Clive Thompson

right?

These are amazing! (And, of course, I have a related book to sell! Check out “Empire of the Sum” for the story of how calculator watches got started in the first place: shadycharacters.co.uk/books/empire... .)

right?

BTW, @aerialembroidery.bsky.social, I also posted about this on my mastodon account and even more folks are flipping out about your work there lol saturation.social/deck/@clive/...

That's a good looking watch!

"A vintage Casio wrist remote control watch is shown with a rectangular digital display and an array of buttons along the sides and bottom. Labels like “POWER,” “TV/VCR,” “STOP,” and “PLAY” indicate its ability to operate electronics, while directional and channel buttons sit below the screen. The black strap and chunky, gadget-filled design emphasize its 1980s–1990s tech aesthetic"

"A Casio digital watch is shown with a square display and bold yellow accents highlighting its “Pulse” and “Sensor” buttons. The screen displays the day, date, and time along with smaller indicator icons for modes like alarm, jogging, and timer. Its black band and chunky design give it a rugged, sporty feel, emphasizing its built-in pulse-checking feature."

"A retro Casio Data Bank digital watch is shown with its rectangular display and a full alphanumeric keypad beneath the screen. The display shows the day, date, and time, while the buttons on the keypad are labeled with letters, numbers, and small orange function keys. Its black wristband and compact design highlight the vintage, gadget-forward aesthetic of early digital watches"

Casio just celebrated its 50th anniversary by producing a huge gallery of dozens of its digital watches, from the 70s to today

they are gorgeous beasts

here are are three, including the "tv remote" one from 1993

item #8 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

🤘🏻🤖

So cool!!

It’s so good

A hand holds a circular embroidery hoop showing a detailed, textured aerial landscape with fields, roads, clusters of green trees, and a bright blue canal running vertically through the center. A small embroidered boat floats on the canal, adding a pop of color against the green terrain. The stitching varies in texture and density to mimic foliage, paths, and water, giving the scene a rich, tactile depth

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: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

me too!

given that he broke the previous record by over 43 miles, I'd suspect he just ran outta juice

lol yes

lolol precisely

A cyclist in a blue jersey and black helmet performs a wheelie on a light-blue bike while riding indoors on a track. The background is motion-blurred, emphasizing speed, with gym equipment and a few people faintly visible. The rider looks focused and balanced, holding the handlebars steady as the front wheel lifts high off the ground.

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: buttondown.com/clivethompso...

I think it's bad that the president is constantly saying things that would get you immediately removed from any work happy hour or neighborhood barbecue

Nice!

Vibe Coding: Empowering and Imprisoning - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

I sat for a long while with my complicated feelings about "vibe coding". It is _genuinely_ empowering for many — opening a door to creating with code that otherwise would never exist. Also? It enables a dangerous dependency that could be a path to serfdom for coders. www.anildash.com/2025/12/02/v...

The Metaverse Is Still a Thing in Microsoft Teams The Immersive events option in Teams lets you create 3D spaces on PC, Mac, and within Meta Quest VR headsets. The rollout effectively kills a previous metaverse tool, Microsoft Mesh.

LEGS

what a drag

who needs em

www.pcmag.com/news/microso...

Print your own Grid Paper, any size, any kinda squares, online with this tool (via @benbrown.bsky.social )

grid-paper.daverupert.com?gridtype=two...

Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.

37-year-old quit her $390,000 Google job after saving up $1.5 million—see the 'no buy checklist' that helps her spend less She left a $390,000-a-year job and now uses a simple set of rules to make her savings last in Switzerland.

The secret to early retirement; dine out rarely, fly economy and be a Google employee making $390,000/year married to a fellow Google employee 17 years older than you who likely makes twice as much as you.

to my recursive humiliation

totes

which is now also a word

I offer a weary salute

That is information that definitely has an impact!

You are correct

but I am weak

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

My hand holding a shortbread cookie in the shape of an airplane. There are red sprinkles in the pattern of the survivorship bias plane.

A plate of the same cookies.

Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread

In case you’re wondering why Pete Hegseth is freaking out about a congressional video reminding the military not to participate in illegal orders:

Coffee linked to slower biological ageing among those with severe mental illness – up to a limit | King's College London New research from King’s College London finds that coffee consumption within the NHS recommended limit is linked to longer telomere lengths – a marker of biological ageing – among people with bipolar ...

More good news about coffee: www.kcl.ac.uk/news/coffee-...