iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

A song by my father-in-law, www.terrysarten.co.nz, inspired by the famous 'first they came for' poem. He asked me to post this here, and I'm happy to: it's chilling and horrifying seeing the violence and death that the American government is using against it's people.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Is there a law against citations for inspirational quotes? Work email sent around today with this quote, after doing some digging looks like the only source for this quote is a facebook post by Jim 7 years after his death.

Inspirational quote in front of misty mountain with the text "Either you run the day or the day runs you" - Jim Rohn. Source unknown.

Screenshot from a facebook post by the official Jim Rohn account, 16 April 2016. This post is a quote of Jim Rohn, literally putting in quotation marks "Either you run the day or the day runs you" with attribution to Jim Rohn, which is odd and would be hilarious if you posted your own quote with your own attribution but that's unlikely as Jim died in 2009. Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rohn Link to facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJimRohn/posts/10156806383245635

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Yeah this reads grim. Venture capital positing the diversity of Auckland as attractive to medical experimentation by larger tech companies as the c-suite have the ear of a government already willing to remove regulations for any promise of economic benefit.

WNT Ventures fields hundreds of business pitches each year – including what its co-founder says feels like “an AI pitch a day”. For offshore companies interested in big datasets, especially in the health sector, New Zealand offers a unique testing ground.

“We have a really good, diverse population for trials, and that’s a good benefit for springboarding some health technologies,” Alvarez said, mentioning the high levels of ethnic diversity within Auckland as another potential attraction.

But current restrictions in the experimental health field meant New Zealand was losing out on potential innovation, she said.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Bet the next starship explosions will go even better now that Musk can dedicate more yelling time to his companies.

Big big old fireball that used to be a rocket

Speaking after the demo, Mr Musk said: "I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," a telling 13-word comment in reflection on his time as Donald Trump's senior advisor. Last month, Mr Musk, 53, conceded his time in this capacity would have to reduce fo he can concentrate on other projects. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/spacex-starship-bursts-flames-after-35416547

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

This is just so cool been reading @dresdencodak.com for 20(?) years go do it it's good for you.

Panel from recent dresdencodak.com comic of Kim in a shockingly relaxed yet threatening pose, combing fingers through own hair and looking up at a soon to be unfortunate, saying 'run'

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Lantern season as this is such a great idea for showing how memories hang off things, and I shout about Owlamoo compulsively perhaps once a month

Snippet from https://dresdencodak.com/2009/12/16/lantern-season/, in which Kim scowls at a little owl-boy-puppet as threads of memories rise into small bubbles of disjointed remembrances
.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Could we ask them how this meme has aged? But I guess it only is an insult if they fundamentally disagree with the conservatives they're now shoulder to shoulder with.

Simple cartoon showing three people on a line. The people are labelled "my fellow liberal", "me" and "conservative". The line is marked with left, centre and right.
In 2008, the "me" is just left off center, but in 2012 the liberal sprints left making the line bigger, moving the centre marker left as a result, and in 2021 they're now named "woke progressive" and have lengthened the line so much the "me" is now to the right of center, never having moved. "Woke progressive"-San shouts "bigot" at "me" while "conservative" lols.
Meant to be some sort of point, but always struck me as a self-own.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

You seem to be on a tear of "I'm right you're wrong because reasons" lately but have you considered this sucks

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Luxon is a buffoon who seems incapable of deep thought or consideration for others. Just a small example.

Act is not the only party to have used AI-generated imagery in a campaign ad. The National Party used several images during its national election campaign, which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon defended as a better option than using stock imagery of real people.

“I don’t see the difference in those two things,” Luxon told RNZ.

https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/17/acts-happy-maori-ai-image-sparks-internal-change/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=a37494362a-Week+In+Review+20.04.2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-a37494362a-98034722&mc_cid=a37494362a&mc_eid=bf5c89f8ad

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

What worries me is that Seymour seems pretty good at couching his ideology in the phrases that need work to show how messed up they are, work that many have no time for. But his version of 'meritocracy' is rooted in patriarchy, racism and bigotry.

‘If we’re going to win the culture war that really matters, which has nothing to do with pronouns or bathrooms or anything like that but, “Are we a people who seek and celebrate success and push people up, or a culture that pulls people down?” … we need to make this country a place that is a tribute to and a host for human action.‘
Act leader David Seymour, pool quote from https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/17/seymour-seeks-to-spark-a-new-culture-war/?utm_source=Newsroom&utm_campaign=cded1586ac-Daily_Briefing+17.04.2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-cded1586ac-98034722&mc_cid=cded1586ac&mc_eid=bf5c89f8ad

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Man who says sorry for helping create brain breaking algorithms decide to make more algorithms to work with brains. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Omniscience is already in the market. "We've already got regulatory clearances in the US and Australia ... we focus on using AI to decode your brain. And things like mental illness ... essentially, just faults in your circuitry. We build tools that can find those faults."

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The genuine smiles of unafraid people

Press from the whitehouse press conference after asking the most fawning question possible, realising the cameras on them, their faces frozen in overwide smiles, knowing that to look happy and joyful about the president may save them from the camps. Or they're just unscrupulous arseholes, who knows.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

This is less about swearing about a seat, and more about an employee being driven to a breakdown and attempted to be ousted by their employer. This won't have been the first time this employer "didn't swear at" someone, and it's not the first time these kinds of arrangements are made.

A colleague told the ERA that McCann was asked if she wanted to engage in a conversation about not returning, explaining that, if she did not want to return, Winton Capital would provide one month’s pay on top of her contractual entitlements and that she would be released from her notice period.

While on sick leave, McCann’s access to Meehan’s email and calendar was suspended.

McCann resigned and raised a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/winton-capital-ltd-ordered-to-pay-chris-meehans-former-assistant-100k-in-era-personal-grievance-case/NCS57C3BNFFWHLNZMMQ76TUVTU/

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The collected works of shakespeare: the movie

Couple of panels from Dark Science arc of https://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01/ holy crap this arc has been going on for 15 years

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

I think the discover feed is pretty good sometimes

Two posts that are one after the other:
@mcfadden.bsku.socal: NPR cut the handles off their tote bags and donated them to ICR so their listeners can be hooded and dragged to an undisclosed camp.
@owlet.bsky.social: Still thinking about how good Nintendogs would be on Switch.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

I dunno, some days it very much feels like what is happening is a precursor to the debate they'd rather be having. Seymour seems convinced the government has no responsibility in area like this. Or many areas at all.

Meyer says it would be very cynical to suggest that the Government wants to do away with school lunches entirely.

“Nobody in this debate genuinely wants to see children going hungry in the classroom – I think that’s ridiculous. Nobody’s that evil.”

He says there are two conversations going on here.

“The first one is a debate over whether or not you think the state has a role in providing nutritious meals for kids in school. That’s not the conversation we’re having right now – this is not about whether or not we should be doing this.

-- quoted from the above linked article.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

All of this article was concerning, with Winston taking lead from America and Luxon falling in behind, but I was disappointed in Hopkins. Diversity means that we can hire on merit, not this half-acceptance that less privileged classes need development.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told reporters it was vital that the public service fairly represented the New Zealand population.

"That's not saying that people aren't appointed based on merit, they are... but it means we're being more proactive in developing talent and making sure our public sector workforce actually reflects who we are as a country."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/544425/christopher-luxon-open-to-adopting-some-of-nz-first-s-anti-woke-proposals

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

This has always been the point, degrade services, shame those who need them. Go fuck yourself Luxon.

'Go make a Marmite sandwich'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says parents who are dissatisfied with the new school lunch programme should "make a marmite sandwich and put an apple in a bag".
It comes after numerous problems were reported with the school lunches including most recently, plastic melted into the food.
Luxon made the comments during an interview with Newstalk ZB on Tuesday morning, saying parents who were unhappy with the lunches should pack them themselves.
"If you are unhappy with it, for God's sake, go make a Marmite sandwich and put an apple in a bag just like you and I had."
He said he'd rather have parents take responsibility for feeding their children rather than the government.

https://rnz.liveblog.pro/lb-rnz/blogs/67c5e4aa3dbbf0ac31c0918b/index.html?liveblog._id=urn:newsml:localhost:2025-03-03T21:34:44.626463:23a14295-03d5-4be1-b0db-5fcaada6d1ef-%3Eeditorial

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

This need to be praised and ego appeased is so bad, and probably where the tech right and Trump find a lot of common ground.

"You don't have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position. But you're not acting at all thankful, and that's not a nice thing. I'll be honest. That's not a nice thing."

Zelensky openly challenged the US president over his softer approach toward Putin, urging him to "make no compromises with a killer".

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/543376/donald-trump-and-volodymyr-zelensky-clash-in-heated-meeting-at-the-white-house-about-war-in-ukraine

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Hahaha wtf could this mean?

Prior to the new OPM guidance, Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/543082/musk-s-new-ultimatum-spurs-fresh-confusion-among-us-government-workers

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

America is a farce, a full-contact farce.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1161/all-info

All Information (Except Text) for H.R.1161 - To authorize the President to enter into negotiations to acquire Greenland and to rename Greenland as "Red, White, and Blueland".

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Just this guy, box cannot be empty for a minute

Griffin, ginger and white cat, now quite large, proudly sitting in a box on the bench that I had just emptied, turned around and Woop in the box he goes.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Hey, just an idea, a small tiny idea: perhaps doing business isn't the only reason for life to exist on this planet and not everything should be bent or broken in its service?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was designed to prevent US citizens from bribing foreign leaders to advance their own aims. According to an advanced copy of the White House fact sheet obtained by the news agency Reuters, Trump argues that the act has become cumbersome for US businesses.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/10/trump-live-news-us-president-pledges-25-percent-steel-aluminium-tariffs

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Wife done finished this little book nook thing and it's pretty neat I think. It's a rolife kit if you were in a searching mood

Close up if the scene, a tram at the back of an alleyway of balconied apartments, river between buildings.

On a bookshelf with multiple nicknacks and books, a little lit up scene is between two big books

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Other parts are more subtle, but still just wrong. Another "truth": That a person’s hard work, success, and wealth should be celebrated. Here conflating the three together, as if hard work results in wealth, and that if someone is weathly then obviously they worked hard for it. Just lies.

Screenshot from the speech "That a person’s hard work, success, and wealth should be celebrated.

"

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Here's a particular example from his 'list of truths' about 'the right values'. How can we be sure of these? I don't get paid depending on how productive I am, and there is nothing forcing my employer to raise my wages even if I can show it was my work that gave them profit.

Screenshot of the text Seymour's speech reading : "That higher wages come from higher productivity, not from politicians passing laws.

That lower, flatter taxes encourage people to work, save and invest.

"

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Neat fact: In NZ our coins are resized to match inflation. The larger 50c piece below is from 2006 and would have been worth about 76c in today's money. www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-pol...

Photo of a hand with the 2006 version of 50c and 20c pieces next to their current day versions next to each other for scale. The current versions are approximately 30% smaller. Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouskiwi/205432471/ and used under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/. Yeah this is a bit and our money size does not actually fluctuate by inflation, but it is fun that it kinda lines up with current CPI rates and was listening to a mbmbam episode where they were talking about eating money and I thought of the old 50c piece cause that one had HEFT. It would be a solid meal. You could only fit like $2.50 in your wallet, you could slam that cash down and cause damage to a table. You were basically trading for goods of equivalent weight. As a child I almost choked on one. No boomer.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

If you have time off and are getting concerned about how to optimise it: that's the system being internalised. Doing without a goal is my own little act of resistance.

Pen sketch of perhaps a long legged creature with bug eyes and a trunk, diagrams to the left in and unknown language.

Pen sketch portrait of a man whose hair untangles into many different forms, bats, waterwheels, mountains, rabbits.

Pen sketch of an imaginary place called the grey peninsula, with towns, forests, fjords and a large volcano.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Hey Google, people shouldn't be asking how long it takes for potatoes to get soft in an air fryer.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Inside us all there are two Griffins

Perched precariously on the remaining curtain after destroying the previous on Griffin unsuccessfully hunts spider on the ceiling.

Griffin sleepy snuggle against patient brother. Cats.

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

It's an evolutionary adaptation from medieval times when geese were larger, organised and would disguise themselves as foxes. Although the modern goose is relatively domesticated, they are still incredibly dangerous.

Gees and Fox in English Bestiary, 1230-40. MS Harley 4751 © British Library

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Alex @flanofcrows.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Tip: you can just make stuff up and it's fun.

Rules of the place: do not knock on unknown doors, helicopters are looking for you, the waterfall above the stars grants one wish - do not take it, the winter trees give trustworthy advice, those at the manor are bound to offer help, but the have forgotten.

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