iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 6h

Pretending this is about my hometown's success in specialty milling (Bob's Red Mill, Dave's Killer) and indie comics (Dark Horse), and not the Wisconsin city that spells it weird and has a baseball team that seems to have had a good night

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 6h

Everytime I see one of these "change a movie" prompts someone is like, "Gaslight" would be a funny answer no it wouldn't, you clearly already know that

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah I think we can safely call it a bug not a feature

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 6h

It might take a whole half hour to get through that first quart sometimes and any decent coffee is going to be stale by then if it's in the pot

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 6h

Like, do people actually want to make a whole second pot of coffee to refill their cups?

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 7h

Oh sure now we finally take corvid mitigation strategies seriously

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 7h

Extremely specific and intentionally slightly cryptic London travel request, but any recommendations for what to do with a day and half to spend in Harlesden?

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 9h

Antonius Felix, about 5 minutes before his boat ties up in Ostia:

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 11h

Leaving Las Vegas (for Tax Purposes)

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 21h

And sadly it works, often--but on that path nobody *knows* if it's working, usually them least of all

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 23h

Today I found out that Umberto Eco crafted a version of this meme in the 1980s…

Beware the
alibi of photocopies ! Photocopies are indis-
pensable instruments. They allow you to keep with you a text you have already read in the library, and to take home a text you have not read yet. But a set of photocopies can become an alibi. A student makes hundreds of pages of photocopies and takes them home, and the manual labor he exercises in doing so gives him the impression that he possesses the work. Owning the photocopies exempts the student from actually reading them. This sort of vertigo of accumulation, a neocapitalism of information, happens to many. Defend yourself from this trap: as soon as you have the photocopy, read it and annotate it immediately. If you are not in a great hurry, do not photocopy something new before you own (that is, before you have read and annotated) the previous set of photocopies. There are many things that I do not know because I photocopied a text and then relaxed as if I had read it.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

*obviously this actual degree varies wildly and that matters too, but the general issue is that both the regime and its opponents are *both* cut off from this because it's mostly but not *completely* disempowered.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Completely agree with you here--one of the key things to understanding autocratic survival/collapse is that once autocracy is consolidated, public opinion matters, say, 90% less* while the regime gets 95% less information about what people think. How they manage that gap eventually seals their fate.

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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Reading this made me tear up, and that's really special because we Germans only get to tear up twice a year. Professor Peter Fonagy, Chair of the Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism (2026), with his letter to a young person.

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[Christopher M. Federico] @chrispps.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The limits of AI for authoritarian control (Yang, 2026, AJPS): "[C]itizens' strategic behavior under repression diminishes the amount of useful information in the data for training AI. The more repression there is, the less information exists in AI's training data, and the worse the AI performs."

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library

An emerging literature suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) can greatly enhance autocrats' repressive capabilities. This paper argues that while AI presents a powerful new tool for authoritaria...

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Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

AI researchers warn technology 'months away' from being able to connect to wifi using eduroam

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Gordon Darroch @gordondarroch.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Rob Jetten strongly criticised Donald Trump’s diesel deal on Tuesday, arguing that funding Russia’s war would damage not just Ukraine but its allies in Europe and the US itself. Are European leaders more willing to attack Trump head-on now it looks like he'll be a lame duck after the midterms?

dutchnews.nl

Jetten attacks Trump’s diesel deal as “unwise” and pointless - DutchNews.nl

Prime minister Rob Jetten has urged US president Donald Trump to ditch the “diesel deal” with Russia, arguing it will harm not just Ukraine but its allies in Europe and America. During a debate in par...

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Christian Kloetzer @ckloetzer.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

📜 New paper out in @electoralstudies.bsky.social! If you've always found Norris and Inglehart's cultural backlash theory of far-right voting unconvincing, I can confirm your skepticism – at least in the European context. Here, it has both theoretical and empirical flaws. doi.org/10.1016/j.el...

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

In today's competitive environment, why settle for being the signified when you could be the signifier? At Baudrillard . ai, we're here to make your business plans hyperreal.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Have you tried looking there first?

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I am absolutely incandescent thinking about this. We are choosing to honor the victims of murder by turning around and telling our children that evil is necessary. That it is inevitable. That their parents not only cannot stop it from happening, but instead should want them to become like *this.*

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

...long term, the only way to get past this challenge is to address the underlying nature of the transactional system of education that today's students have been inculcated into, and which our colleges and universities reinforce in terms of what they prioritize, school performance over learning.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (for Tax Purposes)

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Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Fascinating account showing how a false claim can become widely accepted (and propagated by multiple independent sources) as a result of a common academic shortcut: citing a source you haven't actually read after seeing it cited by another source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

is.gd

Academic urban legends - Ole Bjørn Rekdal, 2014

Many of the messages presented in respectable scientific publications are, in fact, based on various forms of rumors. Some of these rumors appear so frequently,...

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

There is so much that is beautiful in the world. Death is inevitable. Worshipping death is a choice. So is love.

View out my airplane window as I finish this thread. Mt. Hood at center, grey at sunrise, with orange banded clouds and bita of blue gray sky above the grass if an airfield.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

To tell me, "I want your child to *see* death"...there is no way to twist that into a statement of protection, of care, of humanity. There will be times we cannot protect them. Yet to lust after that, to bring death to their door for its own sake, that is more. It is worshipping death. It. is. evil.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

And they're trying to tell parents who want their kids to grow up with some shred of morality--regardless of what--that they are suckers for trying.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

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Werner Krause @krausewe.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

New paper in @electoralstudies.bsky.social! “Polling and parliamentary representation” with @drphilphil.bsky.social & @aikowagner.bsky.social We ask whether voters systematically responded to public opinion polls during the 2025 election campaign in Germany. doi.org/10.1016/j.el...

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

In Hot Tub Time Machine, the color of the inside material in the 1980s material is one that Cal Spas didn't introduce until almost 1990...

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

For a Few Dollars More for Tax Purposes

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

CLERGY BECOME A POLL CHAPLAIN HELP SUPPORT PEOPLE TRYING TO VOTE AND KEEP THINGS CALM AT VOTING LOCATIONS BE THE ADULT ON SITE IF PEOPLE SHOW UP TO MAKE TROUBLE YES THERE IS A TRAINING YES I'M SHOUTING COME ON TRAINING OCT 15th www.turnoutsunday.com/poll-chaplain

turnoutsunday.com

POLL CHAPLAIN | TurnOutSunday

HOME

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

And of course having seen this today prompted me to notice tonight that O Brother Where Art Thou is set against a gubernatorial campaign in 1937...2+ years before there would have been an election cycle at that time.

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Ana Catalano Weeks @anacweeks.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

📢 I am recruiting 2 fully funded PhD students to join my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, “Invisible Burdens, Visible Gaps: The Mental Load and Gendered Citizenship” @uniofbath.bsky.social ! 🌍 Intl applications welcome 📅 Deadline: 1/12/26, for Oct 27 start www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

findaphd.com

Invisible Burdens, Visible Gaps: The Mental Load and Gendered Citizenship at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Invisible Burdens, Visible Gaps: The Mental Load and Gendered Citizenship at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 12/10/2026

Does anyone have a favorite "good methods but bad concepts" leading to poor inferences?

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Interviewer: Do you mind explaining this gap in your CV? Transport for London Operator: Yes I do mind. Interviewer: Excellent.

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Dr. Liz Norell @liznorell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm so excited for the session @josheyler.bsky.social @cjdenial.bsky.social @thetattooedprof.bsky.social and I are hosting tomorrow, Resisting the Use of AI in Education: Taking a stand for our students and our colleagues, at 1:00 pm ET. Are you registered?

Announcing a live webinar on Resisting the Use of AI in Education: Taking a Stand for Our Students and Our Colleagues. Event takes place on October 13, 2026, at 1:00 pm ET. Speakers are Cate Denial (University of Minnesota Rochester), Joshua Eyler (University of Mississippi), Kevin Gannon (Queens University Charlotte), and Liz Norell (University of Mississippi).

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Charlotte Cavaille @ccavaille.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

🚨 Call for Proposals: ELECTRANS Study on the 2027 French elections. Submit a proposal for a research project on French politics / comparative political behavior. Selected proposals will see their items / design included at no cost. More information: electrans-2027-9494e8.gitpages.huma-num.fr

electrans-2027-9494e8.gitpages.huma-num.fr

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Interviewer: Do you mind explaining this gap in your CV? Transport for London Operator: Yes I do mind. Interviewer: Excellent.

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I can think of at least two people who disagree

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Ruin a book by adding a word: Anarchy, Penn State, and Utopia

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Down with combat sports, we want wombat sports

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Once again I make an offhand absurd response to something and then the imp of the perverse kicks in two minutes later going "you know what..."

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Colin Brown @colinmbrown.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Have you tried just getting a necklace display bar from a jewelry supply store and draping the USB cables over that, going from light to dark? You know, like a normal person?

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ACARS Drama @acarsdrama.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Air to Ground Message: PRINTER BACAME POSSESSED AND WOULD NOT STOP PRINTING THE NECROMONICON POWER RESET/TRACKING Area: Killeen, TX, USA Type: Airbus A220-300 A: #aa816c0b876 F: #f2c4f4503c4

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