iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 6h

The Megacarcass Legacy ‘87 regional tour is widely recognized as a high water mark for the band: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Paper in PNAS: Nutrient legacies from elephant megacarcasses create coldspots of biodiversity and hotspots of ecosystem processes
Courtney G. Reed, P, Nathan P. Lemoine, Michelle L. Budny, et. Al.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

This is the best way to talk to LLMs. I'll not be convinced otherwise.

Example of me insulting Gemini as it does digi-bot stupid language chore work for me, poorly.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

This tech is trash. Absent a speech-denying disability, what other ethical use can there be for this kind of “digital avatar”? Gross. Bonus points for the absolutely unhinged grin.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Arriving at my primary location for the summer, I have arranged to have this available for my edification. Always enjoy a @cmooreanderson.bsky.social read (a rare statement in my grimoire of books on/about teaching)

Photo of my copy of “Teaching Meaning” by Christian Moore-Anderson

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

When I lived in NY my property taxes were ~2.5% of my home’s value. Mr. Griffins are ~0.35% of his. Why does the @nytimes.com assume its readers are stupid?

NYT graf: “Detractors say that the proposal fails to take into account the significant amount of property tax dollars those second homes already bring to New York City. For example, Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Citadel, paid more than $840,000 in property taxes last year on his penthouse that overlooks Central Park. In 2019, his purchase of the penthouse for $238 million was the most expensive residential sale in U.S. history at the time.”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Bike ride home right through the middle of this romp of hooligans.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Life in Singapore is often a joy. For example: This is the news in the current moment.

Singaporean news piece that is titled “Crows in Singapore: What is Driving The Surge & Can We Control Them?”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Anyone who abets these war crimes is complicit and should be held accountable. This might be the most shameful thing ever said by a president.

Absolutely deranged social media post by donald trump threatening war crimes.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

I’m not sure short form, public forum, text can be used to have a useful, or intelligent conversation about anything, friends.

Post from Mark Joseph Stern
FYI: I am going to stop summarizing Supreme Court decisions on here as they come down. One comment has been plucked out of context of all my reporting, misread, and used as the basis of a mean-spirited pile-on. I am not going to subject myself to this. If this was your goal, then congratulations.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

This is the smallest issue of the current moment. But why is he wearing this hat? Why is everything so painfully stupid now?

trump announcing a military strike on Iran while wearing a truly stupid ball cap that says “USA” on it.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Why are we this embarrassing now?

Letter from the US Ambassador to Singapore that asks for “substantially larger gifts” this year to celebrate American Independence Day.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

The reasoned discourse one gets when suggesting LLMs can be useful for people with disabilities here on Bluesky. (Screenshotted because obvious reasons):

Skeet: Luis → Replied to you
“hahah holy shit you actually BUY that argument. Jesus fuck. You are an insult to life.”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Who among us does not feel like we are drowning in the devil’s excrement? 😈💩

NYTimes graf that reads: Not everyone thought the boom would last, but the man who put it best may have been Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, a former Venezuelan oil minister. He predicted a collapse
— all because of the bonanza. "Ten years from now, 20 years from now, you will see: Oil will bring us ruin," he warned. "It is the devil's excrement. We are drowning in the devil's excrement."

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

“Paper of record” out here just broadcasting my main life hack.

New York Times article headline and photo. It reads “When the Best New Year's Plans Are No New Year's Plans”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

So...for-profit textbooks are basically dead now, right? As much as I am sympathetic to ethical AI concerns, my heart is having a hard time weeping for this particular thing.

Generated in AI Studio using Nanobanana pro. Prompt: A split-screen biological diagram comparing Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic gene expression. Left side (Prokaryotic): A simple circular loop of DNA in cytoplasm, with an RNA polymerase moving along it, and ribosomes immediately attaching to the growing mRNA strand (polysome structure), no nucleus. Right side (Eukaryotic): A cell with a distinct nucleus. Inside the nucleus, DNA is being transcribed into RNA. An arrow shows the RNA leaving the nucleus through a pore, and then attaching to a ribosome in the cytoplasm. Clean, flat vector style, educational textbook style, white background.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

So…have we just decided that we’re all cool with 3-4 companies destroying the ability to tell reality from fiction?

“Handmade paper cutout diagram of the Calvin Cycle” made using the newest image generator in AI Studio (thereby not leaving a visible watermark).

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

What’s that you say? A”setback?” 🙄🤢🤮@nytimes.com really excels at the fascism soft-pedal in a way that seems unique among the news I regularly see.

NY times headline reading “Judge Dismisses Cases Against James Comey and Letitia James.
The decision is a setback for President Trump's efforts to wield the criminal justice system against his perceived enemies.”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Doesn’t feel like the kind of move a company is looking to make unless it’s got money problems.

Article that reads: “OpenAI Wants Federal Backstop for
New Investments
Sarah Friar, the CFO of OpenAl, says the company wants a federal guarantee to make it easier to finance massive investments in Al chips for data centers. Friar spoke at WSJ's Tech Live event in California. Photo: Nikki Ritcher for WSJ
By Wall Street Journal”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

This country definitely has some good sights on the occasional recreational bike ride 🤣🦦🦎

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

I am reminded of this algorithm.

Infographic flow chart on if you should ask a question at a faculty meeting. All roads lead to “no”.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

A friend suggested this model for strapping a computer to your face, and I think it fits perfectly:

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Did the @nytimes.com do a better job talking about state media capture in 1930’s Germany? Or has it always been so fascism-agreeable?

Various milquetoast headlines from the Times about the trump administration’s moves to co-opt the media under its control.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

My goodness the Oval Office looks horrific.

trump and hegseth in the Oval Office. It is all gold and looks tacky af

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

How every ice breaker that involves a slide feels to me:

Stupid AI generated Mood Object Icebreakers involving all sorts of weird objects

Stupid AI generated Mood Object Icebreakers involving all sorts of nonsense animals

Stupid AI generated Mood Object Icebreakers involving four weird cartoons

Stupid AI generated Mood Object Icebreakers involving blobs

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Not sure I’ve ever needed to stop for a cold can of cake, but 🤷🏻‍♂️

Cake vending machine in Plaza Singapura that dispenses cakes in soda cans.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Neither of these conclusions are disorienting and the answer to both of the questions that @ezraklein.bsky.social asks in this paragraph are clearly and unequivocally “yes”.

Paragraph from an Ezra Klein editorial that reads “But that can tip you into disorienting conclusions: If you believe that Netanyahu has put Israel on a path to becoming an international pariah, is he then an antisemite in impact, even if not in intent? If you believe it would be better if Israel faced real pressure to create a viable Palestinian state, then is the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in fact a friend to the Jews? To measure antisemitism by the consequence of policies and actions is to open debates that many would prefer to keep closed.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Returning to the US and checking out the latest edition to my “signed @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social collection” really shows how consistent his insert signatures are. I’d hang it up, too, if I had reached this level of platonic ideal. The only way to go is down from here.

John Green signature on my copy of “The Anthropocene Reviewed”.

John Green signature on my copy of “Everything is Tuberculosis”.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

I drove for 20 years every day. Now I drive for six weeks a year. But damn, this was quality parallel parking. First shot, no notes.

I nailed this parallel parking job, two inches from the curb, first shot.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

This was quite the sentence to read this morning. Has any other artist ever exploded themselves and their art this completely?

Ye's team says the song will be featured on his upcoming album
"Cuck" (Internet slang for
"cuckold," a term for a husband whose wife is unfaithful) which also includes tracks titled "Gas Chambers," "WW3"' and "Hitler Ye and Jesus."

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

This cat… (from @wikipedia.org’s image of the day today) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gr...

Weird cat from an icon of a saint that was Wikipedia’s image of the day.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grandes_Heures_Anne_de_Bretagne_Saint_Marc.jpg

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

I know the guy likes to put his name on things to the point of farce, but this is WILD even by those standards:

New Lab Leak website by the White House that features trump prominently in the site header.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Some quick shots from the Gili islands this week. In the US life, vacations were not a regular occurrence. Deeply thankful that’s no longer the case, and sad that most teachers don’t get the same luxury.

The duck flock that lives on the grounds.

Pretty tree, on the beach. Lombok in the background.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Alright, after like a decade of not presenting, I’m getting back on the horse next week at EARCOS. I agree the title sure looks an awful lot like an LLM made it. Always fun to turn your conference description into a social experiment 🤣

My session at EARCOS Teachers' Conference 2025
Thursday March 20, 2025 / 02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Al in Action: Transform Your Teaching with Tech Tools

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

I think I’m no longer interested in discussing LLMs with people who don’t understand how LLMs work. You need to give me some variant of this answer from Shanahan, 2023 before we can have a chat:

They are generative because we can sample from them, which means we can ask them questions. But the questions are of the following very specific kind. "Here's a fragment of text. Tell me how this fragment might go on. According to your model of the statistics of human language, what words are likely to come next?" -Shanahan, 2023

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Some of the small Borneo friends I made along the way.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Me through yesterday: not sure where all these famously big insects of Borneo are. Me this morning:

Picture of Remphan hopeii, the largest horned beetle in Borneo, outside of OP’s lodgings this AM. Light fixture for scale.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

My favorite example of hybrid breakdown is mutt reversion to the archetypal dog. #BioSky #EduSky

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Just no end to this tide of crass, rank, stupidity. #DumbShit

Recounting of press conference in which trump says “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what's the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?"

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

In what world is Google News recommending "The Presidential Prayer Team" for anyone, least of all me?

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

That we accepted (writ-large) that Biden wasn’t too tired to continue to do this job effectively in the current political climate is going to be pointed to as a significant reason we are now where we are.

New York Times headline that reads “Biden Says Equal Rights Amendment Has Passed, but Does Not Force Certification The remarks were largely a symbolic gesture of support for a century-long campaign to enshrine gender equality in the Constitution. But advocates said they could add heft to a future legal fight.”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Ah yes, the famously “extraordinary rebuke” of being allowed to stand for the next election, win it, and then mothball all potential consequences for your unprecedented, illegal actions. This is where America is at now. It’s uncharted territory for the country.

New York Times headline, reading “Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case.

The report, which said the special counsel's office stood "fully behind" the merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of President-elect Trump.”

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Sora is it's own bag of worms, but it is definitely enjoyed by my burgeoning 7-year-old prompt engineer. Prompt (verbatim): A cute vampire turning into a bat. Cartoon version.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Geoff Bennett was as close as I’ve ever seen him to losing his composure today when talking about that recent press conference:

Geoff Bennett looks like he can’t believe the words being said by the president-elect about renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

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David Knuffke @davidknuffke.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

With the exception of Leonard Cohen, I didn’t listen to any of these folks in my teens. And only came to my #1 in a serious way this year.

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