iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

@benedikt_lauenburg Congratulations! I’m just back a presentation to the good people at nameless@actuallyreal.not on optimizing ways to release synergies in existing human carbon bonds among our surplus meat bodies.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

You know what I like here in the #Fediverse ? I never see a post that looks like anything on #LinkedIn…

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

1990s me was expecting “KLF is gonna rock you” as the campaign slogan, but Tammy Wynette swinging “All bound for Moo Moo Land” seems most plausible now… #bcpoli #BCpolitics m.youtube.com/watch?v=hIQ907rMxmo&p…

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Imagine the state of our public discourse today if we still loaded all software off of cassette tapes… Truly the glory days!

Commodore Vic 20 cassette tape drive. I remember loading games that required flipping the tape to the other side halfway through!

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026

If I’m receiving #AI generated work emails from colleagues whom I know could neither write these messages nor attend to the details in what they’ve sent, why read them at all? This isn’t communication. It’s a forklift going to the gym for me & eating my vegetables…

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Reposted by James Gifford

Glyph @glyph.im · 03/09/2026

believing that LLMs will soon be able to take on economically valuable tasks fully autonomously because their outputs sound increasingly plausible and surely it's just a matter of extending that intelligence into agency is like believing that pretty soon video games are going to have food in […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

RE: halo.nu/@theguardian_us_technology/… The perfectly caustic use of “[sic]” in this article is delicious… Also, pronunciation isn’t literacy, and the preponderance of Latin and French terms in the list is a far more effective gauge of social class in English than it […]

mas.to

Original post on mas.to

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

I want to see something more here, something that transcends. But all I see is Yakov Smirnov, and I can't escape the sense that this failure in myself articulates an aporia that the absence of the Zizek of the 1990s would somehow be able to articulate. Also […] [Original post on mas.to]

Yakov Smirnov circa 1989 telling a joke about cars that cleverly gets Americans to buy tickets to his show…

Ron Perlman getting ready to give a public lecture on the French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan (specifically in relation to Seminar X)

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026

It’s good advice… Feels like a Duchamp installation.

A men’s urinal with the sign “NON-POTABLE. NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

I still remember the theme song to "Bits & Bytes," but I'd totally forgotten it was Luba Goy!! This explains so much about my later reactions to the Royal Canadian Air Farce. #nostalgia #1980s www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_T5mvuguw

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026

This is an interesting reading: “This part of Sinon’s story feels like a direct parallel to the way the powers of the western world have been using trans kids for decades now. They, too, have been drawn into a conflict outside of their control. They have been unwitting participants in a war […]

mas.to

Original post on mas.to

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

It literally ends with him looking a gift horse in the mouth?!? 😳 #odyssey

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2026

Ice cream shop. Not a unicorn. Not a unicow. A unicown.

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Reposted by James Gifford

Dallas in Van @iamgroot.pixelfed.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026

This was the spot that made me fall in love with Montreal skyline, then I moved there for 8 months. Could not find work so moved back to the west coast. Tu me manques, Montréal Original Date: Sept 11, 2023 45.506633° -73.584437° #montreal #montréal #qubec […] [Original post on pixelfed.social]

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Reposted by James Gifford

Carrie Shanafelt @carrideen.c18.masto.host.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Kane Parsons, the 20yo director of Backrooms, mentioned Punishment Park (1971) as an inspiration in an interview, which I had not seen, though I love Peter Watkins's 1964 Culloden. We watched Punishment Park tonight and it's somehow simultaneously shocking and satisfying to hear so many of the […]

c18.masto.host

Original post on c18.masto.host

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

To be clear, not *my* work! I’m just boosting. (I do ms. and bibliographical work on 19 & 20C)

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

Well, this is big news!!! "We have completely virtually unwrapped and read PHerc. 1667 — the scroll the Vesuvius Challenge community knows as Scroll 4 — without ever touching its pages. It is the first Herculaneum papyrus to be digitally unrolled and read in full, end to end" […]

mas.to

Original post on mas.to

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

We need to revive "ROFL" in our social media… TFW I'm all out of LOLs.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 22/06/2026

@pestomusic.eurosky.social @OrionKidder Was going to say I've done this before with bluetooth, but the hub is a great idea!

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

This can only signal even more chaos in a party that elected its new leader with 51% on the fourth ballot. I don’t see how that party coheres. #bcpoli #canpoli www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-colu…

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

New statement from the BC Conservative Party… #bcpoli #canpoli

GIF of Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones saying “I choose violence”

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2026

Also, this is all utterly heartbreaking.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 24/05/2026

I’m watching Louis Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere,” and all I can see is Tom Vu… #documentary www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMtBmlA8pjE

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2026

“Author” is the wrong word here…

Are Technica headline that reads “Al put ‘synthetic quotes’ in his book. But this author wants to keep using it.”

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Reposted by James Gifford

Heidi Li Feldman @heidilifeldman.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026

Once again, the Onion sustains me.

The ONION®
Tuesday, May 12, 2026

[then a photo of a gas pump with a display showing
Regular
4x10 to the fifth power
Shell
V-Power]

NEWS
Gas Station Price Sign Using
Scientific Notation

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 10/05/2026

I logged in to #BSKY. Utter performative hot-take trash… I’ve grown fond of no one caring what my opinion or polemic is here. Feels more like community.

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Reposted by James Gifford

Dan York @danyork.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

First time seeing a “NO META GLASSES” sign in the door of a shop! I’m not surprised… and I expect we might see more of these kind of things in the years ahead. #Meta #MetaGlasses #AR #privacy #surveillance #Vermont

A sign on a store window indicates "NO META GLASSES," featuring images of different sunglasses models. It also includes instructions to respect staff by asking permission before taking pictures or videos, with a friendly "Thank you!" at the bottom.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

@OrionKidder Someday there’s a project to be done on Durrell in Cohen Greek poems…

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

@OrionKidder Oooh, it’s Durrell’s translation of Cavafy’s “The God Abandons Antony” in The Alexandria Quartet, which is the basis for Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving.” It’s been my “flying out” tag for at least 15 years now.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

"Turn to the open window and look down To drink past all deceiving Your last dark rapture from the mystical throng And say farewell, farewell to Yukon leaving" #YXY

A photo from the plane flying out of Whitehorse, YK

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Reposted by James Gifford

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸 @chris.mstdn.chrisalemany.ca.ap.brid.gy · 28/04/2026

I guess it's "Public Education" be damned. ---- "Don Avison, a former deputy minister of education and former board chair for Emily Carr University, has been tasked with suggesting fixes that don’t rely on additional provincial funding." --- me: Students, Insitituions, and previous NDP […]

mstdn.chrisalemany.ca

Original post on mstdn.chrisalemany.ca

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

Must be one of those Paw Patrol pup… Chase, right? I hope it's Chase, presumably inside.

The text reads: "Adorable Shepherd Pup: Polyresin Figurine in Black and Brown." For whatever reason, the image is of something like a booze still or some kind of stainless steel stove-top pressure blaster… Maybe the puppy is inside the pressure cooker chamber?

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 25/03/2026

Happy New Year to those who celebrate… 🎉

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 11/03/2026

André Lavoie has a new article on Lawrence Durrell in Montréal's Le Devoir, and the ILDS conference in Vancouver this coming summer has a lovely mention! He was also kind enough to reach out to me and to Isabelle Keller-Privat as well as the Montréal playwright Serge Boucher for comments […]

mas.to

Original post on mas.to

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Reposted by James Gifford

jubiloMX @jubilomx.thecanadian.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2026

The place where the #SkyTrain, the #metro system of #Vancouver, splits into two routes, the bridge that crosses the #FraserRiver southbound, or continues to the east... #photo #photography #urban #train #metro #skytrain #translink #saturday

A bridge with a curved design is visible above a park with trees. The bridge has a metal railing. The trees have a mix of green and orange leaves. A streetlight stands on the right side of the bridge. The sky is overcast.

A security vehicle is parked on a platform near a train track, with a bridge above and street lights along the side. The setting is outdoors with trees and buildings in the distance.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2026

Beautiful, long walk in the sunlight from rhe université along the Canal du Midi today. #toulouse

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

Walked past an interesting home in Albi today… Feels Roman. #ironwork #design

Phalloi iron railing with sperm and ovum. The testicles may be the most troubling part of the whole design.

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James Gifford @giffordjames.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

My first visit to Albi, and the cathedral is stunning. The scale of it is amazing, then the colour, then the Last Judgment…

Cathedral of Sainte Cecilia from across the river

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Reposted by James Gifford

Stefan Bohacek @fediverse.stefanbohacek.online · 14/02/2026

On this day in 1990, the Voyager 1 space probe took a photo of our planet from approximately 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away. "Commissioned by NASA and resulting from the advocacy of astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the photograph was […] [Original post on stefanbohacek.online]

A grainy, low resolution image of space, with faint bright-colored streaks. An arrow points to a small dot, our very own planet Earth.

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