iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 15h

A thing I think even most people who have paid attention don’t realize about DOGE is that we still don’t actually know what they did. Just obtaining the records and putting people under oath is really important.

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House House @househouse.com · 15/10/2026

An explanation on why Big Walk isn't available on Xbox. bigwalk.game/xbox

Regarding Xbox

In June 2026 we announced that the release of Big Walk would be limited to computers, Switch 2 and PS5. Since then, we have received many messages and comments, asking about a future Xbox release. We would like to address those questions here:

We have made the decision not to release Big Walk on Xbox, in accordance with the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement’s call to boycott Microsoft, and their designation of Microsoft Games (and Xbox) as a priority boycott target. If you need help understanding our motives, we would recommend reading about why Microsoft is a BDS priority target, the successes this kind of pressure has already had on Microsoft, and especially, watching this great introductory piece by People Make Games.

It has always been our intention for Big Walk to be played by groups of friends, and we know that keeping the game off Xbox runs counter to those intentions. This decision means that some people will miss out on playing Big Walk with their friends, and we understand the disappointment we’re causing. We are disappointed too.

We would love for people to be able to play the game on Xbox, but not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets.

We’ve made this decision with the belief that meaningful change can be made in the world, that coordinated collective action can confront even the most powerful interests, and that one day, Palestine will be free.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,
House House

(see bigwalk.game/xbox for links)

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

My heart breaks for mathematicians whose lives and careers are being destroyed by AI — and especially this PhD student, who doesn’t even know he is a poet

Kai Shaikh, a Ph.D. student in mathematics at the University of Toronto, also currently at SLMath, observed that theorems are easy to use as benchmarks, but that they capture little of the wonderment at the heart of math. "Just like a photograph of a mile marker can't provide much of the value of actually going on a hike," he said,
"it would seem to me that proofs without stories, or even stories without struggle or mystery, and first glimpses of strange beasts, are not very meaningful or valuable to us humans."

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Natania Barron ~ Fantasy Author @natania.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Please enjoy this monarch butterfly. I grew that marigold myself, so I’m quite pleased.

A monarch butterfly perched on a bright yellow marigold

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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I am entirely serious when I say that this should be seen as a moderate position. It specifically and surgically dismantles institutions that did not exist pre-9/11 and assigns their functions much as they were assigned pre-9/11.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I spoke a bit about Matthew Shepard over the weekend in person to some folks, but I didn't want to let the anniversary of his death — October 12, 1998 — pass by without giving a moment to him and his memory here.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It’s official.. ya girl is gonna be a visiting scholar in Japan!! 🇯🇵 #sabbaticalstories

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4fuxake @blueheartedly1.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

😂👇

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Let me go answer some emails from wonderful people..

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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Multiple things are true here. This is a fascist, authoritarian administration. It has not yet fully consolidated power. Some of its efforts to do so have been frustrated. Trump is a doddering, confused egomaniac who started an unpopular war that's costing everyday people a lot of money.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

That’s a good feeling! Mine have also had good feelings attached and resolutions in the dream, which I try to remember and experience in the “waking” state ✨

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Apropos of everything The universe keeps speaking to me quite directly through my dreams, including this one..

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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

How it’s going

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Peggy Flanagan @peggyflanagan.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Minnesota! We are resilient, we care for each other, and we are still here.

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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

My article "Illness as Policy: Eugenics, Trauma, and Political Funerals" is now up at QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. This was part of a series on Trump's first 90 days that took awhile to come out (lol, academic publishing). Anyway, I think it still holds up.

THE FIRST NINETY DAYS
Illness as Policy: Eugenics, Trauma, and
Political Funerals
Lisa Diedrich
Abstract
This article considers examples of illness as policy where illness is both a means and an outcome of policies. Illness as policy is a psychosomatic project— meaning it operates on the bodyminds of individuals and populations in both physically and psychologically harmful ways. The article explores illness as policy in action both in the Trump administration’s explicitly eugenics ideology, especially as articulated
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “make America healthy again” (MAHA) movement, as well as in the operational tactics of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), designed to produce nervous conditions among those perceived to be standing in the way of a technofascist takeover of government resources. The article closes with an alternative to illness as policy by drawing on a legacy of illness
politics by and for sick and disabled people to suggest the political effectiveness of collective demonstrations of both mourning and militancy, in an homage to earlier and ongoing forms of AIDS activism.

In my recent work Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism, I explore illness as a site of political struggle in the United States, demonstrating how illness politics intersects with, and sometimes stands in for, racial, sexual, and class politics. I became interested in how illness politics operated on social media beginning with the 2016 presidential election campaign. I analyzed the coining and circulation

Lisa Diedrich, “Illness as Policy: Eugenics, Trauma, and Political Funerals,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ
Worldmaking 12, no. 2 (2025): 105–114. DOI: 10.14321/qed.12.2.0105. ISSN 2327-1574. Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s). All rights reserved.

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Frances Danger *Deadly SoverAuntie* @francesdanger.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I went to watch the Big Auntie Earrings contest and accidentally won. No I'm not kidding. Earrings are Black, white, and pink. The acrylic reads LAND BACK and the beaded shoulder dusters RESIST and DISRUPT respectively.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The campaign of educational censorship sweeping Texas and other GOP-governed states in the name of “free speech” and “diversity of viewpoint” in many ways exceeds the worst of the McCarthy Era (gift link obvs) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Reupping: The ST&SV Lab at the Institute for Advanced Study invites chapter proposals for a volume exploring the relationships between digital technologies, especially AI, and the artifacts, structures and power dynamics of the global political economy. Abstracts due 11/1 www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/cfp...

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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

“Texas Tech’s censorship policy does not just affect the humanities. According to the AAUP lawsuit, medical students at the campus in El Paso are no longer permitted to learn about racial disparities in medical care or how to treat underserved populations.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Unbelievably, I was able to squeeze in a 3 and a half hour (!!) interview for #BlackProvincetown after the conference in Cambridge today. I had the pleasure of speaking with a *fifth* generation Black New Englander. Such a fascinating conversation complete with tea, cookies and a very friendly cat.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Welp, it was standing room only for our panel on race, gender and politics at the Kennedy School of Government this morning. So many gems were dropped and we had great engagement with our audience. Thanks to the organizers of the German American Conference for bringing us together.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

One of his projects and commemorative collaborations resulted in a historical marker for Black women’s performances at the A House in provincetown.. namely: Billie Holliday, Eartha Kitt and Ella Fitzgerald during the (locally) famous summer of 1955.. #BlackProvincetown

A key for a black heritage trail map produced by Tufts. “Angelina Weld Grimke House
598 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA

Arlington Street Church
351 Boylston St., Boston, MA

Ashley House & Elizabeth
"Mum Bett" Freeman House
117 Cooper Hill Rd., Sheffield, MA

Atlantic House
Performances by Billie Holliday, Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald 4-6 Masonic Place
Provincetown, MA

Back Bay Station /
Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters
145 Dartmouth St., Boston, MA”

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Up this AM getting ready for my panel but also reviewing the Black history pamphlets and New England heritage maps that were generously given to me by a white community member in Provincetown who has dedicated years to memorializing histories of people of color in the region.. #BlackProvincetown

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Looking forward to being on a panel today addressing transatlantic politics and conservative backlash at Harvard’s German American Conference alongside Afro-German journalist Alice Hasters and other speakers.

A poster from the German American Conference

German American Conference presented by students at Harvard Kennedy School
The world's largest student-led conference on transatlantic relations
100+
SPEAKERS
1,000+
PARTICIPANTS
50+
ORGANIZATIONS
Expert Panels
Networking
Competitions
Scholarships

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Provincetown has taught me that relationships are everything.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It was a strange but splendid thing to spend the day in blissful community at the end of the world on Cape Cod and then find myself making new friends and dining at the Harvard Club of Boston this evening..

My leg, my shoe (a brogue) and a fireplace

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I tried to leave and just couldn’t again and again. Every time I tried to go, another connection was made, another conversation, another hug, another “Have you considered..?”, another referral for another interview, another promise, another act of generosity, another kindness. #BlackProvincetown

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Can’t begin to explain the magic I experienced in Ptown today. Not only was it absolutely gorgeous - a perfect October day filled with sunshine and butterlies, but I was also enveloped in beloved community and endless conversation. Last thing I heard as I left: “We love you!” #BlackProvincetown

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I think today has legitimately been one of the best days of my life.

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Sarah Betancourt @sweetadelinevt.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“The moment they said that I was going to go back to Honduras, my heart dropped and I couldn’t breathe and I had a panic attack and they didn’t care,” said 21-year-old Maldonado Valle, shortly after his release from Logan Airport. www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

wgbh.org

Provincetown PD employee, Honduras native released after 44-hour detention at Logan Airport

Carlos Maldonado Valle, a 21-year-old student at Cape Cod Community College, was on a domestic flight from Puerto Rico that stopped in Bermuda for a medical emergency.

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another of the many David Mitchells @davidvmitchell.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Bender and Hanna's new book "The AI Con" speaks to this and is IMO well worth the read.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Interviewed an incredibly talented singer, artist and performer today. She’s Ptown royalty, works six days a week and supports herself entirely through drag shows. I asked how often she gets to go to the beach in #Provincetown. Her response? “I haven’t been this season..” #BlackProvincetown

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It was such a swerve, I just didn't see it coming..

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Had a 10 min convo with the cashier at a restaurant where I ordered takeout. Really friendly, great rapport. As I was leaving, I told her that I'd be back in the winter, said I hoped to stop by in the new year. "I hope I'm still alive," she said. I was like "..??" And she said: "You never know."

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Butlerian Jihadist of House Dornick @shimminykricket.blacksky.app · 08/06/2026

Remember, at its base, the AI boom is about companies telling you they'd rather burn trillions of dollars in a furnace than pay you decent wages in exchange for the ability pursue their sci-fi and slavery fantasies.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Someone asked me if there’s any accountability for what an academic accomplishes during a sabbatical and I was like “Well……” 🫠🫠🫠

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I think I have one of the most delightful jobs in the history of planet earth

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I’d go further: pushing AI onto kids should be illegal. We urgently need regulation to stop these companies from pickling an entire generation of children’s brains.

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

No AI for kids. Full stop.

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Crystal Fleming is on sabbatical @alwaystheself.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Has anyone considered that “integrating” Claude or another LLM as enterprise software is really just paying for corporate espionage

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