iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

As Jews around the world gather to celebrate Hanukkah, it’s heartbreaking to hear of another deadly antisemitic attack - this time at Australia's Bondi Beach. Thinking of the victims and praying for all those affected.

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Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Today's Berardelli Bonus: It's gonna be extra hot here in the Tampa Bay Area over the next week. It may not surprise you that extreme heat days are surging in recent decades due to climate change. 90 degree days have 2X and heat index days above 100 have 4X since ~1970.

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Avoid health advice from this influencer. Using a Neti pot in the shower is not only gross, but if used with unboiled shower water, exposes you to #braineatingamoeba, #Legionella, & #nontuberculousMycobacteria infections. These are bad. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

open.substack.com

The Twitter Addict Running Our Govt’s Civil Rights Arm

Harmeet Dhillon is overseeing a division in shambles—and she’s tweeting through it.

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

A bloodbath of institutional memory and irreplaceable experience happened today.

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

What people need to know about #measles before declining a safe, well-studied, and highly effective vaccine. You can read this for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/w...

nytimes.com

Measles Can Damage the Immune System for Years (Gift Article)

An infection can also leave children and adults with other long-term health problems.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

When America faltered, others stood up to lead.

Social media post by Kyiv Insider (@KyivInsider
) with the text: 'While the US is lost in a sea of Russian disinformation, French Mirage 2000-5F fighter jets have just appeared in Ukrainian skies.' The post includes a photo of a French Mirage 2000-5F fighter jet flying in a clear blue sky, credited to @soniah_hub

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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

What he said about Social Security payments has been repeatedly debunked - so the question isn’t whether he’s lying about this, the question is why. What is this a pretext for? He and the GOP have long shown interest in going after Social Security. What are they going to try?

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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 01/03/2025

The nation's television meteorologists have the power in their hands to #saveNOAA. All they have to do is say or post: "NOAA and NWS provide essential, life-saving work everyday that makes my job possible. Call your member of Congress and tell them to save NOAA."

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dan sinker @dansinker.com · 24/02/2025

In light of everything happening, I wrote about how the KKK in the 1920s felt unstoppable, about the people that fought against them anyway, and about how fascism always fails. dansinker.com/posts/202…

an archival black and white photograph of the KKK marching in Washington DC with the capitol behind them

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

What a slap in the face he is to those who left family back in Cuba in the name of freedom. Modern day Renfield to the bloodsuckers in the House.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 25/02/2025

I want to stress the two things are simultaneously true here. 1) Musk is a weak and pathetic bully 2) his email Squid Games are deeply traumatizing, per Russell Vought’s playbook. These are the jobs and dreams of hard-working people. Mortgages. Health insurance for their children. And he laughs.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

If you want to know how concerned to be about climate change, talk to a climate scientist. Very. If you want to know how concerned to be about the rise of fascism, talk to a historian. The ones I’ve spoken to are as concerned about our time as any other time in the last 100 years.

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Richard Branson @richardbranson.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

For the US to side with Russia and North Korea to oppose a UN resolution condemning the illegal invasion of Ukraine defies all common sense and adds insult to the countless injuries suffered by the brave Ukrainian people. edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/p...

edition.cnn.com

US joins Russia to vote against UN resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine | CNN Politics

The United States joined Russia to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine Monday in a stunning shift from years of US policy.

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Prof Julia Steinberger 🌹🌱🌍 #ClimateAction #Fightfascism @jksteinberger.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity. TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

NO CHATGPT Or other artificial stupidity: motivation
First, clarity on distinguishing AIs:
Non-generative: grammar aid, translation, dictionary, text-to-audio (e.g. Natural Reader): no problem
As long as you use the appropriate tools (least intensive in data and server energy use).
Why? Because you provide the content. Your brain is doing the most important work
Generative: ChatGPT & Co.
You only supply the prompt, the AI supplies the content.
Why is this delegation of work problematic?
3 domains: ethical, environmental, intellectual engagement.

(Caveat: generative is probably ok for computer programming, where it can be useful and save time. Not relevant to this class.)

1) AI and ethics
Mass theft of all and everything
«learning» on books, articles, blogs, social media, images, music, cultural production, without permission of authors/creators, and leading to their mass joblessness. Profits are not reditributed to originators.
Permanent destruction of the mental health of underpaid precarious tech workers in the Global South (Kenya, Philippines …):
«correction» to avoid production of violent and pedophile contents etc, tech workers are obliged to watch and correct super violent contents for days on end, leading to extreme psychological suffering and trauma, from which recovery is doubtful. No or little compensation (certainly not at the level of the suffering inflicted).
In short, an industry built on theft of real human creation and sacrifice of real human health, profiting a few megafortunes.

2) AI and (un)sustainability

Massive consumption of electricity, water, server capacity for generative AI.
Outcome: keep fossil fuel companies in business, using up new renewable capacity, without any satisfaction of basic human needs.
Massive misappropriation of the finance necessary for climate and ecological action (renewable generation, efficiency and retrofit for buildings, public transit, infrastructures for cycling etc) towards AI industry.
Overall: undermine climate action, reinforce fossil industry, waste resources necessary for human development.

3) AI and intellectual engagement

First, what learning is (or should be) about:
The goal should not (only) be the reproduction of «correct» knowledge,
But mainly personal engagement and experience of thinking about topics of interest. Personal engagement = using one’s own brain.
The most important activity for learning and intellectual engagement is the experience of making one’s own mistakes, by trial and error, corrections based on new ideas, starting over again. Learning to recognise nuances, knowledge gaps, better explanations
This kind of learning is possible only through using your own brain, not AI.
Also, Ais are not «intelligent». At all.
They simply reproduce pre-existing patterns. They «bullshit», invent false references, false facts, false data, simply because those sound plausible. VERY DANGEROUS.
If you learn how to NOT use AI, and how to research facts and data on your own, this will serve you and your communities for the rest of your life.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Google, Microsoft, and Meta's increasing use of data centers has resulted in increased air pollution from extensive fossil fuel energy consumption and associated public health costs related to treating cancers, asthma, and other similar issues, valued at over $5.4 billion in the past five years.

ft.com

Pollution from Big Tech’s data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn

Research suggests the price of treating illnesses related to building of computing infrastructure in the US is on the rise

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

"Universities must engage in politics, because, as Trump is showing now, their funding and very survival depend in part on decisions by government leaders."

wapo.st

Opinion | A college president offers a class in standing up to Trump

Wesleyan University’s president is advocating for values in higher education while others stay silent.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office. Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc. Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 22/02/2025

The federal agency responsible for traffic safety, which has been investigating self-driving technology in Tesla vehicles, will fire a “modest” number of employees, an agency spokesman said Friday.

nytimes.com

Officials Are Fired at Traffic Safety Agency Investigating Musk’s Company

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has raised questions about crashes involving Tesla’s self-driving technology.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Get. Him. Out. Of. Our. Government.

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NPR @npr.org · 21/02/2025

With a measles outbreak growing in West Texas, and cases popping up across the country, experts say vaccination is your best protection. And it's not just for kids. Some adults may need a booster.

npr.org

Measles cases are rising in the U.S. Do adults need a vaccine booster?

With a measles outbreak growing in West Texas, and cases popping up across the country, experts say vaccination is your best protection. And it's not just for kids. Some adults may need a booster.

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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 21/02/2025

ProPublica has released another study related to the effects of abortion bans in the U.S., this time showing a spike in sepsis cases in Texas following the implementation of that state's "heartbeat" abortion ban in 2021.

meidasnews.com

Sepsis Rates Soared in Texas After Abortion Ban: Report

Women in Texas are forced to wait with dangerous infections due to extremist anti-choice laws

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

This x10000000000 “In other words: We, the opposition, are the majority. Take heart.” www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-a...

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Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Example here of NIH scientists being unready to deal with Trump and Musk. Aspects of the grants memo were blatantly illegal and the legal justification in it was stupid. They were given an hour? Someone at NIH should have noted the illegality and found a way to delay —then leaked it like crazy. 🧪

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Medicaid is not for sale. NASA is not for sale. The Post Office is not for sale. America is not for sale. We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.

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NPR @npr.org · 21/02/2025

A number of federal agencies, from HHS to the USDA, have laid off employees only to rescind those terminations days later. An expert says it "suggests something about mismanagement of government."

npr.org

After mass layoffs, some federal agencies are trying to bring employees back

A number of federal agencies, from HHS to the USDA, have laid off employees only to rescind those terminations days later. An expert says it "suggests something about mismanagement of government."

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Facts are facts. “Alternative facts” are lies. Can’t believe that has to be said.

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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 19/02/2025

We have reached out to the company who was awarded this contract and they have confirmed the ceiling was $8 million—NOT billion. Here is their statement. The federal government is cooking the books.

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 20/02/2025

Entire government agencies are being reshaped, career experts are leaving and power is shifting — often behind closed doors. ProPublica is investigating. 🧵⬇️ (1/6)

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 19/02/2025

In 1999, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then an environmental lawyer, was named by Time magazine as a “hero of the planet” for his pioneering work to clean up America’s waterways. On his second day as secretary of the DHHS, he ended HHS funding for health and climate change.

motherjones.com

RFK Jr., one-time environmentalist, kills NIH climate change programs

He pulled HHS support from projects that aim to protect Americans' health.

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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

After that plane literally flipped upside down after smashing into the runway and 100% of people survived, I hope every person who ever said “what’s even the point of seatbelts on a plane” feels like a real doof.

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ID MD @bohemiandrum.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

“Internal documents show that officials at HHS had been considering two options: either disposing of or continuing to ship more than 160 million tests, valued at more than half a billion dollars. Only a small fraction of the tests are expired, according to the two officials.”

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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 19/02/2025

Two papers in Nature Climate Change suggest that exceeding 1.5 °C in 2024 may indicate that we have entered a multi-decadal period of 1.5 °C average global warming. go.nature.com/4hR9GYO go.nature.com/3WVdJM1 🧪

This is figure 2 from “A year above 1.5 °C signals that Earth is most probably within the 20-year period that will reach the Paris Agreement limit.” It shows strong warming trends place the first 1.5 °C year within the 1.5 °C 20-year period.

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Critical Rationalist @noncynic.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I'm a pilot. The FAA's safety practices are superb, the result of decades of cooperation w/the aviation community. Musk's idiots don't realize that government isn’t a business. By indiscriminately slashing the FAA's staff, they aren't going to make it more efficient. They are going to kill people.

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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Whatever else emerges in time about the Delta crash in Canada, one thing is certain: the importance & amazing professionalism of flight attendants who safely evacuated the plane in a matter of seconds.

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