iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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gains @gains-skeets.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Sure man. Argue with the pope on Twitter

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Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

George Saunders on using AI: "Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that?"

Have you spent time trying to write or revise with AI? Is there an experiment that would be interesting enough to try?

I have not. Not for a second. To me, this whole idea of using AI to write is . . . anathema. A thing to be most radically avoided.

Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that? Not even in an email and certainly not in a short story or novel.

Who are we ceding our authority to, exactly, when we let AI write for us? And why? Why surrender our agency (that amazing ability we have to reach across time and space, with our strange, idiosyncratic phenomenon, and land within the sensibility of another human being) to something that, by its very design, pushes the individual sensibility aside? And in the name of . . . what, exactly? Ease, I guess? Efficiency? The person who chooses to write with AI has also sacrificed, from the start, the opportunity of experiencing difficulty, of struggling to say what he wants to say, of making himself evident in his prose, of trying to find out what he believes. By this, he sacrifices a chance to know himself and his mind better. To me, that’s a shame. And it’s dangerous, because, as we are now finding out, it affects the brain and lessens our capabilities. Thanks, but no thanks, get thee behind me, etc.

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Choosing an episode of Grand Designs to watch: "And how much hubris do we want?"

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Kevin Sievers @diplotomodon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Unpaid volunteers are the backbone of institutions like these, and their work often goes unsung. So when a governing body, for instance, lets go of a museum's volunteer coordinator in the dead of night, that tells you they might not, in fact, have said museum's best interests in mind.

A many-windowed terracotta building that I will not name here

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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 25/09/2026

NBC News' Claudio Lavanga asked Pope Leo if he had anything to do with Chicago White Sox 'miraculous' historic ride to the playoffs during the pope's flight to Paris.

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Block Club Chicago @blockclubchi.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The Armitage County Fair is putting a Chicago twist on a downstate tradition. buff.ly/qviTtAd

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Jerad Walker @jeradwalker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The full trailer for You Can See Everything is out today. And my first thought is that it should be required that Nathan Fielder film for 48 hrs at every tech CEO’s home.

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

One year ago this week we lost the great writer Kaleb Horton. I am still very sorry that I won't ever get to read anything new by him ever again. Today his partner @katehascats.bsky.social joins us to write about her experience of loss and grief.

welcometohellworld.com

There is only before and after he died

Losing Kaleb

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026

RFK Jr. wants people to get sick. He wants them to get sick and he thinks it is a good thing if they die, since those who live will have "natural immunity" and emerge stronger and fitter.

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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 18/09/2026

if canada can join the EU i think they should find a way to sneak new orleans in there too

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Let me tell you a story about how top-end menswear retail transformed over the last hundred years. 🧵

Fiorinamarietta on Threads writes: "The death of department stores as an EXPERIENCE needs to be studied. You used to be able to buy a dress, have lunch, get your hair done, smell every perfume in existence and leave carrying beautifully wrapped boxes. Shopping used to be an event."

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The piece of writing that has most stuck with me from the immediate aftermath of 9/11 is this from Hunter S Thompson www.espn.com/page2/s/thom...

We are At War now, according to President Bush, and I take him at his word. He also says this War might last for "a very long time."
Generals and military scholars will tell you that eight or 10 years is actually not such a long time in the span of human history -- which is no doubt true -- but history also tells us that 10 years of martial law and a war-time economy are going to feel like a Lifetime to people who are in their twenties today. The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.

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Kylie Eleison @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Roaring 20s are back baby, everyone is still mentally ill from a plague and a war, importing Canadian booze is illegal, James Carville is alive

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

New painting: Lake Michigan, oil on panel, 10"x8", 2026 #art #painting

A rectangular painting on an easel. Centered, towards the top, is a white sun in a blue sky. The bottom third is Lake Michigan, dark blue with white sunlight highlighting the waves

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Belt Publishing @beltpublishing.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A long-awaited title is finally available for preorder! As usual, a wide variety of info on display: neighborhoods that have survived the most foreclosures, where to grab a Chicago dog, or where peregrine falcons have been spotted. I’d love to hear guesses/predictions for what else made it in!

tinyurl.com

Chicago in 50 Maps

By Daniel Block & Andrea Craft April 6, 2027 This is a pre-order. Copies will ship in April 2027. Creative, colorful, original new maps of Chicago from local cartographers. For Chicagoans new and ...

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Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app · 06/09/2026

The rules are fake. My mouth is AGAPE. If you know the racial dynamics of academia, this is WILD. "Mr. Bundi estimates he wrote more than 2,500 essays over the next 12 years, sometimes three a day. He balanced completing his public health degree with helping faraway students [...] finish theirs."

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My personal art theft story: a guy got drunk at a street fest, ran out of money, stole a sculpture from a museum I worked at, tried to sell it at an antique store down the street for more beer money

Police: Statue stolen from Swope Museum sold at downtown shop
Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-StarUpdated Aug 6, 2014
Being intoxicated and out of money might have given a Sullivan man the jailhouse blues after he was arrested Saturday afternoon during the Blu

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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

To anyone who does not live in Paris but visits the city at regular intervals (as I do), the transformation has been staggering: Paris has been reclaimed from cars. It can be done, and could be done in London too. It is all about political will and taking the risk of being unpopular - for a while.

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Our son likes Legos so we've put together many many sets over the years. Inevitably I get to the point with one or another where I think there was a mistake: they forgot a piece or missed a step in the directions. And just as inevitably I realize the error was mine. Their quality control is insane.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 21/08/2026

So... what's up with #DarkEnergy? 🤔 I wrote up a summary of the current status of possibly-weirdly-changing dark energy for @perimeterinstitute.bsky.social's shiny new researcher-focused newsletter; you can read the piece here:

perimeterinstitute.ca

Dynamical dark energy and the week that broke cosmology | PI News

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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

how is this worse than I expected

Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

New painting: Cherries, oil on canvas, 16"x16", 2026 #art #painting

A square painting of a large pile of red cherries on a black background

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stuart @stuartp.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

you have been visited by "Le Boulanger Quebecois" repost to receive his blessing

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Yo you posted this on the wrong social media platform. All we do is talk about how we're broken as hell over here. You're thinking of LinkedIn

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Monarchs have started showing up at our roof garden

Monarch butterfly on a purple blazing star flower

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Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

just a real all timer moment

INTERVIEW OF [REDACTED]
Q.
So how did you get yourself started into submersible
operations?
A.
Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic.

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Happy birthday to artist Alex Katz, who turns 99 today. Because I tend to love eccentric works this is one of my favorite paintings by him: "Study for Bird," 1992

A simple painting of a mostly unmodulated grey sky with a bird flying downward, and the top of a rooftop below

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21/07/2026

and also, isn't white supremacy such a profound intellectual error that you should immediately question the basic capacities of anyone who indulges it?

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This is just so incredibly sad and fundamentally misunderstands parenting and relationships. Life itself, even. So many of my son's favorite memories are things like making pizzas together and running to catch a subway train.

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World Cup Scorigami @worldcupscorigami.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

🚨 WORLD CUP SCORIGAMI 🚨 FINAL: France 🇫🇷 (4), England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (6) 6–4 has NEVER happened in men's World Cup history (1930–present).

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Some recent paintings of the different seasons and moods of Lake Michigan #art #painting

Six paintings of Lake Michigan on an easel showing different conditions of the lake, including partially frozen, calm, and choppy

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It's #nationalhotdogday - if I have any legacy in the wine industry I hope it's getting people to pair Sauternes with their Chicago dogs and fries

A Chicago hot dog with fries and a bottle of 2005 Chateau d'Yquem

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

New painting: Lake Michigan, oil on panel, 8"x10", 2026 #art #painting

Rectangular painting on an easel. The painting is of Lake Michigan, with half of the painting an overcast sky and the other half choppy water

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Just now learning this was Sam Neill

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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 11/07/2026

The Trump administration finalized a repeal of decades-old regulation that said habitat destruction was a form of harm to endangered species. Overturning the law could allow for mining, ranching and other development to expand into previously protected areas.

washingtonpost.com

Trump rule says habitat destruction does not harm endangered species

A new rule rescinds the definition of what it means to “harm” a plant or animal under the Endangered Species Act and could lead to more habitat destruction.

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 11/07/2026

DID YOU KNOW IF YOU FIND A HORSESHOE CRAB THATS BEEN TAGGED BY THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE AND SUBMIT THE LOCATION YOU SAW IT USING THE FORM ON FWS DOT GOV SLASH CRABTAG THEY SEND YOU A BEAUTIFUL CRAB PIN

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Went up on our roof this morning and our neighborhood hawk was perched on the nextdoor building. Flew away as I fumbled my phone trying to get a better picture. Usually I just find the remnants of its pigeon meals

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Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

in general, the best advice for writers is, "be independently wealthy."

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Ben Madeska @benmadeska.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Neighbors don't disappoint on the 4th

A large explosion above neighboring houses

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Donald Trump came one vote away from getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants, a view held only by fringe far-right nativists until VERY recently. This is shocking. I am stunned.

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. By a 5–4 vote, it holds that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born of unauthorized and temporary immigrants. Roberts and Barrett join the three liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

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