iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 3h

Everyone's first rectangle looks something like that, and they are all beautiful! 😊

Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 14h

You can make them without the eyes of course - cats don't care!😄 "From the Field"™ finely-ground catnip is my favorite filler, no stalks to pose a risk, & it blends in with the fiberfill nicely. Red Heart Super Saver yarn with a 5.0 mm hook works up to a good size for kitty-play.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 15h

Links (there are multiple preemie-octopus patterns, this is a good basic one) Octopus: youtu.be/8rhYKbo1Y_A?... Eyes: youtu.be/iqu9tWXEuM0?... I found YouTube close-ups / slo-mo / rewind to be the best crochet-teacher. Satified customer in video - good for cats who like to bunny-kick!

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 15h

"Octopus for Preemies" makes a wonderful cat toy, all single crochet, stuffed with fiberfill and finely-ground catnip. I sew on crocheted eyes. Links are in second post. Cat-crocheter tip: only use acrylic yarn - some cats will suck on wool/cotton with ingestion risk.

close-up photo of a crocheted octopus cat-toy in pasted pink-blue-cream yarn, with big blue eyes

photo of multiple crocheted octopus cat-toys in many different colors, arranged in a circle

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CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Measles outbreaks could leave thousands vulnerable to infectious diseases for years The measles virus kills crucial immune cells, putting survivors at risk of being reinfected with diseases they’ve already had. Read more: bit.ly/4diczSQ

Hospital staff give oxygen to a sick girl.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

So many good and interesting things to sniff along the way!🥰

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Everything does go better with Churu - sending love and hugs 🥰

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Awww, the kiddos love you so much 🥰

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026

I recommend people read this to get a sense of the president's grave cognitive impairment. Trump is either unwilling or unable (or maybe both) to answer the questions he's actually asked, so he just rants and raves while the interviewers do their best to provide structure to his random brain firings

time.com

Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript

The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.

From DISCVR blog's Facebook page, a momma bear & a yearling cub on her back in the shallow water. I think the background has been swapped out, and I can't rule out some AI use there? God, Facebook has become the social media for AI slop : (

The title of the article, which I link below, is "How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack"

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh Masuke - sending so much love to you and rocogirl. So many hearts all around the world are holding you close. 💖🐶💖

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Or an example of AI with typical AI distortions - the dog's movements don't look right at all, among other things 😞

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Politics and Health 🗳️ 🩺 @politicshealth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

So fuc*ing infuriating and sad. The CDC used to be the crown jewel of the world's scientific firmament. Other countries came to us for help fighting deadly diseases. Its disease detectives learned what caused illness and helped change practices to prevent them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...

nytimes.com

‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission (Gift Article)

The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control.

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026

Hey!!! Here's a new @crikey.com.au piece - on why the bullshitty AI doom hype frenzy perfectly represents the tech industry's cutlist climate denialism and their unhealthy methane addiction. Plus the media's total failure to grasp the real risks at play. www.crikey.com.au/2026/09/22/a...

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Scott Weese @scottweese.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Cat owners...here's a survey about hairballs and grooming from Dr. Samantha Taylor. Direct link here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/The_Fur_Re... Some more details: www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2026/09/arti...

surveymonkey.com

The Fur Report 2026

Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Your little hotel suite looks just right, Masuke - very safe and very cozy! 💖

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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 17/09/2026

NEW: We spent months investigating a little-known media startup called Brown Brothers Media, which buys legit news sites and turns them into AI-powered zombie content farms What blew my mind was its traffic -- it appears to be getting more readers than NPR or CBS News futurism.com/artificial-i...

futurism.com

How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month

Brown Brothers Media is a media empire raking in millions of clicks with AI, fake writers, and plagiarism.

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dave wagner @davewagner.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

a brooklyn bodega cat was stolen on Sep 10. residents promptly built a tip network and organized people to check leads day and night. he was successfully recovered today. democrats have spent billions trying to figure out how to make people care this much about anything. should've tried cats.

White cat with gray-black patches on its head, back, and tail lounging on a small cardboard scratcher shaped like a couch.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Oh sweet little Masuke - I hope you can feel the love coming your way from all over the world. 💖

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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

One of the most haunting 9/11 stories I know of involved Prof. Eqbal Ahmad, my Hampshire College mentor in the 80s. He met bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1986 and tried to warn us in this 1998 talk (at the 1:23 mark). Tragically, Eqbal died during surgery a few months later, but HE WARNED US in 1998!!🤯

youtu.be

Eqbal Ahmad Terrorism Ours vs. Theirs 12, 1998

YouTube video by Mona Ringel

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sending love and good thoughts to both of you! 💖🐾💖

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Tommy Tomlinson @tommytomlinson.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

So here's a quote from @pablo.show that applies to not only his Clippers investigation but the best of what journalism can be: www.nytimes.com/athletic/756...

"I think that we have the ability to do something that the rest of our culture is yearning for, which is make people who are too rich to care about anything resembling the public interest worry that maybe they need to tell us the truth."

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/09/2026

What if post-Trump America is even *worse*? 1/

A nuclear mushroom cloud wearing a giant Trump wig. A decaying American flag fills the sky behind it.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Oh yes, I see he's definitely going for the squint 😬

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It's all there: the shift in gaze, the ear, the subtle preparatory tightening of the right shoulder & movement of the right front paw - while motionless tail & left front paw maintain the illusion of "No, nothing's happening here - why do you ask?" Masterful!

$Collage of two photos of a ginger cat reclining under a lawn chair: from the first to the second photo, the cat's head lifts and tilts just enough to shift the gaze upward - the left ear turns outward ever so slightly to scan for other intruders coming from behind as battle plans are made for the primary target in front - the right shoulder muscles subtly tighten, moving the right front paw just a fraction in preparation for action. The toes of the right front paw appear to be making a tiny little fist. The left front paw, tail and both back paws remain in their original positions, which may be for the purpose of disguising the planned attack or perhaps just to make it easier to lie back again if it's too hot and humid to bother moving from the shady spot under the chair.$

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Melanie Mallon🔪🎃 @melmall.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I've seen people share the Metro Surge resistance art, so I'm going to focus on some other crop art that caught my attention yesterday.

Seed art by Meredith Keller of Pac-Man with ears of corn and pronto pup specials and Minnesota State Fair 2026 in the upper left corner, all in a bright yellow frame.

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Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Y'all... the Band of the Coldstream Guards performed "9 to 5" in front of Buckingham Palace in honor of Dolly Parton.

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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 25/08/2026

[Exit Queen.]

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Oh my goodness, you really don't know who you are sending this reply to, do you? 😄🥔

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

What is going on here? Pencils? Baby snakes? Worms? Extra-long extra-skinny hair curlers? Halloween ghost fingers? Leftovers from Natalie doing a soothing scalp massage? Whatever they are, they're fixed in place, moving with his head. 😬

Close-up from Aaron Rupar's video of DJT, showing very weird, long, fixed, skinny, horizontal lumps on the top of his head. They are the color of his "hair" but not hair-like. They are raised enough to cast shadows.

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Kathryn Tewson @kathryntewson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Most people are mostly good, #874 in a series

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

A++++ and 🏆on the ALT - "jumble" is perfect!☺️

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Sending so much love & hopes for a turnaround. ❤️‍🩹

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

💖🐱💖 Hope you are feeling better today!

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Sending love to all, and so much gratitude for all the joy Croutonia has brought to the world. 💖

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Concurrent with your excellent essay & locker # analogy, I feel terrible for the professionals in a similar situation at the Ojai Raptor Center. The keyboard warriors are definitely uninformed, & I'm not certain that they are all well-intentioned. bsky.app/profile/wash...

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

As a conservation professional, I am regularly frustrated by the actions of the well-intentioned but uninformed people who are supposedly "on my side." I tried to explain in a new blog post featuring an analogy that I hope lands. www.southernfriedscience.com/the-locksmit...

southernfriedscience.com

The locksmith and the conservation scientist

Why well-intentioned but uninformed guessing cannot and will not solve conservation problems, and what we should do instead. Picture this scene: you’re walking down the street, and you see your nei…

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A+++ and 🏆 for the ALT 😍 - @merriam-webster.com needs Dandy as the photo illustration for "coquettishly"!

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Awwww, I immediately thought "he looks like Rodney" when the video started and then you said "Rodney" too - hang in there, little Trigger! It gets better!

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Take this down and fire everyone involved.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The eclipse didn't pass over me today, but I like to think that this was my colander 2 years ago.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Love this! Your gardening philosophy is right out of Saki's "The Storyteller" in which a gentleman in a railway carriage quiets two unruly children by telling them an "improper" story. A noble decision: Pigs >> flowers, & raccoons >> landscaping! 💖👏🥰👏💖

Screenshot of a portion of text from Saki's short story "The Storyteller," in which a gentleman in a railway carriage entertains two noisy children by telling them an "improper" story about a "horribly good" little girl who comes to a bad end while walking in a Prince's park:
"He is still alive, so we can't tell whether the dream will come true," said the bachelor unconcernedly; "anyway, there were no sheep in the park, but there were lots of little pigs running all over the place."
"What colour were they?"
"Black with white faces, white with black spots, black all over, grey with white patches, and some were white all over."
The storyteller paused to let a full idea of the park's treasures sink into the children's imaginations; then he resumed:
"Bertha was rather sorry to find that there were no flowers in the park. She had promised her aunts, with tears in her eyes, that she would not pick any of the kind Prince's flowers, and she had meant to keep her promise, so of course it made her feel silly to find that there were no flowers to pick."
"Why weren't there any flowers?"
"Because the pigs had eaten them all," said the bachelor promptly. "The gardeners had told the Prince that you couldn't have pigs and flowers, so he decided to have pigs and no flowers."
There was a murmur of approval at the excellence of the Prince's decision; so many people would have decided the other way.

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Victoria Rose Richards @aerialembroidery.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

'You'll choke too' - an aerial embroidery landscape inspired by all the wildfires happening right now... I'm upset every time I smell smoke outside and somehow we have people starting them maliciously too! But we all breathe the same air so they'll choke too (1/2 - see thread for close-ups)

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn landscape from above. It shows a forest on the right, a line of fire and charred ground with smoke on the left. The smoke is felted wool.

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Carol Mitchell @caroljmitchell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Really vile how he was allowed to spew his disgusting talking points about Dr. Fauci during that interview. MS NOW planning to go even further down the Fox-ification road?

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