iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Colleen Derkatch

Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

🚩 "Detox" a huge red flag for bunk. And can be harmful, even deadly... 👇 Drug made from poisonous frog's skin ‘claims first British victim’ following 'detox' ceremony www.lbc.co.uk/article/drug... Collapsed "after taking part in a 'cleansing' ceremony using the drug known as Kambo."

lbc.co.uk

Drug made from poisonous frog's skin ‘claims first British victim’ in 'detox' ceremony | LBC

Wellbeing coach, Kristian Trend, died after using 'Kambo,' a treatment banned in several countries

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Less impressive but at the time kind of thrilling: I also spoke to him briefly once when he called the house (landline days!) and asked for her. She wasn't home so he said to say "M" had called. Lol what a douchecanoe

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? That "rhetoric" ≠ bullshit (and is actually an ancient discipline that studies the production, reception, and circulation of discourse). #teamrhetoric

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

The Headspace meditation app now includes an "empathetic AI companion." What could go wrong? Well, for a start, it could break the very mind at the centre of meditation.... ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/t...

nytimes.com

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I will never, ever, ever not be furious that a high ranking research officer at my uni dismissed an important knowledge mobilization project I wanted to propose because “AI could do it.”

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I don’t know how I’m gonna break all the news at once

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Students are going to learn how to write prompts no matter what, I don’t need to teach them. If they come to my classroom, they’re going to learn that saving time isn’t the only worthy goal.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

And second, well, there’s this from @guinz.bsky.social. If we rely on non-sentient tech to do our thinking for us, we’re cooked. open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...

open.substack.com

Diabolus Ex Machina

This Is Not An Essay

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

First, the “big terminology” in scholarly writing is there for a reason so students need to be taught how to parse it. It’s university, not middle school. If simplified explanations help someone get the big idea, great, but you can’t stop there.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I’ve been thinking about this for days: “Sometimes I’ll take the abstract or the methods section, because they’re using all this big terminology, and ask, ‘Can you simplify this as if you’re explaining it to a middle schooler?’ And it saves me so much time” www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/2339ca7...

theglobeandmail.com

Some university professors say AI is here to stay, so students should learn how to use it

AI is being embraced in postsecondary schools as a study tool or research assistant

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Just over a year ago, I posted this smug update on the other site. Two days later, I broke my hand dropping into a skatepark bowl, resulting in surgery, a weird PTSD response that put me on medical leave, and months of physical rehab. 100% would do again. Life is for living. Do something fun today.

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Reposted by Colleen Derkatch

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

New data finds Americans are more likely to support labor unions over Big Business than at any time in the past 60 years. We are witnessing a historic rebirth of worker power. If you want a better life for you and your children, join or support a union.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

We didn’t either! We found it by accident while googling info about ER wait times. Terrible PR, excellent service.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

We visited one of Toronto's virtual emergency rooms last night and it was BRILLIANT. We had a minor issue that required attention but we would have languished in a physical ER for hours. Instead: -I booked appt at 7:20pm -we saw a nurse practitioner at 8 -all was resolved by 8:15 This is smart care.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

That was exactly the argument our faculty association made and an arbitrator agreed. Now there are just a few meaningless questions (e.g., "Does the class start on time?"), I guess to preserve the illusion of customer satisfaction.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Geary St, pls. It's Wild West mayhem.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Me, on self-care: “There is always a new diet or beauty routine to follow, a new supplement to take, or a new practitioner to see,” she says. “And if we fail to become ‘well’ despite our efforts, we simply need to try harder or try something else.” www.the-independent.com/life-style/h...

the-independent.com

I spend £8,000 a year on self-love – have I got it all wrong?

Is booking a facial or a massage really self-love, asks Charlotte Cripps, or a costly activity that keeps us looking outwards, striving for perfection and fueling us to compare and despair?

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Very thoughtful discussion of "AI" in education from @emilymbender.bsky.social starting at 11:36. I will now forever refer to tools such as Chat GPT as "synthetic text-extruding machines." www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

cbc.ca

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Loved hearing your thoughts on this. So smart, nuanced, and carefully considered. I especially love the phrase "synthetic text-extruding machines." Thanks so much!

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Meet my friend Oorbee, aka Aunty Skates. We have little skater mom posse in Toronto. We’ve spent Mother’s Day weekend taking over city skate parks because if you don’t make time for fun, fun won’t make time for you www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article...

theglobeandmail.com

The life-changing magic of Gen X moms who don’t give a damn

Gen X moms are living it up in middle age, and couldn’t care less about the expectations society has for them

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Re-upping: What do you think, know, or do about AI in first-year writing courses, #TeamRhetoric and #Writing Studies? Keen on cold takes too.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

People who don't create Zoom meetings to start with muted audio and video are chaotic evil

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Rich and Telma are the best. They're also super humble—they actually created the group! Legends.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

If you ever wonder if it's ever too late to ________, the answer is no. We're all over 40. Many of us started skating *after* turning 40. Yes, we sometimes get hurt (I broke my hand last summer) but we definitely don't need AI-generated friends to fill our days. Go do the scary thing. Find fun.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Get off the internet and get yourself a crew. Everything will be better.

15 adults and two around the edge of a bowl at a skatepark. Some are wearing helmets and other safety gear or holding skateboards.

A large group of skateboarders dressed in Halloween costumes in a concrete skatepark bowl.Some are holding skateboards.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I got shy and deleted my first post about this but it's important: the most unexpected and best benefit of starting skateboarding at 45 is I now spend weekends hanging out in parks across town with other middle aged skateboards. Zuck needs to get out of the house.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Hahaha I posted and then deleted a reply to you about the Later Skaters. I started skating at 45 and now we old folks meet up all over the GTA most weakens in formal and informal meetups. Skate parks are the new bowling alleys. 🤘🏻

A group of over-40 skateboarders sitting on the edge of a concrete pool at a skatepark. Later Skaters meetup in Newmarket, Ontario.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

#TeamRhetoric and #WritingStudies folks, what are your best hot takes about AI and/in required first-year writing courses? Asking as an incoming WPA. #rhetcomp

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Ooo I missed this reply somehow. Cool! That was a fun and surprising analysis.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

The breaks are 100% why I think my mom kept smoking

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

2/3 for mine. She died of lung cancer.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

That would be a great study. Wish my own mom were still alive to ask her, too (among the gajillion other reasons I wish she were still alive, of course).

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

You know what autism study I want to see? How many women in my mom's generation were given buckets of benzos for "neurosis" but were actually probably just autistic.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Election Day in Canada, part 4: This whole thread. It is perfect.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Election Day in Canada, part 3: Our system isn't perfect but I love its reassuring blandness.

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Election day in Canada, part 1: we vote on paper (most of us). Our votes become tangible—real things we pop into the ballot box ourselves. When my kid cast her first-ever federal ballot, people clapped. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/2339ca7...

theglobeandmail.com

In praise of a democracy on paper

The use of paper ballots and hand counts for federal elections may be inefficient. But it does display a proper reverence

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

In the rare good-news department, I got an Instagram ad from the Ontario Government late last night promoting measles vaccines. After months of relentless awful news from the US, this official reminder from my own government that vaccines are safe and effective was a balm before sleep.

Image of a man with two small children climbing on his back piggy-back style. They're seated in a living room with a sectional couch and a coffee table with a plant and books on it.

Government of Ontario "About measles" information page with a menu that includes links for an overview, symptoms, getting a vaccine, and international travel.

Web text under the heading "Getting a vaccine" on Ontario.ca. The first lines are "Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infection. Children who are fully vaccinated with two doses of the measles vaccine are nearly 100% protected."

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Colleen Derkatch @colleenderkatch.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

I'm all for patient empowerment but maybe it's not ideal to upload pathology reports directly to patient portals without an explanation of what findings mean. Especially not at 6:05pm on a holiday Thursday, right as doctors' offices have closed for 3+ days.

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Reposted by Colleen Derkatch

Andrea Love, PhD | Biomedical Scientist @drandrealove.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Breast cancer diagnoses rose by over 300% between 1973 and 1992. Was there a breast cancer epidemic?! NO. Mammograms were implemented for screening in 1976. PREVALENCE is a function of being able to correctly diagnose something. This is also about autism.

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