I get why everyone is dunking on this, but, having trained a very simple model on the ~3 million words I’ve written over the last 25 years, it’s actually very interesting to explore what’s there, to see what’s surprising or where I’ve changed my mind, or where my opinion diverges from its output.

a few thoughts (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

So, I'm trying to use the PACER system to get some court records haven't done so for a long time, don't have my password written down tried password recovery -- nothing, no link emailed to me I call "Your estimated wait time is 156 minutes. You are 111th in line"

Excellent @himself.bsky.social essay begins by noting the problems Trump causes himself by being untrustworthy and reneging on promises ... ... then shifts to the coordinational challenges of the opposition www.programmablemutter.com/p/repost-abs... worth reading in full, as with all his pieces

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

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” www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Interesting essay parsing the differences between blogs and newsletters, and how their delivery mechanisms influence their content: buttondown.com/blog/blog-vs...

Here's a witty prototype by some MIT students it's an AI kitchen robot that looks at your leftovers ... ... and gives you a recipe you could make from them lots of cool buttons/sliders to specify cuisine Item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

I was interviewed by @mattgalloway.bsky.social about the anti-robot/AI slur "clankers" very fun conversation! www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

People are being fired for comments about Charlie Kirk but only one type. Right Wing people calling for "Civil War" are being celebrated as the media seeks to lionize Charlie Kirk following his tragic death. 🔗 www.404media.co/comcast-nbcu...

this is cool My move is still fresh but I actually do miss US stamps — Went out of my way for: Moon Landing (fave), Trek (although wished it were TNG), Le Guin, Coffee! (bought so many of those) and Women’s Suffrage designs Canada needs to up its game although… they do have a MuchMusic stamp now!

"in defense of the em-dash" that punctuation mark has become rather *sus*, given its association with chatbot output ... ... but Brian Phillips mounts a ringing defense Item #5 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

It would be fun to do a letter writing project using these stamps as a story within a story

Behold a lovely stamp sheet by Chris Ware ... ... where each stamp shows a moment in the day of a postwoman apparently it's the first time anyone has tried to tell a story with a stamp sheet item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

wild how quickly we got from "people you're friends with on the computer aren't like REAL friends" all the way to "my computer and i are getting married"

One of the greatest inventions of the last 48 hours

"in defense of wasps" honestly I was wondering about the reason evolution spun up these critters thewalrus.ca/in-defence-o...

Here's your reading for this morning, all links sourced from my latest "Linkfest" newsletter (free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...) #1: 🐦 Storing data in birdsong -- flowingdata.com/2025/07/30/s... 1/3

Interesting look at how Trump's tariffs are affecting John Deere (gift link): www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/b...

an exhibition of ... ... wedge cars of the 1970s! item #8 in my latest "Linkfest", here here here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

mixing a cocktail, didn't have a jigger handy; wondered what the ratio was of a quarter-cup to a jigger shot I googled it and the "AI overview" answer went utterly off the rails "a jigger shot equals six quarter cups" man this Old Fashioned is gonna be STRONG but it's what the AI says so *cheers*

ah, the sweet and dulcet music of a car alarm braying in the street down the block for about 15 minutes straight I have *thoughts* on car alarms, and a few years ago wrote them down (gift link): clivethompson.medium.com/got-a-car-al...

This thread is glorious, eh?

In 1997, Microsoft quietly released a music-generating app no fancy neural-net AI, just funky hand-coded rulesets with some randomization it produces kina fun game-MIDI style music! Internet Archive hosts a downloadable copy Item #5 in my "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

One reason I try to avoid being in a car as much as possible is because I now assume every driver is on their phone doing exactly this.

In this super-simple web game, you try to weave the green dot through an increasingly cluttered field of smaller red dots that zip by it's weirdly addictive, and I can't last more than 45 seconds item #4 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Behold a massive archive of photos/images from NASA's Ames research lab they're all public domain -- use 'em as you will! via @jonkeegan.com, item #10 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

The way you know this is culture war bullshit pushed by the fossil fuel industry is that buildings kill up to a billion birds per year and you can be sure our real estate developer president never cared one whit about it.

TODAY: @annamerlan.bsky.social in conversation with @jessesword.com, editor of the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, on a perfectly insulting word. "I think that it’s good to be skeptical of technology, as many SF writers have been from its earliest days" flaminghydra.com/r/6188a49d?m...

Garlic is farmed asexually -- you shove a clove in the ground ... ... so the new plants are clones: They don't evolve to restore biodiversity, DIY garlic hackers are coaxing garlic to make *seeds* fun, weird scene! Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

There’s something afoot in Iowa! Second flip of a GOP state seat there this year. Well done!

She was brought to the US as an 8yo, worked hard, studied, earned a scholarship, planned to become a nurse. ICE kidnapped her. Held her for 6 MONTHS in a detention facility with conditions so miserable that she finally agreed to voluntarily move to Honduras, which her family left at gunpoint.

In a functional government, this would be a five alarm fire where Congress calls in Kennedy and asks him what the fuck is going on

apparently people who visit the Petrified Forest National Park often steal chunks of the fossilized wood ... ... and later blame it for years of bad luck so they return the rock by mail A collection of their letters, in item #2 of my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

"Flattery inflation" ... ... a useful concept to ponder as we behold Trump's cabinet forced to frantically one-up each other in offering hyperoxygenated praise to their leader www.programmablemutter.com/p/short-post...

“There aren’t very many countries in which the figurative political head of the country assembled his own personal paramilitary force that was loyal only to him where things turned out well.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/o...

Since "an abundance of em dashes" has become a tell for AI-generated writing ... ... I'm gonna re-up my essay: "In Defense of the Em Dash" gift link: medium.com/medium-handb... Just because AI over-uses 'em doesn't mean *we shouldn't too!* it is a noble piece of punctuation reason #1 (of 6)...

if you build more housing, will it drive the price of housing down ... or up? supply and demand theory says "down" but a survey finds ~50% of Americans don't believe this they say building more housing drives prices *up* Item #11 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

You need something great to read? Read Clive. You want something fun to do? Play Dodge This and beat my score :)

societal collapse seems bad, right? but now a new group of historians are questioning that as they find, collapse may suck for the *elites* ... ... but the hoi polloi? After a collapse they get stronger, healthier item #3 in my "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Of all the petty and cruel things about the federal penal system, one of most needlessly petty and cruel is the execrable quality of the food True of immigration detention as well from this Q&A with Caitlin Dickerson: www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc... unpaywalled version: archive.is/sMQ8I

In 1958, an album of frog sounds was released and ... ... somehow became a hit record for decades! sports illustrated called it a “swampland opus” college radio played it all throughout the 90s Item #7 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free riiiiiiiight here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

This is really fascinating Wikipedia's list of linguistic and stylist "tells" of AI writing, the better to help editors recognize it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

I urge everyone who can to sign up through your county clerk to be an election worker (often paid and always gratifying!) or to volunteer to do election protection with @commoncause.org, the @aclu.org, and the #NAACP. There’s strength in numbers!

I'm researching a magazine piece on how AI coding-tools are affecting software development Are you a dev who uses 'em? Avoids 'em? Love to get your 2 cents! Also: New CS grads looking for work ... what's it like, in this environment? hit me up at [email protected] (and repost this please!)

For some time, the #LinkFest @clivethompson.bsky.social emails have been consistently the most interesting newsletter I read: buttondown.com/clivethompso... Who do you find always enlightens your inbox? I think @mariapopova.bsky.social has a dab hand at curating curiosities & fascinating ideas.

You almost never see/hear/read a person-on-the-street quote in which that person is saying "Yeah, immigrants are great." If it hates it rates just like if it bleeds it leads, and we get a disproportionate number of right-wingers sharing their hate and disinformation about immigration from msm.

Comer: "We're gonna support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington DC. We spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades walking the streets trying to reduce crime. We need to focus on the big cities in America now."