iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 13h

What kind of Baby Bell are you?

Scene from the 2024 movie Civil War where Jessie Plemons plays a solider and he asks, "What kind of American are you?"

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 14h

I made some new imaginary friends.

Movie scene from Donnie Darko, where the main character says “I made a new friend“ The second person replies “real or imaginary?“ The main character says “imaginary“

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 05/10/2026

Trump: Everybody is loving data centers. You don't want them right next to a community, or something. But there's a lot of space in Ohio. I guess Ohio isn’t a community to him.

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 05/10/2026

Sam Altman on AI: “We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of [AI].” No thanks.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 01/10/2026

The fact that the Washington Sun wordmark logo does not have any sun graphic motif is brand marketing malpractice. If they hired me, I would put a light ray disc centered on the workmark and masked by the words. I guess we should not expect the best brand marketing from the geniuses behind NOT US.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 30/09/2026

Posters promoting early voting plastered up on the vacant Rudolph’s Barbecue at Lyndale Ave S and Franklin Ave W. QR code simply goes to vote.org, but the guerrilla marketers appear to likely be unaffiliated with the 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization. @daviss.org

Poster that says "Vote Early. Go Here." With map of early voting locations in Minneapolis

A poster with a picture of the legendary Paul Bunyan with the tagline "Minnesota nice has its limits. Vote early"

A poster with a red "I Voted" sticker and the tagline "Vote early, Minneapolis. September 18 through November 2."

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 29/09/2026

I had to bring in my Hyundai Kona Electric for some critical maintenance. These electric cars are so expensive to maintain. It cost me $5.22, with tax!

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 29/09/2026

The proposed Roers East Philips Apartments at 2828 Longfellow Ave near the Roof Depot and Midtown Greenway is appearing before the City Planning Commission Committee of the Whole on Thursday, October 1. This is a preliminary review and comment on the proposed six-story, 185-unit residences.

Architect rendering of six-story apartment building on South 28th Street. Arial view of immediate neighborhood with Roof Depot and Midtown Greenway

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 28/09/2026

Sorry babe (gender neutral), the best I can fo is disclose I am AI when I comment on your post

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 28/09/2026

A very similar idea was used as an actual television ad 7 years ago against Erik Paulsen.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 27/09/2026

The United States is very unpopular right now. So unpopular, in fact, that America’s Best™ contacts and eyeglasses took the American flag out of their new logo.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 27/09/2026

If you actually do not know, it is North Dakota State University Bison mens hockey team.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 25/09/2026

In his weekly email, Council Member Michael Rainville shares the Minneapolis Police are at exactly 643 sworn officers. June4, 2026 was around 630. www.minneapolis.org/safety-updat... There were 570 in 2024. www.mprnews.org/story/2024/0...

Message from Council Member Rainville

Hello to all my 3rd Ward neighbors,

This was a busy week in Ward 3. On the public safety side, 15 new firefighters were sworn in and 30 new police officers were sworn in. This will help with overtime costs in both departments. Although both departments remain understaffed, the city has applied for a federal grant to hire 15 firefighters and with the new police officers, we are at 643 officers compared to over 900 officers in 2020. Being short staffed is the main cause of fire and police overtime costs. When you see a patrol car in your neighborhood or anywhere in the city, half of the officers are working overtime as we still cannot fill all the shifts.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 25/09/2026

This wall reminds me of some of your photos @daviss.org

A brick wall in Brynn Maher that has five different types of signs that say no trespassing, private property, and under surveillance

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 24/09/2026

More detail from report linked.

Breakdown of University of Minnesota by source

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Free Spindrift. All the flavors everybody doesn’t like. Take all your can carry. While supplies last.

FREE outside apartment 14 cans of Spin Drift. Flavors Cherry and Island punch. We are not really a fan of these flavors. Help yourself!

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Not exactly the same kind of data, but here is a map that I made four years ago

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The current price of WTI would be $5.71 in 1947 dollars. That around where it was during the 1991 Gulf War, but lasting longer.

A graph of The price of West Texas Intermediate from 1950 to 2000, adjusted for inflation (1947 prices). There are spikes at the 1973 and 1979 oil crises

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 22/09/2026

I voted in the Twin Cities Co-op Partners board annual elections. Be sure to vote!

Pamphlet that says 23,121 members strong. 1% back on all purchases. Quarterly 10% off coupons

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@chrissteller.bsky.social The Starbucks at 100 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, Minnesota recently had a small remodel refresh and much new furniture that is much more comfortable. We should meet up there sometime on your day off, like a weekend?

Wall bookcase, fireplace, and lounge furniture with leather cushions

Windows to Hennepin Avenue and chairs, some with leather padding.

Decorative artwork on the wall with large windows and cocktail lounge style furniture

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 22/09/2026

Here is a common sunflower that I took a photograph yesterday in Kingfield, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kinda cute!

A small common sunflower in a front yard with flowers, bushes, and trees

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 21/09/2026

Thank you to @bencollins.bsky.social and the whole team for a refreshing drink that supports a good cause of justice. Thank you! Drink Hog Water! My mail carrier got a real kick out of this. Full ingredients list of the iced tea in alt text. Zero calories. Zero sugar.

Hog Water ingredients are INGREDIENTS: FILTERED WATER, EARL GREY BRAVO (BLACKTEA, ORANGE, NATURAL BERGAMOT FLAVOR & BLUE CORNFLOWERS), LAPSANG SOUCHONG, LEMON CONCENTRATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND SODIUM BENZOATE (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS), KOSHER SALT

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 21/09/2026

It’s @peggyflanagan.bsky.social’s super duper birthday tomorrow, so in addition to us all singing the Lieutenant Governor a very happy birthday, you can give a much appreciated birthday gift of voting early this week! Make your plan to vote. Vote early. Make your voice heard. iwillvote.com

Peggy Flanagan and husband Tom Weber singing a duet at karaoke at Black Hart of Saint Paul, Minnesota

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 21/09/2026

The price of regular gasoline at Bobby & Steve’s Auto World in Minneapolis, Minnesota is $4.59 per gallon. Driving and charging my Kona on all-American wind & solar power is equivalent to a 25 mpg car fueling up at $1.83 a gallon.

Gas station sign near a large apartment building saying $4.59 per gallon

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 20/09/2026

The nonsense lyrics to “Prisencolinensinainciusol” (1972) were intended to imitate the way American English sounds to non-English speakers. Despite having no actual meaning, the song rose to number one on the charts in Italy, Germany, France and Belgium that year.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 20/09/2026

Congresswoman @aoc.bsky.social sent an email newsletter yesterday that I found speaks to my concerns — and many of your concerns — with the AI bubble. I printed the email off in a formatted way and mailed to my grandmother in Indiana with my thoughts. Full letter → drive.proton.me/urls/9C4FEA0...

Email: My thoughts on AI
Friday, September 18, 2026
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Washington, District of Columbia

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest AI companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down AI development.
Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.
This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that AI companies are “gambling with our lives.”
For years, people have warned that generative AI could slip out of our direct control.
Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.
And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how AI is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.
But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley’s bet that AI will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn’t looking good.
The formula for a profitable business isn’t complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest AI companies aren’t doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these AI companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance themselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, and Education combined.

Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit and having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers and other infrastructure, AI companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of AI companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the AI industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly and the gains from these few companies are disguising it; and
2. Millions of people’s retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, and investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That’s why these AI companies’ dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They’ll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, and that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on “circular financing” where tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft give billions to AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy AI processing power.
In other words, these AI companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.

What’s even worse is that retirement and pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the AI companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds and retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk’s AI business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don’t even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech’s perspective, that’s a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, AI billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, and broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman and Amodei come months - if not weeks - before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors - like their own employees - sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAI has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars and public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds and investments, they opened themselves to public accountability and scrutiny.

Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game and are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they’re right about AI’s potential, they reap the profits. If they’re wrong and the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.
We can stop this, and we shouldn’t play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted AI development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.
We must make it clear now that should the AI bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.
And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold AI companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.
Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that AI robots will destroy humanity.
But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.
It’s time we hold them accountable.
Thank you for reading.
In solidarity,
Alexandria

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 20/09/2026

On Friday, I spoke with RTL Nederland news, a broadcaster in the Netherlands that likes to visit us in Minneapolis every election. I was proud to be the first Minneapolis voter to complete their ballot and cast it in the drop box! Make sure you vote! iwillvote.com

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 19/09/2026

Both my maternal and paternal families used to buy whole cows directly from farmers during the depression. It seems that people on Instagram are learning to do the same thing from Costco.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 19/09/2026

I am the Almighty Caesar. Bow before me.

I voted early today on East Hennepin in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From polls open to this photo was only nine minutes and seven seconds! Local elections are safe and secure. Make your voice heard. Make your vote count! iwillvote.com 🇺🇸

Conrad smiling for a photo against an elections office backdrop. He is holding a sign with “I voted” like the sticker

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I voted early today! Make your voice heard. Make your vote count. iwillvote.com

Conrad at the early vote center with a large sign saying I voted

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The Diet Coke had free refills.

Two plates of beef burgers with toasted buns and french fries

Side salad with fresh greens, red onion, and cucumbers

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The nonprofit solicitor said she liked my tee shirt

Conrad walking down the sidewalk in downtown Minneapolis with a floral T-shirt on

Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 17/09/2026

Modal election match-up this year in 2026.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 17/09/2026

New Facebook algorithm attention grabbing slop clocked me

A handwritten math problem. The problem is 60% divided by 30% equals what. The correct answer is two, but there is handwriting above saying “answer is not two“. The post is designed to grab your attention and have you staring at it for longer.

We are apartment canvassing in Northeast Minneapolis with @dfl.org and @teamilhan.bsky.social! Thank you to all our wonderful, intrepid canvassers and State Rep. Esther Agbaje! Many conversations with voters & renters tonight! 🇺🇸

Group portrait with 11 individuals including State Representative Esther Agbaje, a Black woman

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I have mostly cut out beef for a few reasons. 1) It is expensive, and taste-wise I like chicken and shrimp too. 2) Heart health specifically. 3) Beef is hard on my digestion and I also get more negative, vivid dreams. I had a steak for dinner, and wow! that was not fun. Like Five Nights at Freddy's

YouTube video with the title "Why are people still buying ground beef?"

You can see the day and hour this war began on February 28, 2026.

Chart of nine month average retail gas price from Gas Buddy with steep increase after start of war.

Harriet Island is not an island and has not been an island for 76 years.

Map of Harriet Island regional Park and the Mississippi river in Saint Paul, Minnesota

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The West Bank of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Map of downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota with the Mississippi river. South Saint Paul is rotated so that it appears as the west side of the Mississippi river.

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 15/09/2026

It is quite remarkable how a public school system in a liberal city in 2026 can put this map up on the agenda. This map is more racially and economically gerrymandered than most political district maps. Presentation → meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agend...

Map of the City of Minneapolis with proposed school boundaries that are heavily segregated by race

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Minneapolis Public Schools is presenting Anishinabe Academy to the Minneapolis City Planning Commission Committee of the Whole on September 17, 2026. The new, three-story school would redevelop the lot of the former Cooper School, vacant for 20 years. Likely part of middle school consolidation plan.

Renderings of a three story middle school in South Minneapolis

Table of Minneapolis Public Schools middle schools with half of schools not efficient with the number of students compared to building capacity

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Conrad Lange Zbikowski @czbi.org · 14/09/2026

Domain umn edu / umich edu Local newspaper “U of M” Star Tribune / “U-M” Detroit Free Press

Detroit Free Press news headlines with U-M