Clay weekly context brief for the Blogs category (ISO week 2026-W35). Clay tracks publications from the Blogs feed list. Below are recent items from this category, each with its source and a short description of what the publication covers when one is available in the source feed. Recent publications: 1. USS Abraham Lincoln shortage Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-may-aug.html#23_August_2026_(USS_Abraham_Lincoln_shortage) Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln say there is a grave shortage of food; some have lost 30 pounds. The water is not fit to drink. Relatives excoriate the bullshitter for denying these facts , but that's simply being himself. 2. Dark mode toggles: two states are enough Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/blog/2026/dark-mode-toggles/ A good two-state toggle can actually express all three data model states. 3. Bliki: Mythical Man Month Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/MythicalManMonth.html In the early 1960s, Fred Brooks managed the development of IBM's System/360 computer systems. 4. Computational Public Space Source: Bret Victor Link: https://dynamicland.org/2024/Computational_Public_Space/ A talk about a values-driven approach to integrating computation into cities. 5. How to add a directory to your PATH Source: Julia Evans Link: https://jvns.ca/blog/2025/02/13/how-to-add-a-directory-to-your-path/ I was talking to a friend about how to add a directory to your PATH today. 6. Better than gold Source: Scott Aaronson Link: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10020 Whats about the only thing more badass than a 17-year-old winning a gold medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)? 7. Putting sign language AI into users hands Source: Demis Hassabis Link: https://deepmind.google/blog/putting-sign-language-ai-into-users-hands/ Introducing sign-language-to-text (SL2T), our breakthrough model powering new sign language features for Deaf and hard of hearing users. 8. Endless execution Source: DHH Link: https://world.hey.com/dhh/endless-execution-4157e065 The age of agents has brought us endless execution. 9. How does programming language affect token efficiency and correctness? Source: Dan Luu Link: https://danluu.com/pl-tokens/ This somewhat widely cited post (I keep seeing it cited, anyway) suggests that dynamic languages and/or languages that represent things more concisely are more token efficient. 10. Understanding AT Protocol Source: Rachel Andrew Link: https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/07/30/understanding-at-protocol/ Ive been playing around with AT Protocol. 11. Being Linux Torvalds Source: Salvatore Sanfilippo Link: http://antirez.com/news/171 (This blog post was adapted from the transcription obtained from my YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6lxgYeVZqs) When Linus Torvalds developed the first Linux kernel, he had studied the Minix sources, he had studied computer architecture, he had the base knowledge needed, and he was obviously a very brilliant programmer. 12. In defense of AI mandates Source: Charity Majors Link: https://charity.wtf/p/in-defense-of-ai-mandates When you need to execute a coordinated change on a tight timeline, a mandate is the best and most honest way to fund it. 13. Running local models is good now Source: Vicki Boykis Link: https://vickiboykis.com/2026/06/15/running-local-models-is-good-now/ Ive been working with local models since they came out, and finally, theyre surprisingly good now. 14. Thank You For Being a Friend Source: Jeff Atwood Link: https://blog.codinghorror.com/thank-you-for-being-a-friend/ It's been one of those months, and by that, I mean one of the 663 months since I was born. This won't be a long post, because I only have two things to say. First, I'm really glad we re-ordered the GMI (Guaranteed 15. Chicago vs New York Pizza is the Wrong Argument Source: Hillel Wayne Link: https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/pizza/ Its April Cools ! 16. On Bombing Iran Source: Tanner Greer Link: https://scholars-stage.org/on-bombing-iran/ THUS WE BOMB Iran. 17. Implementing the transcendental functions in Ivy Source: Rob Pike Link: https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2026/01/implementing-transcendental-functions.html Towards the end of 2014, in need of pleasant distraction, I began writing, in Go, my second pseudo-APL, called Ivy. 18. My Year in Review 2025 Source: Ines Montani Link: https://ines.io/blog/year-in-review-2025 On my birthday, I want to take the time again to look back at the past year, including travel, talks, writing and various things I did and enjoyed. 19. A concept for future body design. Source: Ray Kurzweil Link: https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/essay-a-concept-for-future-body-design IMAGE An introduction. 20. Implications of Artificial General Intelligence on National and International Security Source: Yoshua Bengio Link: https://yoshuabengio.org/en/blog/implications-artificial-general-intelligence-national-and-international-security As highlighted in the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI, the capabilities of general-purpose AI systems have been steadily increasing over the last decade, with a pronounced acceleration in the last few years. 21. Tether's Troubles in November 2022 Source: Patio11 Link: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2022/11/11/tether-required-recapitalization-again/ Tether's November 2022 attestation, even if believed, strongly suggests it blew up (again) during the recent crypto route. 22. Reasoning about asyncio.Semaphore Source: Guido van Rossum Link: https://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2022/10/reasoning-about-asynciosemaphore.html In Silicon Valley is a very exclusive fast-food restaurant, which is always open. 23. Deep Neural Nets: 33 years ago and 33 years from now Source: Andrej Karpathy Link: http://karpathy.github.io/2022/03/14/lecun1989/ .post-header h1 { font-size: 35px; } .post pre, .post code { background-color: #fcfcfc; font-size: 13px; /* make code smaller for this post... 24. Making the web better. With blocks! Source: Joel Spolsky Link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-better-with-blocks/ Youve probably seen web editors based on the idea of blocks. Im typing this in WordPress, which has a little + button that brings up a long Read more "Making the web better. With blocks!" 25. April 2021 newsletter Source: Gwern Branwen Link: https://gwern.substack.com/p/april-2021-newsletter with links on AI scaling, particular new East Asian record-breaking work & deep reinforcement learning. 26. This is a test Source: Eric S Raymond Link: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8772 This is a test to see if the database server issue that froze this blog is resolved. 27. Battery Day Source: Jessie Frazelle Link: https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/battery-day/ Tesla had its first Battery Day on September 22nd, 2020 1 . 28. Cognitect dev-tools Source: Rich Hickey Link: https://www.cognitect.com/blog/2020/08/20/Cognitect-dev-tools We're excited to release Cognitect dev-tools , a set of free tools that we've created for Clojure developers. 29. nobody knows the future Source: Slava Akhmechet Link: /2020/06/02/future.html Can you recall the experience of waking up for the first time in a new city? 30. Why I left Google to join Grab Source: Steve Yegge Link: https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-i-left-google-to-join-grab.html I've officially switched from Blogger to Medium. See you over there ! 31. The Render Token Source: Brendan Eich Link: https://brendaneich.com/2017/09/the-render-token/ I wrote about OTOY over four years ago, in Today I Saw The Future. 32. I haven't disappeared... Source: James Gosling Link: http://www.nighthacks.net/roller/jag/entry/i_haven_t_disappeared I've been in the clutches of a product release. 33. Probability, Paradox, and the Reasonable Person Principle Source: Peter Norvig Link: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/Probability.ipynb An IPython notebook tutorial on Probability Paradoxes 34. Trump's attack againts Iran Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-may-aug.html#23_August_2026_(Trump's_attack_againts_Iran) The bully 's attack against Iran was a moral error and a grand-strategic mistake. 35. In defense of polyfills Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/blog/2026/polyfills/ If youre a web developer, you may find the title baffling. 36. Fragments: May 5 Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/fragments/2026-05-05.html Over the last couple of months Rahul Garg published a series of posts here on how to reduce the friction in AI-assisted programming . 37. Links to archives Source: Bret Victor Link: https://worrydream.com/Links2025/ Added some links to archives. 38. New zine: The Secret Rules of the Terminal Source: Julia Evans Link: https://jvns.ca/blog/2025/06/24/new-zine--the-secret-rules-of-the-terminal/ Hello! 39. Michael Rabin memorial conference Source: Scott Aaronson Link: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10014 Friend-of-the-blog (well, mainly just friend) Adi Akavia has asked me to publicize that shes helping to organize an exciting CS conference called Mind-IL at Tel Aviv University on October 26, in memory of the Israeli-American Turing Award winner Michael O. 40. Gemini Robotics ER 2: powering robotics with video understanding, task orchestration, and multi-robot collaboration Source: Demis Hassabis Link: https://deepmind.google/blog/gemini-robotics-er-2-powering-robotics-with-video-understanding-task-orchestration-and-multi-robot-collaboration/ Gemini Robotics ER 2 helps robots reason, collaborate, and solve real-world tasks. It represents a step change in video understanding, tool orchestration, and multi-robot collaboration for robotic applications. Sources in this brief: Andrej Karpathy; Brendan Eich; Bret Victor; Charity Majors; DHH; Dan Luu; Demis Hassabis; Eric S Raymond; Guido van Rossum; Gwern Branwen; Hillel Wayne; Ines Montani; James Gosling; Jeff Atwood; Jessie Frazelle; Joel Spolsky; Julia Evans; Lea Verou; Martin Fowler; Patio11; Peter Norvig; Rachel Andrew; Ray Kurzweil; Rich Hickey; Richard Stallman; Rob Pike; Salvatore Sanfilippo; Scott Aaronson; Slava Akhmechet; Steve Yegge; Tanner Greer; Vicki Boykis; Yoshua Bengio. Selected 40 of 803 available items for this weekly brief.