Clive Thompson

@clivethompson

Writer, musician, hobbyist coder. Wired / NYT Magazine / Mother Jones, author of "Coders". Blog at clivethompson.medium.com. Free "Linkfest" newsletter ("the opposite of doomscrolling"): Built

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Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 10

Hong Kong has 2,549 basketball courts the photographer Austin Bell has taken pictures of every single one his online gallery -- and his print book -- are *amazing* item #12 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

An aerial picture of a large basketball court. It is very colorful and divide it into different geometric shapes, including dark blue triangles, light blue rectangles, and burnt orange circles and parallelograms. The is surrounded by a high white fence and has a forest of green trees on the left side and what looks like another smaller court on the right side. There are four people playing basketball, one is shooting the ball towards the hoop

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 9

why do scriptwriters hate geologists?? an analysis of found that "geologists die at an alarming rate in the movies" about one third get killed before the credits roll item #9 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso... (steve buscemi as a geologist, below)

The actor Steve Buscemi in an orange space suit with no helmet, looking pensive

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 8

This comment by a designer is spot-on 2/2

Screenshot reading: "Jonathon Yule, executive creative director for design at the creative studio Concrete in Toronto told 404 Media that these types of posters continue a long tradition of terrible graphic design that we see in the world, but with “none of the charm” that may accidentally come from a business owner making something low quality.

“Terrible posters are nothing new,” Yule said. “The only difference today is generative AI makes it easier than ever to get the veneer of "polish" with none of the charm that these types of posters might have had when the designer was faced with constraints (usually time, resources or experience). These types of posters would have typically been done by designers either working at a small agency or print shop and these mid-level design jobs are disappearing. Stepping back to think about where this style (and its acceptance in the world) might have come from I'm going to have to pin the blame on YouTube and AB-tested-whatever-gets-more-clicks approach to thumbnail design with the exaggerated facial expressions and shoddy yet eye catching typography.”"

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 8

the penguins in a japanese zoo have *very* complex romantic lives poly groupings, broken hearts, lots of side-eye and drams so the zoo made a chart of it item #5 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A large colorful chart entitled "Sumida penguins relationship Chart 2026". It shows tiny images of cartoons of perhaps 2 or three dozen Penguins together with a welter of colored lines illustrating relationships

A closeup of the chart showing Small round images of 7 Penguins with lines connecting them and describing their relationships. For example, there is a Penguin called "Ume" Who's described as “the type that Likes to take food back to her nest closed quotes and there is a multi directional arrow connecting her the arrow is labeled “married” with a heart, and it points to another Penguin named "Take", Who is described as "beefy and sweet." there is a blue arrow connecting Tako to another Penguin called "Kurama", and the arrow has a broken blue heart and the text reading "their romance seems to have run its course”.

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 7

Doom running on ... ... an array of *e coli* cells (to be clear, the e coli is just the display, not the computation necessary to run the game lol) item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 6

behold "The Listening Museum" ... ... which has samples of the sounds of 36 famous clicky keyboards you can pick a model, type away, and hear the glorious noise item #2 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 2

behold "Violent Checkers" ... ... where you shoot checkers pieces at each other to try and destroy them really fun! designed/built by @benjedwards.com item #11 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

An animated gif showing how "Violent Checkers" works. It shows a checkers board in its Beginning state, with the red checkers on the bottom and the Black checkers on the top. A mouse touches a red piece and pulls backwards, creating a vector arrow that points from the red checker to a black checker. Then suddenly the player lets go and red checker zips forward and slams into the black checker and destroys it. For the next move, the other player drags on a black piece, creating a vector arrow pointing towards a red piece. then the player lets go and the black piece shoots forward and bounces off the red piece, and the collisions move several pieces around, almost like curling stones or billiard balls.

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jul 1

behold an ancient "curse tablet" greeks and romans wrote them to try and bring bad fortune upon their enemies one of them cursed a prominent lawyer: "I bind the tongue and soul and speech that he is practicing" item #8 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A withered old grey rectangular object that looks possibly like a piece of old buckled wood, or some sort of ancient cloth. It has characters written in scratch marks on it

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jun 30

"Current Rothko" is a website where you type in your location ... ... and it shows you a Rothko that (in theory) matches your current weather who knew Rothko was so relevant to a heat wave? item #7 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A dark, minimalist webpage titled “Current Rothko” displays a large reproduction of Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Orange (1961) centered on the screen. A left sidebar shows the user’s location (New York), current weather (88°F, clear sky), time of day (afternoon, 4:15 PM), a mood register labeled “radiant,” and a list of world cities with their local times. Beneath the painting, the caption reads: “Orange, Red, Orange, 1961” followed by the text, “Full sun overhead — the orange field carries the same vivid hour.”

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jun 26

behold an iphone case ... ... that contains a wee terrarium biophilia in your pocket! item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

An iPhone case that is made of clear see through plastic. Inside we can see a riot of greenery, small leafed plants and Moss growing inside the case. It has a very whimsical look to it

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Jun 3

Here's Ted Chiang on the idea that LLMs can be conscious Link: www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2... Unpaywalled just in case: archive.is/bcpZl

Screenshot reading: "The neuroscientist Anil Seth has noted that no one claims that AlphaFold—the program developed by Google DeepMind to predict the folding of proteins—is conscious, even though its underlying architecture is in many ways similar to that of LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude. This indicates that it’s not any intrinsic property of so-called neural networks that leads people to believe that LLMs are conscious; it’s simply the fact that LLMs emit grammatical sentences and we are accustomed to reading intention into sentences, whereas we are not accustomed to reading intention into the way that amino acids fold into protein molecules."

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 18

behold lego brick-kits ... ... to recreate famous album covers item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free riiiiiiight here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A crudely pixellated version of the cover of the album "Abbey Road", done in lego blocks

Versions of the covers of three albums, crudely pixellated in legos -- "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Dark Side of the Moon", and "Nothing Was The Same"

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 12

they're sampling the smell of old libraries ... ... so they can preserve it archivally -- and recreate it when needed archival smell-o-vision, more or less item #4 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A close up picture of two electronic devices that are sitting on a wooden table in St Paul's cathedral. Each consist of thin metal pin -- perhaps 4 inches long -- each with a small circular object attached one third of the way up the pin. Each pin is being held upright in a vertical position by a document clip. In the background you can see desks and shelves of books and a white bust of an old man

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 10

Behold a seven-segment clock display ... ... that runs pneumatically it alternately sucks in and then releases the segments, so they appear as divots in a rubbery surface very organic! item #6 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read/subscribe to here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 8

a wonderful essay on the design of Richard Grant's coat from "Withnail and I" "we broke the fabric down by washing, scrubbing and even greasing the material to give it a well-worn look" plus, its afterlife at auction! item #7 in my latest free "Linkfest" newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A moody, black and white photo of the two actors from the movie Withnail and I. On the left, crouching on the ground, is the actor Paul McGann, He has shaggy dark hair and is wearing a black leather jacket. Standing over him to the right is the actor Richard Grant, Wearing a thick tweed great coat with trousers, a white shirt, and a long necktie, and Grant is looking at the camera and scowling and leaning against a wooden fence. In the background is the countryside.

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 7

someone made a translator it that takes a regular English sentence ... ... and translates it to LinkedIn-speak it's unsettlingly good Item #3 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read/subscribe here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A screenshot of a Kagi translator called "LinkedIn Speak". On the left is the sentence: "I'm curled in a fetal ball under my desk so I'm going to be late filing my quarterly expenses", and on the right is the translation: "Taking some much-needed time for deep reflection and grounding today! Sometimes you have to disconnect to reconnect. Prioritizing mental wellness means my quarterly expense report will be slightly delayed, but I'm leaning into the process and embracing the journey. I #SelfCare #WorkLifeBalance #Mindfulness #GrowthMindset"

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 6

so, this woman was a world-champion Tetris player ... ... and *didn't know it* her husband discovered she regularly got scores higher than anyone on the planet she went to a competition and crushed the world record Item #2 in my latest free Linkfest newsletter: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A yellow game boy, showing the game Tetris being played, with a score of 131

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· May 4

it turns out seeds can hear the sound of rain falling ... ... and when they hear it, they start germinating even before the rain has reached them in anticipation Item #13 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

A closeup of two plant pots in the rain. They are filled with soil and have large trunks of plants growing out of them. The rain has made the soil so wet is is almost like a little dark muddy pool inside each plant pot

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 17

Behold the "challenge coin" the federal government is giving to folks who worked on Minneapolis detentions and deportations it's both predictable -- the sort of garish video-game conflict imagery in which Trump's administration revels -- and grotesque talkingpointsmemo.com/news/staff-a...

alt="A pentagram shaped image that looks like a metal medallion. At the top is a skull wearing a military helmet with glowing red eyes and two machine guns pointing out of its ears, below that is the text “operation Metro Surge Minnesota” with the text below that saying “one nation under God”. Below that aer images of Donald Trump and another white men both looking stern and angry, and below that 5 figures clothed in military tactical equipment, with face masks, helmets, and Appear to be machine guns or sniper rifles with these logos on their chests: Bortac, Hsi SRT, FPS, Borstar, Border patrol. At the bottom is a German Shepherd looking at the viewer with its mouth open. The overall impression is grim, with the esthetics of a badly designed early 2000s video game"

alt="An image of pentagonal metal medallion. At the top is a skull in a military helmet with glowing red eyes and two machine guns crossed behind it, and beneath that is a scene of several soldiers wearing full tactical gear and carrying some sort of banner that looks vaguely like an American flag (a large blue field of stars with tiny red and white stripes at the fringe). Behind them a military helicopter in a dark cloudy sky descending on an explosion; the explosion has what appear to be six or seven rocket tracers coming out of it. The helicopter is shining a spotlight down on the ground. The whole thing looks like a terrible video game from the 1990s, and carries the unmistakable whiff of AI generated design"

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 10

Clooooooser

A screenshot of the live stream of the Artemis two space mission, showing the spacecraft poking in from the far left, bright in the sunlight, with six rocket cones sticking out, and a black solar panel jetting out at 2 o’clock. In the middle of the picture is a very large planet earth, 2/5 shrouded in blackness, 3/5 in bright sunlight, and the sunlit part is blue with a small amount of land visible through many swirling white clouds. The background is completely pitch black, making for an exceptionally dramatic image

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 10

closer and closer

A screenshot of the live Nassau stream from the Artemis to Space Mission, showing spacecraft Poking in from far left, Bright in sunlight, with six or seven small cone shaped thrusters sticking out from and a solar array jutting out at 5:00. In the middle of the picture near the bottom is a very large planet Earth half inch shadow and half in light with the part that light showing the planet bright blue interspersed with lots of swirling clouds. The backdrop is pitch black, making for a very dramatic view

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 10

Man, the view just keeps getting cooler as the earth gets bigger

A screenshot of the Youtube live stream of the Artemis Two mission, it shows the Artemis 2 craft on the far left lit by the sun, and next to it, in the middle of a completely black background is Earth, looming fairly large half shadowed, with the brightly lit part showing blue ocean interlaced white clouds

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 10

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 www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBt...

A screenshot of the Youtube live stream of the Artemis Two mission, it shows the Artemis 2 craft on the far left lit by the sun, and in the middle of a completely black background is Earth, looming fairly large half shadowed, with the brightly lit part showing blue ocean interlaced white clouds

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 7

NASA's photo galley from yesterday's lunar fly-by are bonkers gorgeous full gallery here: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...

The Artemis II crew captures a portion of the Moon coming into view along the terminator – the boundary between lunar day and night – where low-angle sunlight casts long, dramatic shadows across the surface. This grazing light accentuates the Moon’s rugged topography, revealing craters, ridges, and basin structures in striking detail.

A closeup of the moon fills the bottom diagonal 2/3rds of the photo, and it shows hundreds of large and tiny craters, lit brightly by sun. The distance a small blue planet earth, dusted with white clouds, is rising over the moon's horizon. The rest of the sky is pitch black

On the left, poking into the frame, is the round edge of the Artemis 2 capsule, with a solar panel jutting off diagonally at 2 o'clock. In the middle left of the screen is the moon eclipsing the sun - so the moon is mostly dark and ringed by a bright grey-white corona

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 6

livestream is coming back to life! still flickering on and off, and nobody has yet said anything

A screenshot of the Artemis spacecraft Comm With the spacecraft in the left bright white, And the rest of it is dark space a tiny earth far in the distance in the middle of the screen, visible only as a sliver of light

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 6

Here's the moment just before the earth slipped behind the moon

A screenshot of the NASA live stream from the Artemis Two mission with the Artemis Two capsule In the far left, brightly lit by the sun and on the right side the moon almost entirely obscured, only slightly lit on the far right side; then at the far right edge of the moon the earth far in the distance, visible only as a sliver of light, about to vanish behind the moon`

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 6

Hey kids check out the live stream of the Artemis 2 mission -- they're very close to the moon now pretty wild www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBt...

A screenshot of a youtube stream from the Artemis mission, showing the spacecraft poking in from the far left, brightly lit, while in the middle of the screen is the moon -- large, lit from the sun on the right half, with lots of small craters visible, and the left half in darkness

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Apr 2

I'm digging all the inadvertent glitch-art in the video stream from the Artemis II mission on youtube I mean none of this is critical, it's just kind of pretty

A screenshot of the video stream from the Artemis 2 mission in orbit around the Earth, showing the earth in the top right corner and a large area of purple and light blue glitched blocks in the video stream

A screenshot of the video stream from the Artemis 2 mission in orbit around the Earth, showing the earth in the top right corner and the crew module in the bottom left, and a constellation of purple cubes strewn across the screen

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Mar 29

Behold the lovely art of @csilverman.bsky.social -- who does one of these drawings every single day ... ... using the Notes app on his iphone (!!) I didn't even know Notes *had* drawing tools he really pushes it item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here buttondown.com/clivethompso...

Three artworks by Chris Silverman. On the left, a blue car driving at night beneath huge crescent moon, past a moody forest and tall poles with lights. In the middle, an orange brick building that's shaped almost like a robot, surround by orange scrub brush, against an orange sky; the building/robot is emitting a puff of smoke out a window that looks like an eye, or a mouth. On the right, a drawing of the surface of the moon, with earthrise in the background, and -- incongruously -- a manhole with a yellow traffic cone next to it, and a ladder peeking out.

Clive Thompson@clivethompson· Mar 4

okay people what are you looking at here no google image searching just use your ol noodle