Clive Thompson
@clivethompson.bsky.social
Writer, musician, hobbyist coder. Wired / NYT Magazine / Mother Jones, author of "Coders". Blog at clivethompson.medium.com. Free "Linkfest" newsletter ("the opposite of doomscrolling"): https://shorturl.at/XcutG. Built https://www.weirdoldbookfinder.net/
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
Reposted by Clive Thompson
In case you’re wondering why Pete Hegseth is freaking out about a congressional video reminding the military not to participate in illegal orders:
To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
November 29, 2025 at 12:14 AM
In case you’re wondering why Pete Hegseth is freaking out about a congressional video reminding the military not to participate in illegal orders:
Reposted by Clive Thompson
More good news about coffee: www.kcl.ac.uk/news/coffee-...
Coffee linked to slower biological ageing among those with severe mental illness – up to a limit | King's College London
New research from King’s College London finds that coffee consumption within the NHS recommended limit is linked to longer telomere lengths – a marker of biological ageing – among people with bipolar ...
www.kcl.ac.uk
November 29, 2025 at 4:19 AM
More good news about coffee: www.kcl.ac.uk/news/coffee-...
Black bear
Red fox
Moose
Muskellunge
Raccoon
(10 years in the Canadian Boy Scouts and a lot of time tramping around northern Ontario)
Red fox
Moose
Muskellunge
Raccoon
(10 years in the Canadian Boy Scouts and a lot of time tramping around northern Ontario)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Beaver
Big Horn sheep
Pacific lamprey
Ant lion
Stone fly
Beaver
Big Horn sheep
Pacific lamprey
Ant lion
Stone fly
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild:
Coyotes
Beavers
Raccoons
Tūī
Cougar
Coyotes
Beavers
Raccoons
Tūī
Cougar
November 29, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Black bear
Red fox
Moose
Muskellunge
Raccoon
(10 years in the Canadian Boy Scouts and a lot of time tramping around northern Ontario)
Red fox
Moose
Muskellunge
Raccoon
(10 years in the Canadian Boy Scouts and a lot of time tramping around northern Ontario)
Reposted by Clive Thompson
I always suggest that people think about what urban centres like New York or London were like 150 years ago — dangerous, unbelievably polluted air and water, desperately inequitable, few trees or green space.
And then imagine building the cities where we look back to *today* and see the same thing.
And then imagine building the cities where we look back to *today* and see the same thing.
At its peak, 100-200k NYC horses, 30 lbs of poop/day each. People would use these boot scrapers, that you can still see everywhere today built into the brownstone wrought iron fences, to scrape, 70%? of the poop off the bottom of their shoes before they went into the house. Horse poop everywhere.
November 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I always suggest that people think about what urban centres like New York or London were like 150 years ago — dangerous, unbelievably polluted air and water, desperately inequitable, few trees or green space.
And then imagine building the cities where we look back to *today* and see the same thing.
And then imagine building the cities where we look back to *today* and see the same thing.
Reposted by Clive Thompson
What would Waldo do?
WWRWED?
The Emersonian question about AI
calebcrain.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
What would Waldo do?
Reposted by Clive Thompson
As @rusty.todayintabs.com pointed out a while back, this is why tech bros need poststructuralism. Language is a tool for thought that we mistake for thought itself
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 5:55 PM
As @rusty.todayintabs.com pointed out a while back, this is why tech bros need poststructuralism. Language is a tool for thought that we mistake for thought itself
Reposted by Clive Thompson
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
November 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
Reposted by Clive Thompson
As the year comes to an end, I'm reposting some of the comics I made this year, including this ridiculous thing.
November 25, 2025 at 3:19 PM
As the year comes to an end, I'm reposting some of the comics I made this year, including this ridiculous thing.
Reposted by Clive Thompson
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
Reposted by Clive Thompson
You don’t want all that peppy commercial nonsense, cmon, you want a choir singing things that may or may not have made it fully out of Latin and into English
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 AM
You don’t want all that peppy commercial nonsense, cmon, you want a choir singing things that may or may not have made it fully out of Latin and into English
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Oh, just realized it’s almost the best time of the year: when I dig up the playlist of creepy medieval Advent hymns that @clivethompson.bsky.social and I collaborated on years ago because it’s the only acceptable music to listen to for most of the season!!! Get excited folks
November 25, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Oh, just realized it’s almost the best time of the year: when I dig up the playlist of creepy medieval Advent hymns that @clivethompson.bsky.social and I collaborated on years ago because it’s the only acceptable music to listen to for most of the season!!! Get excited folks
An argument that we are now in the "Chthulucene" ...
... or the period where, after having dug up and burned so much carbon ...
... "Gaia is responding to our having released such titanic forces from their confinement"
item #10 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... or the period where, after having dug up and burned so much carbon ...
... "Gaia is responding to our having released such titanic forces from their confinement"
item #10 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
November 24, 2025 at 7:35 PM
An argument that we are now in the "Chthulucene" ...
... or the period where, after having dug up and burned so much carbon ...
... "Gaia is responding to our having released such titanic forces from their confinement"
item #10 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... or the period where, after having dug up and burned so much carbon ...
... "Gaia is responding to our having released such titanic forces from their confinement"
item #10 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
so apparently corningresearch.com ...
... is the new jutktmicronics
this from a terrific WSJ story about Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT student who published a seemingly groundbreaking paper on AI and productivity -- on data that now seems utterly sketchy
(gift link): www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
... is the new jutktmicronics
this from a terrific WSJ story about Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT student who published a seemingly groundbreaking paper on AI and productivity -- on data that now seems utterly sketchy
(gift link): www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
November 22, 2025 at 9:20 PM
so apparently corningresearch.com ...
... is the new jutktmicronics
this from a terrific WSJ story about Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT student who published a seemingly groundbreaking paper on AI and productivity -- on data that now seems utterly sketchy
(gift link): www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
... is the new jutktmicronics
this from a terrific WSJ story about Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT student who published a seemingly groundbreaking paper on AI and productivity -- on data that now seems utterly sketchy
(gift link): www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
A typical Dutch urban roundabout with full priority for people cycling and walking at all arms
November 21, 2025 at 12:57 PM
A typical Dutch urban roundabout with full priority for people cycling and walking at all arms
apparently half of homebuyers think a seller should be legally required to disclose if the house is haunted
though! 26% would be willing to buy a house "even if they learned the previous homeowners had been murdered in it"
item #9 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
though! 26% would be willing to buy a house "even if they learned the previous homeowners had been murdered in it"
item #9 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
November 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
apparently half of homebuyers think a seller should be legally required to disclose if the house is haunted
though! 26% would be willing to buy a house "even if they learned the previous homeowners had been murdered in it"
item #9 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
though! 26% would be willing to buy a house "even if they learned the previous homeowners had been murdered in it"
item #9 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
We don't really know how bicycles work.
November 21, 2025 at 3:13 AM
my procrastination levels today crept into the red zone
i had to break out the big guns
my "text pomodoro"
text-pomodoro.vercel.app
I'm on my fourth 10-minute jag and it is WORKING 👏
i had to break out the big guns
my "text pomodoro"
text-pomodoro.vercel.app
I'm on my fourth 10-minute jag and it is WORKING 👏
November 20, 2025 at 7:51 PM
my procrastination levels today crept into the red zone
i had to break out the big guns
my "text pomodoro"
text-pomodoro.vercel.app
I'm on my fourth 10-minute jag and it is WORKING 👏
i had to break out the big guns
my "text pomodoro"
text-pomodoro.vercel.app
I'm on my fourth 10-minute jag and it is WORKING 👏
Reposted by Clive Thompson
By God, that’s @clivethompson.bsky.social’s music!
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
By God, that’s @clivethompson.bsky.social’s music!
dig this
sea slugs eat algae, and they've figured out how incorporate the algae's plastids into their own bodies ...
... so the sea slugs *photosynthesize*
they can live for months off the sun, like a plant/animal
item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
sea slugs eat algae, and they've figured out how incorporate the algae's plastids into their own bodies ...
... so the sea slugs *photosynthesize*
they can live for months off the sun, like a plant/animal
item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
November 20, 2025 at 6:35 PM
dig this
sea slugs eat algae, and they've figured out how incorporate the algae's plastids into their own bodies ...
... so the sea slugs *photosynthesize*
they can live for months off the sun, like a plant/animal
item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
sea slugs eat algae, and they've figured out how incorporate the algae's plastids into their own bodies ...
... so the sea slugs *photosynthesize*
they can live for months off the sun, like a plant/animal
item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
“I want their morale as low as possible because a team with low morale is ineffective.”
Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter
Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter
Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter
Clifford “Buzz” Grambo patrols the streets of Baltimore to keep his neighbors safe—and make federal agents uncomfortable.
www.motherjones.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM
“I want their morale as low as possible because a team with low morale is ineffective.”
Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter
Meet the veteran who chases ICE on a scooter
Reposted by Clive Thompson
I wrote a piece about a decade ago for Quartz about the impacts sub-orbital flight (Virgin Galactic etc) would have on things like real estate prices. When the access to distance changes, economic follow.
As much as I dislike the NFL, this story is interesting. Basically, League keeping tabs on revival of commercial supersonic flight as a trigger for expansion to Europe. www.wsj.com/sports/footb...
The NFL’s Secret Obsession With Supersonic Flight
With dreams of permanent franchises in Europe, the league has quietly been keeping tabs on companies aiming to bring the technology back—and it could happen sooner than you think.
www.wsj.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:14 PM
I wrote a piece about a decade ago for Quartz about the impacts sub-orbital flight (Virgin Galactic etc) would have on things like real estate prices. When the access to distance changes, economic follow.
parlor parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor
It turns out iPhone voice dictation *really* does not do well with “parlance”
parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor
It turns out iPhone voice dictation *really* does not do well with “parlance”
November 19, 2025 at 11:03 PM
parlor parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor
It turns out iPhone voice dictation *really* does not do well with “parlance”
parlor parlor
parlor parlor
parlor
It turns out iPhone voice dictation *really* does not do well with “parlance”
Reposted by Clive Thompson
“A contractor is paying people $300 for every address they verify as belonging to a target of ICE. The gig is being advertised to former law enforcement and military personnel. But, those people are not licensed private investigators. They are essentially members of the public.”
Contractor Paying Random People $300 to Physically Track Immigrants for ICE
“The more I listened to it, the more I’m like, something doesn’t sound right,” a person who was briefed on the pilot plans told 404 Media.
www.404media.co
November 18, 2025 at 3:21 PM
“A contractor is paying people $300 for every address they verify as belonging to a target of ICE. The gig is being advertised to former law enforcement and military personnel. But, those people are not licensed private investigators. They are essentially members of the public.”
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Oh hey, I found the war on christmas
"Agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, ERO, and CBP intend to implement a comprehensive plan to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25."
Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays
The Trump Dept. of Homeland Security is briefing federal agencies on plans for immigration enforcement operations inside churches over holidays.
thisweekinworcester.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Oh hey, I found the war on christmas