iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jonathan Key

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/07/2026

As *tech*, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's apps "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology: www.normaltech.ai 1/

A carny barker waving his top-hat and selling tickets from a roll; his head has been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The background is a magnified, halftoned detail from a US$100 bill.

Image:
Cryteria (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One problem my pop history students are having is the lack of a neat linear timeline. One of them asked me, is there some big master chart showing when everything happened? The answer is, no. You can point to specific dates like the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan show, but that's it.

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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This kind of take made a Rolling Stone writer so mad they wrote a whole piece about it.

At this point, though, if someone contends they've never even heard of
"Choosin' Texas" or Langley, it may say more about the listener than the song.
Or, for that matter, what they want to project to the world. With incessant news coverage alongside chart and playlist presence, it's pretty difficult to still claim total ignorance on this one.
Perhaps there is a deeper reason why people say they haven't heard the song and feel the need to make it known: cultural cachet.

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The 3 track EP really was one of the odder ideas. Surely you’re not gaining one, you’re being short-changed one.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Herr Spooky Gunther Büergers @calamityjon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Wild thing I learned earlier today -- the phrase "This is a job for Superman" predates Superman. I found citations as early as 1909.

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

found a new type of guy

r/AmItheAsshole
Join
u/IntrusiveGas • 6h
AITA for correcting my girlfriend's family every time they mispronounce my turtle's name?
I have a turtle named Geoff. Yes I know Geoff is normally pronounced Jeff. His isnt. My girlfriend's family knows this and still calls him Jeff basically every time his name comes up.
His name starts with /dz/ instead of the normal American English J sound /d3/. So regular Geoff/Jeff is roughly /dzef/ and his is /dzef/. They are similar but they are NOT the same consonant. /d3/ is a voiced postalveolar affricate and /dz/ is a voiced retroflex affricate. Basically you make the beginning of "Jeff" with the tongue farther back/retracted, which gives it a harder, deeper "dzh" sound.
I'm really into etymology and historical linguistics so the spelling was intentional too. Geoff is already a weird spelling from a modern English perspective because gives you basically no reason to predict /dzef/ unless you already know the name. Obviously I am NOT claiming medieval Geoffrey was pronounced / dzef/. I

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Not just a terrific, full-paced bowler, but a magnificently silly man. We're all going to miss the sight of him riding an invisible horse around the outfield when he's bored.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Elizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 21/09/2026

Pleased to say that Last War in Albion: The Watchmen Bomb is the #1 bestselling work of both comics criticism and sci-fi/fantasy criticism. Which just goes to show all my middle school bullies that they were completely correct about how big a dweebus I was. www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJF5CVK9/

amazon.com

Last War in Albion Volume 2: The Watchmen Bomb

Amazon.com: Last War in Albion Volume 2: The Watchmen Bomb eBook : Sandifer, Elizabeth: Kindle Store

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Absolutely fantastic piece on why SNL UK is such a hit. Joel's profound understanding of comedy does the job, as ever. In the old days, it would result in a must-read newspaper column. Ah well.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 21/09/2026

A blessed Harvest Equinox to everyone celebrating today! As we head towards the setting of the sun and the start of a new year, may we all celebrate what we've accomplished (harvested) this year, be it great or small.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Every year on 19 December, the famous Christmas lights at Mousehole in Cornwall are dimmed between 8 and 9pm, leaving just the Cross and Angels shining down across the village and out to sea.

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I grew up in a "lifeboat town". My local pub's whole identity is supporting the RNLI. Everyone there does. A place like that, what you learn quickly and deeply is that there is no "us and them". There's only "us and the sea", fragile humans skimming across the vast, implacable water.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Douglas Wolk @douglaswolk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A fun rundown of the past 20 years' worth of NEW THRILLS. I particularly wave the flag for Zombo, The Out, Cradlegrave, and especially Brink, which started out fantastic and keeps getting better with each successive volume--ingenious concept, note-perfect execution.

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The only rational approach to listening to new music

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Ty @sprunt87.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

One of the best ways to learn and remember things through all of schooling is to write it out by hand. The brain works in magical ways. Get lazy with it and become a dumbass.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I really enjoyed making this series - and people have said nice things - so I’m going to put it out on the main Comfort Blanket feed. Starts next week.

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2000AD Randomizer @2000adrandom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Brendan McCarthy

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Jared Dunn @jddunn.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

*gets super excited about postmodernism and the radical freedom to play with and recombine ideas and symbols as an undergrad* *reads Foucault's Pendulum* Oh. Oh no.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

TW @twesq.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

this is gonna upset so many of y’all

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Sal Cap0ne @salimotxo.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Had another loan successfully paid off today (Zambian women's co-op). I cannot tell you how good it feels when they pull it off. Try it.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

NEW EPISODE: We open the pod bay doors and let in No 8 in the Comfort Blanket / 2000AD Top Ten Sci Fi Movies. It’s got monkeys and robots and, oh my god, it’s full of stars. It’s only 2001: A Space Odyssey! (Comfort Blanket Patreon / Substack exclusive.)

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

“Five genuine things can still produce a completely false story if somebody invents the connections between them.”

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Birmingham 81 @birmingham81.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Here are some close-ups for the curious. The "Gaz" tapes #1-101 in the 4th and 5th rows are sought-after compilations by Gaz Mayall of Gaz's Rockin' Blues fame. Apparently Jools Holland also has a full set. They were sold in limited numbers at places like Kensington Market

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newadrian.bsky.social @newadrian.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

We have just had proper rain here for the first time since June - and I have just come to realise that the purpose of Test cricket as a ritual in England is TO MAKE IT RAIN IN THE SUMMER. We have angered the gods with The Hundred and we must return to the old ways.

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Sonja Henrici @sonjahenrici.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Great account of how BIRDS OF WAR came to be….

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Colin Smith @colinsmith.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Piccadilly Circus, London, c.1938, by Eric Ravilious, a transfer decoration for the Wedgwood Bowl “Boat Race Day”.

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

“We seldom realize that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” Alan Watts

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Apparently £5million can’t buy you enough security to protect you from an imaginary threat.

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

OUT TODAY. The countdown of the top ten sci fi movies reaches THEM! Just another bug hunt… it’s the atomic dry run for Aliens, with giant ants on the rampage. On Substack and the Comfort Blanket Patreon. #comfortblanket

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Yes. "We should predict that what we see on the internet [...] is that they focus their attention on things that show up to everyone. Take two strangers on the internet [...] What are they going to coordinate on as a topic they can both care about? It’s likely going to be something bad."

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

What is kind of terrifying about this, aside from everything else, is that this "company" used the actual likenesses and reputations of actual human academics/scientists without their consent or knowledge to make itself sound authentic. Scary times. www.404media.co/company-offe...

404media.co

Company Offering ‘100% Human-Written, Never AI’ Medical Research Is Entirely AI

Research Gold's team of human methodologists are either AI generated or using the identity of real people without their permission

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My hot TV take from this week is that we got annoyed at my house and my brother’s place that there was no way to watch Cagney and Lacey on streaming, so I paid for a single random season two episode off Prime and it was so remarkably fucking great that I’m now obsessed.

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SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @covid19disease.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

🚨 BREAKTHROUGH: Waterloo scientists Dr. Brian Ingalls, Dr. Sara Sadr, and Dr. Marc Aucoin have engineered “tumor-eating” bacteria that can invade and destroy cancer from within. A potential breakthrough in cancer treatment research.

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Jennifer Shin - WTAF @jennifershin.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Researchers at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark have conducted multiple landmark, population-wide studies tracking hundreds of thousands to over 1.2 million children using national health registries to examine potential links between vaccines and autism. Every major study found no connection.

en.ssi.dk

Large Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or 49 other health conditions

A new Danish study finds no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. The findings reaffirm the safety o...

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 08/08/2026

Sailing Yacht Suzanne. Frank Beken, 1911

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Jonathan Key @jonathankey.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Novels were "coded female" from their very origination. There were early panics about female readers being corrupted by reading novels. It's all nonsense. Reading about people unlike yourself expands your mind and your empathic ability. Read widely, it's amazing.

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Reposted by Jonathan Key

Larry Karaszewski @larrythek.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

In 1961 they made a pilot for a SOME LIKE IT HOT tv series that opens with Jack Lemon & Tony Curtis running to a plastic surgeon so they can alter their faces to hide from the mob. When they take the bandages off they turn into Vic Damone & Dick Patterson! Tina Louise plays the Marilyn Monroe part!

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Phil Norman @mrphilnorman.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I'm AJPP Taylor, I'm AJPP Taylor, I know I am, I'm sure I am, Because I'm doing a lecture on the Treaty of Versailles just before the ITV early evening news in 1958.

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Scarred For Life Books @scarredforlife.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Ralph Bakshi's gorgeous, rotoscoped, and incredibly dark animated version of THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1978) was, at times, like a nightmare to my 9 year-old self. I had particular problems with the creepy Nazgûl, especially during this famous scene...

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

COMING TOMORROW TORMENTOR A Ghost Story For Summer From Broken Veil Only on the Patreon Broken Veil Channel Patreon.com/brokenveil

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