iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 2h

every time I have to read something about Spartina / saltmarsh grass, I am violently reminded that my childhood home is now an overpriced air b&b called ~Spartina Cottage~. it's not any of the ones that show up on google, but it seems to be a very trendy word now

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 6h

somehow, Banana returned (causing more chaos in Path of Titans) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIE7...

youtube.com

Return of Banana (Path of Titans)

YouTube video by Mossworm

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Reposted by @mossworm.bsky.social

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Another museum in trouble

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

ehhhh I think at this point if you're a moderately informed person, science person especially, you should absolutely know better than to use genAI to make images, and doing so anyway makes you a jerk. we're five years into slop world; people have had plenty of time to gather their thoughts.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

you can't put anything down in Florida for more than 30 seconds without some kind of bug trying to use it. just had to hide a broken clipper handle because a bee was trying to put her kids in it

Half-finished leafcutter bee nest, so just a bunch of leaves carefully arranged in a tube shape

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The theme for the TDWG / Biodiversity Information Standards conference that just ended was apparently "Research and Robot-ready Biodiversity Data Standards". Are we calling AI "robots" again now because it turns out no one wants it when you call it "AI"?

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Reposted by @mossworm.bsky.social

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I wish all science teams who advertise their work with GenAI a very pleasant emergency meeting to mitigate the damage to public trust.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Apparently public opposition to AI is now officially considered traitorous by Trumpy Himself, so I hope all the people in the sciences who have been complaining about me for being obstinate now know for sure which side they have really been fighting for. Hope you enjoy getting paid in trumpcoin

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

more of this worm. he reminds me of a convenience store or gas station logo

three flat color drawings of a long bodied worm or snake like fantasy creature with six wings and a body that is striped with black on top, then blue, then red, and then yellow on the underside. it appears to be crying.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

great hiding spot. they'll never suspect a thing

Butterfly chrysalis extremely obvious on the side of a brick wall

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm so cranky and unpleasant now. Is this what happens when you're 30?

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

puddle shrimp get a shout-out in the Magic School Bus desert episode. that's right Arnold

screenshot from The Magic School Bus. Arnold and Phoebe are looking in a puddle in the desert, and the subtitles say "there are shrimp in this puddle".

screenshot from the next scene showing the puddle shrimp. They look like fairy shrimp, but the eyes should be a little bigger

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

raccoons ate my triops. I wish misfortune upon them

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If the huge Periplaneta cockroach in my room could stop making so much noise shuffling papers around in the corner, that would be just stellar. I don't have the energy to chase you yet, but you don't have to remind me.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It's like I'm cursed; in part to care so, so deeply about little bugs and fairness and things like that, and at the same time to be constantly reminded of how little everyone around me does and how fundamentally different and Other I am. Don't like that.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I just find it nearly impossible to engage with the actual content of my courses (generally about wetlands, climate change, soil health, etc.) with the big ugly CASH PRIZES FOR AI ART banner at the top of the screen. The university itself is screaming at all of us to destroy things for money.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is the online splash screen for University of Florida courses now - advertising for their genAI art contest with cash prizes. For some reason, I can't dredge up a lot of motivation to participate in either.

ad for University of Florida's AI art contest

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I really need to do my coursework so I don't have to pay even more money into the school hole, but there is not an ounce of desire to do so within my body.

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

It would be such a shame if more people knew this is the 5th year of UF's "AI Days" genAI festival, and that the genAI art / business proposal contest does not actually check if you are a student before letting you submit things. ai.ufl.edu/ai-universit...

ai.ufl.edu

Gator Create | AI | University of Florida

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

I think it would be just awful if everyone were to associate the University of Florida with genAI slop and grifters forever. It would be terrible if everyone was aware of how they partnered with the NVIDIA guy to jam-pack the school with 100 AI-focused faculty, including multiple AI art professors.

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

At least one person has asked me if you can enter University of Florida's genAI art contest / techbro circlejerk thing without being a UF student. It makes you create an account on some sketchy-looking website called ProposalSpace to enter, but other than that it did not actually require anything.

online forms marked as complete

Project Synopsis: eeby
Project Context: deeby

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

I have been trying to record more silliness in Path of Titans, since they added Leedsichthys so more people are playing aquatics again, but I think they've updated the shaders or something, so my recording settings are no longer working. I get the "encoding overloaded" message nearly immediately.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

stop climbing into my jeans and then getting upset about my legs being in there

Large black trap jaw ant cleaning the me-smell off of herself

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

it's getting a little colder at night now, so Narceus giant millipedes have been intentionally entering the house. unfortunately there are not a lot of wet leaves in here, otherwise I wouldn't even need to put them back. their calming presence improves every scenario

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Florida is unfair in terms of cool bug access. Practically every outdoor-themed business sells some kind of potted citrus, which are happily egged on and eaten by Giant Swallowtails. Pick up the largest butterflies in North America for free while you get lightbulbs

Three small brown and white Giant Swallowtail caterpillars on some hybrid citrus leaves

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I can't remember the last time the combo of doctors and pharmacists has worked together so that I could get my medication at the store like you're supposed to without requiring extra phone calls or other bullshit, which is awesome because the medication is for my brain and I need that

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

as it turns out, trying to maintain a wildflower meadow within the confined space of an average suburban yard takes a lot of time and planning that my brain is maybe not suited for, if I want to have time to do anything else. the plants are fighting and they are bigger than me and itchy

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I think Florida government and universities and schools and agribusinesses suck as much as the next person, but Florida institutions sucking has nothing to do with alligators. They are mostly shy. The institutions just drained their homes to build golf courses, so they have fewer places to hide.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I think you can enter UF's genAI techbro art / "innovation" / meaningless wordsalad contest by literally doing anything as long as AI is still a central theme. You could put on an alligator costume and stand with a poster that says "AI sucks" and count how many honks you get as "performance art"

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

University of Florida is having their yearly AI art contest, with tens of thousands of dollars in prizes. I know you've all been just dying to enter, so I figured I'd give the heads-up.

UF "AI Days" AI themed art contest flyer

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

accidentally mortally wounded some kind of cutworm while cutting grass. all yard work is now canceled until further notice in loving memory of wormy. cutting grass should be illegal anyway

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Standard procedure to get rid of grass is usually either boiling water or putting cardboard over it, but the long non-native grass here is hosting a lot of cool native animals, so I just kind of chew holes into it and seed them for next year. Where's Joey Santore when you need him

Rosy wolfsnail in my hand, a native species in Florida

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Too many years in rural Florida around rich Floridian agribusiness people has made me loathe the very idea of the private donor. I know we need them sometimes, especially in this country, but I've seen some human scum.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

very healthy and sizeable glubby. sorry I had to move your rock

Medium brown Florida leatherleaf slug on my glove

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

all nine wormies made it to their final instar, and though they have now dispersed somewhere to make chrysalides, they still enjoy being in constant contact with each other even at Vienna Sausage size

Two maroon and orange caterpillars, now quite large, sitting together

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

my online class is supposed to record the chat sessions in case you miss one (and so their AI can scrape it or whatever). for last week's lecture, they managed to not record the professor speaking, but instead somehow recorded one of the students sitting silently in their house looking at the screen

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm clearly not the target audience for these Big-Florida-agribusiness-themed soil courses. The lecture asks us the question "how can we reduce nitrate load to the XYZ river?" and then shows that the research plots are located on the university's beef ranch. Gee, I wonder.

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We only have one carport so I was telling my sibling to keep an eye out for caterpillars making chrysalides on the bottom of their car and they were like "ok. hey what's that" and

Brown and grey chrysalis on wheel. not a great choice

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

yesterday I overexerted my stupid nervous system by taking my staying awake medication with an energy drink, so today I didn't do that, and now I'm really tired. can I get something in between these two hells

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I wish my executive functioning worked better. I'm like a zoo animal - aware something is wrong, but powerless to affect the circumstances. Discontented roaring

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

highly recommend watching this quiet and contemplative Toco Toco mini documentary about game developer Kazutoshi Iida, and then immediately afterwards watching this video of the original 64DD release of his game Doshin the Giant www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_60... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii3T...

youtube.com

Kazutoshi Iida, Game Creator (Doshin the Giant) - toco toco

YouTube video by Archipel

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Reposted by @mossworm.bsky.social

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Reposting this would be very helpful. We're having a tough month at Skype a Scientist between much of my energy being devoted to Academy of Natural Sciences stuff. I need help!!

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

there are several kinds of flatworms in my yard. there are the Bipalium with the hammer-heads, the Platydemus from New Guinea, the Rhyncodemus from Europe, and then at least one other kind, which is big like Bipalium but doesn't have the same head. so, uh, apparently that one might be called Obama

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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Ooooh, yknow, I have been assuming these flatworms were the New Guinea snail eater ones, Platydemus, but I forgot there are some European springtail eater ones, Rhyncodemus. these might actually be those. I don't know if that's better or worse

One of the flatworms in focus. The dark grey dot is over its mouth

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