmo-public/
(in other news, Wired continues to kill it)
https://www.wired.com/story/michael-waltz-left-his-venmo-public/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/G68KW

2025-03-24 16:39:31 UTC

I need your recommendations, Mastodon folks!
I like following posts about the clean-energy transition -- the good, the bad, and the ugly
energy generation, transmission, policy, mobility/transportation, engineering, housing, industry, financing, its politics and sociology ... all facets of it
who should I be following?
open to all suggestions!

2025-03-24 16:31:42 UTC

This story is *wild*
Michael Waltz, Trump's national security advisor, was using Signal to chat with high-up Trump officials like defense secretary Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Stephen Mille, a CIA operative, and JD Vance ...
... to co-ordinate the Mar 15 bombing of Houthi targets
Waltz added -- apparently by mistake -- Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, to the group
a wild, clownishly self-own of a leak
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/
(sorry, no unpaywalled link is available yet)

2025-03-23 21:23:56 UTC

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I understand the frustration at the vagueness of my original post!
i wish I could share more details myself

2025-03-23 16:35:28 UTC

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yep I hear ya
but I'm not including those specifics at my friend's request, to prevent the friends from being further targeted

2025-03-23 16:29:43 UTC

Hey Canadians:
I just heard about two Canadian friends of a friend who were driving into the US
the border agents demanded they unlock their phones; the agents searched the phones, found anti-Trump stuff on one ...
... then confiscated that phone and neither person was allowed into the US
These folks weren't activists or anything -- the search doesn't appear to have been triggered by that
so, govern yourselves accordingly

2025-03-11 16:54:15 UTC

The price of eggs isn't actually high because of avian flu and culls ...
... because demand for eggs has dropped faster than supply -- supply is down 3.5%, but egg consumption is down 7.5%
nope, the reason egg producers are jacking up prices is to increase profits ...
... and they're doing it because they *can*: It's an oligopoly with no serious competition
blaming avian flu is -- as @npub1fdr…lvhs puts it --- "excuseflation"
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/144/838/020/120/017/original/cdf000bf88a22ddf.png

2025-03-11 15:07:13 UTC

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When I was cycling across the country two years ago I went through a chunk of Oregon in the morning where the fog was this thick, and it’s exactly how the trees looked

2025-02-26 17:34:36 UTC

hello, whirled

2025-02-24 17:49:34 UTC

In a chat with my brother-in-law just now he sent me a meme that uses the duel Kirk has with the Gorn ...
... which reminded me of the 1944 sci fi story upon which it was based, "Arena" ...
... which I just found online and reread, and it's fascinating to revisit: https://userweb.ucs.louisiana.edu/~jjl5766/share/Arena.pdf

2025-02-23 16:39:23 UTC

An argument: We need working-class media -- https://www.cjr.org/analysis/america-needs-working-class-media-end-catering-rich-audiences.php
co-sign

2025-02-22 20:35:32 UTC

I’m at a March in NYC to support congestion pricing
This is one of the times when the classic chant — “whose streets? our streets“ — is not just a metaphoric but literal lol
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/049/449/251/143/330/original/0883c9824d090553.mp4

2025-02-22 00:27:21 UTC

Very well-reported piece how the Musk/Trump wilding is laying off crucial FDA staffers
They laid off people who check the safety of high-end blood-glucose monitors, surgical staplers, e-cigarette devices … you name it
they laid off people who check the cybersecurity of robotic surgery devices. Man, better hope China/russia doesn’t hack *those*, eh?
Oh and many of these jobs were funded by industry fees, not taxes — so it won’t reduce the deficit one penny
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/health/fda-trump-layoffs-device-and-food-safety.html?unlocked_article_code=1.y04.lvro.4RGYAg4qxVBf&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

2025-02-20 22:26:42 UTC

An excellent essay on the dangers -- to society, and to soldiers themselves, and the military -- of the right-wing obsession with creating a "warrior culture"
Tons of great points here, but one I particularly enjoyed: The essayist describes how the Spartans created a huge mythos for themselves ...
... which was a terrible idea, because after they suffered defeats that mythos came *crumbling* down
https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/12/14/stop-calling-us-warriors/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/038/562/819/929/318/original/c6bbab4b4f3f7f9a.png

2025-02-19 15:52:13 UTC

As ever, Timothy Snyder -- the historian of tyranny -- distills the moment perfectly
The key line:
"In general outline, the idea is to make the government as a whole dysfunctional, while preserving the parts of it than can intimidate and oppress citizens."
https://snyder.substack.com/p/kash-patels-plots
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/031/344/639/412/070/original/19dbddf1669018be.png

2025-02-19 00:49:34 UTC

How the behavior of DOGE -- and Trump's lackeys who are running riot through the federal government -- is exactly that of ...
... a protection racket
An excellent way of understanding it, via @npub168t…50jm at Slate
unpaywalled: https://archive.is/tNrHM
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/114/027/798/090/631/321/original/0e0b6b1b35b96188.png

2025-02-12 23:29:59 UTC

An excellent interview with Elizabeth Warren ...
... about the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ...
... how much banks loathed it ...
... how much money it has put back in the pockets of Americans, by cracking down on deceptive and usurious bank charges ...
... and why Musk in particular would hate the CFPB: He wants X to be a financial app, and doesn't want to treat his customer's privacy and rights seriously
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/sen-elizabeth-warrens-two-word-plan-to-save-the-cfpb-from-elon-musk

2025-02-11 00:55:56 UTC

"I wrote in my notebook, from the front seat of a silent Tesla carrying me, its driver, and one other person through a pastel-toned tunnel, that 'nothing can prepare you for how fucking stupid this shit is.'"
David Roth on this year's CES
https://archive.is/mo4AS

2025-02-07 21:50:30 UTC

I'm working at a cafe today and "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House comes on
during the chorus I look to my left far across the cafe where two young women, maybe 20 years old, are sitting together
they both have their heads tilted back and eyes closed, mouthing DON'T DREAAAAAAAMMM it's OHHHHHHH-VER like they're onstage in American Idol
man, I had no idea Gen Z kids even *knew* that song

2025-02-06 21:16:21 UTC

Well what do you know
Marko Elez, one of the young software guys Musk has illegally turned loose to alter critical government high-tech services ...
... was, just back in December, posting on X about how he wanted there to be a "eugenic immigration policy" ...
... how "you could not pay me to marry outside my race" ...
... and "Normalize Indian hate", referring in this case to folks from India
the Wall Street Journal just broke the story (gift link): https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93?st=8613EM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/113/959/010/582/001/524/original/6a044be2339f39e4.png

2025-02-06 19:46:53 UTC

In addition to formal government institutions, Musk is also trying to tear apart Wikipedia
That is almost certainly, as this analysis notes, because Wikipedia is "a last bastion of shared reality" ...
... and Musk, in contrast, only wants online sources that repeat his sort of conspiratorial blather
The piece: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/elon-musk-wikipedia/681577/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/1mjMq
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/113/958/652/996/061/512/original/a28fece9eec8b361.png

2025-02-05 18:01:17 UTC

"Of course it's a coup"
as ever, Timothy Snyder cuts to the chase
https://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/113/952/584/916/966/550/original/530fae6cfa5f83fb.png

2025-02-04 23:43:06 UTC

Big crowds outside the Treasury department, protesting the government-systems takeover by Musk and his twentysomething software lackeys
https://bsky.app/profile/alvarezreports.bsky.social/post/3lhf4ykzuuc2m