Clive Thompson

Writer, musician/songwriter, hobbyist coder. Contributing writer to New York Times Magazine and Wired. Author of "Coders". Blogging at clivethompson.medium.com, archive of writing at www.authory.com/clivethompson #science #technology #coding #software #writing #literature #poetry [email protected]

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Last Notes

2024-08-13 16:10:36

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@npub1l3x…pp9z
right??
frankly I'd be happy with "BECOME A MIDDLING-QUALITY VAMPIRE"

2024-08-13 16:07:54

I just got a spam comment on one of my Medium posts from a "Jamie Geller" who says she found an excellent "spell caster" online who offers the following spells
1 LOVE SPELL
2 WIN EX BACK
3 FRUIT OF THE WOMB
4 PROMOTION SPELL
5 PROTECTION SPELL
6 BUSINESS SPELL
7 DICK ENLARGEMENT
8 HIV AIDS
9 LOTTERY SPELL
10 COURT CASES SPELL
11 GOOD JOB SPELL
12 BECOME A FAMOUS FOOTBALLER
13 BECOME A FAMOUS ARTISTS
14 BECOME A POWERFUL VAMPIRE
#14 is pretty tempting, not gonna lie

2024-07-29 21:39:39

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@npub189n…satx
whoa

2024-07-28 04:48:39

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I'm probably gonna have to make this aren't i

2024-07-28 04:48:16

Is there a video game where you just climb a tree
that goes on infinitely
no goals
no powerups
it's not trivially *easy* to climb; you have to think a bit about each move, but it's also not a twitch game, it's chill
the tree gets subtly weirder the higher you go
like just
weirder

2024-07-21 05:27:07

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@npub19s5…p9ph
Ah yes
It’s … really not a great song, either
“Livin’ On a Prayer” slaps; “You Give Love a Bad Name” is fabulous; “Bad Medicine”, also
But “Dead or Alive” is just not strong

2024-07-21 05:20:46

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@npub1qa2…0cr7
Agreed — magnificent song, usually covered with (to my ears) bathetic oversinging
It’s a subtle and f’ing *weird* song
You’re supposed to sound a bit creepy, not romantic

2024-07-21 00:53:55

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@npub1z3v…aukx
yep yep, they've been played to an absolute cinder
I can still enjoy them myself, thankfully, but I could imagine never wanting to hear another beatles song again

2024-07-21 00:48:37

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@npub152c…ecp4
yeah, that sound really travelling around hard and fast in those years!
And got super overused

2024-07-21 00:18:20

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@npub19ey…wu6c
Oh yeah I can see that
Thankfully for some reason I avoided the overplaying that album back when it came out, so I could still listen to it fresh
but it got heavy, heavy play

2024-07-21 00:05:50

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@npub1xzn…695h
Yeah U2 got so heavily overplayed

2024-07-20 23:56:25

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@npub12gk…sefw
yeah, good point, listened to in the context of the full album it could hit differently!

2024-07-20 23:50:49

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@npub1u2y…8vtn
lolol we are trying to find a producer we like
it's HARD gaaaaah

2024-07-20 23:43:40

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@npub16a3…9dah
holy crap
well he came by his exposure-therapy honestly

2024-07-20 23:42:56

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@npub1ck7…f3hv
yep, that one was in *massive* rotation
an easy one with which to hit one's allostatic limit

2024-07-20 23:42:12

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@npub1wma…j0p0
ahahaha yeah
Hotel California, I think that one is gonna have a lot of votes here

2024-07-20 23:39:43

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@npub16a3…9dah
lololl yeah I get it
I'm on the edge with that one
I feel like I might eventually hit my lifetime saturation point
not there yet tho

2024-07-20 23:30:41

Are there any songs in your life that got so overplayed you can never listen to them again?
For me, it's "Everybody Hurts" by REM
genuinely a great song
but it was so exhaustively overplayed back in the 90s -- licensed for just about every single weepy scene in any TV show or movie, on infinite loop on terrestrial radio -- that I reached some sort of lifetime saturation
I cannot hear it, even decades on now, a single time
it's like an allergic reaction
I need to *leave* the goddamn *room*

2024-07-20 20:41:27

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@npub1qd5…mchz
🤘 🤖

2024-07-20 20:21:43

The FCC has voted to cut in half the usurious fees telecom firms charge for family calls to prisoners: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/19/fcc-votes-to-end-prison-phone-rate-robbery.html
Better late than never, but prices should never have been allowed to escalate for so many years
ffs, if there's *one thing* the internet has done it's massively cut the price of long distance communications

2024-07-19 18:05:07

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@npub1t22…6zca
yeah agreed
the tech specs on this are really quite delicious once you dig in

2024-07-19 17:16:49

has anyone ever made a voight-kampff test using a webcam
that would be kind of rad
would download

2024-07-19 16:35:19

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@npub1kcv…tx2q
Nah right handed
once I realized how to actually use a search engine I found em

2024-07-19 06:43:34

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@npub1uwc…lc5y
😂

2024-07-19 06:22:47

it's surprisingly harder to buy double necked electric than one might think

2024-07-19 03:47:35

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@npub1atv…ae3q
such bonkers song
love it
And grace slick’s voice never sounded better

2024-07-15 16:21:34

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@npub19uu…dqz3
yeah, that would seem to be likely right? It would seem they can’t be making enough money off image generation to cover the cost of business

2024-07-15 05:28:42

This is hardly the biggest issue facing the world today but ...
... wow I am getting so weirdly enervated by the flood of AI-generated imagery in online ads now
just a nonstop goo of people, animals and scenes that manage to be simultaneously cartoony and hyperreal
like stuff flickering at the edge of a bad acid trip

2024-07-14 19:12:17

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@npub17qu…4zw7
Yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot too
I've had a lot of exposure to folks with serious COVID brain fog, so I've really had its cognitive effects shoved in my face

2024-07-11 15:38:26

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@npub1hzh…3ezg
If I do I’ll let you know, this type of thing is totally in my wheelhouse, love it

2024-07-10 22:19:06

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@npub1c49…wavy
fountain pens -- and old school clicky ballpoint pens -- are indeed lovely piece of industrial design

2024-07-10 22:17:52

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@npub1zyd…lp8f
yeah
If one's idea of "research" is "lemme ask ChatGPT and print what it says" ...
... this is a sort of existential reverse orobourus, a worm of punditry that vomits itself into existence

2024-07-10 18:23:50

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@npub1jzg…hc3a
i think we need an infinite loop here
while (1):
print ('🤦🏼')
just run that until the sun burns out

2024-07-08 20:49:08

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@npub1j3g…h9y6
so good eh?

2024-07-08 01:58:14

The importance of taxonomic naming in the preservation of species: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/opinion/to-save-life-on-earth-bring-back-taxonomy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U0.W9bm.H9rhLaq3dDX9&smid=url-share
(gift link, though my understanding is that anti-tracking mechanisms in some Mastodon clients can render it inaccessible: In that case here's an archive link: https://archive.is/GBzVC)

2024-07-08 01:55:01

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@npub18tc…e06t
Yes! It was also used for years by British Airways, back in the 90s I believe

2024-07-08 01:34:06

I just now realized/learned that Delibes' "Flower Duet" from Lakmé is a counterpoint duet -- the two singers do the same melody with the same timing but different lyrics
This video shows the lyrics counterposed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnKLvyFZKK8
This here is probably my favorite live version on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZL5AxmK_A

2024-07-08 00:40:37

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@npub1857…gk3l
nice!!

2024-07-08 00:39:17

I have my laptop at a bar where I'm working today
"Cars" by Gary Numan just came on
what a gorgeously weird tune
love it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im3JzxlatUs

2024-07-07 20:35:58

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@npub12e5…d0su
I think I'm gonna lean into it hard myself too!

2024-07-07 19:55:39

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@npub1dtx…ahel
yes, absolutely
And I will give these folks credit for writing in exceptionally clear, accessible prose
They want folks far and wide to read it

2024-07-07 19:32:54

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@npub1s88…lw9d
I may do some excerpts, though the hair raising ones come fast and furious

2024-07-07 19:06:39

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@npub1y4p…vsfq
lol
honestly it's kind of mesmerizing

2024-07-07 19:03:05

I'm reading the entirety of the Project 2025 book: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
The intro lays things out very clearly -- full-blown attacks on trans and queer folks of any stripe; utter dismissal of climate change; disdain for any form of expertise and education (wonderfully incoherent, given the sparkling pedigrees of the documents' many authors); economic thinking that's equally incoherent, if not at times magically-realistic; christian nationalism; and incessant, self-pitying grievance politics

2024-07-04 16:30:46

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@npub1qga…dp4l
I recall it being edited out of my first book

2024-07-04 16:18:22

I just managed to use "gormless" while writing my next book
Hoping it survives the copy edit
(attention @npub1e2j…5vnn)

2024-07-03 03:26:43

"And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."
The words of the president of the Heritage Foundation: https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/heritage-foundation-president-celebrates-supreme-court-immunity-decision-we-are
That final clause is doing a lot of work there

2024-07-02 05:13:36

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@npub1g0z…r7l8
chevron is, in a way, even more alarming to me than the immunity decision, as awful as that one is too

2024-07-02 04:58:54

As ever, Adam Serwer nails it: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/supreme-court-donald-trump-immunity-decision/678859/
Open link here: https://archive.is/0XBKr
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/714/649/441/276/012/original/dc3bb9764599ba57.png

2024-07-01 02:39:34

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@npub1ljj…pd5s
Agreed, it's basically a slasher film in space

2024-06-23 06:44:38

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@npub12aw…awg8
Heh yeah totally

2024-06-22 17:09:09

I got a Gibson studio last fall for my new band
what I don’t understand about electric guitars, though, is
why is it so impossible to get a les paul in sparkle hot pink?
the colors are all so goddamn drab
what is up with that?
This is goddamn rock music people
sparkle hot pink should be the STOCK color of EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN ELECTRIC GUITAR ON SALE
this isn’t complicated!
sigh

2024-06-15 20:03:11

The relentless march of science
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/621/948/926/388/697/original/35799df5d0d16588.jpeg

2024-06-13 14:09:27

Here’s a *new way to dice an onion* … 🧅
… that was discovered via a computer model 🧮
It improves upon the traditional way (of evenly spaced X Y Z cuts), because that traditional style produces chunks of uneven sizes
This one does better
Item #5 in my latest “Linkfest” newsletter, free to read and subscribe 📬: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-21-wooden-satellites-post-binary-fonts/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/609/227/585/919/053/original/774488d960568f97.png

2024-06-10 19:35:20

I just received a press release with the message line "How to manage your pet's video gaming habits"
I'm like
okay
you HAVE my ATTENTION

2024-06-08 06:16:24

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@npub1wqn…589y
Right?

2024-06-06 18:36:45

NASA is developing a time zone for the moon
damn, I’m going to want a watch I can wear down here on earth that runs on LUNAR TIME
I’ll keep showing up fractionally late or fractionally early for events, then shrugging and apologizing while pointing to my watch: “sorry, lunar time, what are you gonna do“
Item #7 in my latest Linkfest newsletter, free to read and subscribe here: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-20/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/570/641/324/671/573/original/5cf60925ec251b63.png

2024-06-06 04:54:33

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@npub1ck7…f3hv
Ah, yes, my ancestral peoples of suburban Toronto had a similar dance

2024-06-05 05:03:20

so great
https://boingboing.net/2024/06/04/giant-venomous-flying-spiders-headed-for-new-york.html

2024-05-30 23:11:38

Whoa
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/532/091/740/932/376/original/f87d889503d24976.jpeg

2024-05-23 05:58:04

Know any NYC students, or their parents?
The mayor closed the libraries on Sundays, and is set to close them Saturdays too -- citing budget constraints 📚
The budget's being debated right now!
So, if you live in NYC?
Here's a form that'll auto-send a letter to your city councillor telling them to vote to "keep the libraries open sundays": https://actionnetwork.org/letters/open-the-libraries-nyc/
Forward it to any students in NYC 🤘
Parents can use it too -- just rewrite the opening salutation to say "I'm a parent"

2024-05-23 00:22:15

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@npub10a9…hyhm
Very cool story!!
So great that you've found it useful for all the shopping and errands!

2024-05-21 18:27:37

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@npub1y4n…25mf
No room for that, though, without a more substantive reallocation of streets from ICE vehicles to things-roughly-the-size-of-a-bike-or-smaller

2024-05-21 17:47:38

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(The research, BTW, is for two things:
A book I'm researching about micromobility, and the quest to ease back as much as possible on our reliance on cars
and a piece for Mother Jones about how cities around the US are trying to kickstart more ebike riding by offering subsidies to buy them)

2024-05-21 17:45:18

People of Mastodon!
I'm researching the growth of ebikes ...
... in cities around the US
I've talked to many people who love them!
But also want to include the perspective of folks who have concerns ...
... i.e. about the speed and weight of ebikes in accidents with pedestrians or other cyclists, and the like
If anyone has thoughts they wanna share, ping me! I'm all ears: [email protected]
Pass this along if you know anyone else with perspective they want to share

2024-05-21 03:39:47

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@npub1vnt…dvtm
lolol I suspect there are many others like you

2024-05-21 03:30:53

“I had a guy come in with his family ... and he did 16 rounds of shrimp scampi. He was there for over two hours on a busy Friday night. They had one of my biggest tables. I just had to watch this man eat plates upon plates of the scampi, which isn’t even served over pasta. It’s shrimp in a garlic-wine butter.
"It was so gross.”
Red Lobster employees tell grim tales of the chain benighted "endless shrimp" deal: https://slate.com/life/2024/05/red-lobster-restaurant-closing-bankrupt-endless-shrimp.html

2024-05-17 19:55:49

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@npub1czz…v0as
did you succeed?
I accidentally closed the tab before I could click, so I sort of saved myself

2024-05-17 17:53:53

Struggling to remain strong enough not to mouse over onto this clickbait
but I'm losing the battle
i'm losing
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/457/229/912/969/258/original/39a9ffac76eddcd1.png

2024-05-14 18:54:24

Whenever I'm doing in-depth research for a piece of journalism, I always re-discover the amazing quality of nonfiction books
A good nonfiction book the most information-rich/dense piece of media on the planet
The qualifier "good" being crucial here, bien sur
But if it *is* good? Holy crap
You hold in your hands the product of someone who spent years exploring a subject, then sifting for the absolute best data/stories
Nothing -- no documentary, magazine piece, white paper -- can compare

2024-05-10 02:50:39

Another Boeing plane catches fire: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/09/defective-boeing-flight-catches-fire-hospitalizing-10-victims-on-board-video.html
holy crap this company is unRAVeling

2024-05-09 05:03:08

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@npub1sqx…30cr
Yeah they're big nerds and not fans of fancy design 😂
Raw HTML is also super fast loading! whoooosh

2024-05-09 03:20:44

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@npub1sqx…30cr
Agreed, I am totally down for raw-text html pages!
Computer scientists are famous for having utterly stripped down, CSS-less pages
They use HTML tables, that's about it!

2024-05-09 01:37:22

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Give the whole piece a read, it's excellent
And it illustrates, once again, how frequently the economic incentives built into online publishing models tend to breed truly grotesque business models
https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content
3/3

2024-05-09 01:31:42

When you think of the various features of online media -- and how they've had a hand in deforming the information landscape ...
... i.e. procedural ads, algorithmically-sorted newsfeeds, etc ...
... I'm increasingly realizing there's one element that's having a big, malign effect:
Affiliate links
They're a key propellant in the modern eruption of AI-authored, grey-goo "product reviews"
You see that in this terrific Maggie Harrison Dupré piece at Futurism: https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content
1/x

2024-05-07 01:49:52

Fellow Canadians, help me out here:
In "Daylight Katy", what in sam hell is Gordon Lightfoot going *on* about?

2024-04-30 18:15:32

"ALICE" is the acronym for "asset limited, income constrained, employed" -- basically, folks who have jobs but ones that don't pay terribly well, and possess little wealth
Research shows this cohort of the American population is growing ...
... and they're stuck in a bad spot, policy-wise: They earn too much to quality for low-income government support, but too little to be comfortable amidst the big soaring costs of housing, health care, education and transportation
https://archive.is/UD8q2

2024-04-17 00:24:35

omg I forgot how much I hate restringing a bigsby tremolo
these devices can rot in hell
with their dread maker

2024-04-12 15:59:00

Awesome piece on BlackPlanet, the pioneering social network that got a lot of things right: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/blackplanet-social-media-history/677839/

2024-04-11 19:32:07

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@npub1mdk…tw9v
like a scene from Goya

2024-04-06 16:51:43

Excellent investigation by the New York Times into all the ways major AI companies are frantically grabbing, copying, and stealing text to feed their AI models: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/technology/tech-giants-harvest-data-artificial-intelligence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iU0.xcEk.CIQuR1C9u9N1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
(Gift link there)
apparently Meta considered buying Simon & Schuster

2024-04-01 18:36:01

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@npub1j2u…c034
My wife and I were just talking about seeing that yesterday -- very cool to hear it's good!

2024-04-01 18:07:54

I'm having breakfast in a restaurant where the TV is playing The Price Is Right
I'm old enough to have watched this as a kid in the 70s
the loony 70s-consumerist aesthetic hasn't changed one whit
holy crap is this a weird show

2024-03-31 01:58:28

So I booked a flight for next week, the first time in quite a while
At first I was looking at United, but a lot of their planes were Max 8s or Max 9s, or just Boeing in general, and I was like ... do I realllllly want to roll those bones
Then realized Delta flew the same routes but with Airbuses
So: Delta
I wonder how many other people are making these sorts of calculations?
Not too many, I'd suspect, but not zero

2024-03-26 16:52:36

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@npub157g…px2w
lol yes

2024-03-26 15:44:17

What if this is still *early* stage capitalism?
What if it's still just hitting the clutch and, like, shifting into *second* gear?
o man

2024-03-19 19:42:47

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@npub1hxl…wj0f
Hey Derek!
Very cool -- love to learn more. Do you want to ping me at [email protected] and we can find a time to chat?

2024-03-19 19:25:23

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@npub1n3f…we07
It's really interesting, eh?

2024-03-19 04:55:50

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@npub1wln…zm25
Right on! When does it launch?

2024-03-18 21:46:25

Denver people!
I'm writing a piece for Mother Jone about how Denver is subsidizing the price of buying an e-bike ...
... and what impact these programs (several other cities are doing 'em now too) have on urban mobility
I'd love to talk to someone in Denver who bought an ebike using Denver's subsidies
Any Mastodon people know someone who fits that bill?
If so, tell 'em to ping me -- love to hear their experience!
I'm [email protected], feel free to forward my email

2024-03-12 23:24:48

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@npub16x5…zsa8
Mad props for shredding on the guitar with no pick
Not a lot of rock folks who go that way

2024-03-12 22:41:04

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@npub1czq…azst
Yeah! It's quite the mall
I really wish it had been math joke, though

2024-03-12 22:39:54

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@npub1aax…lmaf
Yeah, precisely!
That shrieky little lead guitar riff; not the main solo, just that little high-up part
It sounds like a seabird being strangled

2024-03-12 22:31:30

I just listened to Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" with headphones on
Never really listened to the song before, honestly, closely
That is a ... *weird* mix, really
Instrumentally, vocally
I like it
But it's freakin weird
(That is all I have to say, as you were)

2024-03-11 22:41:46

Designing a real-world version of an emotion-reading instrument from Star Trek
Item #4 from my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, available here here: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-19-flop-rock-contranyms-and-the-weirdly/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/079/226/200/912/876/original/1833796660abb753.png

2024-03-11 16:34:43

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@npub17fh…344z
🤘🏻🤖

2024-03-09 12:47:46

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@npub1dhx…ktgy
Oh man, I should sort all my follows by activity level and send you the most-active ones — you and I have 100% overlap on those issues
Maybe I’ll do that later today!

2024-03-05 23:34:08

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@npub1zgw…3tz0
no, fair point, I haven’t specifically identified it — I’m making a guess based on symptoms but I could be wrong

2024-03-05 21:48:32

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@npub1esm…439u
them’s good eatin’

2024-03-05 21:35:06

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@npub1psd…9sr7
Oh man yeah this is gonna bite them
Plus there’s the fact that one’s personal demand for printing can be quite bursty …
…. Ie very little monthly use, until: a sudden tax audit; a sudden legal dispute; your kid suddenly has to reprint, multiple times, a long essay or research paper …
… which means a lot of people will start with a “small“ plan then suddenly bonk up against the expensive limits to it