iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

People will just up and name their businesses anything

CNT CAFE in Philadelphia established 2022

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

shutting down frat houses won't end rape culture, but it will disorganize a lot of rapists, and i think that's probably worth doing if only to destabilize what is apparently an ecology of organizations that functionally exist to rape women per the whole "purpose of a system is what it does" insight.

83594687

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 20h

learning yiddish naturally means learning about european jewish history in europe which naturally means learning about the long list of dates memorializing some horrible act of violence against a jewish community

2131

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

there was an article in the inquirer today about a far-right group sueing a school for failing to tell a trans kid's parents they're trans. buried in the middle of the article is a throwaway line that acknowledged the parents wanted to do conversion therapy. I'm really frustrated and disappointed

2283

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 29/09/2026

Professoring is so weird, like I took a bunch of classes in linguistics and then I taught a bunch of courses in linguistics and then wrote a two-hundred page thesis in linguistics and now like a quarter of my job is just making decisions about university and departmental curriculum

2587

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 23h

probably fine that all these new ai agent rollouts are so cutesy and childish. probably a sign of innocuous, normal shit

524067

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 29/09/2026

2587

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 28/09/2026

A Hebrew author once wrote to the storied Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem: “The time has finally come for you to stop dallying so much with the ‘servant girl’ (Yiddish). At least fulfill the conjugal duties of a man toward his wife (Hebrew) and go to the servant girl only to satisfy your appetite”

2120

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 28/09/2026

In the late 70s the German band DSCHINGIS KHAN put out a disco hit at Eurovision and a few years later some guy took the tune and gave it all new lyrics in Yiddish and this weekend I sat at someone’s kitchen table and changed those lyrics to be a little more leftist and fun

2171

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 27/09/2026

Walking to our local Yiddish meetup and passed by a small group of people, one of whom suddenly shout led against the wind DO YOU KNOW WHAT A BIALY IS and I feel that that is fate

0140

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

I Travel Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 27/09/2026

If you were in camp “focus on the important things” when they were restoring Confederate monuments and base names here but can recognize the danger there you may want to interrogate some things.

5742175

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Sen. John Fetterman says he's a "lifelong Republican" before Major Garrett has to correct him

66940234

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Circ @tinyicecat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This news is important because all the fucks out there actively attempting to wreck the world want you to think that the work is hopeless and just mitigating the worst case scenario. It's not. Fucking keep going.

2674944412

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Elana Levin @levin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Seeing as older generations were stuck self medicating with nicotine and improperly dosed uppers yeah I think people getting actual care is good, Janice, you damned eugenics brained sadist!

39415

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

When Coxon was suddenly ALL OVER the media, it felt to many like that was because his story deserved that much interest i.e. that the media was doing its job informing the public of an important threat. The wall-to-wall media coverage wasn't organic though, it was orchestrated: >>

piratewires.com

617981

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

From Serena Jampel, one of the writing tutors I worked with at Harvard on the difference between the human tutor and AI and how a writing tutor can help a student find their voice. Lots of wisdom and also this truth: "the more you use it, the more you use it" www.harvardmagazine.com/commentary/h...

And that was another remarkable feature of the Writing Center. Sometimes students would resist my feedback, insisting that their structure would make sense once they added a bit more reasoning. In doing so, they were often pushed to articulate their thinking more clearly, and to affirm their confidence in their position.

An LLM cannot do that, because it does not have its own opinions or thoughts. It is only trained to engage the user: the more you use it, the more you use it. That’s actually the antithesis of writing instruction, which aims to cultivate independent thought.

312446

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026

Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.

5843131178

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.

A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future

203186555268

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 25/09/2026

There are worse ways to earn six figures than teaching Yiddish studies in Canada

The rank and salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The upper end of the salary range for this position exceeds $200,000 CAD per annum

0180

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 25/09/2026

This can fuck off entirely.

7597104

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 25/09/2026

Both yesterday and today I have had a completely startling amount of executive function and I’m choosing to blame it on me being powered up by the coming nor’easter

0170

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Miriam Udel @miriamudel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Labzik never had a lulav—until now! My intrepid publicist @justineodashs.bksy.social is preparing for Sukkot and couldn’t resist bringing Labzik into the process—though this is not *quite* in line with the religiocultural sphere of Chaver-Paver’s original stories, he looks pretty cute 🌿

An American Girl / Pleasant Company Coconut dog toy with a red collar sitting on a mid-century dining room chair posed with a lulav set + etrog

1113

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A lot of universities will be facing big deficits and looking to cure what ails them. I just want them to be thoughtful about it.

Screenshot of article which reads: At the same time, new job-focused majors may not be sustainable — and can even backfire. Dominique Baker, an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, pointed to the rise in computer-science degrees in the 2010s. At the time, they seemed like the best way to secure a high-paying salary after graduation, she said. But with the rise of generative artificial intelligence, computer-science jobs are increasingly hard to find, and enrollment in such programs is falling significantly.
“When you tie the viability, the financial viability in particular, of an institution really tightly to jobs creation on that scale,” especially as a four-year institution, she said, “you have to be really careful, because you can find that in 10 years that program that you poured all your money into — worthless.”

316563

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 25/09/2026

Local diner has long put up a sign noting in scare quotes that they’re “hiring” but they just upped the ante with a new similar sign noting they have fun “positions” now open

1140

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.

And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.

58854721497

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 25/09/2026

“Sure, it’s true that many Black people have reclaimed the word. But the lawsuit is about non-Black Tesla employees and managers abusing Black workers — including allegedly hurling the slur at them in ways that don’t sound like anything resembling gestures of ‘respect and endearment.’”

futurism.com

Tesla Argues in Court That the N-Word Is Acceptable Under Certain Circumstances

An important trial in California kicked off with Tesla's lawyers arguing that the n-word is a term of "respect and endearment."

761208355

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 24/09/2026

I will never spell "liaison" correctly on the first try and I so deeply regret volunteering to serve as a liaison for a thing at my university because of this

0170

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Pause AI in BC Schools @aicaution.ca · 24/09/2026

Imagine if companies had to prove their tools had positive effects on student learning outcomes _before_ thousands of students were forced to be their unconsenting unpaid beta-testers.

16429

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

“It’s a money grab and it’s also a means of undermining public education more broadly to further the political project of techno-fascists and further consolidate the power of these already-powerful technology firms.”

1237

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?

Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?

15145781295

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

You joined "grand vizier chat (secret)" You: dark rumors from aboard You: abroad* fuck Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"

2893712650

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 23/09/2026

My university reminds us of upcoming football games the same way the local news reminds you that they’re predicting the worst windstorm of the decade

070

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026

This month's @motherjones.com cover is astounding. Reposted with alt text:

131101400

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Mr. Moo Sky @bricebowl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Disable gambling ads:

Discord Settings. "Sponsored Content" button is pressed

Sponsored Content settings. "Manage Sponsored Content" button is pressed

Manage Sponsored Content settings. "Real Money Gambling" radio switch is "off" (disables gambling content)

8387016039

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 23/09/2026

Can confirm that at least some of the political robotexts are programmed to end messaging with a simple “fuck off” string, as “oh fuck off” does absolutely nothing

Robotext from fucking Josh Shapiro, getting no unsubscribe reaction when messaged “oh fuck off”

Robotext from fucking Josh Shapiro, giving an unsubscribe reaction when messaged “fuck off”

1193

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 23/09/2026

„מײַן זון איז פּערפֿעקט” „דײַן זון איז שױן אַלט”

141

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Professionally Nosy @professionallynosy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My Rage Against the Machine/Les Mis mashup is complete. This is my interpretation of the quilt guild’s summer challenge “quilt with your interpretation and/or feelings towards our current ‘democracy’” all hand stitched.

Quilt hanging on a card catalog. Neutral background with navy cursive appliqué “Do you hear thr people sing?” The background is embroidered in red starting light and getting bolder the lyrics to “killing in the name” the quilting effect is a focused sunburst from the center.

872688839

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 23/09/2026

„מײַן זון איז פּערפֿעקט” „דײַן זון איז שױן אַלט”

141

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 22/09/2026

i regret that i am not married to another yiddish speaker solely because i can never make a "get this שבתדיק" joke

180

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

a lot of dodge charger repossessions in the coming months

312853400

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 22/09/2026

Friend just shared this delightful example of someone writing the Yiddish word for “good” in one dialect (git) and then immediately switching to another dialect (gut)

2152

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 22/09/2026

Got to turn down my first “can I record this with an app on my phone” request at a doctor’s appointment, no mention that it was for AI transcription or summarization or training, just “an app on my phone” which is neat

3203

Reposted by Joshua Raclaw

Jennifer Sano-Franchini @jsanofranchini.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Everyone and especially all the academics on AI task forces and initiatives should read this.

23820