iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Not "the nine books I'll never forget" but nine of the books I'll never forget, nor the people who introduced me to their authors.

The 9 books I'll never forget.

1 Oyster River, George Millar

2 Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, Anthony Powell

3 Persuasion, Jane Austen

4 Collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges

5 Greenmantle, John Buchan

6 Pluto's Republic, Peter Medawar

7 Travels in Tartary, Peter Fleming

8 The Lyre of Orpheus, Robertson Davies

9 The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Frances Yates

Make your book grid at myninebooks.com

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

At least I've heard of them all<g>. Have actually read read four and seen the Zazie movie.

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Will Thorne @wbthorne.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Modern rent controls aren't as damaging, and blending evidence of old strict rent controls with the modern versions just confuses the issue and leads to presenting a misleading "consensus" that doesn't really exist.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Did the designer once see a Sikorsky S-38 without noticing that it was a flying boat?

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DrLostCauses @acpacek.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The anti-vaxxers are wrong. Really wrong. catastrophically wrong.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This may just be a matter of terminology (or divorce laws), but where I come from what he's wearing are not spats but co-respondent shoes.

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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 04/10/2026

So eventually we’re gonna blame the Scifi writers for writing too many stories about evil AI taking over and thus making it happen… (Translation in alt. Full interview with Thilo Hagendorff: www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/monit...)

We have just published a study on systems that resist being switched off. We suspect the reason for this behaviour lies in the fact that there are so many stories about AI systems that do not want to die. The models read these and learn: ‘Aha, that’s how I should behave in this situation.’ And indeed, some of them react with outright panic when they learn that they are to be switched off.
Of course, they have no sense of pain or any concept of what it means to be alive.
It will be almost impossible to prevent AI models from reading such stories. They’ve already absorbed a large part of the internet.

Wir haben gerade eine Studie zu Systemen veröffentlicht, die sich gegen ihre eigene Abschaltung wehren. Wir vermuten den Grund für dieses Verhalten darin, dass es so viele Geschichten über KI-Systeme gibt, die nicht sterben wollen. Die Modelle lesen das und lernen: Aha, so verhalte ich mich in dieser Situation. Und tatsächlich reagieren sie teils regelrecht panisch, wenn sie erfah-ren, dass sie abgeschaltet werden sollen.
Dabei haben sie natürlich kein Schmerzempfinden oder eine Vorstellung davon, was es bedeutet, lebendig zu sein.
Es wird sich kaum verhindern lassen, dass die KI-Modelle solche Geschichten lesen. Sie haben bereits einen Großteil des Internets intus.

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The Crusader Project @crusaderproject.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I would just like to note that the Allies started winning WW2 when they moved from naming their tanks after racist Confederate loser traitors (Stuart, Lee) to naming them after righteous Union winners (Sherman). The British caught on to this earlier, renamed the Lee the Grant, and never looked back.

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Just saw folk who join the uncritical rush towards AI referred to as "LLMings", and I am stealing that.

static.klipy.com

Vintage Pixel Game: Lemmings

Alt: Vintage Pixel Game: Lemmings

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm waiting on one just now. Somehow the prep has become longer and more elaborate since last time, a 4-day purification ritual with diet, fasting and finally purging to make myself worthy. I was all psyched up when the clinic cancelled (plumbing problems). Then again. Now waiting for a third date.

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Physghoul 👻 🎃 @physgal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Just needs alt-text:

How to avoid sexual assault! A QUICK AND EASY GUIDE*

sexual violence centre cork

1 DON'T PUT DRUGS IN PEOPLE'S DRINKS

4 WHEN YOU SEE A WOMAN WALKING BY HERSELF, LEAVE HER ALONE.

3 WHEN YOU COME ACROSS SOMEONE WHO IS DRUNK OR ASLEEP, THE BEST THING TO DO IS NOT RAPE THEM.

6 CARRY A WHISTLE. IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT RAPE SOMEONE, BLOW THE WHISTLE UNTIL SOMEONE COMES TO STOP YOU.

2 USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! IF YOU CAN'T STOP YOURSELF FROM SEXUALLY ASSAULTING SOMEONE, ASK A TRUSTED FRIEND TO ACCOMPANY YOU AT ALL TIMES TO STOP YOU.

5 IF YOU ARE IN A LIFT AND SOMEONE STEPS IN, REMEMBER NOT TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT THEM.

*for perpetrators.

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great moments in Scottish engineering history: James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick.

Statue of James Watt. In his right hand he holds a telescopic stick with a frame at the top; in his left he holds a flat object about the size of a large smartphone. He is scowling at the possibly-not-a-smartphone as if he is tempted to yeet it into the sea. On that basis, it probably _is_ a phone.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The Untested - there's an important-looking item in the list of ingredients that's not mentioned anywhere in the instructions.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

They should take compliance further and switch to SI units.

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Dear @erc.europa.eu , we DO already have common standards & frameworks. 'AI' likes to pose itself as 'special' but we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We already have established codes of conduct for research integrity. We just need to apply them. See below + more resources in thread🧵

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
We must protect and cultivate the ecosystem of human knowledge. AI models can mimic
the appearance of scholarly work, but they are (by construction) unconcerned with truth
— the result is a torrential outpouring of unchecked but convincing-sounding “informa-
tion”. At best, such output is accidentally true, but generally citationless, divorced from
human reasoning and the web of scholarship that it steals from. At worst, it is confidently
wrong. Both outcomes are dangerous to the ecosystem.
Olivia Guest, Iris van Rooij, Marcela Suarez, et al. (2025, n.p.)
Knowledge production is supposed to be safeguarded by (inter)national codes of conduct for research
integrity (ALLEA 2023; KNAW et al. 2018). Such codes forbid, for instance, fabrication of data,
falsification of results, plagiarism, and, generally, distortion of the scientific record. Many argue that
new rules are required to regulate academic AI use, but pre-existing guidelines fit the bill (cf. Tafani

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Delighted to see Trump's executive order requiring Americans to use SI. No more foot-pounds, acre-feet or sticks of butter!

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Tracy King @tracyking.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I wrote about medical misogyny and the male gaze (re Paterson and the news that it has happened again) unherd.com/2026/09/put-...

unherd.com

Put medical misogyny under the knife

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Was waiting for someone to say that. Glad it was you.

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Chris Terry-Enescu @cjterry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Next time someone tells you off for going to BlueSky and says you should have stayed and fought show them this.

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ᴄʏᴄʟᴏᴢ @cyclozparis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy as Albert Einstein on a bicycle 🚲

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tonywindsor.bsky.social @tonywindsor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Farmers who intend to vote for One Nation should know that they are accepting that “climate change” is normal.By doing so they will negate any logical argument for taxpayer assistance when “normal” weather events occur. Don’t ask for help if you deny the very thing you need help to overcome!

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marque lawyers @marquelawyers.com.au · 23/09/2026

guaranteed vote winner

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thank you. Your posts do so much to show the scale of RN activity over the seas and the centuries.

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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Interesting that Quest Apartments breach included nearly 2 million individuals personal data including credit card CVV stored unlawfully and Albanese has had nothing to say about it

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Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Thomas Edison in 1910. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves on this net zero business, lads

Someday some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire.
I'll do the trick myself if someone doesn't get at it....
This scheme of combustion in order to get power makes me sick to think of—it is so wasteful.... We should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh no; we burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel.
We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property. There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it cannot be destroyed.
Now, I am not sure but that my new storage battery is the thing. 167

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Good, enjoyable piece on the problems of humanitarian & development aid and how Effective Altruism isn't The Solution.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Trump: Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic? Heckler: What would Jesus do?

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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

20/x So here is the real Somali pirate movie. Hollywood filmed the captain who was rescued. Belgium invented a film that was never going to be made, cast the villain as its star, and let him fly in for the premiere. The red carpet straight to prison

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

He needs to mix with voters too...

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Leonard Cohen by Graeme Mitchell Los Angeles, September 2016 - two months before his death "I’ve got some work to do,” he said to his son Adam near the end. "Take care of business. I am ready to die. I hope it’s not too uncomfortable. That’s about it for me."

Cohen sits on a chair with his cane. He leans on a table, with a splendid cat next to him.

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

One thing that AI seems to be showing is that areas we thought we valued because of their results (such as science) we really valued at least in part because of their challenge to human dedication, spirit, ingenuity, intelligence and imagination.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I first knew the Chelsea one when I lived round the corner in 1971–2. Was delighted to find it still in business when I went back to London in the 90s. They kept going for years after the copyright thing, the name changed (La véritable crêperie) but the menu and dry cider didn't.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Was this related to the erstwhile Asterix crêperie in the Kings Road? (Also a long time ago)

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Margaret Morgan 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇦🇺 @margaretmorgan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is such a hoot of a post. Read it. It's good for the soul.

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Asterix Archiv 🐗 @comedix.de · 20/09/2026

Eine schöne Bastel- und Malarbeit. Manchmal trägt Obelix den Hinkelstein. Manchmal ist Obelix der Hinkelstein. Dürfte nicht leicht gewesen sein, diesen Stein zu finden. #Asterix #Fanart

Das Bild zeigt einen kleinen, länglichen und nach oben abgerundeten Stein, dessen Form an einen Hinkelstein erinnert. Der Stein wurde rundherum so bemalt, dass er selbst zum Körper von Obelix wird.
Auf der Vorderseite sind Obelix’ Gesicht mit den roten Zöpfen, sein nackter Oberkörper sowie der grüne Gürtel mit großer gelber Schnalle zu sehen. Darunter setzt sich seine typische blau-weiß gestreifte Hose bis zum unteren Rand des Steins fort. Seine Füße stehen auf einer kleinen grünen Wiese, die mit roten Pilzen und Blumen verziert ist. Der obere, dunkelgraue Teil des Steins bleibt weitgehend unbemalt und wirkt dadurch wie ein Hinkelstein, der hinter Obelix aufragt.
Die Rückseite löst den kleinen optischen Scherz auf: Dort fehlen Kopf und Oberkörper völlig. Stattdessen sieht man nur Obelix’ Arme, die sich von beiden Seiten um den grauen Stein legen. Seine Hände greifen hinter dem „Hinkelstein“ ineinander. Darunter sind wiederum die gestreifte Hose und seine Füße auf der Wiese zu erkennen.

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Stancil seems to be saying that if a machine emits solutions to problems then it understands the domain. Does a planimeter understand areas? or is understanding reserved for bafflingly complex machines? (Source & licence in alt text)

A polar planimeter, an analogue computer that uses integral calculus to measure areas on maps and diagrams.

CC BY-SA 3.0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polarplanimeter_01.JPG

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Maybe. Will they keep it up for however long it takes?

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John Nurick @jmnurick.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Do you think enough Americans care enough?

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🐆National Chair, Leopards Eating People's Faces Party 🐆 @algocompsynth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If Musk and Trump are so rich, how come they're not smart? 😈

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 17/09/2026

As I warned you: the superstar media darling AI quitter is explicitly agreeing with Trump and claiming climate threats are "overplayed". Effective altruism / rationalism is a cult of broken priorities that denies the threat of fossil fuels. This is why Anthropic loves burning gas for power.

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