iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Also, ADHD in this modern digital forward environment is such a disaster... You mean I need to have a mini super addictive device on me at all times because of 2 factor and apps for everything?

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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 4h

Back in the 90's there was a common programming joke of doing Enterprise Hello World. Hello World is the first program you write in a language, the simplest. Usually it's like, print "hello world" Enterprise Hello World turns this into thousands of lines of over engineered bullshit. As a joke.

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Mount St. Helens Archive @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Physiographic illustration is a craft, honed over years of careful attention to detail. After May 18, the USGS published this triptych of Mount St. Helens by cartographer Tau Rho Alpha and geologist Jim Moore, with the support of David Jones. Just how did the north face change? See for yourself.

USGS physiographic diagram sheet titled "Sequential physiographic diagrams of Mount St. Helens, Washington, 1979-80," published 1980 by Tau Rho Alpha, James G. Moore, and David R. Jones. Three hand-rendered perspective illustrations show the mountain looking south: upper left labeled Summer 1979, depicting a symmetrical snow-covered cone; upper right labeled May 15, 1980, showing the pronounced bulge deforming the north flank three days before the eruption; lower left labeled May 26, 1980, showing the devastated mountain with its north face collapsed and a massive crater open to the sky. Lower right contains two semicircular scale diagrams in feet/miles and meters/kilometers, with notes that vertical exaggeration is 2X and all views are toward the south, plus a small index map locating the mountain in the Pacific Northwest. Sheet shows moderate toning. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey/public domain.

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Science Magazine @science.org · 07/10/2026

Exclusive: In March, the White House’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 called for eliminating NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. Whether Congress will approve the request is unclear, but NSF is not waiting. Learn more: scim.ag/4hC7bes

‘Complete devastation’—How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

i’ve noticed recently that when i’m having an in-person conversation, i feel this internal pressure to make my point faster/a perception that the other person is growing impatient. and i realized it’s because we’re so used to getting info in quick clips now that a longer explanation feels foreign.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I love hearing this tool and that tool will make your life easier, when in reality it's just another thing to check, log into, or worry about permissions or potential for cascading failure when something doesn't connect to all the other things as it should.

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Journal of Democracy @jodemocracy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Americans have never been angrier with one another. But polarization is not the disease—it is the response to a revanchist movement seeking to roll back sixty years of social progress. 🆕 by @lilymasonphd.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I got my flu shot at our campus library this week! If you study or work at a university, flu shots are often offered at convenient pop-up locations around campus in the Fall. Check it out!

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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My main thought with this article is really need AI takes from outside elite liberal arts schools bubble. “Just have in-depth searching conversations w/ your handful of students and then give each 45 min oral exams!” This has no relevance to most professors or students at most schools in the country

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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard).

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yet more evidence for the towering heap of proof that synthetic users are bullshit. As with all AI products, they do not improve "productivity" for a task but create an excuse not to do the task. In this case, the task is research. AI participants do not help you do research, but to AVOID research.

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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"For many Black scholars, academia is a burning house. If we cannot extinguish that fire, Black scholars will always bear a greater risk of being burned–& therefore have to insulate themselves against the risk more than others." @cydneydupree.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/blac...

timeshighereducation.com

Black academics face extra scrutiny. Our research shows its consequences

Scholars of colour told us they engage in strategies to make it harder for them to be dismissed as biased or lacking rigour, says Cydney Hurston Dupree

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The stores around here haven't seemed to have noticed!!

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It is so hard to find standard professional clothes that aren't synthetic (especially in plus sizes). I've started to switch to mostly cotton dresses but they aren't quite as professional looking as I would like. Capsule wardrobes are pretty much the way to go!

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The Trandalorian @charliejaneanders.com · 30/09/2026

I really do think tech crossed a line at some point between "helping you do the things you want to do" on the one hand, and "helping you do the things tech wants you to do" on the other. At this point, we're all contorting ourselves to live how the tech industry thinks we should be living.

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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"AI will free us from medical tyranny" "AI is better informed than doctors" I want OFF this ride

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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 30/09/2026

Me: so if I need to, idk, go to work in the next 9mos, how am I supposed to do that? US healthcare system: sounds like a non-covered expense! But do let us know immediately if you lose your job due to your disability-- Me: --so you can help? USHCS: HAHAHA! No. So we can cancel your care.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What if I'm job hunting and I can't access and update my resume/CV? I don't have the time to make as many backups as I would like because these assumptions are so built into many modern workplaces. Even if I use open software, what happens when the newest version of Word breaks compatibility?

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes, exactly! These programs are so embedded into our workflows that they almost become invisible. My work requires us to use Microsoft products and we get a license, but what happens if I switch jobs and can no longer afford a personal license? I don't like a subscription for such critical files.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I would love to have that option!! So excited that your university did that!

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What software or web tool or workflow that you regularly use would cause the most grief if it just stopped working today? Can you think of a way to lessen the impact if it did?

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In the spatial world, how exactly are your data stored? If you had to, could you re-create a dataset from a data format that uses pointers and indices? Can you build a TIN from scratch? I don't need to do that now, but it's not hard to imagine a future where I might need to.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I started undergrad in the field of archaeology. Never expected to be thinking so much about these concepts in a digital sense. I think it's important to know as much about your data pipeline as possible.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

You also have to watch out for jump/flash/zip drives. After a certain point even with the correct plug endings you may not be able to open the data stored there anymore. I've been working on backing up so many family photos that live on old SD cards and random drives.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I don't trust online cloud storage systems to not accidentally delete my files one day. Minor issue for them, but would be devastating for me. I have separate hard drive backups for as much as I can.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Same, for as much as possible. Raw data file as close to the original (not even renaming). As detailed metadata and description of how I accessed it as I can. Any notes with extra information about that might not be in the initial documentation. Exporting fancy derived file formats to raw text...

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Digital content is fragile in entirely different ways than data stored in books, paper, slides, film, etc. There are great folks discussing these issues in Library Sciences and related fields, but I would like to see more for data and software (I also may not be in the correct discussion forums).

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes. It's like people, at the very least, where do you think all the "great" human-like phrasing is coming from?

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sometimes I think about what my work might look like in 10-15 years. How much have I already lost because I can't open the files anymore? What programs will suddenly lock me out because the infrastructure to auto check with the parent company is no longer in place and I didn't catch it in time?

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

As a researcher, I am trying to be more intentional about backing up files, data, and information in formats as close to raw text and images as possible. I want to be able to still access the information if a software company decides to no longer support the file formats or software I need anymore.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Oh man!! This sort of thing is why I find so many organizations using spatial data dashboards from the same software provider to be alarming. It takes one retired product to majorly limit access. I am so sorry this has happened to Historic England.

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The more we buy into the logic that academia needs to be more like "the real world"--the more we buy into the idea that all we're doing is training students to go out and be good workers--the less we are fulfilling any sort of distinct mission, and the less exciting our work is our students.

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

That's the point--and, frankly, I think the more most students are exposed to what is truly unique about the academy, the more they love it. A university is one of the only places where people can play with ideas without needing to expect any sort of commercializability.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If only that weren't such a thing!

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I've been enjoying reading the occasional young adult novel. They are like bite sized snacks of book joy and usually short enough that I can read them without feeling guilty.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A few years ago I thought I was simply decent at spotting bugs, typos, and inconsistencies... But now it's clear that they're just everywhere!

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Check out this amazing course manual by @olivia.science for her course ‘AI as a Science’. Cite as: Guest, O. (2020). AI as a Science: Course Manual. Radboud University Nijmegen. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Learning goals
AI as a Science aims to teach you and for you to teach yourselves how
to:
• Define science and AI, critically and for yourselves.
• Understand the historical context for AI: when did AI, or AI-like disciplines and ideas, emerge?
• Understand the current state of AI and where the future might take us — is time a flat circle with respect to “AI winters”?

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think I may have seen that recently with holiday themed decorative baking sprinkle sets??

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John Berry @aniccia.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"Organizers had placed all barricades and staff at the market's entrance, and the episode has them rethinking whether access points need to allow authorized vehicles onto the site during setup without leaving an opening for others to slip through." Absolutely. Never give robots a physical opening.

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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There is something so unbelievably bleak about an article that calmly walks readers through how to navigate being laid off after 50, losing your health insurance, and somehow surviving the years until Medicare. What a broken country.

nytimes.com

Laid Off After 50, and No Health Insurance? Here’s What to Consider. (Gift Article)

At best, older workers will struggle to find health insurance that bridges the years before they qualify for Medicare at age 65.

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yes. I'm terrified. So many core services moving online + scams + me being a plane flight away. My mom used to go to the bank in person to figure things out but how long will that be an option?

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Elizabeth Zelle @kohizeri.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"the assessment did not consider the crocodiles" is my new metaphor for people choosing to just ignore the data point that doesn't agree with them

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Commiserates in Floridian.

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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

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Becky @beckvalle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Reliable" is not a term I would use for an AI agent...

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Chris Brody @chrisbrody.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

3-y.o. has interpreted the “lemon” from “easy peasy lemon squeezy” as an all-purpose intensifier. If something hurts: “Owie” If something *really* hurts: “Owie owie lemon owie”

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 10/09/2026

A small request: If you're sending people a form in which there are fields for "Name" and "Title," please specify whether by "Title" you mean "honorific" (Dr/Prof/Ms/Mx etc) or "job title" (Professor of Physics) because I absolutely never know which is being requested and the answers are different.

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