iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

What a time to have a completely gutted U.S. public health system.

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

you do want to see this

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Last call for the last votes of #MinCup26!

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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well, happy Charles Darwin is “very poorly today & very stupid & hate[s] everybody & everything” to all who celebrate, because he wrote those words in a letter to his friend (and author of Principles of Geology) Charles Lyell 161 years ago today

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

How are we on #MinCup26 semi-finals ALREADY? I voted #Halite, but I've also been team #Cuprite up to this point and won't be sad about either outcome.

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C.A. Petrov @capetrov.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Besides their Very Nice art, if you've never read one of Kari's 'Blind Yelling' pieces where they critique blindness portrayals in media I can't recommend them enough. You might be surprised at which ones DON'T suck, you'll definitely be entertained, and there's a good chance you'll learn things.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Bless the memory of Stanislav Yevgrafovich, the Man Who Saved the World. At a moment when it mattered, he chose humanity.

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 2 Match 7 It's blue skies ahead as multicoloured cubes of #Halite are up against the bubbly cool-toned #Chrysocolla. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo of seafoam green minerals. One one side, translucent sea foam-green cubes on a crust of milky-white crystals. On the other, bobby aqua-green milky-translucent crystals perched on a grainy grassy-green base rock

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#Quartz has been a favorite since childhood. I know it's like the pumpkin spice latte of minerals, but I still love it. #MinCup26

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I enjoyed learning about #Cassiterite today, but I like writing too much not to vote for #graphite. (Also was juat having a conversation about allotropes with a friend the other day, so it's sort of on my mind.)

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Emily Lakdawalla 🏳️‍⚧️ Uranus Expert @elakdawalla.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

In my inbox today: a couple press releases about the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission getting ready for Mercury orbit arrival in November! Super exciting -- only the second Mercury orbiter ever!

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 14 Average hardness and dark colours are camouflage for crystalline oddness lurking within blue asbestos #Riebeckite vs rare earth element #Gadolinite-(Y). VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Prehistoric builders transported Devil’s Arrows 11 miles. Isotopic analysis revealed the most likely source to be Brimham Rocks, not the nearby Plumpton Rocks. arstechnica.com/science/2026...

arstechnica.com

Prehistoric builders transported Devil's Arrows 11 miles

Isotopic analysis revealed the most likely source to be Brimham Rocks, not the nearby Plumpton Rocks.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I had the privilege of working on a handful of freelance stories for Hakai with Colin as editor. He's fantastic and you should hire him.

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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"AI is coming for archaeology." Buddy. Get off ketamine. Those of us in the satellite/drone space using LLMs- local, single computer, no data centers required, have used them for decades (below). They are useful for parsing through datasets, but give NO meaning. www.frontiersin.org/journals/ict...

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Algorithmic Identification of Looted Archaeological Sites from Space

In response to widespread looting of archaeological sites, archaeologists have used satellite imagery to enable the investigation of looting of affected arch...

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 13 It's a match between a mineral you want to be cautious breathing near and one you eat every day as arsenic-rich #arsenopyrite is against table salt #halite. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo between angular arsenopyrite, metallic and abundant in parallelogram faces and halite in its classic perfect cube shape, but tinted deep blue.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Today's #MinCup26 match is excellent because I got to learn about two minerals I hadn't previously heard of!

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N. M. (they/she)⚒️ 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇪🇺🏳️‍⚧️🌈 @yirara-bah.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Wow, an almost unique cylindrical crystal form! That's a very good argument. But #Pyrrhotite weathers to gypsum next to other things, and I'm still grumpy that gypsum was kicked out. Thus this is a revenge vote.

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ourlostarcade.bsky.social @ourlostarcade.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Untitled, Goose Game. Not coin-operated, but too good to not share.

A carnival style rolling ball game featuring a goose that players threw balls into to score points.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/240446302_rare-british-1940s-1950s-goose-roll-a-ball-game-tilburg-north-brabant/

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'm just gonna pop in late to the whole thread and off-topic gush about how much I love Wayland's little front paws.

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Kerstin Neuhaus @microtopico.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#Calcite #MinCup26 ⚒️ 📸 My own at collection of Institute of Mineralogy at @uni-muenster.de

Large clear calcite crystals on a brown substrate

Very large, clear single calcite crystal on a brown substrate

Brownish, intransparent, cubic calcite crystal on a brown substrate

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I am going to keep voting for #Calcite every year until the year it finally wins. And it will. I believe in it. #MinCup26

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Elwyn Rain @elwynrain.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

*Cough and put on her geologist cap* Sorry pyrromorphite but you fell in face of the wrong adversary. Gypsum isn't just beautiful or useful, gypsum move mountains. Literally. Thick gypsum layers act as a slippy layers for the rocks on top of it, allowing them to deform separately of what is below

A woman in white and blue dress with red ornementation, following alternate layers, walk in a desert. Arround her squeletton of marine animals and strange columns of rocks, with the same pattern than her dress

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Only one of these can be BIOMINERALIZED BY A FUNGUS. And it shows. Because only one of these looks like green beans. Go go pyromorphite you glorious green monster.

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Owen Missen @scimissionowen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Pyromorphite sounds like some kind of fire demon, the name actually coming from its behaviour of reforming crystals after being melted into a globule! Old names included 'plumbo viridis' (green lead - pyromorphite being lead phosphate chloride). Vanadinite (V swapped for P) shares this structure!

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I have a soft spot for #Gypsum (haha I am funny dang it) because it was also one of the first things in my childhood rock collection, but I've really enjoyed learning about #pyromorphite today, and poison green lead crystals are very tempting. Decisions, decisions... #MinCup26

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Having grown up in Texas, I can officially confirm your correct use of "all y'all," lol.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Did too many things yesterday and now I feel like I got hit by a truck. On the plus side, I got to meet the county coroner, who is also a volunteer firefighter, because small towns are just... like this.

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Mineral Cup & Ore Cup @mineralcup.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 9: It’s a pair of tiny minerals with unusual chemistry as hafnium-containing #Hafnon battles with strontium/chromium-containing #Putnisite. VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo of jagged dark brown to orange opaque crystal grains of hafnon embedded in an unidentified white matrix and tiny grape-jello purple cubical crystals with a rough surface. The crystals are poking out of a massive rough rock with areas of fuzzy green and broad purple, all with a grainy coating of white as though it were rubbed with flour

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

That yarn is gorgeous and has gotten my vote.

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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Archaeology meets Star Trek! Today, we celebrate Star Trek. Like Star Trek’s spirit of exploration, archaeology encourages us to discover the human past and broaden our global understanding. Happy Star Trek Day! Live long and prosper 🖖 #archaeology #StarTrek #StarTrekDay

A display of numerous stone arrowheads, neatly arranged in rows on a flat surface, showing a variety of triangular shapes and sizes with notched bases. Their shape resembles a Star Trek combadge.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

My neighbors were setting of fireworks last night. For... Labor Day? Listen, I'm a good union member and all, but that is bonkerspants.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 08/09/2026

We evolved these incredible brains and you don’t want to use yours? Weak

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 08/09/2026

Accusing AI critics of not doing the reading is funny because usually it’s AI users are the most likely to have not done the reading So what now then

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Butlerian Jihadist of House Dornick @shimminykricket.blacksky.app · 08/09/2026

Exactly and I refuse to be lectured to about research or due diligence by anyone who thinks the greatest thing to happen to them is the opportunity to do even less thinking than they do already.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Team #sitchtite for the pretty purple and green combination! #MinCup26

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We used to latch ours too, and it was between the garage and the kitchen. You know, the garage where all the cutting-through-screen tools are, lmao

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I'm voting for #Minazite-(Ce) solely on the basis that it can trap helium in its crystals, because how flippin' cool is that?! #MinCup26

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

With all due respect to @mikamckinnon.bsky.social, I'm team #quartz. It was one of the first minerals in my childhood connection, and at the end of the day, I'm basic and I own it.

static.klipy.com

Michael (Ted Danson) Explains 'Ya Basic'

Alt: Michael (Ted Danson) Explains 'Ya Basic'

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I also desperately want the answer to this question.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Okay, as an archaeology reporter I should be team #Vesuvianite here, but it doesn't actually have any link to the 79 CE eruption, and #Bourninite is somehow fascinating. Shiny poison steampunk crystals!

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Here too. It is *September* dang it.

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Kiona N. Smith @kionasmith07.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I was team ice that year too, and it was so much fun!

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