iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Just visited the Vermont History Museum in Montpelier. Highly recommended.

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

We are already at the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Tiananmen incident, a protest that was suppressed, then legitimated by the Party.

Protesters gather flowers in memory of Zhou Enlai during the 1976 Tiananmen Incident.

002

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Just saw Josh Ritter play a solo set in my little corner of Canada. Still remember him as the fourth-year folk singer heartthrob when I was a freshman in college.

020

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Just got my copy of Mujun Zhou’s new book, which provides a really compelling argument about why China’s various grassroots social reform movements embraced and then became disaffected with Chinese liberals’ grand “civil society” project (I provide an appreciative blurb on the back).

An image of the cover of the book “The Life and Death of Chinese Civil Society.”

041

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

This year’s batch of inflatable Santas in my neighborhood all seem ready to (cheerfully) pronounce, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf…”

A Santa Claus who looks like a cheerful Karl Marx

130

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Traveled through N. China for a few days and was impressed by both the expansion of green power since I last spent real time there--solar panels draping terraced hills and poking up out of villages, windmills along ridges--and, at the same time, the persistence incredible levels of air pollution.

140

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Jason Isbell! In the Okanagan! Obligatory grainy documentation!

Jason Isbell performing on stage with blue lights in Kelowna.

010

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Kelowna still being counted…

CTV map with Kelowna highlighted. The Liberal candidate is at 26,061 votes; the Conservative, at 25,891 votes.

100

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

The trade war comes to conservative Kelowna, Canada, where I saw my first MAGA hat “in the wild” and where people flew both American and Canadian flags during the anti-vax truck convoy protests a couple years ago.

Super market in Canada with banner reading “Canadian owned and operated” out front.

131

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Excited to welcome York University's Eric Tucker to @ubcokanagan.bsky.social to discuss AI and labor law. Second annual lecture co-sponsored by the North Okanagan Labour Council. Scan the QR code to join the livestream.

000

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Oh yeah, that’s totally all happening! Or at least the pardons will, I guess. Interesting that healthcare is in the mix.

Copy of National Enquirer with the headline: “Inside Trump’s First 100 Days: Health care! Tax cuts! Cost savings! Parsons!”

110

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Memories of early 2000s Beijing punk rock.

041

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 13/10/2024

Annals of Canadian capitalism: my kids got an early 2000s Monopoly board at a yard sale with an electronic credit card reader, Segways, flip phones, rollerblades, the Edmonton mall, and Parliament hill. You can also buy “the internet” for 1.5 million.

Segway and roller blade game pieces on early 2000s Monopoly board.

071

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 16/01/2024

Looking forward to talking about my ongoing research on popular protest and its results in North China and Appalachia. If you're in NYC next month, please join! weai.columbia.edu/events/mobil...

Poster advertising talk "Mobilizing the Mountains: Popular Protest in North China and Appalachia" February 6, 2024, from 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM in Uris Hall at Columbia University, 3022 Broadway, Calder Lounge Room 107, New York, NY 10027.

020

Manfred Elfstrom @manfrede.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Least successful phishing email I've received in a long time!

Suspicious email purportedly from Mike Johnson's office with a link to click.

010