iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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If you ever wondered why visible light is those particular wavelengths, it's because life evolved to see in the narrow range where water is transparent

Diagram of absorption of emf by water. There's a gap right that dips in the 500 nm range

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European Trade Justice Coalition @eurtradejustice.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The EU has de-sanctioned Mikhail Fridman May as well have put out a massive klaxon alert 🚨 to every other sanctioned Russian oligarch to sue using ISDS tribunals right now!

politico.eu

EU removes two Russian billionaires from sanctions list

Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman were cut from the blacklist after capitals yielded to lobbying by France behind closed doors.

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026

Americans: oh, look, a systemic issue. I will solve it individually

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Tom Coates @tomcoates.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think the lesson of the day, which almost all minority people understand, is that you just don't get to be apolitical. And you particularly can't be apolitical by complying with a blatantly political instruction when you have near infinite money and freedom.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026

If you showed up at Defcon and gave talk about how your autonomous malware did something unexpected and damaged someone else's computers, the first question from the audience would be "Why are you so shit at making secure sandboxes?" It wouldn't be "How are you so awesome at making hacking tools?"

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026

They did what they were designed to do, and because OpenAI ran them with inadequate supervision (without a "human in the loop" that checked each iteration through the Python loop to ensure it hadn't gone off the rails), they trashed a competitor's servers.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026

Once you understand that these are chatbots that were designed to complete challenges like this, using tactics like this, you can understand that the chatbots didn't "go rogue."

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026

When ChatGPT's chatbots deployed this tactic, they weren't "setting their own goals" or displaying worrying initiative. They were rolling out a tactic that has been understood by American middle-schoolers for about two decades.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

Amazon's logistics and cloud computing are extraordinary, but they are eclipsed by the company's *most* profitable line of business, which is *payola*. 11/

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YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 26/08/2026

Reform UK and Tory voters are much more likely than others to think their own views are broadly in line with those of the wider public - but are they right? Reform: 75% say similar Con: 71% Lib Dem: 44% Labour: 42% Green: 38% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

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Xander's Skyscape @wellmanneredxs.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Would makers weep, to see their work rumpled over the mobile earth, so like a carpet shaken out by time's impatient hands to shed the crumbs of a civilisation's leavings. Or marvel that the masters and all their forgotten efforts have passed into dust; only the glory they walked on left to shine.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips76.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This kind of message discipline is rare & special. This vid was made by mazemoore to criticise Bernie but honestly it slaps. He kept on highlighting the harm caused by intensification of oligarchy, &, at last, what was once “left field” is now central to the public conversation.

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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“Drive to reshape West Bank”

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

⚒️ Bronze Age high-tech! Nearly 4,000 years ago, this ingenious stone mould could cast five different sizes of flat axe! Cutting-edge technology from a time when metal was replacing stone, bone and wooden tools! Found in Shropshire in 1961. Shrewsbury Museum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

My photo shows a carved stone axe mould made from Carboniferous Grit displayed on a clear acrylic museum stand. It is roughly a cuboid rectangular, weathered stone block with a recessed axe-shaped cavity on the top face and two axe-shaped cavities on the front face (one small, one large). In total there are moulds for five metal flat axes though not all can be seen in my photo. It was found at Walleybourne Brook, Pontesbury/Church Purverbatch, Shropshire, in 1961. Dated to the Bronze Age, 1900-1700 BC.

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Stan Pham @thisisspiffy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Your first look at the #Murderbot season 2 cast. Aka, what I did on my summer non-vacation. #PremiumQualityEntertainment

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Gabriela Rhinier @gabalut.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Brassica oculus, watercolor on paper, animated in Photoshop and after effects

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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 15/08/2026

I wrote this thread because the Arday news is impossible to escape and suicide coverage is one of the most closely studied and observed genuine triggers there is. The thread has a TW, the app does not. I will be going offline for the rest of the day. Take care!

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

i love when they recover some 3000 year old clay tablet and its something totally relatable like “i hope this tablet finds you well but the group project is a disaster…”

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Cobra meeting PM: well what can we do about these fires? Official: we're already implementing all our plans. PM: but I need to say I've done something. I know, maybe we could randomly scare the shit out of the entire country? Official: I guess...

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Trix @trixranderson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I've been missing from #FindsFriday for months, so it's probably time I got back into it! To tie in with our new paper, we're going to look at inset weights for the next few weeks - seeing what these enigmatic objects are, where they're found, and their ties to the Great Army. This is weight 1706:

A photograph of a small, square piece of lead with a highly-decorated piece of silver fixed to the top by a rivet. It is a lead trade weight recovered from the Viking Great Army camp at Aldwark, North Yorkshire

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Water nationalisation for our water security? End north sea oil & gas - invest in renewables for our energy security? A maximum workplace temperature for worker security? No. A request not to sell BBQs. This is dire from Andy Burnham. Spectacularly mishandling the crisis.

Burnham had faced calls from the green party to chair a cobra meeting on the heatwaves with leader Zack Polanski accusing the pm of inaction amid threats to public health and food supplies

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Tim Clare @timclare.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

This description of how East Anglian 'toadman' sorcerers were reputed to acquire their powers has delighted me this morning. 'through unspecified means' is, in modern parlance, sending me

The initiation ceremony, with certain regional variations, involved the initiate catching a male toad, hanging it from a thorn bush or pegging it to an anthill until its bones had been picked clean, and then carrying the bones on their person until dried. The bones were then thrown into a running stream on a full moon at midnight and all except one would be swept downstream. The remaining small fork-shaped bone when recovered would, through unspecified means, grant its holder psychic control over horses.

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Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

For me on #InternationalCatDay, it's got to be the Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Bowl cat, found in 1974. museum.wales/collections/...

A red glass inlaid stylised cat face in copper alloy.

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Jean Blaylock @jeanblaylock.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

So after years activists digging to uncover the truth and being stonewalled and gaslit by the police at every turn, now the line switches to ‘yeah it’s all true and we knew years ago, but it’s ok we took action and fixed it and it’s all fine now’ #spycops

theguardian.com

Undercover police unit closed down over unjustified surveillance, spycops inquiry told

Senior officer behind closure says SDS caused ‘incalculable harm’ by infiltrating groups that posed no threat

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

For #MosaicMonday a #Roman mosaic with a mesmerizing 3D effect. Domus Romana, near Rabat and Mdina, #Malta , dating 100 BC. 📷️ 🏺 #archaeology

Roman mosaic floor featuring a central square panel depicting a small vessel with two birds perched on its rim. The panel is surrounded by a decorative border of interlocking geometric patterns in black, white, red, and yellow. The mosaic is set within a site with stone columns, evoking a preserved archaeological setting.

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Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Larry laid his mouse in front of the press to be photographed. Lest you ask, this is a real photograph via the Press Association.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/07/2026

This is a subject that's very much on my mind. As November Kelly says, Trump inherited a poker game rigged in his favor and then flipped the table over because he resented having to pretend to play at all. 4/

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Debt Justice @debtjustice.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

UK PM Andy Burnham has announced a £2 cap on bus fares 🚌 a welcome step for people forced into debt to pay for essentials by the cost of living crisis But there's a catch: it's partly funded by switching international climate finance from grants to loans 🧵

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Jean Blaylock @jeanblaylock.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Capping bus fares: good ✅ Paying for capping bus fares by increasing the debt of global south countries trying to cope with climate change: bad ❌

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 21/07/2026

An app is a webpage wrapped in the right kind of IP law to make it a felony to change how it works, which is why companies are infinitely horny to get you to use their apps, not their websites: pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/t... 19/

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: The disenshittified internet starts with loyal “user agents” (07 May 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 21/07/2026

But these same companies insist that "legitimate purpose" can't *possibly* include "remembering the fact that you told us not to spy on you the last time you were here." 15/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 21/07/2026

One of 2026's better tech-related coinages is "dickover," John Gruber's term for > a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction... 1/

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JL Kaufmann @jlkaufmann.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The wildfires in Canada are so bad, SO BAD, the smoke has reached all the way to the UK. I can see your forests burning from LONDON. This is fucking apocalyptic levels of ghastly. My poor dear North American friends and family.

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Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com · 16/07/2026

For your convenience, the Pride and Prejudice live-posting super-thread 📚

A drawing of Elizabeth Bennet, a lovely young woman with her long hair tied up nearly under a ribbon and wearing what is most likely a neo-classically inspired dress, looking pensive, two letters in her hand. Meanwhile Darcy, a handsome but stern-looking fellow, looks longingly at her. Also there is me, a little gremlin in big round glasses, skulking about in the background and hoping that they kiss.

The accompanying text reads “Trung reads Pride and Prejudice for the first time, somehow.”

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Game on, Nige.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Few people understand the scope of the powers UK governments have granted themselves, to criminalise us as terrorists for expressing an opinion. Fewer still understand how illiberal the Court of Appeal judgement is. But @davidallengreen.bsky.social does.🧵 www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

prospectmagazine.co.uk

What the Palestine Action appeal decision tells us about terrorism law

An already broad law is now matched with broad ministerial powers

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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I especially love this diagram.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 23/06/2026

This nightmare is the surveillance advertising industry's fondest dream, a world where it's literally *illegal* to avoid their tracking, all in the name of saving kids...from them! 7/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 23/06/2026

"Age verification" means that *everyone* who does *anything* online will have to submit to fine-grained tracking and recording of *all* their online activities. 6/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 23/06/2026

Problem is, there's no such thing as internet "age verification." What we call "age verification" is actually *mass surveillance*, so invasive and pervasive it makes the ad-tech industry's surveillance look like some kind of cypherpunk darknet pirate utopia: pluralistic.net/2025/08/14/b... 5/

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: “Privacy preserving age verification” is bullshit (14 Aug 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"So ... so I said ... why not sign your treaty here, at Versailles?"

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Becky Wallower @bwallower.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

#ReliefWednesday If you're in 13th C Tuscany, your labour of the month for June is harvesting wheat. From the super façade of Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca, by Guido Bigarelli - with bonus polychrome. Zodiac signs accompany the labours, eg the crab for Cancer here.

A section of a row of reliefs showing labours of the month and Zodiac sighs around the portico of Lucca's cathedral.
Here, for June, a farmer wears a dark red coloured tunic, and holds a bunch of wheat stalks in his left hand and a sickle in his right. He stands under an arch supported by Corinthian columns. In the space over the right hand column between his arch and the next one is a crab in a disk, with 'CANCER' written above it.
The background and right column are in green marble, the rest in white marble.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Palestine Action is not like the suffragettes, it’s true. Because one suffragette threw a hatchet at the prime minister, while another bombed the chancellor’s house.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 11/06/2026

Over on Whatever, I talk about the legit business email I got that was written with "AI," why I thought it meant the sender's domain was hacked by scammers, and why using "AI" in business emails automatically lumps you in with scammers and frauds. Don't do it! whatever.scalzi.com/2026/06/11/p...

whatever.scalzi.com

Please I Beg of You Do Not Use “AI” In Your Business Communications

The other morning I was clearing out the multiple daily emails I get from scammers who have used “AI” to praise one of my books in order to get me to use their “marketing” s…

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Jean Blaylock @jeanblaylock.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Buffy: Lie to me. Giles: Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats. And we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and... everybody lives happily ever after

m.youtube.com

Giles and Tara- Wish I could stay

YouTube video by kassia03

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