iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Without descending into doomerism, even if we get a hard reset in two years, it will take many more years just to make up the lost ground.

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Anyone else feel like Kash is trying to tell us something?

He's clearly a dick, but Jonathan Wharton is just too on the nose.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is an interesting point. I agree, with disciplinary caveats. But definitely for History students, knowing how to engage with unfamiliar printed (and manuscript) media is a core skill that we should be teaching them.

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I share a birthday with an unusually large number of pretty important composers and poets, a not terrible medieval Pope, and one really famous fictional character. Clearly I am the crappy comparison here.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sitting on the train listening to a contractor having a very loud phone conversation in which he is bragging about how much oxy and booze he was consuming while working on the HVAC system in some of my University's buildings. I am trying hard not to laugh, but also trying not to cry.

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

And yet she remains a member of the board of trustees at @newyorkuniversity.bsky.social Today would a great day to fix that.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

That's right, I'm from California, as are my parents. But I grew up outside the US in non-English speaking contexts. So the English I spoke was mostly only at home. As an adult I have also lived in Georgia (4 years) Chicago (5 years) and New York (25 years) Seems only Georgia left no trace.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I've been waiting for the inevitable Simmons crash-and-burn. Hope this one sticks.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

This doesn't seem particularly surprising, I have to say.

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Reposted by Karl Appuhn

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

There’re a lot of academics whipping up fast websites with Claude without thinking as deeply about ethics, citation or linked open data standards. If you create without citation or recognition of where data came from, you are just as bad as Meta, OpenAI and the like. It’s plagiarism in another form.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

It can drive us to self-destructive behavior. I have spent weeks stressing out over a paraphrase in a single sentence.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Wait until you hear about disambiguating names in early modern archives.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Dueling notaries choose apostilles at dawn.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This is a delightful thread of really stupid injuries suffered by MLB players. I think European football players are the only group that can compete. Off the top of my head, Philippe Mexes injured his eyes by staying in a tanning bed too long without eye protection.

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

A Syphilis adaptation. Who says no?

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Also, if you have a running Edsel today, it's genuinely cool. The Cybertruck will never be anything but pathetic.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Little Caesar: Infantry Kool Aid Man: Artillery/Demo Chuck E Cheese: Intel Chef Boyardee: Logistics

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I love that this guy is a minor TdF celebrity.

The short official standing on his tiptoes for the photos is hilarious

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How long will it take Infantino to drag his ass off the podium after the trophy presentation?

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Over under on when he dozed off?

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Seems unfair that Argentina gets a singer while Spain got some dudes with trumpets.

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I wrote a Vegetius joke, but it was horse shit.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

You've been murdered. Who do you want on the case?

Bunk and McNulty, two characters from the television show The Wire.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Because when it's pitch black at 7:30AM in December we're all going to feel less depressed.

I'm actually surprised FIFA didn't set the draw so that Messi would get the Miami quarterfinal. But this is the best of all possible outcomes.

000

Bringing Lukaku on in the 60th minute. Can he really go 30 plus stoppage? He's either going to score the winning goal or have a heart attack on the field. There's no in between.

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My grandmother was married 5 times to 3 men. When she got married for the fifth time, the local paper ran a fairly unflattering feature about it. It was the mid 1950s, but it was still pretty gratuitous given that she was not an important person in any way.

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It's very lonely being the insufferable pedant at a raucous party.

Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Reposted by Karl Appuhn

Any clothing historians etc recognise these glass buttons?

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

CONCAF teams have only ever been round of 16 teams. And that's still all they are. I don't think the FIFA/Trump shenanigans helped, but in the immortal words of Rasheed Wallace, ball don't lie.

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Reposted by Karl Appuhn

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I’ve seen worse first hand and also heard the same from colleagues. The number of students admitted to PhD programs this fall dropped 15% from the previous year. What Trump has done to US science will impact us for at least a generation.

nytimes.com

Decline of Ph.D. Admissions Could Imperil a ‘Generation of New Talent’

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

It's true that lifting Balogun's suspension is not even in the top ten most corrupt things that have happened in a world cup. May not even be top twenty, if we're being honest.

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I'll add that he's deprived the team of the opportunity to achieve an epic victory. Winning despite missing their best goal scorer due to terrible officiating would have been a legendary moment for the USMutantNinjaTurtles. Now the best they can do is win a game people will see as rigged.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

That Italy is no longer a proper football nation anymore is shocking. But not half as shocking as the fact that it is suddenly a tennis powerhouse.

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

As a historian of early modern Europe, I just want to say how grateful I am to get to see an actual schism. I'm hoping we get to see a full blown interdict before this is over. Also just wondering how many of the Swiss Guards are from the now schismatic congregations?

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The kid is unbelievable. And he was first up too. You have to feel for the rest of the field who watched that and knew they were all just fighting for second place at that point.

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Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I think the only reasonable conclusion here is that you should never turn your back on a Sorloth.

Karl Appuhn @appuhn.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

A great one has left the stage. A brilliant historian with the most mesmerizing and expressive eyebrows I have ever seen.