iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 18h

Tim McVeigh killed 167 people in Oklahoma City but his name was "Tim," not "Nidal" so ...

Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

“.. AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event .. most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water.” @axios.com www.axios.com/2026/10/09/a...

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 22h

It really is a stunted existence to think of art and entertainment as just solipsistic gratification. Aestheticized goonerism

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 22h

Brazil broadly speaking has a fascinating gaming history, including home-manufactured clone consoles and Bomba Patch, an annual update to Pro Evolution Soccer that replaces the league with local teams and kept the PS2 alive for years after official support ended.

youtu.be

Brazil's Video Game Gray Markets

YouTube video by Cloth Map

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 23h

For an actually interesting version of this idea of 'GTA in my hometown,' keep an eye on 171, the Brazilian GTA clone that's been in development for over a decade.

youtu.be

171 - Trailer de Acesso Antecipado

YouTube video by Betagames Group

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

There's an episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete where Little Pete meets underwear Inspector 34 and everybody starts inspecting their lives trying to make things perfect. Little Pete's friends optimize themselves out of playing Kick the Can by calculating the probability of who will win.

youtu.be

Adventures of Pete and Pete, The S2E06 Inspector 34

YouTube video by zorelis diaz

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Graduating into the 2009 recession and then getting my MFA in 2019, less than a year before the pandemic shut the world down, really felt like that guy who left the destruction of Hiroshima to recuperate in Nagasaki.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I can imagine bringing casino owners and developers into a coalition with anti-data center organizers, who are wary of big tech and its usurpation of local control. (But then, people here really, *really* hate the casino proposal, almost as much as the data centers.)

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm not a fan of casinos, including one that's been proposed here, but if a deal could be cut to loosen up casino development in exchange for a ban on internet sports gambling and prediction markets, I think that would be a good deal.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The concept doesn't convey how spiteful and pornographically violent the scene is. It's too much to expect Ben Shapiro to be ashamed of this ghoulish attempt to smear the memory of a nonviolent woman who was murdered by the government, but everybody else involved in this production should be.

Melanie reacts to the drawn gun with panic...

She MASHES on the gas as she throws the car into reverse, accidentally SLAMMING Juan out of the way. He goes flying into the gutter, bleeding...

And as the car reverses, Mike FIRES TWICE through the

windshield...

The first shot takes the [sic] Melanie in the neck, below her covid

mask. The second in the head, above her covid mask.

Blood SPLATTERS on her PASSENGER’s (40s, female, overweight)

forehead and matching covid mask.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In that light, Zaslav's farewell speech is truly the culmination of his burn-down-the-village-to-save-it approach to Warner Bros, the final decoupling of monetary value from quality. He is sincerely stupid, the antichrist of art, and the apocalypse he heralded is now upon us.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

An algorithm is just doing what it was designed to do, it has no motive or interior life of its own. David Zaslav does, despite appearances to the contrary, and in profiles he came off as genuinely perplexed about the hostility his decisions generated.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Part of why we got where we are with the proliferation of AI slop is that the meaning and sincerity of what was being said, especially in online media, became less important than including key words and talking points in order to be noticed by an algorithm. Of course an algorithm would do that best.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Not that it matters, but I wonder if Zaslav really believes his own bullshit, or if he's just playing the part of 'departing CEO,' where platitudes about telling stories are just part of the script. I don't think the speech is AI-generated, but only because the form is so tired it writes itself.

next.frame.io

A Farewell Message from David Zaslav.mov - A Farewell Message from David Zaslav - Frame.io

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

2014's Top Five is the most complete time capsule that exists of ascendant social liberalism before the embodiment of reaction descended an escalator. Incidentally, Louis C.K. and Kanye West are part of its jump scare tapestry, along with Bill Cosby and Google Glass

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Guy looked at the numbers for old seasons of The Office and really thought he could replicate that while skipping the steps for making a successful TV show. Patient zero for 'Content creation'

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Holy fuck. SCOTUS overturned the circuit court ruling, sending Christa Pike to her death, and then the state of Tennessee botched the execution and she’s still alive. There are no fucking words.

lawdork.com

After SCOTUS allowed Tennessee execution to go ahead, Tennessee botched the execution

SCOTUS, over the liberals’ dissent, cleared the way for Tennessee to kill Christa Pike. The alarming order from DC was followed by even more disturbing developments in Tennessee.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

An entire industry run by bad guys written by Paul Verhoeven

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Angri Bundel @anibundel.com · 25/09/2026

So Google destroys a 25 year old economic ecosystem because it’s bored and its next trick is… to pretend it’s going to space?

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Steven Santana @number8axel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This week @benverschoor.bsky.social and I talk about Resident Evil! We also go back to Paul W.S. Anderson's RE: Afterlife, and we both ended up watching separate Japanese films in which a film crew are subjected to supernatural horrors as our accompaniment. miseenscreen.libsyn.com/episode-61-r...

miseenscreen.libsyn.com

Mise en Screen: Episode 61: Resident Evil (2026)

Resident Evil is the latest reboot and entry in the Resident Evil film franchise. Directed by Zach Cregger and co-written by Cregger and Shay Hatten, this film follows Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medica...

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

hermanos. @iamdavidbrothers.com · 20/09/2026

The way he looks at her is exactly the way the camera looks at Alice in the later few Resident Evil movies

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Steven Santana @number8axel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Time to talk about the wildest ride of a movie of the year with @benverschoor.bsky.social, but first a film best watched on mute at a dive bar, a capital C Classic action film, and a horny and wet Stuart Gordon picture miseenscreen.libsyn.com

miseenscreen.libsyn.com

Mise en Screen

Each episode Ben Verschoor and Steven Santana will talk about a contemporary release and then two related repertory screenings. The relation can be as thin as possible or explicitly obvious.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Going deep on the arcane (stupid) lore of the Resident Evil series has me wondering if there is a correlation between the decline in popularity and production in the daytime soap opera and the rise of serialized movies, TV shows, and video games

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Looks incredible, though it's kind of overwhelming and exhausting to watch. It sounds like making it was as well, which is part of why it's taken so long for the follow-up to come together.

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Henry Gilbert (Beloved Podcast Personality) @talkinghenry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

An incredible piece of Simpsons history uploaded to YouTube today: The Tracy Ullman short “Family Therapy” was repurposed as a theatrical short before 1989’s The War of the Roses—released 9 days before the Xmas special. This 35mm film scan has an original opening I’ve not seen before!

youtu.be

The Simpsons Family Therapy (1989} -35mm - Flat - Mono - UHD

YouTube video by The Scan Man Gallery

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I graduated into the Recession and then read Outrageous Fortune, the TDF study on the grim economics of new play production, and then spent the next decade failing to launch. I definitely could have done more; would I have done better? Hard to say. Hopefully the next generation has better chances.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The techlash could lead to a reinvigorated theater, in tandem with a rebirth of local culture, but it would emerge outside the old institutions. So many of them are gone or struggling post-pandemic. NYC is clawing its way back to affordability, while other areas have it easier, if only slightly.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Theater is uniquely vulnerable to the internet's economies of scale, but its practitoners, frustratingly, did not do very much to try to adapt. When the pandemic forced everyone online the exciting livestream multi-camera experiment Circle Jerk was the exception to the rule of the Zoom play.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The Great Recession did severe damage to the conditions that a healthy theater scene requires--affordable rent, day job flexibility, robust local media, a tight-knit local community--just as "Web 2.0" was changing the internet from a transmitter of culture into a generator.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

We were less than a decade away from social media and broadband reshaping how information and culture are reproduced and the media stopped giving rising stars in the real, theater world a national platform. At the same time, theater production became more expensive abd therefore risk-averse.

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

The Isaac Who Came In From the Butler @isaacbutler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Kushner was often asked to comment about how he could’ve seen all this coming and his response always makes me laugh which is that it was so fucking obvious *even a playwright* could see it. im just saying there’s a reason his friends say his drag name should be Eera Lee Prescient.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The past year I've gone from 'What's an Economic Development Authority?' to 'These assholes are out of control and need to be abolished.'

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

25 years later and The Onion’s ParentCorner 9/11 explainer from immediately after the attack is a better understanding of the threat environment than the one produced by the U.S. government.

An Onion article titled “Talking to your child about the WTC attack,” which is filled with real good info.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It's far from a done deal, and this particular authority is so used to no one even knowing they exist that they aren't going to know how to wage a public fight, especially with two city council members and a congressional candidate against them. We'd be glad to have you in the fight.

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Mr. Joshua @pantspants.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A large group of medieval knights ride in formation on horseback through an open field. The leader of the pack warns the group of a log in their path as his horse jumps over the obstacle. “Log,” he yells. This starts a chain of “logs” as each rider yells “log” so everyone is aware of the log. Their strong communication and teamwork likely results in all of the riders avoiding the log safely. Artist’s note: simple yet sloppy line work and elite composition make this piece a core work in pants art history.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Not even a month after we published this, the Authority this week briefed localities on a new buyer in closed sessions and hastily scheduled a meeting for tomorrow to vote on it. You could not ask for a clearer illustration of why people hate these things.

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Maybe? He was the one who spoke at the 2004 RNC and trashed anti-Iraq War Democrats

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This didn't go well for Zell Miller. "Zell who?" Exactly.

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There’s such an easy answer to this “gotcha” question and it’s “Sports are inherently unsafe and unfair and it’s ridiculous to single out trans athletes when we allow 150 pound linebackers to go up against 260 pound linemen in freshman football on a daily basis. Let kids play with their friends.”

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Reposted by Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor

headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 09/09/2026

(in the family group chat): that wont matter. without radical change all of this is meaningless in fifteen years. we have no idea how dire things are (in the communist group chat): they should make a turn based final fantasy again with the two minute summon animations

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Ben "tax big tech" Verschoor @benverschoor.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This is good, but sidebar, that he's doing the show with Aleksey Igudesman makes it must-see. He and Hyung-ki Joo's namesake music comedy act, only recently ended, was inspired stuff. One of the earliest viral videos I can remember!

youtu.be

IGUDESMAN & JOO - I will survive

YouTube video by byseb

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