iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Josh Eyler @josheyler.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Major kudos to MIT, who just put out a report about AI on their campus that lucidly explains the threat posed by AI to cognition and the student experience, while at the same time prioritizes learning, students, and the value of education. 1/x aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/

aiandeducation.mit.edu

Report – AI and Education

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Marjan Rafat @marjanrafat.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Introduce yourself with 10 bands/musicians you've seen live! • No Doubt • Fiona Apple • Hole • Black Sabbath • Live • The Shins • Robert Plant and Alison Krauss • NIN • Tori Amos • They Might Be Giants

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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

This is a great list of techniques for getting real information out of a Google search and avoiding AI slop and paid results. (One thing not included is that if you add "-ai" to a search, you block the AI summary) cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has...

cardcatalogforlife.substack.com

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It.

40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

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Marjan Rafat @marjanrafat.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Morning walk/bike playlist (as requested by my 4 year old): 1. All you fascists bound to lose—Woody Guthrie x2 2. Bananaphone—Raffi 3. Let’s go crazy—Prince

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Marjan Rafat @marjanrafat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Just saw Strangers on a Train. Pretty sure the idea for the Calico Cut Pants guy came from there... #alfredhitchcock #Ithinkyoushouldleave

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 22/10/2025

NEW WRITING: It's aimed at students, with some specific examples for astro/physics folks, but I think other people may find it useful too. 🔭⚛️🧪 "Knowledge is worth your time because of how it shapes your mind. And the authoritarians may take many things from us, but they cannot take our minds."

chanda.bearblog.dev

Knowledge is Worth Your Time

Folks who hang out on Bluesky/Twitter may have caught bits and pieces of the discussions amongst academics about what to do about today's university students...

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12/08/2025

8. This has been a short and honestly rather peevish thread, so if you want read more that has been written in a more equanimous tone, here's a short piece that I coauthored a few years ago, precisely about how we deal with this kind of duplicity.

scientificamerican.com

To Fight Misinformation, We Need to Teach That Science Is Dynamic

Science is a social process, and teaching students how researchers work in tandem to develop facts will make them less likely to be duped by falsehoods

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Marjan Rafat @marjanrafat.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

A nice intersection of fields (physics vs. immunosuppression): youtu.be/4KKfH_MraCg?...

youtu.be

Trem Two

YouTube video by Mission Of Burma - Topic

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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

What a horror show to have put that man in charge of anything. The documentary is very short and very good. You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybVZ...

youtube.com

Defeating a Virus That Killed Half a Billion People – The Plea

YouTube video by Neil Halloran

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?"
"Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

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Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Today: I talked to one of my absolute heroes, @deborahb.bsky.social, about RFK Jr., how the US got food purity laws, the wild west of American food in the 19th century... and how to avoid going back to the days of formaldehyde milk and brick-dust spices. buttondown.com/theswordandt...

buttondown.com

How to Not Get Poisoned in America

The minute I saw that Robert Kennedy Jr., a notorious disease-loving health crank, was going to be responsible for the nation’s health—and the health of its...

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Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

There are so many ways one could provide context for this data. For example, in the last five years universities have received 52-55% of their research funding from the federal government. That's the lowest percentage since the 1950s. 1/x ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/high...

nytimes.com

How Universities Became So Dependent on the Federal Government

For decades, universities got billions in federal dollars for research. The relationship was mutually beneficial, until President Trump decided it wasn’t.

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

The federally-funded research university is almost surely the single greatest American invention ever. And it probably has some of the best ROR in federal spending, both in its contribution to the US specifically, but also to the greater world overall. I doubt anything comes close.

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Ryan Comes @rbcomes.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

If you track the history since the 90s, it's actually really clear what happened. Corporate labs (Bell Labs, IBM, etc) closed up shop or dramatically scaled back because the labs weren't profitable. The scientists who worked there went to universities, where research is much cheaper. 1/3 ⚛️🧪

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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

This framing is disingenuous. The government became dependent on universities to produce science, social science & technology. This was never a charity relationship. Government invest in what is useful to it. It’s not mysterious & govt has frankly gotten a good deal.

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Mike Caulfield @mikecaulfield.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

First, Steves finds a way to talk about institutions and oligarchy that is dirt simple: 1. Institutions are PUBLIC WEALTH. They are our shared wealth, dammit. 2. Billionaires can't stand wealth they don't control. 3. So they are going to dismantle our public wealth to better bleed us dry

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Charlotte Moore-Lambert @charlottereads.com · 22/03/2025

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

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@LaBonneLaB @labonnelab.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Thanks! Was a bit stressful but so important to explain the importance of NIH funded research!

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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Montana is extremely lucky to have Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell standing up in front of openly transphobic lawmakers who wanted to pass a bill that would /take trans kids away from their parents./ Thank you to them, and to the Republicans who crossed the aisle. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

‘Stop these crazy bills’: Republicans join Democrats to defeat anti-trans legislation in Montana

One bill would remove trans children from their parents, and the other would ban drag shows and Pride marches

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

It is your patriotic duty to listen to this speech. Every single word. An essential guide to the deep, unfathomable corruption the new Trump administration is carrying out on a daily basis.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

At the Capitol in NASHVILLE today…

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

“I love being a socialist. I like things that are built to help people instead of to make a buck. I like libraries, they like book burning. I like affordable transportation. I like airports to have safety workers. I like cancer research. I like rockets that don’t explode.”

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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Aside from the obvious direct harm, what's so irritating is that a handful of spoiled ignorant assholes are breaking things that we all built together. They weren't content to own almost everything, they had to wreck what little they didn't own. It's vandalism on a mass scale and has to be punished

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Left-wing censorship was a fantasy, but the right-wing censorship is real, unconstitutional, and murderous. There was no majority anti-conservative social media bias or casual forced use of words like “birthing person.” But stripping protest rights and official language is actual deadly censorship

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Furious Floridian @lmh82.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

We never should have allowed any exceptions to vaccine mandates (deemed constitutional for 120 years) except for medical exceptions. No one has a right to spread a potentially deadly disease to others.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 27/02/2025

TALK TO YOUR PRIMARY CARE PROVIDER ABOUT WHETHER YOUR MMR SHOTS ARE SUFFICIENT AND UP TO DATE You might be surprised by the answer and learning the answer might save your life or someone else’s

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Mia Tsai says buy her books @itsamia.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

For all the USPS's faults, Americans have to realize: It's one of the best postal services in the world, even after being kneecapped by DeJoy. Fight for our postal service, guys. I know I will. It is an essential public good.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

I want to say again to academics who are interested in public writing. Look locally. Sure national outlets are good and I do that too, but this kind of visibility in your community can have a real impact.

Half a newspaper page with my op-ed
, which is below.

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

"The Nazi Party and the American Confederacy had power, but they were illegitimate, and so were their vile laws. Eventually the deepest laws of humanity and reality told on them, and they collapsed. So it is, and so it must be, with the Republican Party." www.the-reframe.com/the-moon-is-...

the-reframe.com

The Moon Is Down

When an illegitimate party takes power, they remain illegitimate all the same.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 12/02/2025

Interesting to see former #NHPoli governor Chris Sununu make this claim given that at $146K he made more than most professors in New Hampshire and also left politics because he wanted to make more money, which he is doing by shitting on civil servants on CNN www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIIP...

youtube.com

Sununu: “Overpaid academics” are abusing grant systems

YouTube video by CNN

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Marjan Rafat @marjanrafat.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

I am grateful for MIT’s undergrad humanities/arts/social sciences requirement

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Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

From cancers to asthma to diabetes to heart disease to Alzheimer's to tooth decay, NIH-funded research has advanced, improved, & accelerated treatment. While industry was getting folks INTENTIONALLY HOOKED ON OPIOIDS, health scientists were working through nights & weekends to make people safer.

media.tenor.com

a man in a lab coat stands in a lab with the words " good job " on his back

Alt: a man in a lab coat stands in a lab with the words " good job " on his back

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