iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

language-learners.org is failing under a ridiculous level of traffic (and possibly some other complicating issues). All data is backed up daily, and I am planning a major overhaul this weekend and next. More news in this thread as it develops. My apologies for the inconvenience. 🙍

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Basic authoritarian stuff: the government revolves around protecting the President and punishing his enemies. Completely inconsistent with democratic norms, but will barely be a blip in the news in our new regime.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

The Washington Post editorial page is going to start pushing Bezos' personal version of "personal liberaties and free markets". This is on top of his censorship of anti-Trump editorial cartoons, and his blocking of the editorial board's Harris endorsement. Bezos is 100% in on MAGA Republicanism.

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Several conversations today w people in the key executive departments. And while the particulars are hard to pin down my impression is that the Musk take over stuff is considerably worse than is being presented in the press. By this I don’t necessarily things they *done* yet but the level of …

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Alright, whoever had "24 hours" for how fast one of the J6ers would end up arrested for another crime, please head to the desk to collect your winnings. Uh, please form a line. Wait, did everyone pick the 24 hour or less pool? Uh, we, uh, we may not have enough prizes, please hold.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 07/01/2025

It’s D&D Night and the party has wandered into a narrow canyon full of undead. SKULL LORD: Halt! You have trespassed on sacred ground! PALADIN: Oh no! Sacred to who? How do we make amends? GM: …I did not actually see that question coming. PARTY: Um, paladin?!?

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

One of my favorite obscure musical facts: Joan Jett is a fantastic cover artist. She fronted for Nirvana when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit." They inducted her a year later. 1/3 m.youtube.com/watch?v=y5uH...

m.youtube.com

Nirvana w/ Joan Jett – "Smells Like Teen Spirit" | 2014 Rock Hall Induction

YouTube video by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

There are a lot of weird statistical trends which become much clearer if you break responses down by political party. (Or sometimes by education or economic class.) Yes, there are real problems with affordability and sexism. But politics is a huge driver of attitudes about _everything._

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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 01/01/2025

Elon Musk is a good example of how terrible people become increasingly radicalized into the far right simply because the far right is a community that accepts cruel, terrible people. It's tempting to say Elon is going "mask off", but I'd wager Elon didn't know who Tommy Robinson was 5 years ago. 1/

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

I enjoy reading Julia Serano's work about gender, because she's nuanced and precise in her arguments, without being impenetrably academic. The two links in the quoted post are a good "sampler" of her style. If you like them, you'll probably enjoy her longer work.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 25/12/2024

Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather

All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

John M Ford was a treasure. I still have a T-shirt with his "Verona Total Breakdown (Liebestod)" parody. Since it's Christmas Day, though, and I can't find a copy anywhere in print, let me link to his "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station": thegreenbelt.blogspot.com/2006/12/wint...

thegreenbelt.blogspot.com

Winter Solstice, Camelot Station

This is one of my favorite poems of all time. Enjoy it and the day... Winter Solstice, Camelot Station John M. Ford Camelot is served B...

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Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

I genuinely don't understand how the US press can be so bad at their jobs. I don't understand how each month they manage to get worse. I don't understand how nobody gets fired for putting up headlines that are such brazen distortions of events that they sound intentionally satirical.

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Jordan Uhl @jordanuhl.com · 06/12/2024

This is the agency Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies want to kill.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

TPM is an excellent small independent news outlet, with solid reporting. They cover corruption, and do some analysis. And they have always avoided the kind lazy "bothersiderism" that the New York Times just can't kick.

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Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Yeah, i _really_ do not think we're fully grasping how destructive the rich techbro fascination with drug-shopping has been. Sometimes the "transformation" is that you lose your ability to process conflicting info, which can manifest as supreme self-confidence but then can degrade into...

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Rich Campbell @therichcampbell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

We pay for our current health care system with our lives.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

When you catch the bot account during the debugging phase.

Cropped screenshot of a Bluesky post with "Response to a post" in French on top, and the text "This is an automated comment for testing purposes."

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Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

That a right-wing lawyer just suggested before the Supreme Court that Americans don't have a right to not conform is... a real mask-off moment in a way I suspect is not going to get enough attention.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Thoughts on "no win" situations and rigged teaching simulations, through the lens of the original Star Trek.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

The best thing about introducing new players to Kerbal Space Program 1 was very carefully biting your tongue when you knew they didn't pack a parachutte for re-entry. Warning them ahead of time deprived them of half the fun.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Many similarities to the way the conservative 5th column took over tech despite most tech workers being Dems and how they took over media despite most journalists being liberals.

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Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D. @drlaughingmantis.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Punch it! Sound on. This is still my favorite thing I’ve ever made. Cut on #scrollsaw, including every. Single. Star trail cut out of a walnut panel and filled with epoxy. I learned arduino programming to run the backlights. Adafruit soundboard. #woodworking #starwars #art #geekart

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Those are some extremely Vermont paintings! Also, the covered bridges are totally real, and we have a bunch of them still.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

"Not inviting badly-behaved people to the next party" is an ancient social technology because it works. Block trolls, jerks, creeps, and people won't shut up about That One Thing. Every jerk who lingers drives off 4 interesting and cool people.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

This is a cool use of Bluesky's tag system. It groups individual and PAC donations by employer, and shows where politicians get their contributions. You can subscribe! For example, AOC is funded by a lot of individual donors, but also Google employees? Other politicians often look more dubious.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

There are some really fantastic science fiction and fantasy writers here. A few that I've run into so far: go.bsky.app/7iL9fii Also, I wish Bluesky would allow me to make a starter pack that doesn't include myself. :-( I am not a SF or fantasy author, delightful or otherwise.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

I am long used to seeing the deer, the menacing turkey mob, and the garden-devouring woodchucks. Once, even, a wandering cow on the back lawn, followed shortly by a farmer in hot pursuit. But tonight I saw an opossum by the driveway!

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

If you're planning on any big purchases soon, consider making them before Jan 20th. Ditto on closing startup funding.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

For Books We Love Day, a few favorites: Bujold's Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls & Vorkosigan saga Pratchett's Discworld @tkingfisher.com's fantasy @catvalente.bsky.social's Space Opera Chamber's A Psalm for the Wild-Built Tim Powers' Drawing of the Dark Diane Duane's The Book of Night with Moon

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WitmerLab at Ohio University @witmerlab.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

For the 165th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, here are two theropod dinosaurs—T. rex & a hummingbird. Despite all the differences, T. rex is more closely related evolutionarily to this hummingbird than T. rex is to, say, Allosaurus! Still blows my mind! 🦖 More... 1/2

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Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

The progress of science!

Middle Ages Bullshit--dragon
1850--dinosaur as big lizard on all fours
1920--dinosaur on hind legs, very erect
1970--dinosaur on hind legs, leaning forward like raptor
NOW--dinosaur on hind legs, leaning forward, with festhers, looking a lot like medieval dragon

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

I'm seeing more and more people post engagement numbers like this. Social networks are classic cases of "trust thermoclines" (every.to/p/breaching-...), with strong network effects. It takes a lot for them to fail, but when they do, it can be fast.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 24/11/2024

I think, on balance, they are a good feature for platform growth and for onboarding, but we are really missing important tools for protecting yourself we should be able to: a) see what packs we’re in b) see what pack people are following us from c) remove ourselves from packs easily

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Optimist: the cup is half full Pessimist: the cup is half empty Distributed systems engineer: Look, if the cup is more than 70% full, the chance of spilling it goes up really fast. If it's more than 70% empty, you're paying for too big a cup. 50% full? It's great. Don't touch anything.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

The story of the last catamount in Vermont, on Thanksgiving 1881. The Vermont Historical Society has been posting all sorts of intreresting things on Bluesky.

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James Taite @jamestaite.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Stonemasonry operates by some pretty simple truths. One of the most basic: stone is heavy and heavy is good. That’s why, as a general rule, you lay (sedimentary) stone on its natural bed. Horizontally. Lay it the way it was formed, geologically. A 🧵 about stone bedding: 1/16

horizontally coursed limestone wall at Fort Henry, Kingston, Ontario

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I try not to contribute too much to the political doomscroll here, because it's not like any of it should come as a surprise at this point. But we're in for some pretty bad years in terms of public health.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

A good thread, but this is relevant in so many places.

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

This man has no business running our healthcare systems.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

This was a fun book, but the theme song is perfect.

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Dave Winer on Bluesky @scripting.com · 17/11/2024

Bluesky devs.. How about a compromise. Support inbound RSS. Let me enter the URL of an RSS feed in settings. I'll ping a fixed location when the feed updates. Such a system would allow the same flow to go to other systems. This would help a lot. PS: I'll help.

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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 08/10/2024

This here is one of the great U-boat hunters of the Second World War. Grab a comfy seat and a glass of something pleasing. We're going on a journey...

Wren Janet Okell, staring at the camera with a slightly awkward smile. Fair enough - as we'll see, she did her best work hidden behind a screen...

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

It was one of these! (Photo from All About Apple museum, CC SA-A 2.5 license: commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ap...)

Apple //e computer with DuoDisk and Apple monochrome green monitor, sitting in a musuem of similar era Apple products. The machine is running a program called Zig Zag.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Worth noting: Tariff exemptions for specific firms.

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E Kidd @ekidd.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

The "Trust Thermocline" is a genuinely excellent essay, with a key insight about how certain products fail "slowly, and then all at once." This applies particularly strongly anywhere you have network effects, I suspect.

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Richard Fitch @tudorcook.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

"this is fine" British Library Manuscript - royal ms 20 a ii f3r

A medieval manuscript illustration from the British Library royal ms 20 a ii f3r.
Image shows a medieval king in a green gown and wearing a crown. He is stood within a burning castle with arms in the air and a look of 'oh dear' on his face

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