iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 2m

Advice from any cat people out there - this cat has been visiting the garden periodically for about a year now. Was really nervous and timid. But eventually allowed me to give her a rub. Now she's visits every day. Just wondering if she's a stray? What should I do? #cat #caturday

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 3h

We are here because believers in an apocalyptic vision of computer progress have used their enormous wealth to push the technology on us. They never have justified their actions beyond their religious beliefs.

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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 6h

This really made something click for me. Found this extremely insightful on why liberal societies - which want to be the freest societies - struggle so much with freedom restrictions. (Translation in Alt)

What actually bothers people is a symptom of any liberal society. It liberates its citizens and then restricts them once more.
A woman born into an ultra-conservative family that envisages only the role of mother for women is protected by liberal society and can instead lead a childless life in a lesbian relationship with a Muslim woman in Berlin-Mitte. Liberal society is constantly on the lookout for people who have not yet been able to realise their full potential because the traditions, customs and morals of their social milieu prevent them from doing so. Anyone who says that something is improper, contradicts a divine plan or is contrary to public decency will find a reliable opponent in liberalism. Liberalism does not condone everything, but it permits whatever does not restrict the freedoms of others.
In this movement, liberal society challenges all communities that provide a sense of purpose. Parents no longer have as much say over what their children should do, and the churches should not dictate how long a marriage must last or what a woman does with her body. And just because things used to be done the way tradition dictated, nobody has to do them that way today. This devaluation of old institutions does not mean that the liberal state wants no churches, no families, no traditions. It merely curtails their authority. It gives them less weight. What is truly permitted and what is not is to be determined solely by the state through its laws, and not by a normative milieu. The motto is: anything that is not forbidden is permitted.

In this way, even what is good is lost. A vulgar, boorish man who, in the past, would not have dared to describe a sexual fantasy to a female politician for fear of social censure from his family and colleagues, can today feel free to do whatever he pleases. The only authority that can legitimately stop him is the law. So he need only ask whether it is forbidden and how he must phrase it so that it is sufficiently ambiguous to still be covered by freedom of expression. And if he manages to string together a series of ambiguities that make his intention obvious but do not constitute a criminal offence, he presents the liberal state with a major problem: the state cannot ban what is simply naughty, tasteless and repulsive.
This creates a vacuum. Much of what was previously curbed through dialogue, social respect, parental discipline, upbringing and moral authority is now left unregulated. Yet there is an urgent need amongst citizens for immoral behaviour to continue to be curbed. So the liberal state is called upon. It is expected to sanction thoughtless words, inappropriate physical contact, prejudiced speech, reckless driving, unbridled consumption, unhealthy eating and the infliction of discomfort. This blurs the distinction between legality and morality.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 5h

Now that the comedian Hape Kerkeling has been vocally supporting a ban on the AfD and has talked about his grandfather, who was sent to a KZ, commentators including the magazine FOCUS have pointed out “Kerkeling said his Opa was a victim. But did you know he was a communist criminal??? Curious.”

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 3h

Upton Sinclair remains undefeated

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Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 9h

Long read on Drumcree stand-off: Even moderate hearts are hardened as fears of contagion mount. Top unionists & Orange are privately both furious and worried, while previously unreported comments from Breandán Mac Cionnaith reveal the key player’s mindset.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Marching backwards: Drumcree stand-off hardens even moderate hearts as fears of contagion mount

Orange figures are privately both furious and worried, while previously unreported comments from Breandán Mac Cionnaith reveal the key player’s mindset

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Lisa O’Carroll @lisaocarroll.bsky.social · 3h

One wonders what might have happened if London intervened last Saturday night and used powers in Parades Legislation. Several politicians have said scn 11 gives SoS powers to intervene

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 4h

Sometimes I think about how the last ten years started as a publicity stunt for a fading reality show that went sideways.

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kaybell27.bsky.social @kaybell27.bsky.social · 6h

For years I've heard of a large bloke in a red suit flying around in December, being pulled by a herd of reindeer, who breaks into peoples houses, strangely I don't believe that either🙄

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Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · 10h

This is meant to be a provocation, but it show a major generational shift in the German far right - during the Cold War, the far right followed the expellee lobby and talked about 1937 borders (i.e reclaiming East Prussia and Silesia from the USSR and Poland but pre Anschluss of Austria)

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14h

For Trump there are no principles, just greed for, and abuse of, power, partly motivated by what will happen to him when he loses control.

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 6h

Super Idiot Force.

Donald J. Trump f @realDonaldTrump
Following the Historic White House Accord on Super Intelligence, where the World's most important Technology Companies came together, and confirmed their responsibilities to the American People, I am announcing the formation of the Super Intelligence Force (SIF). The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet, and will protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans. The Super Intelligence Force will coordinate the Federal Government's engagement with Consumers, Public Interest Groups, Religious Organizations, Critical Infrastructure Providers, and Super Intelligence Companies, and will be led by Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, and Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, and Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor, and will report to the President of the United States (ME!), and the Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.
TRUMP

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Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 11h

The Russian way of war: attack everyday necessities and kill civilians to instill terror and render society dysfunctional. As in Aleppo, so now in Kyiv. If they could drop barrel bombs they would.

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Chrononaut @chrononaut.bsky.social · 8h

It's heart-warming to watch tech bros who deny the humanity of many groups of people based on different kinds of bigotry so intent on convincing us that their imaginary friend is human.

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Rahel Freiburghaus @rfrbrghs.bsky.social · 11h

Today, Brazilian voters head to the polls to elect a new president. A fitting occasion to remind us Europeans how concentrated presidentialism is in the Americas & to (re-)read Linz’s seminal “The Perils of Presidentialism.” (I created this map for my lecture, using Anckar/Fredriksson's cool data)

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 8h

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

Title: Just announced! Three new Gruffalo books commissioned from bestselling authors!

Lee Chilld:
The Gruffalo just wants a quiet life, but when a crime syndicate moves into the deep dark wood, he must use his terrible claws and the terrible teeth in his terrible jaws to protect the fellow.

Sally Rooney:
The Gruffalo moves to contemporary Dublin. He
ill ever see past his orange eyes, purple prickles and poisonous wart.

Kazuo Ishiguro:
After a long absence, the gruffalo returns to the forest and attempts to make sense of his past. Encounters with a mouse, a fox, an owl and a snake uncover long-buried memories, regrets and revelations.

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Antigone @antigoneinthebes.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

People don’t realize how serious the situation is.

A graph showing number of Germanies over time. Losing one on October 3rd 1990 means by projection we are only decades before reaching -1 Germany in 2072

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warriorseamstress.bsky.social @warriorseamstress.bsky.social · 8h

This 🎯👇 "This is the war we have created in the modern world. Do not look away."

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 22h

I will never fail to repost any advert for one of the best movies ever made.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 03/10/2026

💯 The great strategic mistake was letting an oil soaked dictatorship reconstitute its war machine. Ukrainians, Georgians, and many others have suffered for NATO’s mistake.

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Vlad Vexler @vladvexler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

(4) Putin's regime experiences time differently. Politically revolutionary regimes operate on emergency time. A week or a month can be an eternity for them. This is not true of Western democracies. This fact reduces our confidence in being able to predict what the Putin regime will and will not do.

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Vlad Vexler @vladvexler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

(3) Putin's regime is naturally disposed to political triangulation - the introduction of a third position into a conflict between two positions that is going badly.

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Vlad Vexler @vladvexler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

(2) Our recent over-panic about the Baltic scenario played into Putin's hands; the Baltics are well prepared; Putin's capacities are limited - but Putin doesn't need a provocation in the Baltics to be a military success. He just needs it to generate a political crisis in the West.

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Vlad Vexler @vladvexler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Quick take on the Putin Kaliningrad threat - (1) The actual message is: I don't know if I will ever do a low-threshold challenge to Article 5 in the Baltics. I don't have such plans now. But if I were to do it, and you blockade Kaliningrad in response, I will nuke you (he won't).

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The New York Times has a choice of whether to cover Trumpism as A) an amusing and colorful example of the oddity of American politics, or B) an existential threat to the future of everyone you know and love. Over and over, they choose A. They trivialize themselves.

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The Fate of American Democracy hinges on people who were absolutely OK with Trump 1.0, and pretty much OK with Trump 2.0, right up to the point that filling up their truck with gas got really, really expensive...

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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The stark reality is that Putin’s strategic goal is the EU’s destruction and Ru political control over as much of Europe as possible. Wherever he succeeds will be unfree, just like the Soviet Bloc was, and therefore any European who doesnt want to defend from Russia now is an enemy of freedom.

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Mihnea @miyhnea.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The strait is now frankly a secondary driver of Saudi policy. Taiz is on the breaking point and it opens the road to Aden Houthis can't run a demobilized society, i simply do not believe it and think Riyadh does it to, they'll move to Najran if they achieve victory bsky.app/profile/aphc...

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The panels representing the fate of massed ranks of Conservative councillors in the local elections in 2025 and 2026 are too upsetting to display to general audiences.

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In my view the biggest vulnerabilities in Ukraine's supply chain aren't in Ukraine, they're in the EU/UK. If and more likely when Russia's current campaign falters, it won't take long for Putin's circle to figure this out.

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The escalation spiral underpinning the Putin regime is so embedded that if and more likely when its "Syria" strategy fails as it ultimately did in Syria it is likely to then seek its next big thing that supposedly solves everything by hitting targets in the EU/UK even harder

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óscar @oalo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The book Exocapitalism argues that capitalism has grown so abstract and detached from physical reality and labour that it literally doesn’t need us anymore. Sounds far-fetched but I think that at least in part it is on to something.

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Judah Grunstein @judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

For that matter, if no one is working, who needs these services anymore? And if AI can provide all these services, who needs specialized service-providers rather than just the AI interface? And if it all just comes down to UBI with robot helpers, what is backing the fiat credits it's based on?

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Judah Grunstein @judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

What I don't get about the "AI as jobless future" scenario is where the money comes from. Gates says tax the companies for using the AI agents, but if no humans are working, who is paying the companies for the AI services they're providing so the companies can pay taxes?

nytimes.com

Opinion | Bill Gates’s Blunt Warning on A.I. (Gift Article)

As A.I. capabilities accelerate, the technologist is shocked by the “complete lack of engagement” with the question of how to manage its risks.

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I am living to see the people of NI prove this assessment wrong. The Drumcree election is coming, but people who are actively whipping up tensions might well find themselves playing to a diminishing base. V few people believed this march would ever be back on the agenda: www.ft.com/content/9297...

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🖖🏳️‍⚧️T'Lynn 🦇David🦇 Cooper🏳️‍⚧️🖖 @awholedamntown.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

75 years ago today, the single greatest comic ever published appeared in the world. Peanuts never topped their very first strip. lollllllllll

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Dan Thomas @itsdanthomas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The most disappointing video you’ll see today.

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Cannot be emphasised enough that Trump II will plausibly cause the kind of death count we associate with the worst dictatorships of the last century. Unspeakably bad that he came to be president of the world's most powerful nation.

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Marcel Dirsus @marceldirsus.com · 02/10/2026

I always keep thinking back to this story. When someone wants to close a factory in Germany or whatever, unions hand out whistles for protests. In France, bosses have to consider the possibility they might get kidnapped www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j...

theguardian.com

French workers at Goodyear tyre plant take bosses captive

Workers in Amiens take two managers hostage at plant billed for closure in bid to keep factory open or win 'enormous' pay-offs

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Marcel Dirsus @marceldirsus.com · 02/10/2026

President of France has to be among the top 3 most difficult jobs on earth. Anything you do, literally anything, stuff goes up in flames. Petrol prices too high? France burns. Petrol prices too low? France burns. Action? Flames. Inaction? Believe it or not, also flames. All fun, 24/7 365 days a year

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Jen Mercieca @jenmercieca.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This photo is poetry. We often notice how Trump is shown "in spectacle res": outside of the image event, as a comment that it's the Trump Show, not a presidency. Here he's shot from below, outside the image event, hands up, mics out, and the Sun has obliterated his face. Eclipsed while spinning.

Shot from below, Trump's hands are up, mics are extended the Sun has obliterated his face.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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Steve Rosenberg @bbcstever.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"In the closed world of Russian politics, what clues can we find to what comes next?" Our report from Moscow on Vladimir Putin's appearance at a foreign policy forum.

youtu.be

Russia: "What clues to what comes next?"

YouTube video by Steve Rosenberg

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Maria Popova @popovaprof.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Headline writers saying Putin "warned the West against escalation" should stop helping the russian dictator manipulate the narrative. He started the war. If he attacks more European countries, he'll be escalating. The West hasn't matched his escalation, let alone ever escalated.

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

We all receiving our Government issued Emergency Booklets in Ireland... and they're pretty rubbish. Certainly compared to the Swedish one.

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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

European political elites need to understand that if they say European security isn't possible without the US, they are actually saying that European security isn't possible. For many reasons, they don't want to accept that, but they urgently need to.

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