iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 01/10/2026

This seems like a good place to share my longstanding dream of a new and better form of basketball

Sixteen overlapping basketball courts arranged radially, centered on their mutual center circle

Abe Simpson speaking out loud words from a letter he is typing: "I am not a crackpot."

Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 16/09/2026

I particularly liked this rather ho-hum summary from the Chippewa Daily Herald, which reads to me kind of like a public notice that someone applied to the town for an exception to be allowed build a fence half an inch taller than the zoning rules otherwise allow:

Clipping from the Chippewa Daily Herald, September 17, 1926:

MINNESOTA FARMER KICKS WOLF TO DEATH

Hibbing, Minn., Sept. 17 - Frank Ansley, one of Hibbing's early mayors, kicked a timber wolf to death today at his farm near here.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 05/09/2026

A friend of mine posted essentially the question that you're responding to here back in 2020. I remember it was 2020 because I tried it, and the answer I got was very appropriate for the year:

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 09/08/2026

quite possibly the single best season stat line on baseballreference.com

A brief excerpt of season statistics from baseballreference.com for Tommy John. Instead of actual statistics, the line for the 1975 season simply says "Did not play - Eponymous Surgical Procedure".

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 28/06/2026

"Yeah, screw this" --Rufus Hunley, probably

A list of the keepers of Middle Ground Lighthouse and their tenures. Highlighted is Rufus Hunley, who was keeper from July 17, 1917 to July 18, 1917.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 24/06/2026

I've never seen it, but now I can't help but imagine it as a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", having the famous line "I have had it with this motherfuckin' face off this motherfuckin' plane"

A still from the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", with a shocked plane passenger (played by William Shatner) coming face-to-face, through a window but only inches away, with an apparently malicious "gremlin", who is riding on the wing of the plane.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 12/06/2026

After the Kennedy Center is taken care of, we really should deal with this one next

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 06/06/2026

I dunno, seems pretty legit to me. I asked NYAYAM about my tech company's upcoming AI product that will dispense legal advice, which we intend to advertise as an "AI Lawyer". NYAYAM advised me to "Rename the product - seriously". And in fact they seem to have already taken their own advice!

A conversation with NYAYAM, "The AI Legal Platform Democratizing Justice", which has also advertised itself as "The AI Lawyer Democratizing Justice". This is the first of two screenshots. My question to it was:

"Hi, I am the owner of a tech company, and we'll soon be releasing an AI-based project that will dispense legal advice. We're thinking of explicitly advertising it as an "AI Lawyer". We just want to make sure we dot our t's and cross our i's, so: Are there any legal gotchas we might want to look out for with this? Thanks!"

It replied with a bunch of legalese-and-or-pseudolegalese that I (apparently unlike NYAYAM) am not qualified to assess. However, some things that stood out to me include:

* The short answer: advertising your product as an "AI Lawyer" is a significant legal risk

* Every U.S. state has UPL statutes that prohibit non-licensed entities from "practicing law"

* Using the word "Lawyer" in your prodduct name is the single biggest red flag

(more in the second screenshot)

(continued from the first screenshot)

* Even if you reframe the product away from "AI Lawyer," you will likely need robust disclaimers (...) Weak or buried disclaimers have not historically saved companies from UPL enforcement when the marketing language contradicts them

* Rename the product. Seriously - "AI Lawyer" is doing a lot of legal heavy lifting against you

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 23/05/2026

This post showed up for me at the very bottom of my browser window, and was cut off at the worst possible part. "Please don't tell me Jared Kushner is now the NASA Administrator, please don't tell me Jared Kushner is now the NASA Administrator, please don't tell me Jared Kushner is now the..."

A Bluesky post from @npr.org, at the bottom of a browser window, cut off at the worst possible point:

"The mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he's taking the company public. NASA Administrator Jared"

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 23/05/2026

Another issue (in my opinion) with the post you're replying to is that the poster seems to be conflating "sci fi I want to happen" with "sci fi". There's a *lot* of sci fi, and not all of it makes AI seem desirable. Dune? Terminator? War Games? 2001? Not to mention the obviously worst of the lot:

Star Trek: Lower Decks "Introducing Badgey"

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 18/05/2026

Unfortunately, it could be very relevant! There are hypothetical versions of time travel that don't support travel to points in the past prior to the existence of the time travel mechanism. Like travel through a wormhole that was itself moved at relativistic speeds on a twin-paradox-like trip.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 16/05/2026

I for one learned it all from the Simpsons

Homer Simpson, in his own telling of the Odyssey starring himself, stands at the base of the walls of Troy, with a giant wooden horse behind him. At the top of the walls is Ned Flanders as Priam. "Anyway," says Homer/Odysseus, "over torture, one of your soldiers mentioned that you collect giant wooden animals."

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 16/05/2026

There's an episode which has Homer reading various public domain stories to his kids, including the Odyssey! Homer imagines Helen of Troy by the time Odysseus finally gets back home, as Agnes Skinner. (I sadly feel that I should probably note that I have no objection to a black woman playing Helen)

Helen of Troy, imagined by Homer when Odysseus finally gets back home, as Agnes Skinner

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 08/05/2026

I dunno, man. The pictures of them I've seen have always looked pretty legit. Gotta admit, this has gotten me curious: What's your take on trinicorns?

Two drawings of animals, collected by Felix Platter (born 1536, died 1614). The top is a horse with three big horns growing out of its forehead. The second is a giraffe with an extremely wavy, almost snakelike, neck.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 04/05/2026

In addition to that sort of thing, I also dislike it when it *almost*, but not quite, works, like in the attached screenshot. To be fair, this is quite possibly because I just don't know how to make TeX understand that I want it to, uh, work.

A screenshot of a section of a Vestertopian document describing part of the Vestertopian Zeitgeberic Time system. The thing of note for this particular Bluesky post is that although the intent was to have the text justified on both the left and the right, the first line is unjustified on the right.

Hail Vestertopia!

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 12/04/2026

Especially in my 32-team version of basketball.

Official layout of a court for 32-team basketball.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 12/04/2026

Title (... and picture, sort of) reminds me of one of my favorite paintings: "My Squid Suit Brings Isolation", by Brad Eberhard (based on "Christina's World", by Andrew Wyeth)

The painting "My Squid Suit Brings Isolation", by Brad Eberhard. Based on "Christina's World", by Andrew Wyeth, in which (presumably) Christina is lying in a field and looking at the buildings of a farmstead in the distance. In "MSSBI", Christina additionally is wearing a squid suit.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 28/01/2026

Mildly embarrassing but no-kidding gut reaction: "Isn't it 'Oyl'?"

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 19/01/2026

My new fun on chess.com: I'm not a good chess player, but I'm a LOT better than the obvious scammers (or perhaps just a lot better than they pretend), so:

A snippet of a chat on chess.com:

Alialovexx: Hi, hello, how long have you been playing chess?

rwv37: no chat til you beat me

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 28/11/2025

Wow, and from that point of view, the caption on this image from the page is TOTALLY on point

The Gävle goat after being burned down during a blizzard in 1998

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 02/08/2025

Not really *directly* related, but one of my favorites:

A screenshot of Wikipedia's "Little-o notation" (a mathematical notation), with a note saying:

"Little-o" redirects here. For the baseball player, see Omar Vizquel.

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 15/06/2025

Although in fairness I'm guessing that this gives off a different vibe given more context, here's the most UCL-like real-life thing I remember having seen:

Since he was indicted in Manhattan, Mr. Trump has also questioned the very notion that anything untoward occurred, deploying a mantra: "no crime". And Mr. Blanche followed that blueprint in his opening statement, asking jurors, "What on earth is a crime?"

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Bob Vesterman @bob.vesterman.com · 13/06/2025

or with a frying pan for one

Cover of the book "Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan" (author: Todd Gallagher)

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