iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

According to operators + waiting passengers, at least three route 1 buses have inoperable AC today. It’s 100 degrees. I don’t routinely experience this on in-house routes, but it has happened to me a couple times on Trandev routes this year. @transdevna.bsky.social maintain OUR buses please, thanks.

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New bus series alert! Just saw MTS bus 424. More new XN40s, I thought it was a 300 bus at first. This is another recent series number reuse, which implies the existence of a new bus 404 for the first time since ~2018, which makes me happy.

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Mira @thefreeradical.org · 02/10/2026

CVS has a dominant market share here after Rite Aid failed, and my prescription is in a multi-year shortage - I do not know how someone who doesn’t have a job that lets them answer their phone at arbitrary times ever refills it. But vaccines were easy. Lots of appts online, visit took 20 min.

CVS answers the phone with an LLM now. You can't talk to a person, no matter how long you wait on your initial call. You're gonna be told you have to leave a message that gets poorly transcribed often by an LLM, and then at some random time unknown to you, in the future, a pharmacy tech will call you back.
Doesn't matter if because of a disability or chronic illness or what have you, your childcare responsibilities, elder care responsibilities. It doesn't matter if you're not available when they call back. You better be, because they're not calling back again. We're watching the healthcare pharmacy system fall apart even further around us, even though we rely on it in order to survive.
But, but, but, but, but, but CVS still carries vaccines. CVS still carries vaccines. So too does Walgreens.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

so i saw this and panicked and started researching other cat foods, but then i decided to dig into the clean label project. spoiler: they are not a trustworthy source gonna dive into it in a thread now because i do public science communication also no shade to OP, i was sharing this worried too!!

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If you surveyed them, I think at least 15-20% of SFH owners would say they legally (not philosophically) own the street parking in front of their home or at least have some kind of priority use rights.

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This is having immediate material and irreversible effects on people’s lives due to the changes in visa options motivated by this rhetoric.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing

To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Recalling again that many of our colleagues lost their careers when NIH sent grant termination notices that said more or less “the people you study either don’t exist or shouldn’t be allowed to exist if they do, and you are a bad scientist for trying to improve their lives.”

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

James Stout @jamesstout.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For older folks or anyone medically vulnerable the heat this weekend could be dangerous. This is a list of cooling centers, but call ahead if you can as some may be impacted by power shutoff www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/...

sandiegocounty.gov

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We forget that the point of computation is to solve problems. Art isn't an unsolved problem. There isn't a reason to replace the human communication aspect because that's the whole point.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

Streetsblog NYC @nyc.streetsblog.org · 30/09/2026

Citywide bus speeds hit 8.5 miles per hour in August, which is the quickest buses have moved through the city in four years, amid Mayor Mamdani and the MTA’s sweeping campaign to improve bus service. buff.ly/VmzNGYr

buff.ly

Wheels Up: City Bus Speeds Hit Four-Year High Under Mayor Mamdani - Streetsblog New York City

Citywide bus speeds hit 8.5 mph in August, which is the quickest buses have moved through the city in four years

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is correct and there isn’t really a debate to be had about it. Project 2025 was very explicit - this text appears in the Department of Education chapter, not the HHS chapter.

Cap indirect costs at universities. Currently, the federal government pays a portion of the overhead expenses associated with university-based research. Known as "indirect costs," these reimbursements cross-subsidize leftist agendas and the research of billion-dollar organizations such as Google and the Ford Foundation.
Universities also use this influx of cash to pay for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. To correct course,
• Congress should cap the indirect cost rate paid to universities so that it does not exceed the lowest rate a university accepts from a private organization to fund research efforts. This market-based reform would help reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

OMB's focus on NIH and NSF, which has confused a lot of folks, pretty much boils down to stopping money going to universities.

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UC San Diego trauma doctors say migrant injuries, deaths rose as border wall grew taller

My institution is a level 1 trauma center and receives many of the people who are injured falling off the wall in the San Diego area. This article has some stories of the real families he’s mocking.

web.archive.org

The two trauma centers near the San Diego-Tijuana border have seen an increase in patients since the 30-foot border wall was installed in 2019.

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UC San Diego trauma doctors say migrant injuries, deaths rose as border wall grew taller

web.archive.org

The two trauma centers near the San Diego-Tijuana border have seen an increase in patients since the 30-foot border wall was installed in 2019.

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This site deserves a better class of bot.

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

UK publication “The Guardian” decided it isn’t important for readers to see the complete quote. Perhaps the editors find some parts of Hegseth’s speech more agreeable than others.

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There’s a story in here of a man being deported because the government refused to recognize his gay marriage. They wouldn’t accept any proof that he was legally married.

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There will be quite a bit of chaos if NIH puts "AI" on the naughty word list.

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Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I think we're seeing the birth of a new form of glitch art: Asking irrelevant questions to get a purpose-built chatbot trapped between its configuration and the user's prompt. And this is a genre-defining masterpiece.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

Requiring scientists to be political neutral is to require scientists to shut up when the facts are inconvenient.

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Public transit tradeoff mentioned, time for more MTS budget unit conversions. Last year, Anthropic spent enough money on computational resources to operate San Diego MTS bus and rail service at current levels for approximately 30 years. MTS has a deficit and may cut ~33% of bus routes next year.

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ASG releases statement on University’s SAE decision, chapter currently under review by national headquarters

This happened my senior year. After I graduated, I told the alumni office person who called that I would never donate until SAE was permanently removed. I haven’t been called in 6-7 years. While looking for this article, I discovered that the same frat did it again in 2022.

dailynorthwestern.com

More than 100 students signed a letter Wednesday addressed to Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for student affairs, condemning the University’s decision to not pursue disciplinary action against ...

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It’s so bad that I consider the driver who slowed down to wave me through the crosswalk before running the red light to be one of the best driver encounters I’ve had.

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TTCriders @ttcriders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Second new unit ratification this year.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

As you fill out the Toronto Star Vote Compass, please remember that there are many ways to pay for transit that isn’t reliant on fare increases. Presenting this as a binary between better service and higher fares is disrespectful to transit advocates who work tirelessly to push for alternatives.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My favorite part is how people will immediately recognize the reasons for "$50" vs "$3,596.49." The first is the co-pay the patient believed; the second is because the doctor lied about insurance coverage while making them sign a giant legalese form that waived it and consented to the billing.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Whenever you see a pollster or consultant give a take like this, it’s always worth following the money. In this case, Emanuel has paid Anzalone’s firm nearly $300k (maybe more but that’s what I found so far). A consultant class is devouring the Dem Party www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisc...

John Anzalone &
@JohnAnzo
X.com
Underestimate @RahmEmanuel at your own risk.
He knows how to win. He knows how to fight.
And he knows how to message.
And no one will out work him. Regardless of whether he wins the Democratic nomination in 2028 he will make an impact on the race. You can be sure of that. Don't take your eyes off of him. At the minimum, learn from him.
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
From nytimes.com
6:47 AM • 9/26/26 • 274K Views

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Their sentiment is already material policy with material harm.

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

You know when public attention can reverse a prosecutorial decision like this you almost get the sense that the decision to shrug it off in the first place was not based on an assessment of the quality of the evidence so much as an assessment of the seriousness of the crime.

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think if you pay a news subscription, you should be able to read an article without an autoplay video every two paragraphs.

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Reposted by Alex Wenzel

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 27/09/2026

another day, another bit of evidence that the scientists who willingly hand over proprietary information to AI firms may experience some consequences

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Dread and Rosie @rosiemund.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

AI propaganda is play for play the same as car dependency propaganda. Including "the cork is out of the bottle; it's integrated into everything now & it'd be too difficult & disruptive & expensive to change that." & if you fell for it with cars, that should show you there's a real danger it'll work.

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Alex Wenzel @alexwenzel.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The quasi-permanent stimulant shortage is a cancer prevention issue.

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Frances Kelsey saved thousands of lives by resisting pressure to approve thalidomide in the US. There have been tens to hundreds of thousands of preventable Covid-19 deaths caused by the anti-public health movement that Bhattacharya helped to lead.

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OpenAI could hack a hospital and order a lethal medication dose for every patient and nothing would happen to Sam Altman besides getting more TV news interviews to talk about it as if he’s an uninvolved expert. Perks of becoming a load-bearing component of GDP growth.

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I see 25 cars in the entire oncoming lane for that whole frame and 25 cyclists in the first 50 feet of the other lane.

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