iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Drew Rahere

daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

@iwriteok.bsky.social Loved your series on Demo Dick Marcinco. What’s the best book about the Abbotabad raid? I read Mark Bowden’s which was good but slightly credulous and hagiographic to the SEALs. And I imagine new stuff has come out since then. Thanks!

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Xander O’Connor @xanderoconnor.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

If I had known that the prize for finishing third place in the World Cup was that you got to arrest the Tate Brothers, I would’ve played much harder.

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Reposted by Drew Rahere

Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Just after the battle of Gettysburg, Lt. Frank Haskell of Wisconsin set down his memories of the fight as he had witnessed it from his perspective as a division commander’s aide de camp. I like to revisit it every year because of the way Haskell uses his words to paint a vivid picture for the reader

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

This isn't healthy, so I'm sorry, but I've gotten fascinated by what Tucker says to sort of credulous normies, and what he says on his own not-very popular show. 1

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

For years, my friends mused about what Trump could do or say that would make his base turn on him. We finally settled on one word: "Reparations." The Iran deal proves us wrong, as it includes $300 BlLLION in reparations. For the Iranians.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

The only way the Obama Presidential Library musicians lineup could be more impressive would be if Bowie and Prince came back from the dead to appear. And I'm still holding out hope for that.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Status of the Reflecting Pool. Duckling for scale, no color correction. These pics don’t remotely capture how VIBRANTLY verdant it is. It looks like a promo for Wicked. NPS staff were there valiantly trying to suction the algae out, but it’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge with a Q tip.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Every day I bike ten miles to the Kennedy Center to see if his name has come down yet. There's so much AI slop out there of it coming down that I have to check for myself. So far...nothing.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This is one of the worst headlines I’ve ever seen. I read NLRB news articles for a living and it took me five minutes to make sense of it. It’s like a purple category in Connections that sends you into a frothing rage.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

What the heck was up with the late 1990s-early Aughts that EVERY tv show or movie had the main character talking to a therapist? Analyze this...the Sopranos...Thomas Crown Affair...even freaking Shakespeare in Love had the Bard talking to his shrink.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Reading Hard Times, I find myself longing for the subtle and nuanced messaging of A Christmas Carol.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

The current Oscar winner for Best Actor is morally obligated to name his kid “Michael C. Jordan.”

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Zohran is SO GOOD AT THIS. His amazing St. Patrick's Day message makes it about so much more than Guiness and Shamrocks and corned beef and cabbage. He fits Irish history and pride into a global history of Imperialism going back to Coroticus. DAMN, this boy is good.

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Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Well, it happened to me... a State Dep't librarian reached out to me for a copy of "Copyright Law, Generative AI, and Market Substitution" (2023) in the Cardozo A&ELJ. It's a hallucination.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I woke up thinking about Men in Black: The Animated Series. It doesn't get the love of some late 1990s properties like Buffy or Batman TAS, but it was a wonderful and reverent expansion on the original movies that built out the mythology of Frank the Pug and the Coffee Drinking Worms. I miss it.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

@mikeduncan.bsky.social I'm going through the back catalog of Revolutions and finally getting to Season 5. Where could I find the supplement maps and stuff you reference? Thanks!

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Reposted by Drew Rahere

Logan Bowers @loganb.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

As an individual, you should always wear a helmet because it’s better than not wearing a helmet. As a society, it’s better to not require helmets because all-cause mortality drops when more people use bikes.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

@benaaronovitch.bsky.social I'm eagerly listening to the Audiobook of #stoneandsky, and am wondering if you put in a Glaswegian Texan with a broken jaw just to try to throw Kobna.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

"They said dress for the job you want, not the job you have. The job I want is the job I have but working for home. And THAT, Susan from HR, is why I'm wearing a Marvin the Martian jammies and fuzzy bunny slippers in the office."

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

@theresthistory.bsky.social My daughter and I just read Dominic Sandbrook's wonderful Nelson book. She said "The writing is so good that though I know what happens, I can't help thinking Nelson might make it." He is her favorite author, and she even got to meet him after the first US TRIH event.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

@mikeduncan.bsky.social I am unexpectedly misty and distraught at the inevitable end of the Martian Revolution. I subscribed to you on Patreon just for this. I'm desperately hoping we get a special addendum to tell us what happened on Earth with the Nairobi Revolution and The Children of Saturn.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Man, the FEVS is gonna be RANCID this year

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Man, the FEVS is gonna be RANCID this year

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Reposted by Drew Rahere

Brynn Tannehill @brynntannehill.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Looks like the right main mount collapsed after a hard landing (high rate of descent at touchdown with a right crosswind). Some indications it may have been 2000 fpm at touchdown.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

@mikeduncan.bsky.social Catching up on the Mars Revolution series, and the bit where a Billionaire CEO who is convinced of his own genius and that he can Do No Wrong implements "cost savings efficiency measures" that actually destroy lives and crash the system hits a LITTLE too close to home.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

This guy has the coolest job in the world.

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Reposted by Drew Rahere

Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 10/02/2025

My stab at The Confessor's Westminster Abbey, begun 1050s and consecrated 1065. Basically we know site of the apse (I have stuck my head under the Cosmati pavement and seen its footings) and the W bays of the nave with cores of W towers that are still inside the current ones.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

DOGE has introduced innovative new ways to let Federal Employees know they’re being fired.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

My children: "No, I will NOT put foot warmers in my boots!" Also my children: "Can we go home my feet are cold!!!"

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

I truly became a parent when I started sympathizing with Uncle Owen about Luke being a whiny teen who pouts and sulks and doesn't do his chores.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

Taking the money I'm saving from cancelling the Washington Post and buying a print subscription to The Onion.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

When I die, I want my family to go through my stuff and say, "Thank god Dad saved all these exceptionally useful boxes. They will surely come in handy some day!"

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 17/06/2024

This is the greatest unmade movie other than the Robert Smalls story.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 21/05/2024

As an Andrew I approve of this

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 09/04/2024

Last week I took a pack of tweens to a live show by a Youtuber they asserted was funny. It. Was. Not. It was so horrifying that I want to buy @drewmagary.bsky.social a ticket next time so he can live blog it. Apparently my increasingly profane texts to the other parents caused great amusement.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 08/04/2024

"No one wants to work anymore." "Did anyone ever WANT to work? Was there some mythical past when people woke up with a cheery smile at the thought that they were off to the factory floor for 12 hours that day?"

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 10/03/2024

I think Katy Britt made an important point in her response to the State of the Union. It's horrible that on Biden's watch, an international gang of criminals (presumably illegals) were able to steal the most famous painting of Leonardo da Vinici and keep it hidden for years.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 25/02/2024

Just added this to my "must read" list.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 22/02/2024

As a member of Gen X, I feel both seen and attacked.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 21/02/2024

Blue Sky justifies its continual existence with content like this.

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Drew Rahere @drybrarian.bsky.social · 13/02/2024

MASSIVE screw up by the Library of Congress tonight. Got tix a month ago to see Simone Dinnerstein play Rhapsody in Blue for its 100th anniversary. Surprised my wife with them for V day, but the LOC opened the event to anyone, first come first served. We were turned away after 45 min in the rain.

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Reposted by Drew Rahere

Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 06/02/2024

It’s Pascal’s Wager, authoritarian version. For the GOP, and donors, and business, etc, if you support Trump and he wins, you’re all set. If he loses, you’re still good. Who’s going to punish you? (As Hitchens and others pointed out, Pascal’s God was also an authoritarian.) wapo.st/3SNnCtr

wapo.st

Republicans fear they will be targets in Trump’s ‘retribution’ campaign

The former president is already attacking those who have endorsed his GOP opponents or have crossed him in other ways.

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