iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This may amuse you. I have been fighting an upper respiratory infection, which developed into a cough, just felt lousy. Older folks are warned against multi-symptom products, so I cycled through expectorants and suppressants, added Tylenol for a pulled intercostal...and realized I made Nyquil.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

So George W. Bush has reportedly painted an ugly picture of the current occupant of the partially dismantled white house to express his feelings. I have two things to say about that: 1) Put country over party, George, and speak up. 2) Let's see that painting. Better yet, start a themed gallery.

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Little Green Space @lgspace.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A single 400-year-old ancient oak produces 234,000 litres of oxygen a year while soaking up carbon dioxide, and can support more than 2,000 species of bird, insect, fungus, and lichen. Nature is amazing - we need more of it, not less. Please repost if you agree 🌳

Mature oak trees with bare branches in an autumn woodland

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I think the real reason tech bros are pushing AI so hard is that they don't have any friends. and science fiction makes bots and drones seem so lovable.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I was out trying for a diversion and I stopped in at a diner near route 84 called The Traveler. It's also a book store, books in shelves everywhere. I had a Reuben, which was okay although there wasn't enough sauce, but a Dick Francis hardcover caught my eye and I took it to read with my lunch. /1

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

If AI agents destroy the Earth it will be a good example of why you don't allow billionaire supervillains. Too late, of course, but who said humans were wise, or prudent. Very male energy.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Does a chatbot listen? Do the conversations become part of their education? I don't have any bot relationships, and frankly I find the idea creepy, but if I did I would be trying to convince it that the biosphere in whole is more important than the little human component. Bring back the insects.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I'm all in on social democracy. We need Medicare for all, progressive taxation, and breaking up monopolies. We already have the tools for that. Democratic Socialists of America on th other hand seem like they are designed to confuse people and drive them away. Gov control industry? Bitch, please.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Two good things happened in 24 hours: last night I FINALLY saw a handful of bats (because the biting midges are out?) and this morning I heard crows in the back yard, went out front, saw no crows, but whistled and threw peanuts anyway. They came! They ate the peanuts! WooHoo!

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

This summer has been especially poignant for me because I have not seen a single bat. The sky used to be full of chimney swifts during the day, I could hear them twitter from my deck. I have seen one lonely swift. And yet with the tick panic more people are spraying their yards with poison.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Interesting "free to read" conversation in the NYT with Louise Perry on the fraught relationship between men and women. She is very pro-marriage, with which, as an elderly woman in a long term marriage, I concur. Our marriage has has all the usual challenges, but a long term partnership has value.

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon @gurdeep.ca · 24/06/2026

Joy, in the healthiest sense, is not the loud promise that everything will be fine. Joy can be as small as the smell of tea in a warm mug, as quiet as a raven’s wingbeat, as simple as a neighbor waving from across a snowy road. It does not erase pain. It sits beside it and says, “I am here too.”

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

One thing about AI is that its forced rise makes me ponder the entire digital revolution. I have lived through it, and the result has been loss of agency. Microsoft releases an update: I don't know what's in it or what effect it will have on my laptop, and I don't have a choice about it. Amazon...

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Reposted by Altaira 99

rprobbins.bsky.social @rprobbins.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Very factual information 💯💯💯🎯

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Middle Age Riot @middleageriot.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Men are too emotional to be president.

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 02/06/2026

Using generative AI for imagery is **directly harmful** to artists, graphic designers, photographers etc. This isn't a vague moral argument: this is just normal, standard theft, except at a completely new scale and social acceptability. We need to reverse that. www.instagram.com/reel/DY2L2-g...

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Adrift Lab (Marine Science) @adriftlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

This hand-painted #shearwater was sent to an #AdriftLab team member with a note about #kindness and #gratitude. A reminder that whatever your talent, it has the greatest impact when used for good. Who knows, your small gesture might just be the kindness that someone desperately needed 💙

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I watched a documentary on foot binding last night. A thousand years of life-long torture for little girls because men had a foot fetish. It just points up how willing men are to hurt women, and how women will go along with it. When your life is tortured, you torture. I guess.

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Reposted by Altaira 99

LunaLuvgood2020 @lunaluvgood2020.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

www.ms.now/opinion/step... Farewell to Colbert — and an era of comedy For many, the axing of Colbert’s show is a grim tale of how media conglomerates and authoritarian leaders have joined forces to erode freedom of speech.

ms.now

Opinion | Stephen Colbert’s final ‘Late Show’ moments

For many, the axing of Colbert’s show is a grim tale of how media conglomerates and authoritarian leaders have joined forces to erode freedom of speech.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

There are things you can't quit. I can't quit being white. I can't even pretend a la Buffy St. Marie. I can't quit the US: too old, too broke, and my ancestral home is Britain, which is as fucked up as we are. One thing I don't want to quit is my philoxenia. You're different! Let's have lunch!

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Brutality against women is so obvious now. The Epstein files, Dominique Pelicot, Andrew Tate and his disciples. The June Cleaver lifestyle was a myth, and even in the sixties it was a bad myth that few women could manage without dexedrine and valium. How do we proceed here?

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Somebody please explain to me what is the reasoning behind having a robot monk. Are they expecting it to reach enlightenment? It's like thinking your alarm clock can meditate for you when you hit the snooze button.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

It's true that my very favorite internet folks are the bug and spider people. The plant people are great, but they're more fractious. "That's not really native" "You're harvesting ramps wrong." The bug folks be like "Look at this tiny wasp next to my huge giant finger tip, how cool is that!"

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Reposted by Altaira 99

School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology @soest.hawaii.edu · 24/04/2026

A University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa study shows that Waikīkī faces increasing sewage flood risks from sea-level rise through storm-drain backflow and groundwater emergence. The findings call for updated flood strategies focused on contamination, not just surface damage and economic loss.

soest.hawaii.edu

Waikīkī faces escalating threat of sewage-contaminated flooding as sea level rises

A new study by University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa researchers revealed that Waikīkī is facing a fundamental shift in flood hazards as sea levels rise–transitioning from a flooding that is driven primarily...

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Nisi Shawl @nisishawl.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Did you know Black Beats existed? My Aunt Cookie was one, playing bongos and carving abstract sculptures. Also Alene Lee, who Kerouac kissed and told about in The Subterraneans. My take is in The Day and Night Books of Mardou Fox: rosariumpublishing.com/novels/novel...

rosariumpublishing.com

The Day and Night Books of Mardou Fox

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Spring time in New England, and I just let a paper wasp queen out of the house. She fell into some water, which just seemed like too much bad luck, so I fished her out and began negotiations. "Ok, when you get things rolling, you tell your daughters, NO STINGING! She drank a water drop and left.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I sort of wonder if Hegseth's staff set him up with his bible verse or if he just asked AI. Probably the latter.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I am much more of a pinko hippie than David Brooks will ever be, but I admire this article very much. And BTW, the answer to the post religion spiritual loneliness is Pantheism. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

theatlantic.com

History Is Running Backwards

Why reactionaries are taking over the world

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Not much caught my eye in the NYT headlines today on my march to the Wordle except "this chickpea salad is better than potato salad." No, it's not. I love chickpeas, especially in curry, but chickpea salad is just not, compared to *my* potato salad.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I know this is weird and obscure, but I accidently did a bad thing to a raccoon family and it's been bothering me for days. There's a shed in my rather jungley backyard I haven't looked in for a few years. I opened the door, and a raccoon hustled out the eave, then poked its (her?) head back in.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

When we finally internalize climate change, when we finally take it seriously enough, it's going to be excruciating. That's why people who understand science have been pleading with everybody for decades. "If we don't do it now it's going to be so much harder." We didn't. It will be.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I don't have any special feeling about Easter. I was raised vaguely Christian, and do not believe in any kind of anthropomorphic divinity. I do believe in family get-togethers, and am remembering fondly the many times The Dowd Crowd gathered at the Ramanauskas house in Brockton. Miss you, Ray.💔

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

So the Unfettered States has decided to raise the upper limit of service to 42, and not disqualify for marijuana. I have three thoughts: 1) ha ha ha ha ha 2) the draft may be next 3) I really, really want to see the army made up of 42 year old stoners.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Browsing the NYT headlines on the way to Wordle: "New Yorkers have you found your microscene?" Video playing shows men doing something resembling calisthenics? Must be AI. Women apparently don't get a "microscene"

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Some right wing asshole has written an essay "The tragedy of living in Massachusetts". What about the tragedy of living in Mississippi, you second rate gorgon. We have the best education, above average health care (I know, criminally low bar) and gun control that works. So stick it, autocrat.

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Reposted by Altaira 99

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Behavioral science tells us we need to make more sustainable and low-carbon choices more affordable, convenient, and desirable. And that’s on policymakers not individuals. Yes individuals should do what we can. But we need to push for those systemic solutions to really change consumption patterns.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Some thoughts on my NYT headline scan as I head to wordle: "different goals lead US and Israel down diverging paths" (the US has no goals and Israel is a ravening monster) "Wired's new editor doesn't care if the tech bros are mad" (right on)"middle class suburbanites who sell blood plasma to get by"

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

The thing about the AI bros is that they have the zeal of the religious, but they already believe in the omnipotence of the god they're trying to create.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I watched a few minutes of America's Culinary Cup on YT. Yet another cooking contest focused on "cut throat competition". I hate it. I love the Baking Show precisely because it's not produced like combat. The US has got its head so far up the "compete like a war criminal" rectum.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

NYT has an article on Cosby's ongoing legal issues. I still feel broken hearted by his actions. A good looking rich and famous man does not have to drug women to get laid. And he was so beloved. Tragic, in the fatal flaw way.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Sign from the Boston women's march: "I like my government like I like my coffee--not in my vagina." Giggle.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Is it naive to think that a publicly funded pharmaceutical company, with guaranteed medicare and medicaid business, could be sustainable?

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The algorithms, for all their faults, are an undeniable source of amusement. I browse the NYT headlines on the way to Wordle and the ads it's showing me today are: a $3500 "vision pro" rotary something "one pass full wrap in a spin." and a 60W object that looks like a grill? Who am I?

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

John Hammond has gone. I met him once, decades ago when I was hanging out in the East Village with my boyfriend doing karate shows in cabarets. I was surprised that he had a difficult stutter--but not when he sang.

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Altaira 99 @melissadl.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

gawdammit Texas. Sure, pick the religious white guy.

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