Notices by Clive Thompson (clive@saturation.social)

Behold the gorgeous daily art produced by @csilverman

... 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/

@kims

this is wild!

(UPDATE: I think i've got this one answered, thank you everyone!)

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

if this describes you or someone you know ...

... hit me up, I'd love to tap your expertise!

clive@clivethompson.net is the fastest

people, PEOPLE

some hot *hot* new gossip just dropped about Cantor's infinity proof

turns out he stole it

https://boingboing.net/2026/02/25/newly-found-letters-show-georg-cantor-stole-his-famous-infinity-proof.html

"It’s time to declare the Interstate mission complete"

this is a good way of thinking about how to seriously rethink the way the US spends transportation money: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2026-2-16-weve-been-fighting-the-wrong-transportation-fight

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

If you haven't read @anildash's fantastic essay on Markdown -- its history, its impact, and what it tells us about truly useful bottom-up innovation -- then you really should

here 'tis: https://www.anildash.com/2026/01/09/how-markdown-took-over-the-world/

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

@dhobern @anildash

yeah, I showed that paragraph to my wife -- it really resonated with my experiences with tech folks, even in silicon valley

a lot, probably most, are just trying to make useful warez

it's the guys at the tippy top who are wilding

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 hired her, 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 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

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/

so, this kid popped a wheelie for 93 miles

I've done lots of bike rides of 93 miles or more, but I used *both wheels*, which now feels like ... cheating?

this guy is metal

Item 2 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read/subscribe here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-42-phytomining-adversarial-poetry-and/

who needs LEGS amirite

https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-teams-now-lets-you-host-immersive-metaverse-meetings

I am slowly arriving at the final phase, which is acceptance

now I realize and accept reality

people are just not gonna stop using the word “impactful”

I’ll just need to get used to it

I remember when that research dropped -- I read a Q&A with the student at The Atlantic (https://archive.is/Buttc ... with a warning now appended that the research has been retracted)

I was *astounded* at how much AI had boosted materials-science research

too good to be true, as it turns out

remember Jukt Micronics?

lol

let me introduce you to ...

... corningresearch.com

this is from a fascinating WSJ story (gift link here) about Aidan Toner-Rodgers, an MIT student who published a seemingly groundbreaking paper on AI and productivity -- on data that now seems utterly sketchy https://www.wsj.com/economy/aidan-toner-rodgers-mit-ai-research-78753243?st=1PFwdU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

so apparently sea slugs eat a lot of algae ...

... and some have figured out how to incorporate the algae's plastids into their own bodies ...

... so the sea slugs *photosynthesize*

they can live for months off the sun -- an animal acting like a plant

weird and awesome

item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-40-the-chthulucene-doom-on-a-satellite/

parlor parlor parlor

parlor parlor

parlor parlor

parlor

It turns out iPhone voice dictation *really* does not do well with “parlance”

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