And then, when we're all gone, on my tombstone:

DON'T LET THEM WRITE THE HISTORY

Where it starts:

Use other tools.
Visit other sites.
Meet people around you who care.

But goddamn is it a leap.

A huge, huge, improbable leap.

But there was another choice.

I saw it in those first BBS days, I saw it with FreeNets and HyperCard and later in Processing and Glitch.

That choice is STILL THERE

Maybe it was before that. Maybe the partnership with DARPA gave us that oh-so-easy gap to jump from militance to capitalism.

I think a lot about the moment that it happened. The moment that the internet became a profit source and not a path to *waves hands* all of this.

The proposal for the .com domain?
The first banner ad?
The concept of the app?

I guess I say this for some little piece of posterity but: There were good people there. We wanted a better thing than what you all got. We cared and we believed but at the end of the day money won the game.

The biggest betrayal of my life is what these assholes did with the internet.

None of this is new. Other smarter people have raved about it.

It's just deeply frustrating to me, right now.

The whole web is built on a primary grace: that the people visiting you are trustworthy. It costs a little something for me to serve my webpage to everyone who goes there. When the number of scrapers outnumbers the number of humans by an order of magnitude, this grace is fragile.

A very niche but very awesome data download app that I've used for years just closed because they get so many queries per minute it drains their hosting cost in days.

I haven't had a long enough breath to talk about how AI is ruining the open web. API after API I used to use is closing - literally because paying the $$$ required to feed these impersonation machines is prohibitive.

Our personalised avatars speaking in speech bubbles. The content of the bubbles is pretty much what's on the text of this post!

The Study of Comics in Academia
May 30, 6 PM EDT
I'll be moderating a panel for @cartoonist.coop Nib & Ink Digital Comics Festival, with @neilcohn.bsky.social @scottmccloud.bsky.social @nsousanis.bsky.social - geeking over the developments in comics studies.
nif.cartoonist.coop/event/the-st...

I will definitely do this :)

This time next week I'll be in Flagstaff. What should I do?

A Well-Aimed Potato: The Klan, Notre Dame, and Today | dansinker.com

This weekend I wrote about the time students at Notre Dame beat the shit out of the Klan. It's a feel good story for the ages. dansinker.com/posts/2026-0...

Periodic reminder that this link will give you a totally random bird:

ebird.org/species/surp...

You can make it your browser's default page.

You're welcome.

Periodic reminder that this link will give you a totally random bird:

ebird.org/species/surp...

You can make it your browser's default page.

You're welcome.

We have less time than we knew and that time is buoyant, and cloven, lucent, and missile, and wild.

Just do your best

Do everything you can

And don't you worry what their bitter hearts

Are gonna say

They also have very cool tshirts.

metrony.threadless.com

This is a 28 (?) acre forest that was purchased by the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

They're working with local librarians and a whole bevy of artists, architects and the generally curious.

There are regular tours, and it's easy to get to on Metro North.

I visited Library Field with my son today.

It was marvelous to wander the grounds and to hear about the ways people are thinking around very cool question:

What does a library looks like when it is also a forest?

libraryfield.org

Best New Yorkers:

1. The woman who cuts the tourist locks off the Brooklyn Bridge

2. The ladies who follow the turkey in the Financial District around to keep it safe

3. The Mayor

New Yorkers: you have to go and see Studio Mercier's pop-up show at Heft Gallery in the LES.

Aaaaaand... You have to do it tomorrow.

A whole series of work made from a sail-powered crossing of the Atlantic.

heftgallery.com/exhibition/t...

silver scarab beetle framed handmade paper bug art

decorated beauty moth framed handmade paper bug art

spotted leaf framed handmade paper bug art

longhorn beetle framed handmade paper bug art

Four of my handmade bugs are available on my ko-fi! These are one-of-a-king art pieces made using paper, card, and pencils (mostly), and are framed in repurposed frames.

Check them out! ko-fi.com/cloudyapplea...

#paperart #bugsky #invertsky #beetlesky #artsky #handmade

BtB Retreat 2026 - Santa Marta, Colombia Spend five days in the lush and bird-filled jungle of Santa Marta, Colombia with Jer Thorp and a small group of curious bird + data + art enthusiasts. We'll wander the forest with local guides, learn ...

Last year I convened a group of people at a jungle lodge in Colombia to immerse ourselves in nature, to slow down, and to think about the ways data and story might be grounded in place.

It was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done... so I'm doing it again!

This is all to say that I'm *very* excited to be doing this again. I hope you'll consider joining me in September!

Room at Frana Lodge

Frana Lodge, surrounded by jungle

The place where we are hosting these retreats is so magic I hesitate to even talk about it, lest it gets overrun.

It's a hike-in lodge, built with all natural materials, and run by some of the best humans I've ever met.

www.franalodge.com

A small group of people make an early morning river crossing

The people who joined me were just absolutely fantastic.

It was such a gift to be in the company of such generous and curious people for a week. I left feeling 100% more hopeful about humanity.

You can read some testimonials from them on the site: www.jerthorp.me/btb-retreat-...