iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 6h

2/2 Add to that that in a time when a polarized electorate acts on what purchased politicians and oligarch-owned media companies tell them, the Constitution is no longer practically amendable. If it can’t be amended, it is dead. 2/2

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 6h

It seems quite obvious that the Constitution *is* the crisis. It depends on the unwritten operating principle that a degree of honor sufficient to maintain guardrails would always exist. That’s been proven to be nothing but a quaint 18th Century conceit that no longer exists. 1/2

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’m just waiting for the celebratory gunfire. The country is going to sound like an Afghani wedding.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A dork how?! Feature, not bug!

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This is my fave of Pokey, looking like she was auditioning for a Hepburn-Tracy picture in 1940.

A little black and white dog In the snow wearing a padded coat and with a sleigh bell around her neck.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The color of that water is the answer to why. That little kitty must have gotten stuck up a chimney.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It might be a good idea for Dems to frame court reform as unpacking rather than packing. Americans think court packing is cheating. Add a two-letter prefix to charge the right with the cheating and Dems with being the ones to fix it.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Perhaps states should be looking to criminal laws. Laws allowing for the charging under existing CSAM laws of the ultimate owners of machines making it.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#31 is the perfect name for trump.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Sen. Murphy, if there’s a Dem administration on January 20th, 2029 and it fails to confiscate that jet or at the very least cancel its airworthiness certificate, it’ll just be another sign that most Dems (you excluded) are happy to look the other way.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Can’t wait to read this. I wish I’d known you were writing this. I have a doozy.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oy. I posted five pix with that that haven’t appeared somehow.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

By the way, this thing was in this condition — looking this old — when I found it in the 80s.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Possibly the Silvaire Phantom II, the second iteration o.f the Phantom. Wingspan is 35.25". The first Phantom had a round leading edge of the tail, the Silvaire had the straight LE and a round engine. no idea what airfoil for sure, but flat on the bottom and fat on top like a Clark Y.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Someone left this model out on the street in NYC many years ago — minus engine. Must have been 35 years ago. I think it's a Luscombe.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thanks for the diagram! I love it. The black screw I was mistaking for mixture was the big black screw in the aluminum under the carb. Is that just for seating the carb? And do you bolt these to a stand to test them or do you have to do it mounted in a plane?

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

VEry cool. So, is the black thing the carb and the screw below for adjusting mixture?

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Window of a Beacon Hill plumber's shop in Boston Leica IIIf/50 3.5 Elmar, TMY #filmphotography

On display in the window of a plumber's shop are antique pipes with gauges attached, old faucets, pipe wrenches, porcelain hot water handles

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Being surprised that the president who was installed by a corrupt SCOTUS and then said if you’re not with us you’re against us, who pushed the Patriot Act, who didn’t give a fuck about Katrina, etc., etc. is a supporter of today’s thug party doesn’t speak too highly of he who is surprised.

etc.is

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Pokey Beker, Jr., Jr. wondering why I am dilly-dallying in my duties as her chauffeur. #dogs

The head of a black and white dog with tan eyebrows and ripped ears looking out of a car window

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Texas mythos: Lean Real Americans™ in weathered Levis, straw cowboy hats and hand-tooled belts with silver rodeo buckles. Texas reality: Fat unshaven slobs in Walmart t-shirts and knockoff Adidas shorts slung low under beer guts and ass cracks with long, filthy toenails in $3 plastic sandals.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is why insurance companies encourage you to total your car frequently and have kitchen fires and repeated thefts in your home.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Moody Pokey is reminded of her days as a meth head street puppy on a walk in Brattleboro, Vermont. Leica IIIf/50 Elmar 3.5/TMY #dogs #photo

A black and white dog with her head hanging low walks on a wet sidewalk on a dank day next to a large graffito that reads PLEASE BE BRAVE

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

And abuot half (I can't stomach reading it again to check) said they'd vote for a gross candidate if they aligned with them politically. Already justifying their Paxton votes. Republicans gonna republicate.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thanks, Nathan. That Galbraith piece does not really seem to debunk the claim as much as ignore it and argues for different, more achievable policy goals. And we do see the process Piketty described unfolding in more or less precisely the way he predicted 13 or 14 years ago.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When he tweeted some weeks ago that SpaceX would be more valuable than all other companies in the world combined, he was laughed at, but to me it seemed to be a clear hint that this is on his mind. 3/3

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

His case is powerfully made, and it seems that we are on track for his projection to play out. With the quantity of economists and managers Musk must employ, the possibility is certainly not lost on him. And it would explain his attempts to control international politics. 2/3

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Nathan, what do you think of Thomas Piketty’s thesis in Capital in the 21st Century (which he says is under consideration in every econ dept in the world) that without worldwide progresssive taxation, elimination of loopholes & tax shelters, one person or state will own the world. 1/3

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Looks great like that. That trick has worked for me on Ektas (not quite as old, just 40 years or so) that were degraded. That technique is the first I’d try, but there are others aimed specifically at first restoring the color of the base layer and then building on that. It’s not hopeless!

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hey, Fred... you might find this method for restoring long-lost colors using histograms in PS worth some experimentation. It's really straightforward and worked for me on some ancient transparencies. Scroll down to "Color Balancing Difficult Cases."

c-f-systems.com

C F Systems Innovations in Sight and Sound - Photoshop tips page

C F Systems - Innovators in Applied Mathematics relating to Sight and Sound - Photoshop tips page

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yup. We were at $4/gal for heating oil in Vermont last year, now edging up to $7 already. And this is nowhere near topping out.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Odd to think of a budget diafine when real diafine costs next to nothing especially since it lasts so long.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Dems should introduce legislation that creates a colossal fine and a permanent ban on future business with the federal government for any demolition or construction company that destroys American monuments without congressional approval.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Up in the Vermont woods today where I take Pokey Beker, Jr., Jr. on her mouse safari we just encountered a totally buttass naked guy hiking. He said, Sorry! and I said no problem and he asked me for directions to some ancient quarry.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Wow. I hope you resolve this. I’ve been having terrible skin issues that seem to be related to a paraganglioma of the vagus nerve and docs have absolutely no idea of what is going on. It sounds just like what you’re going through.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ray of sunshine and #Bollywood star Rajeshwari Sachdev in her dressing room on location in Kathmandu. #filmphoto

A black and white photo of Hindi film star Rajeshwari Sachdev looking out with a smile from behind a glass window pane.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

U.K. film producer Jeremy Thomas just passed away. This shot of two of the women who played royal courtiers is from the set of Little Buddha, which he produced. On a set defined by the cruelty of the Italian half of the crew, he, like the rest of the UK crew, was always smooth, kind and calm. RIP.

A black and white photograph of two young women with their hair piled ornately on their heads and wearing jewels. One has turned to look at the camera with a smile. I shot this while working as an assistant director on the Bernardo Bertolucci film Little Buddha.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I dunno but it’s got the medallion which makes it look pretty legit.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I saw a t-shirt in Idaho that had MILF in big type and below it Man I Love Fishing.

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Brian Beker @brianbeker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It’ll be fine for years. Ignore expiration date, use it even when it turns dark brown. You’ll probably run out of it before you see any reduction in densities.

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