iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I found a Rarity-83 word worth 94 pts in OUTLIER. EAGLE EYES · 870 points · 10 rare words. Only 29 players have ever found it in all of Outlier. 4 finds no one else found today. OUTLIER: the daily word hunt where the rarest words win. Can you beat me? playoutlier.com/s/5XQSPK

playoutlier.com

OUTLIER · Day 133

oligomer scored 870 on Day 133. Can you beat them?

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Velour Shirt @object.works · 29/09/2026

This is a metaphor for so many things these days that I couldn't choose

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emma burnett @slashnburnett.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Amirite tho

White text on yellow-orange ombré background that reads:
Don't let Al ruin your writing.
It's your writing.
Ruin it yourself.

Amirite

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Caustic Cover Critic @causticcovercritic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You too could be like Jacob (ie excellent and reading something from my list of 75 great but neglected books): causticcovercritic.blogspot.com/2020/02/75-e...

causticcovercritic.blogspot.com

75 Excellent But Neglected Books

On Twitter I did a big thread of 75 unjustly forgotten or neglected books, so I thought I'd put the whole thing here to make it more eas...

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FieldExplores (Gator Days) @fieldexplores.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Secret Ingredient - Gator Days

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I gotta say, this isn't exactly weakening my 'kill it, kill it with fire' attitude towards the slop machine

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Victoria Rose Richards @aerialembroidery.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

80 hours of embroidery! This aerial landscape is directly inspired by Dartmoor and I'd say I have another 30-ish hours to go? I'm now starting to fill in the fields for the sheep, the tor area will be done last as I'm still deciding whether I want a slope or not 😅 I hope you like it! #art

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn aerial-view landscape. It depicts a moorland scene in a range of green shades, about 70% completed.

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The existence of the terms 'orthodox' and 'paradox' suggests a 1,3-disubstituted isomer 'metadox', the apparent nonexistence of which shows that each moiety is strongly deactivating towards derivatisation at the (3) position also, nonexistence is one more than octexistence, I don't make the rules

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I heard there was a shop for cheese That you could visit if you please But when you got there, they'd sell nothing to ya For cheddar there was not much call The camembert, cat's eaten all No edam, colby, gouda, brie, or gruyère (Brie or gruyère, brie or gruyere, brie or gruyère, brie or gru-u-yère)

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Draculosity Jones: Ghost Skeleton @brainmage.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

What a fucking world where I find myself writing letters like this to my MP.

Letter to my MP:

Dear Fleur Anderson,

I am writing regarding the shocking scenes of masked far-right thugs blocking ports in Dover and, somehow more shockingly, forcing a Portsmouth RNLI station to close.

These scenes are horrific. Equally horrific is the rhetoric from some MPs and the press that these people have "reasonable concerns".

Just Stop Oil protestors have been swiftly stopped and arrested. The crux of their campaign is to ensure that the planet remains in a condition that is livable for humans. The existential threat of climate change is one of the most reasonable concerns one can imagine. Yet they were arrested and decried in the press.

Protestors opposing the genocide in Gaza have been equally swiftly arrested, with some even being proscribed as terrorist organisations. For opposing an ongoing genocide that has killed over 69,000 people - including 17,000 children - according to The British Red Cross. Stopping this appalling violence is another incredibly reasonable concern. Yet they are arrested and decried in the press, while others are proscribed as terrorists.

Preventing saving the lives of desperate people fleeing unsafe conditions is in no way a reasonable concern, yet MPs and the press talk about these masked thugs, preventing lives from being saved and swarming areas of key infrastructure, as having reasonable concerns. This is a shocking stain on this country.

Continued in next image

$Letter continues: Migration is a net good for the country, even before you take into account the ageing workforce. The anti-migrant rhetoric comes from dangerous and violent men, and is spurred on by a press that thrives on outrage. All human lives have equal value. Anyone preventing a lifeboat station - a lifeboat station! - from operating and saving human lives should be arrested and charged far more quickly than an elderly vicar sitting quietly and holding a sign. I urge you to use your power as an MP to speak out on this. To call these balaclava-wearing men what they are: violent, masked thugs who speak only for a tiny, hateful minority. These are not reasonable concerns of patriots. These are the words and deeds of vicious people who want to fracture this country. By way of reply, please confirm that you will raise this issue in parliament, and use your power to speak out against this disturbing rise of fascist violence. Yours sincerely, Guy Kelly$

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

My own view on using AI in research - other than expertly developed machine-learning approaches - is "kill it, kill it with fire", but the below is a nuanced and broadly sensible framework which others might well find useful

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Roses are red Lemon fragrance smells clean

Screenshot of Guardian Australia news article thumbnail, 22 September 2026.
Headline reads: More than 150,000 underwater explosives used to deter seals at Tasmanian salmon farms since 2016

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Wholeheartedly agree, but who are 'bathroom people'?

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paolo @paolopalma.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Working on a new taxonomy for research methods

Punt square with rows depicting data collection (fun, not fun) and columns depicting data analysis (fun, not fun)

Qual interviews are listed as fun to collect and not fun to analyze while surveys are listed as fun to analyze but not fun to collect

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

inchoate roaring and subtitles or GTFO

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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Also, a ghost gave me chlamydia."

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

went for an intimate dinner with someone who really likes breathing out, it was my expiration date

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Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A personal story about that phrase “young men of fighting age” applied to asylum seekers. As many of you know I took in a young Ukrainian woman under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. As part of that process, soon after she arrived we were visited by the local authority rep and a Fire Brigade rep.

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Life hack: find someone as attentive towards you as Icelandic Wikipedia is towards known murders in Iceland going back to at least the 1970s

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Jacqui Lambie's statement today, comparing AI companies to dinosaurs in Jurassic Park testing the fences, is especially apt. A high-tech concern hubristically burning hellacious amounts of money for the promise of something which isn't technically achievable? All that's missing is the trike dung.

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𝕯𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖘™ @dallasbarnett.com · 15/09/2026

Auckland Airport shop uses Base44 vibecoding app to build their website that allows anyone to edit the page. Hilarity ensues takehome.co.nz/HotFoodMenu

takehome.co.nz

Hot Food Menu | Takehome Express

Your go-to app for delicious hot food at Auckland Airport. Quickly browse and order your favorite meals for a convenient and tasty experience.

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Skellyton 🦇 @infinitefinite.blog · 01/11/2025

You can pry the Oxford Comma from my cold, dead, and third adjective hands.

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Juliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Fun fact a falconer told me. A hawking glove's primary purpose is to stop the bird feeling the pulse in the hawker's wrist, otherwise it will tighten its grip with its talons until the pulse stops because that's how it kills prey. There's no way to override this instinct without hurting the bird.

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Greg Egan @gregegansf.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

TIL from @dandkuniverse.bsky.social that you can sometimes hear meteors burning up in the atmosphere *at the same time as you see them*, despite the discrepancy in the speed of light and the speed of sound. How? Here is an abstract from a relevant paper:

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Pets probably know that TVs are devices that produce images and sound for human entertainment, and they likely also know there are other contraptions that manifest only sound for similar reasons. But what the hell do they think books are?

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Grant @syncingsinking.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This is just to say I have solved the open questions that were in your paper and which you were probably saving for your phd students Forgive me they were delicious so incentive-laden and followed so readily once your postdoc's drafts mysteriously found their way into my training data

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Font choice is important; so is capitalisation. Changing either could've avoided the assertion that it's a jar of MILO SALSA

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Charles Hardin Holley's signature contribution to 50s rock'n'roll was originally titled 'Margaret Susan'. But the couplet "If you knew Margaret Susan / then you'd know why I feel bluesin'" never scanned right, so he simplified it down to 'Peggy Sue', and the song took off like a doomed small plane

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

'barbaric' is clearly a higher oxidation state than 'barbarous'

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Museum Bums @museumbums.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Thinking it was a person in distress, Vancouver police and firefighters broke into Access Gallery to assist this sculpture of a worker unboxing an artwork, called "The Preparator", 2024, by Allysa Pierre 🤣 www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/03/a... 👍🏛️🍑 #MuseumBums

A sculpture showing a reinforced plywood box, with the lid open and the bum and legs of a gallery worker sticking out of the top

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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am sympathetic to Silicon Valley guys ascribing human-level consciousness to AI because if I had to talk to people from Silicon Valley all day I’d probably have a real low bar for sentience too

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Yes, it's hugely expensive; yes, its use carries heinous environmental and societal costs; and yes, it must be tightly controlled for the good of humanity; but it's the future. Those of you who are not incorporating antimatter into your daily workflows will be LEFT BEHIND. In this TED talk I shall

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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

One great thing about AI is that you can now be in a one-person cult and still not be the leader

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 04/09/2026

An incredible image, and overall winner of this year's Australian Geographic Nature Photography award. Using a DJI Mavic 3 Pro (drone), Matt Deakin captured an extremely rare moment - seeing a critically endangered Sawfish in the wild and passing by a Turtle, off the Pilbara coast in WA.

Aerial image of a Sawfish as it swims below and past a turtle

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Mike Brooks @mikebrooks668.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Good morning. As a (comparatively) successful author I feel it’s time to branch out in my career. As a result, I’m excited to be stepping into the world of professional football. Since I’m physically incapable of playing football at a professional level I will be hiring what I call a “ghostballer”

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Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · 31/08/2026

Most companies that build and offer "AI" tools to us have motivations incompatible with ethical use. The ones that are ethical, we hardly ever see because they're very small-scale and don't force themselves on us at every turn.

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Tuta @tuta.com · 31/08/2026

If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this. Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical letters, all of it. It turned on by default, and there's a class-action lawsuit over how. Here are 5 moves to shut it off, the switch is hidden in two places:

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Simon Petrie (he/him) @fomalhaut451.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Don't be fooled by photos of frost-hardened Queenslanders in T-shirts and shorts. American visitors to the Brisbane/Meanjin Worldcon should be warned that the city can get brutally cold in winter. Typical August temperatures range from a low of only 10 degrees to highs in the low 20s.

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