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
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
January 2, 2026 at 2:17 PM
One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.
Reposted by Clive Thompson
This really isn't primarily due to any of the dumb crap Trump is doing. The whiskey oversupply and domestic drop in consumption over the last few years are the main culprits. Beam is continuing to distill at their other 2 plants. Full-time drinks journalists are covering this with more nuance. See:
December 23, 2025 at 2:16 AM
This really isn't primarily due to any of the dumb crap Trump is doing. The whiskey oversupply and domestic drop in consumption over the last few years are the main culprits. Beam is continuing to distill at their other 2 plants. Full-time drinks journalists are covering this with more nuance. See:
Reposted by Clive Thompson
“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”
Perry: The return of the r-word
"These days, the r-word slur has become a staple of the American right wing, uttered with few professional or social consequences," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
December 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
“It turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all.”
Reposted by Clive Thompson
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Opinion | Obama Supported It. The Left in Canada and Norway Does. Why Don’t Democrats?
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:57 PM
This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Canadians are still super pissed at their treatment by the White House
people around the world — Europe, Asia — are buying fewer American goods and traveling to the US less …
… but with Canadians it’s even moreso
booze: spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisvill...
tourism: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
people around the world — Europe, Asia — are buying fewer American goods and traveling to the US less …
… but with Canadians it’s even moreso
booze: spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisvill...
tourism: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
December 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Canadians are still super pissed at their treatment by the White House
people around the world — Europe, Asia — are buying fewer American goods and traveling to the US less …
… but with Canadians it’s even moreso
booze: spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisvill...
tourism: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
people around the world — Europe, Asia — are buying fewer American goods and traveling to the US less …
… but with Canadians it’s even moreso
booze: spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisvill...
tourism: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
it's the holiday season!
which means it's time for some feel-good reading
here's my two-part analysis of "the goriest fight scenes from the iliad"
you're welcome
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
which means it's time for some feel-good reading
here's my two-part analysis of "the goriest fight scenes from the iliad"
you're welcome
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
The Goriest Fight Scenes from The Iliad, Pt. 1
These people kicked the crap out of each other
clivethompson.medium.com
December 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
it's the holiday season!
which means it's time for some feel-good reading
here's my two-part analysis of "the goriest fight scenes from the iliad"
you're welcome
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
which means it's time for some feel-good reading
here's my two-part analysis of "the goriest fight scenes from the iliad"
you're welcome
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
clivethompson.medium.com/the-goriest-...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
The newsletter is out! This week: some math tips for members of the Cabinet.
www.howtoreadthisch.art/its-beginnin...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/its-beginnin...
December 20, 2025 at 3:25 PM
The newsletter is out! This week: some math tips for members of the Cabinet.
www.howtoreadthisch.art/its-beginnin...
www.howtoreadthisch.art/its-beginnin...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Because we all need a bit of optimism, today's new entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction is "solarpunk". Apparently coined in a 2008 blog post; most recent example from @clivethompson.bsky.social. A few more of this sort are in the queue.
sfdictionary.com/view/2916/so...
sfdictionary.com/view/2916/so...
Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: solarpunk
Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
sfdictionary.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Because we all need a bit of optimism, today's new entry for the Historical #Dictionary of #ScienceFiction is "solarpunk". Apparently coined in a 2008 blog post; most recent example from @clivethompson.bsky.social. A few more of this sort are in the queue.
sfdictionary.com/view/2916/so...
sfdictionary.com/view/2916/so...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
This drove me crazy about my kids’ MS & HS education — & it was a trend that seemed v clearly driven by the standardized testing emphasis on learning to “solve” fictional passages like puzzles, instead of immersing yourself in whole works of literature
In American high schools, many teenagers are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end — often just one or two per year, according to researchers and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by The New York Times. trib.al/gNp7kWK
December 12, 2025 at 11:02 PM
This drove me crazy about my kids’ MS & HS education — & it was a trend that seemed v clearly driven by the standardized testing emphasis on learning to “solve” fictional passages like puzzles, instead of immersing yourself in whole works of literature
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
More than 250 people who were exposed to measles, including dozens of unvaccinated school-aged children, are quarantining in South Carolina as the state wrestles to contain an outbreak that has sickened more than 110 people.
Hundreds Quarantined in South Carolina as Measles Outbreak Shows No Sign of Slowing
The outbreak shows no signs of slowing, likely because of the affected area’s “lower-than-hoped-for vaccination coverage,” a state health official said.
nyti.ms
December 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Anti-vaxxism is an ideology with maybe the dumbest combination of pointless and evil that has ever existed bsky.app/profile/nyti...
Rope and string are some of humanity's oldest technologies ...
... and catalytic: They're tech that made *other* tools and technology possible
we are "homo cordage"
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social wrote an amazing piece about it
item 12 in my latest "Linkfest", free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... and catalytic: They're tech that made *other* tools and technology possible
we are "homo cordage"
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social wrote an amazing piece about it
item 12 in my latest "Linkfest", free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
December 12, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Rope and string are some of humanity's oldest technologies ...
... and catalytic: They're tech that made *other* tools and technology possible
we are "homo cordage"
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social wrote an amazing piece about it
item 12 in my latest "Linkfest", free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... and catalytic: They're tech that made *other* tools and technology possible
we are "homo cordage"
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social wrote an amazing piece about it
item 12 in my latest "Linkfest", free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
If I didn’t see this myself on Truth Social I’d assume it was some phishing site
December 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
If I didn’t see this myself on Truth Social I’d assume it was some phishing site
behold "Eschersque" ...
... a fun little browser game loosely based on M.C. Escher's famous stylings
you use the spacebar to "flip" the landscape and help navigate through
not hard; kind of soothing to play
item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... a fun little browser game loosely based on M.C. Escher's famous stylings
you use the spacebar to "flip" the landscape and help navigate through
not hard; kind of soothing to play
item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
December 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
behold "Eschersque" ...
... a fun little browser game loosely based on M.C. Escher's famous stylings
you use the spacebar to "flip" the landscape and help navigate through
not hard; kind of soothing to play
item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... a fun little browser game loosely based on M.C. Escher's famous stylings
you use the spacebar to "flip" the landscape and help navigate through
not hard; kind of soothing to play
item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Reposted by Clive Thompson
December 10, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Did you know that there's a function in Excel to turn regular numbers ...
... into Roman numerals?
and back again?
to convert a number into Thai Baht?
More "weird excel functions" in item 4 of my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... into Roman numerals?
and back again?
to convert a number into Thai Baht?
More "weird excel functions" in item 4 of my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
December 9, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Did you know that there's a function in Excel to turn regular numbers ...
... into Roman numerals?
and back again?
to convert a number into Thai Baht?
More "weird excel functions" in item 4 of my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
... into Roman numerals?
and back again?
to convert a number into Thai Baht?
More "weird excel functions" in item 4 of my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
Excellent @joshtpm.bsky.social essay on the unsettling parallels between the "nabobs" of late 18th century -- i.e. British dudes getting insanely wealthy plundering India, and then deforming politics back home ...
... with the rise of tech billionaires today: talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-...
... with the rise of tech billionaires today: talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-...
Will the 21st Century Nabobs Win Their War on Public Accountability?
A friend of mine ran an analogy by me which really resonated....
talkingpointsmemo.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Excellent @joshtpm.bsky.social essay on the unsettling parallels between the "nabobs" of late 18th century -- i.e. British dudes getting insanely wealthy plundering India, and then deforming politics back home ...
... with the rise of tech billionaires today: talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-...
... with the rise of tech billionaires today: talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Holy CRAP.
Retired engineer takes random pics of *kids*, without consent or attribution, bins them into “autistic” or “not autistic”, and uploads that “data” for free on Kaggle.
Well over a HUNDRED papers are published, 38 in Springer Nature, 25 in IEEE, using it.
And no reviewers objected? WTF.🧪
Retired engineer takes random pics of *kids*, without consent or attribution, bins them into “autistic” or “not autistic”, and uploads that “data” for free on Kaggle.
Well over a HUNDRED papers are published, 38 in Springer Nature, 25 in IEEE, using it.
And no reviewers objected? WTF.🧪
Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications
The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Holy CRAP.
Retired engineer takes random pics of *kids*, without consent or attribution, bins them into “autistic” or “not autistic”, and uploads that “data” for free on Kaggle.
Well over a HUNDRED papers are published, 38 in Springer Nature, 25 in IEEE, using it.
And no reviewers objected? WTF.🧪
Retired engineer takes random pics of *kids*, without consent or attribution, bins them into “autistic” or “not autistic”, and uploads that “data” for free on Kaggle.
Well over a HUNDRED papers are published, 38 in Springer Nature, 25 in IEEE, using it.
And no reviewers objected? WTF.🧪
Reposted by Clive Thompson
In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)"
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
December 9, 2025 at 2:19 AM
In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)"
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
also always deeply funny that every sci-fi video game from 1999-2014 was trying to be Aliens, and copied everything except the...working class woman protagonist
Everyone imitates Tolkien all the time except when it comes to the one way it would really matter: making the protagonist of your novel for children a short, fat, 50-year-old man who doesn't want to do anything.
December 9, 2025 at 3:02 AM
also always deeply funny that every sci-fi video game from 1999-2014 was trying to be Aliens, and copied everything except the...working class woman protagonist
Reposted by Clive Thompson
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:53 AM
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
One theme here is the speed of American institutional collapse.
“It took Erdoğan 15 years to do what Trump did in 100 days. If [Americans] do not accept the fact that this is a long game, and it will be brutal, I think you won’t have the patience and stamina to bear it.”
“It took Erdoğan 15 years to do what Trump did in 100 days. If [Americans] do not accept the fact that this is a long game, and it will be brutal, I think you won’t have the patience and stamina to bear it.”
We asked activists from authoritarian regimes what they wish they’d known sooner. Here’s what they said www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
We asked activists from authoritarian regimes what they wish they’d known sooner. Here’s what they said
Activists from Hungary, El Salvador and Turkey offer advice to the US about what they’ve learned about authoritarians
www.theguardian.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:19 PM
One theme here is the speed of American institutional collapse.
“It took Erdoğan 15 years to do what Trump did in 100 days. If [Americans] do not accept the fact that this is a long game, and it will be brutal, I think you won’t have the patience and stamina to bear it.”
“It took Erdoğan 15 years to do what Trump did in 100 days. If [Americans] do not accept the fact that this is a long game, and it will be brutal, I think you won’t have the patience and stamina to bear it.”
Reposted by Clive Thompson
"Starting Jan. 1, in six states selected to take part in a federal pilot program, traditional Medicare recipients will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered --
private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny..."
www.kuow.org/stories/thou...
private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny..."
www.kuow.org/stories/thou...
Thousands of Washington state Medicare users could soon have claims denied by AI
Starting Jan. 1, traditional Medicare recipients in Washington state will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered — private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny.
www.kuow.org
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
"Starting Jan. 1, in six states selected to take part in a federal pilot program, traditional Medicare recipients will face a new hurdle to get certain procedures covered --
private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny..."
www.kuow.org/stories/thou...
private AI companies that get paid based on how many claims they deny..."
www.kuow.org/stories/thou...
Reposted by Clive Thompson
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
December 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Holy shit.
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...