okay you lucky people 🍀 it's time ... 🕰️ ... for "the opposite of doomscrolling" 🌻 my latest "Linkfest" newsletter just dropped 📬 free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #38: Garlic Hackers, the "Ignorosophere", and The Upside of Societal Collapse

Hello people! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I descend into the Plutonian mine-shafts of the Inte...

Includes: ☁️ the "ignorosphere" 🐸 how a 1958 album of frog sounds became a multigenerational hit 🚗 wedge cars 💿 the "Sabu Disk" 🌋 the upsides of societal collapse 🎥 a zoetrope vinyl album 🧄 garlic hackers and SO MUCH MORE

I’m down

I'm working on a magazine piece about how -- and if -- AI coding tools are altering the work of software development if you're a dev, love to get your 2 cents on it -- whether you use 'em; absolutely *avoid* them and hate them; anything in between Also: Very interested to hear from new CS grads -- whether you feel the advent of AI coding tools is affecting the job market for you hit me up at clive@clivethompson.net! (and please boost this if it's relevant to your followers)

Trump's administration is describing -- quite openly -- their desire to deploy the military in major blue-state cities ... They're not even slightly covert about it This does not come as news to most folks roundabouts mastodon, I suspect ... ... but this post at Rolling Stone is nonetheless a good roundup of some of the more blatant and open statements:

Trump Sends National Guard to D.C., Plans for More Federal Force

Donald Trump has unleashed the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and his team is plotting to use federal forces in other Democratic cities.

first they added variables to CSS then if-then statements now functions people, people I have *warned* you sentient killer AI isn't going to be built at a skunkworks corporate lab in SF or Beijing it's going to spontaneously self-assemble in the CSS file for the web site of a rural Tennessee bank

una.im | 5 Useful CSS functions using the new @function rule

CSS custom functions are a gamechanger. Here are 5 really useful examples.

behold the "HTML bomb" it's a defensive counterattack on AI web-scrapers that persistently scrape and rescrape your web site, even when you tell them not to the bomb file *looks* like a tiny HTML page, but when scraped -- or even requested by a regular browser ... ... it unpacks into a huge-ass 10-gig HTML page ... ... which quickly crashes any browser or scraper Item #6 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #37: "Wind Theft", an HTML Bomb, and the Rice Theory of Culture

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I comb through the endless branching shelves of the I...

You know those sms scam messages we all get -- "we've got a job for you" what *is* the scam, precisely? How do these "jobs" work? Over at Slate, Alex Sammon took on one of the jobs ... and the story is absolutely fascinating:

Slate Magazine

I Responded to One of the Spam Texts From a “Recruiter”—Then Took the Job. It Got Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined.

The story of “Cathy,” my scammer.

TIL that in Hong Kong, scaffolding for construction isn't made of metal it's handcrafted from bamboo by artisans who've been passing down the techniques for generations Item #4 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #36: Moon Rice, Mountaineering in High Heels, and Why Birds Never Debate Economic Policy

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I scavenge through the thrift shops of the aer’y in...

A cathedral dress briliant invention of the designer/maker Christina Ernst Item # 11 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #36: Moon Rice, Mountaineering in High Heels, and Why Birds Never Debate Economic Policy

Hello folks! It’s time for "the opposite of doomscrolling” — my next Linkfest, in which I scavenge through the thrift shops of the aer’y in...

I realized I hadn't heard any news about bird flu lately it turns out the seeming reduction in cases being reported ... ... is likely a side-effect of Trump's desire to expel immigrants As this physician notes, most bird flu is encountered in farm work ... ... so you want to test farm workers, to figure out if it's spreading! but farm workers now have a very good reason to avoid all authorities The piece:

Undark Magazine

What Happened to All the Human Bird Flu Cases?

Opinion | The end of the CDC’s emergency H5N1 flu response shows the challenges of disease surveillance in vulnerable groups.