iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 29/09/2026

The piece that raised my ire is this otherwise very good one about Meta's Muse. Look at this last sentence and tell me it's not better all around (punchier, less dated/clichéd) without "spoiler" karlbode.com/metas-latest...

A lot of AI hobbyists are cobbling together these agents using open source software and their own hardware. But Meta being Meta, they're keen to try and monopolize this emerging market in much the same way they tried (and failed) to do with virtual reality and the "metaverse."

And they're going to be doing it with the support of Wall Street and the mainstream press, which isn't necessarily interested in whether Muse works well or is secure (spoiler: it doesn't, and it's not):

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 22/09/2026

Another thing they have in common is that neither of them are gonna work out great in the long run

Why doesn’t anyone look at meeeee?!

AAH!
AAARGH!

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 22/09/2026

So yeah, this EXACT thing is the plot of this manga I'm working on. Only difference is it's an earpiece instead of glasses.

Cover of the manga Myther 1 by Teki Yatsuda

2nd year of the Enka Period
Nippon Kokoku
THE SHINING NATION OF JAPAN
do you Want to become a new you?
DESIGN THE SOULMATE YOU'VE LONGED FOR WITH IDEVA'S LATEST break-through.
THE Myther BRINGS YOUR DREAMS TO LIFE.

awaken
the ideal you that sleeps deep inside…
…with your one and only friend in the world.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 20/09/2026

Watching the special features in the 4k Ran set

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 07/09/2026

Listen, it was a helluva year and you're not going to make me choose between my precious babies

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 07/09/2026

It's been a few years since my colleague Aimee recommended this manga to me and I admit I forgot that the plot involved torturing Donald Trump by forcing him to enthusiastically enjoy a pop concert or die

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 03/09/2026

Was both delighted and nearly had a heart attack the other day when I saw these two babies riding my bike home from work. This is a four-lane highway with no warning signs. Mom was watching from the woods and they eventually rejoined her. Going to drive way under the speed limit here from now on...

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 30/08/2026

Your periodic reminder that Google loves collaborating with fascists

Google Maps on a browser displaying the "Lake America" name that Donald Trump doodled on a map the other day

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 27/08/2026

The author of Kiki's Delivery Service sounds like a delightful person (shocking no one) and she has "thoughts" on AI.

Our world is at a complicated juncture. The voice of AI is loud and seems liable to suck us in. New technologies are sure to evolve at rapidly accelerating paces. I don’t know what the future will bring—it’s all a bit much for an elderly woman of 91.

But I have thoughts. Since the dawn of history, people have turned sounds into words and moved our bodies to acquire language. Bodies and language. The language packed inside a person. I think there’s power in that; I want to cherish it. Is it really okay to entrust everything to machines and abandon our rich culture of language so readily? If we do, humanity will probably lose the capacity to think, stop using our bodies, stop enjoying our imaginations, lose the power to create, and end up bored. Or will we instead aim to scale higher peaks? At 91 years old, I am interested, and I intend to observe from close up as long as I’m alive.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 19/08/2026

What's your favorite Bible verse? Wrong answers only.

A man must raise more grain than he has trampled in his life. His hands must build more homes than they have burned.

[A panel from the manga Vinland Saga]

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 19/08/2026

Sure we're more depressed, but at least it's for normal reasons and not because we're obsessed with whether our neighbors agree with us about trickle-down

While Democrats in general report worse mental health than Republicans, Democrats show no sensitivity to partisan context.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 19/08/2026

Scientific evidence for my hypothesis that Republicans just need to chill, like, chill out already, okay guys www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Americans are increasingly divided by political party with differences extending beyond policy into choices about quality of life and well-being. We connect neighborhood political context to wellness by showing that Republicans report worse mental health as the share of Democrats in their neighborhood increases. Democrats show no such sensitivity. We find that these effects (for Republicans) are comparable or larger in magnitude to the effects of being a racial or ethnic minority in a neighborhood and to the effects of contextual poverty on mental health reports. These findings demonstrate the far-reaching implications of contemporary partisanship in the lives of Americans and further our understanding of how social context is associated with well-being.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/08/2026

If you want to show your boyfriend you're in the mood, follow the Yuki Method: 1. Imitate that sexy hair toss you saw the pop idol do 2. Eye! Contact!

A page from the manga A Sign of Affection

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/08/2026

"These robot shows have become extremely warlike!" will be entering my vocabulary now courtesy of the Philippine government circa 1979 archive.org/details/mind...

A page from an issue of the "Mindrot" zine.

NOT ONLY IN AMERICA!!!
Late in 1979, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the
removal of all the Japanese cartoon shows about futuristic robots from
Philippine television.
The presidental palace said Marcos "ordered
the immediate cancellation of all robot shows on television because of
their harmful effects on children.
Complaints reaching the president
indicate that these robot shows have become extremely warlike and tend
to create a wrong attitude among children toward violence.
Poor pro—
gramming of the TV networks has resulted in the robot programs being
viewed at a time when children should be studying their lessons and
thus hampering their studies." It was unclear what specific power
Marcos used in canceling the shows, other than his authority to rule
by decree under martial law.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 15/08/2026

Mathausen concentration camp, Austria: www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/275...

I wander past the monuments and memorials toward the quarry and find the “staircase of death.” Here prisoners were forced to carry granite stones weighing more than 100 pounds up 186 steps. This meant death for anyone who lost his footing. The Nazis made a game out of it. They would place bets on who they thought would get to the top of the steps first. The laborer who did was then commanded to jump to his death from the stone cliff nearby. Guards also seemed to enjoy pushing laborers down the stairs.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 10/08/2026

Happy 205th anniversary of Missouri statehood to everyone except this ornery fellow

Marge Simpson: "There are only 49 stars on that flag."
Grandpa Simpson: "I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah"

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 07/08/2026

Yeah I'm gonna need a campaign T-shirt with this on it ASAP

I have a bad habit of reading, I'm so sorry

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 07/08/2026

So this is bad and everything, but also, the Orwellian activity log recorded the last time I spoke to Gemini, and-- 😆

A deeply worrying webpage indicating that Google is recording everything you say to Gemini for 18 months by default. The page also records my last interaction with Gemini, on April 28, when I apparently told it to "turn yourself off forever"

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 28/07/2026

This aspect of To Your Eternity reminds me a little of The Neverhood, a claymation video game that I loved as a teenager, made by a certain creator before he started f'ing with Gamergate and lost his whole gotdang mind Going to miss this series now that it's over.

Three panels from the manga To Your Eternity: He made Left, and Right was born. He made Up, and Down was born. Earth for the heavens. Darkness for the light.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

Final SDCC D&Q announcement: Lady Hokusai (!!!) by Sugiura Hinako (I like this one)

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #8: Marmalade Princess by Ito Shigeo

Pages from Marmalade Princess by Ito Shigeo

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #7: Getting into the manga finally! One Woman and the War by the great Kondō Yōko

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #6: Wimbledon Green: The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists paperback box

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #5: Plan of Occupancy by Guy Delisle. Based on the 13-page French-language novella about a family who loses their home to a fire so that the only "family memory" left is a perfume ad on the side of a building.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #4: Curtis by Ray Billingsley. A collection of the seminal Black comic strip

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #3: Girl Juice Now With 100% More Juice. Sequel to Girl Juice. Maybe subtitles were suggested (and rejected) by the author including "Juicemaxxing" ^^;

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

SDCC D&Q announcement #2: New paperback edition of Picture This by Lynda Barry. Art reproduction will be brighter since previous edition was bit dark.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 25/07/2026

Live tweeting the Drawn & Quarterly 2027 announcements because why not: Zoo Animal by Nick Drnaso. New from the creator of Sabrina.

Interior pages from Zoo Animal by Nick Drnaso

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 16/07/2026

As a millennial I can say this: Good God we're exhausting

An ad a shower product I have never heard of ("shower steamers"?). The product names have a bunch of profanity in them

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 14/07/2026

Pizaman are delicious, I will die with you on that hill

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 14/07/2026

The supermarket near us is going out of business and by the time we got there 2/3 of the shelves were empty and whatever was left was 50% off so we made some purchases we might not have otherwise

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 14/07/2026

Can it be a whole movie about eating at a restaurant

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 03/07/2026

Being involved with a new edition of Phoenix is an honor (and a huge responsibility). The series will be published in six large-sized (7x10") hardcover editions with cloth casewrap, screenprinting, and gold foil. Feat. the original Dadakai translation with revisions/updates & letters by @sara.pizza

Cover of the new hardcover deluxe edition of Osamu Tezuka's manga Phoenix.

Spines of all six volumes of the new edition of Phoenix.

A 2-color manga page from the new edition of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/06/2026

No adjusting desk chair allowed today

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/06/2026

Aw man, I have meetings today, I can't be crying ALL day…

A spread from the last chapter of To Your Eternity.

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/06/2026

Really striking similarities between this and the ending of Vinland Saga I was working on last week.

Panels from the manga To Your Eternity.
Fushi is asked, "Did we lose? Did we win?"
Fushi responds, "Well, we…"

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/06/2026

Someone needs to write about the end of To Your Eternity and how its narrative morphed and merged with the timely concerns of our current reality while maintaining all its wide-reaching and ambitious themes.

Kaibara Cybernetics is terminating our services, effective immediately. We thank you for your loyal patronage!

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Ben Applegate @benapplegate.com · 17/06/2026

I read this thread to my ex-academic wife and she immediately brought up this line from Shogun

The great Tadanobu Asano in Shogun, saying "I assume it's proper for you to commit seppuku at once."

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