iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

“Colorado is different,” chapter 3071: upgraded squirrels.

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Happy National Coffee Day from double Julius (who is questioning both this weird beverage he’s never heard of and why I’m writing stuff on Cicero)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Supernatural yogurt to go with supernatural Socrates (not pictured: supernatural coffee because no one needs caffeinated Socrates)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Duolingo Dutch has moved on from rhinos, but continues to keep its content practical.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Taking advantage of a writing assignment to learn a little more about a local celebrity’s work as a classicist (Hazel Barnes, though she had her PhD in Classics, became much more famous as a translator of Sartre)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Remember to decorate your dystopian sci-fi with Latin (food dispenser in “Silo” episode 3.10; hopefully spoiler-free)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I don’t know what I expected from a newsletter titled “Wander into history’s softer side” or what I think “wholesome history” (write an essay on that!) looks like, but “regency reads” and (too far down to screenshot) “Amish romance” wasn’t it.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Quick trip to San Francisco for fog, the Etruscans at the Legion of Honor and assorted other fun.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Dear diary, I ran into the sacred chicken from @katherinemcdon.bsky.social ‘s Italy Before Rome cover today. I didn’t picture it being fun-sized!

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

No one quite does “fall semester is coming” deco quite like Costco (ok, fine, I haven’t been to Home Depot lately)

Half a gigantic plastic skeleton seemingly emerging from wooden pallets.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Doing homework for an independent study next semester while waiting for the county to declare my car fit to drive for another two years. I wonder what Marcus Aurelius would say about smog infomercials (no, not really).

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Publishing a book in 2026 means endless AI spam in the form of weird remixes of the press website. Apparently they also come in impersonation mode.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Oh, look, the proofs fairy has brought another gift. (Appearing in _Exemplary Representation(s) of the Past: New Readings of Valerius Maximus’ Facta et Dicta Memorabilia_ with Brill and out in January)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Clipped from one of the other sites: Nietzsche in a letter: “Dear friend! What a summer! I picture you sitting in your room, more omelet than human.” I’m definitely feeling more omelet than human today.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Oh yay, green owl Dutch has discovered the German neighbors.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

After a lull in May/June, the AI book spam is once again on. And they’ve all been this… an org that doesn’t exist (I’m on Goodreads and was librarian until earlier this year) and "valuable insights into one of history's most influential civilizations,” which is just “robot, go home” territory.

A long text clip. The especially offending part: “Your research into Roman identity, criminal behavior, religious practice, and the complexities of the Roman Republic and early Empire provides readers with valuable insights into one of history's most influential civilizations.”

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

It may not be North America’s most competent airport, but the social media game is A+. (For folks outside the U.S.: this is a Colorado-sized version of the infamous Trojan Horse popcorn bucket some theaters sold until they ran out 5 minutes later)

Instagram post from the Denver airport showing the wooden horse popcorn bucket in front of the Denver airport.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Seriously, cold brew with orange peel is a miraculous beverage.

Glas filled with black cold brew, some ice cubes, orange peel standing on a white saucer

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In other news, I saw this t-shirt in the wild today.

Black short-sleeved t-shirt with "slow down I am from the 20th century" written on it in yellow in an old-timey font with a floral border.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

This is such a delightfully weird book

Cover of Julia Lovell’s translation of Monkey King Journey to the West

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I’ll play #ReliefWednesday for once… here’s a Sucullus (a Gallo-Roman god of agriculture and/or death, depending on what you read) found in the Lapidarium in Avignon.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

In the meanwhile, over on the green owl app, some real Dutch problems.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

In our occasional series on making fun of academic technology, look at the lovely unique file names EBSCO's "academic search ultimate" gives you. SMH.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Turn right at the cheese and get to day 2 of a stimulating workshop on religious toleration in classical antiquity. PDF of program here: medievalstudies.nl/wp-content/u...

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Discovery ist übrigens eine Sackgasse

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I loved this detail from the BBC coverage. “It could happen that some curse or misfortune may befall the thief… that’s not a threat, it is a reality—such things do happen.”

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

In further news about problems with Dutch rhinos…

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I know we’re over the green owl app, but where else would I learn such useful phrases?

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

If you're ever in Loveland, you can find the sculpture near the rollerskating banana.

Large sculpture of a banana... that has feet with roller skates.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Today's bizarre bit classical reception of sorts, Victor Issa's "Power of Thought" (2022) as seen in the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, CO. Please note colosseum... more details (and more ancient Mediterranean world) here: www.bronzepowerofthought.com , which also has an image description.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Help, Virgil is taking over my Diodorus paper!

A desktop computer with the keyboard besieged by green and yellow Virgil commentaries.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

I took the espresso cups when the house got sold and wish I'd taken more.

An espresso cup speckled in different shades of brown on a wooden table.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

How I’m spending most of this high summer in March day in Boulder: the Met Live broadcast of “Tristan und Isolde” in an over-air conditioned cinema. Big opera (5 1/2 hours) for a big heat wave.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I had a bit of an "ugh, not another journal" come on when I saw that Hermes had revised its language policy, but, no, this one isn't "we're going English-only," but "You can now send us stuff in Spanish in addition to the usual German, English, French, Italian, and Latin."

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

That said, CAMWS’s expedition to Mobile provided occasion to speculate on how much it cost the University of Southern Alabama in consulting fees to develop its “USA” branding…

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Forever my favorite Ides take: “Julius Caesar, popular Roman leader and author, dies at the age of 55 surrounded by friends.”

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I finally took a look at the Einstein AI Homework Agent that has all of us despairing today. It's so, so much worse than it looks. Like people write sci fi stories about this worse. I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Apparently when it's 1966 and you're E. R. Dodds, you can publish a piece on how no-one got your exam question right. It's actually an interesting piece (as you'd expect from Dodds), but the framing is wild. (Dodds, E. R. “On Misunderstanding the ‘Oedipus Rex.’” Greece & Rome 13 (1966): 37–49)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Frequent CU thought... I miss Innisfree! (The coffee shop that was basically the humanities faculty living room until the pandemic took it out at one of its first acts... here from the Lego model of campus, which also isn't a thing anymore)

Lego model of a freestanding light brown and gray building with a flat roof labeled "Innisfree Poetry Bookstore and Café." It has a glass facade, some bikes are parked out front, and various people (a couple wearing cowboy hats) are mingling.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Fortunately there's a handy pronunciation guide...

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Currently at the Archäologische Staatssammlung in Munich: lots and lots of gladiators, from spectacular helmets from Pompeii to life-sized fight reconstructions. On view until May 3rd and very much worth it.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

The first academic book of the year, Lamont’s excellent “In Blood and Ashes,” comes with a fun interactive element for the classicist working on curses: some apparent production problems mean you have to rip or cut several of the pages with the endnotes since they are still attached to each other.

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Since I know a lot of people have a lot of feelings about 2025… (my 2025 included several big personal highlights, but I’m not sad it’s basically over. And, yes, Bitmöji is still in the Santa outfit because it’s sort of Christmas until Epiphany)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Robo-coffee was the the only option at a tiny regional airport I was at a few months ago, and, yeah, not sold...

Half oval sign with a skull stylized to look vaguely robotic and "Please stir flavored drinks, #nothumbs, Proof I won't take every job" written around it.

White robot arm holding a clear coffee cup in front of a coffee machine

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Yes, writing is going great, and the tech is helping. Why do you ask? (what even is it with 2/3s of these suggestions?)

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Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Roman Empire folks may be interested in my latest acquisition from the historical fiction section. Posteguillo writes in Spanish and has a ton of Roman historical fiction, though his Julia Domna books are the only ones I saw in French translation. There doesn’t appear to be an English version.

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