In China, robots which are also solar panels, clean the other solar panels. Original post
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/
a plant that dies ... ... if you look at your phone fun project by designer @simonegiertz.bsky.social item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...
A long time ago, @clivethompson.bsky.social wrote about it for WIRED: "The pleasure in reading a newsletter comes from the view into a unitary mind at work...Reading [Metafoundry] is like being plugged Oculus-style into her brain while she meditates on science and culture."
As of this weekend, I've been based in Vancouver, BC for a year. To celebrate, I wrote a newsletter about @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social's THE PACIFIC CIRCUIT, having a garden, and some of the things I've been up to this past while: buttondown.com/metafoundry/...
determinate tomatoes
on cities, matter, energy, roots, and dragonflies
buttondown.com
holy *crap* "One missing underscore in a Skyrim-themed username put an innocent Nova Scotia man in prison for 18 months" full story here: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
When the first step goes wrong, bad results follow.
arstechnica.com
Does replacing parking with bike-lanes hurt restaurant business? Of course not, as this new peer-reviewed STUDY of 15 years of Montreal data showed. ACTUALLY, downtown experienced significant restaurant growth after bike lanes were installed. @momentummag.bsky.social momentummag.com/do-bike-lane...
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...
I don't think candidates have to be grown in a vat, but maybe marinate them in the vat for a couple of months
Need a palate cleanser? Check out @alhambot.bsky.social's procedurally-generated tiles (not AI, just Python and math!)
Alhambot@alhambot.bsky.social · 4w ago
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)
A 15-year study of bike lanes shows that they have no negative impact on business. Neighborhoods that embraced bike lanes showed a measurable increase in foot traffic. momentummag.com/do-bike-lane...
momentummag.com
I used to have a bumper sticker on my car (it was on so long it literally wore off) that said, “If I had ridden my bike today, this parking spot would be yours.” I think about it every time someone claims bike lanes are gratuitous investments that only serve people in spandex.
There's a revolution happening in urban transportation across the world. It's not EVs, not even autonomous EVs. It's got nothing to do with AI. No tech mogul is getting rich off it. Instead, the revolution is centered on an older, simpler technology: bicycles.
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport
Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war
economist.com
Same people promoting this are screaming about Mamdani's grocery stores as "communism."
USA TODAY@usatoday.com · 4w agoThe White House launched 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations, all selling fuel at $3.47 a gallon.
Excellent @jasonkoebler.bsky.social piece at @404media.co about the cultural shift in real-world and online flyers ... ... as people start posting AI-generated ones that all have the same bland creepy look www.404media.co/we-are-livin... (unpaywalled, just in case: archive.is/pNTQh) 1/2
We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’
"Hey if this is your flyer, I’m not going, I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me."
404media.co
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...
I was trying to type "alpha male" on my phone and I accidentally misspelled it as "aloha male" this is the best typo I've ever made
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...
A guy in a minivan yelled at us (four people on two bikes), "You're taking up the whole road!" My husband, a quick thinker, yelled back, "How many people you got in there??"
If you think e-bikes are a hazard for teenagers, wait until you hear about cars.
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...
Got this tidbit from my electric utility today - my electric usage last week totaled $0. I used AC. I did laundry. Charged my car. Cooked food. Ran the dishwasher. The solar panels on my roof worked overtime in the hot sun.
