Nostr notes by Clive Thompson

I'd been reading about the surge in prices for computer RAM, ...

2026-04-19T23:22:31Z

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

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

2026-04-17T21:03:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…ygg5
_________________________

i don't know

a base one, one would suspect

Behold the "challenge coin" that the federal government ...

2026-04-17T02:03:09Z

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

hey kids you may want to tune into the NASA livestream for the ...

2026-04-10T18:01:45Z

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

The walls I can’t claim credit for, when we arrived in the ...

2026-04-10T15:40:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…hxkf
_________________________

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!

i don’t think you people have ever seen this magnificent squid ...

2026-04-09T16:25:33Z

i don’t think you people have ever seen this magnificent squid messenger bag made for me by Granny Art (Shrimp) (Joni) (npub16gn…rt89)

it is so cool

NASA's photo galley from yesterday's lunar fly-by are ...

2026-04-07T19:21:47Z

NASA's photo galley from yesterday's lunar fly-by are bonkers gorgeous

full gallery here: https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/

Behold the gorgeous daily art produced by @npub1asm…646p ... ...

2026-03-27T19:06:25Z

Behold the gorgeous daily art produced by Chris Silverman 🌻 (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/

People of mastodon! Super weird question, but ... ... is anyone ...

2026-03-02T18:56:48Z

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

An interesting piece here noting that in the Epstein files, quite ...

2026-02-21T18:46:19Z

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

I loved David Foster Wallace‘s nonfiction writing, in fact ...

2026-02-19T17:44:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…uth3
_________________________

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

I'm watching Bad Bunny perform on the TV (I'm a bar ...

2026-02-09T01:24:40Z

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?

A terrific essay by my friend @npub1z4e…d92l ... ... in which ...

2026-01-30T23:03:17Z

A terrific essay by my friend Christopher Allbritton (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

Super piece by Adam Serwer, who reported on the everyday ...

2026-01-28T03:44:54Z

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

What's it like applying for a job for ICE? Over at Slate, a ...

2026-01-13T18:00:14Z

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 ...

"Maduro in Minneapolis" ... .... an excellent essay by ...

2026-01-11T04:04:13Z

"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

I’m having dinner at a ramen restaurant and there are three or ...

2026-01-11T01:17:06Z

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

whoa! I’ve never heard of this one!

2025-12-17T20:47:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…tryg
_________________________

whoa! I’ve never heard of this one!

It’s lovely, eh?

2025-12-08T04:36:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…zz03
_________________________

It’s lovely, eh?

Casio just celebrated its 50th anniversary by producing a huge ...

2025-12-05T16:24:56Z

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/

behold the gorgeous "aerial embroidery" of Victoria Rose ...

2025-12-04T20:34:29Z

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/

okay people, it's time ⏰ once again for "the opposite ...

2025-11-13T01:50:36Z

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

great thread!!

2025-11-04T15:35:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…amnz
_________________________

great thread!!

Want to travel to an exoplanet? NASA made gorgeous retro-styled ...

2025-10-24T14:31:59Z

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/

it turns out that if you video-tape mathematicians working on ...

2025-09-24T15:56:45Z

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/

Whoa!!

2025-09-22T22:14:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…pguf
_________________________

Whoa!!

The latest in the Trump administration’s work to remove ...

2025-09-18T02:37:28Z

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/

Trump's government has been arguing that if they claim that ...

2025-08-31T22:34:02Z

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

I found the stuff so fascinating, and can’t wait to read that ...

2025-08-25T04:23:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…l7uw
_________________________

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

okay you lucky people 🍀 it's time ... 🕰️ ... for ...

2025-08-23T15:13:17Z

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

I’m down ...

2025-08-21T20:10:52Z

I’m down

I'm working on a magazine piece about how -- and if -- AI ...

2025-08-19T17:38:21Z

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)

And then there's this: ...

2025-08-18T18:22:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…4sn4
_________________________

And then there's this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/12/national-guard-civil-unrest/

Trump's administration is describing -- quite openly -- their ...

2025-08-18T18:13:34Z

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/

first they added variables to CSS then if-then statements now ...

2025-08-15T15:19:04Z

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/

behold the "HTML bomb" it's a defensive counterattack ...

2025-08-05T22:37:02Z

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/

You know those sms scam messages we all get -- "we've got ...

2025-08-05T15:15:08Z

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

TIL that in Hong Kong, scaffolding for construction isn't ...

2025-07-15T14:52:23Z

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/

A cathedral dress briliant invention of the designer/maker ...

2025-07-12T14:25:43Z

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/

I realized I hadn't heard any news about bird flu lately it ...

2025-07-11T15:16:34Z

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/

Speaking of Wired's excellent coverage: They just reported on ...

2025-07-11T04:16:10Z

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:

Timothy Snyder argues that the immigrants and refugees being sent ...

2025-07-04T16:31:52Z

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

I had a friend who worked at the Consumer Financial Protection ...

2025-06-30T04:37:52Z

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

Yep — it has been an issue for every president for decades now! ...

2025-06-28T14:08:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…7wjr
_________________________

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

I doubt folks around here need more explainers about the ...

2025-06-28T13:53:49Z

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

There is nothing I love more than research finding that coffee is ...

2025-06-22T15:38:54Z

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/

I always find this chart by Hannah Ritchie -- of Our World In ...

2025-06-16T16:55:33Z

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

A pediatrician reads the "Make America Healthy Again" ...

2025-06-05T11:45:53Z

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

Among the many dangerous things the Trump administration is doing ...

2025-06-04T17:22:28Z

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

Hey NYC-area folks! Tonight (June 4), my friend Kevin Smokler is ...

2025-06-04T16:40:24Z

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!

Trump pardoned a man who'd been convicted of tax cheating -- ...

2025-05-27T18:46:16Z

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/

Flock -- an automatic license-plate-reading service -- is adding ...

2025-05-16T17:26:04Z

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

404 Media (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

USDA says it'll restore climate info to its web site after ...

2025-05-13T19:26:17Z

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

Kseniia Petrova is the Russian scientist who came to the US in ...

2025-05-13T15:13:40Z

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

New coinage just dropped, folks "enshittogenic" as in ... ...

2025-05-09T16:58:55Z

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

Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) on his new podcast series "Who Broke the Internet?"

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/

What's also notable here too -- as the professor notes -- is ...

2025-05-08T12:00:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…yxp0
_________________________

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

This is an op-ed by a professor at West Point, describing the ...

2025-05-08T11:58:10Z

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

China is sharing its rare moon rocks -- collected from the far ...

2025-04-27T02:01:28Z

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

"Conservatives hate complexity" a superb post by ...

2025-04-26T16:57:47Z

"Conservatives *hate* complexity"

a superb post by Cory Doctorow (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/

I am hardly the first person to observe/predict this, but holy ...

2025-04-21T19:41:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…nwdl
_________________________

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

US border officials are so twitchy and paranoid that they ...

2025-04-21T19:34:48Z

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

A good piece about the value of hobbies ... ... for linking ...

2025-04-20T16:18:08Z

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

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

2025-04-16T14:41:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…cyq7
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Oooo what’s Dvorak like?

I’ve always idly considered learning it

we are probably nearly the same age it was middle school typing ...

2025-04-15T22:15:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…urq6
_________________________

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

I'm the same way -- I just type two dashes together, with a ...

2025-04-15T15:43:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…9qlr
_________________________

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

Apparently the use of m-dashes is now seen -- by some -- as a ...

2025-04-15T14:56:07Z

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

What I love about this essay is how it speaks to how deeply ...

2025-04-08T15:19:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…vavw
_________________________

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

Over on Bluesky, @npub1rdz…94n2 noted the relevance of the ...

2025-04-08T15:15:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…p0vc
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Over on Bluesky, Gary Longsine (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

Keyboard.io makes high-end angled and "split" keyboards ...

2025-04-08T13:39:07Z

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

A very good and unsettling interview with the lawyer for Kilmar ...

2025-04-07T23:56:22Z

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

I can confirm this – I was there today and the streets were ...

2025-04-05T21:51:49Z

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

"Technocracy" was a movement in the early 20th century ...

2025-04-04T15:30:49Z

"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

"Welcome to Donald Trump’s America, where the Cabinet ...

2025-04-02T03:02:15Z

"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

who could have seen this coming ...

2025-04-01T15:23:40Z

who could have seen *this* coming

https://futurism.com/neoscope/23andme-selling-data

It hardly bears repeating at this point -- many folks made this ...

2025-03-26T21:42:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…fcdc
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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

It's a clown-show security error, of course, but does being ...

2025-03-26T21:41:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…vvn4
_________________________

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

So it turns out that Michael "Reply All" Waltz, ...

2025-03-26T21:25:09Z

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

I need your recommendations, Mastodon folks! I like following ...

2025-03-24T16:39:31Z

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!

This story is wild Michael Waltz, Trump's national security ...

2025-03-24T16:31:42Z

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)

I understand the frustration at the vagueness of my original ...

2025-03-23T21:23:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…pf59
_________________________

I understand the frustration at the vagueness of my original post!

i wish I could share more details myself

yep I hear ya but I'm not including those specifics at my ...

2025-03-23T16:35:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…ju2u
_________________________

yep I hear ya

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

Hey Canadians: I just heard about two Canadian friends of a ...

2025-03-23T16:29:43Z

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

The price of eggs isn't actually high because of avian flu ...

2025-03-11T16:54:15Z

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 Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) puts it --- "excuseflation"

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/

When I was cycling across the country two years ago I went ...

2025-03-11T15:07:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…8jmr
_________________________

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

Nostr event nevent1qqsdskda4kw8c9kf9mtcv89sx25c0g9sqmw4wcjzp286nslqkwuf2aqzyzc4qgt853msr4jfm3udpe22mcq3pf7klaf78tmp25y7lxx9fu4n2ywtfdz

2025-02-26T17:34:36Z

hello, whirled

In a chat with my brother-in-law just now he sent me a meme that ...

2025-02-24T17:49:34Z

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

An argument: We need working-class media -- ...

2025-02-23T16:39:23Z

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

co-sign

I’m at a March in NYC to support congestion pricing This is one ...

2025-02-22T20:35:32Z

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

Very well-reported piece how the Musk/Trump wilding is laying off ...

2025-02-22T00:27:21Z

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

An excellent essay on the dangers -- to society, and to soldiers ...

2025-02-20T22:26:42Z

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/

As ever, Timothy Snyder -- the historian of tyranny -- distills ...

2025-02-19T15:52:13Z

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

How the behavior of DOGE -- and Trump's lackeys who are ...

2025-02-19T00:49:34Z

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 Dahlia lithwick (npub168t…50jm) at Slate

unpaywalled: https://archive.is/tNrHM

An excellent interview with Elizabeth Warren ... ... about the ...

2025-02-12T23:29:59Z

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

"I wrote in my notebook, from the front seat of a silent ...

2025-02-11T00:55:56Z

"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

I'm working at a cafe today and "Don't Dream It's ...

2025-02-07T21:50:30Z

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

Well what do you know Marko Elez, one of the young software guys ...

2025-02-06T21:16:21Z

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

In addition to formal government institutions, Musk is also ...

2025-02-06T19:46:53Z

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

"Of course it's a coup" as ever, Timothy Snyder cuts ...

2025-02-05T18:01:17Z

"Of course it's a coup"

as ever, Timothy Snyder cuts to the chase

https://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup

Big crowds outside the Treasury department, protesting the ...

2025-02-04T23:43:06Z

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

Over at [@WIRED](https://flipboard.com/@WIRED ), reporters like ...

2025-02-02T21:58:51Z

Over at [@WIRED](https://flipboard.com/@WIRED ), reporters like Vittoria Elliott are doing excellent work documenting Musk's takeover of the federal government

In this piece, she tracks down the names of the people Musk has installed at various agencies

these guys are all 19 to 24 year old engineers -- one is a Thiel fellow

Story here: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/

Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/L2C7d