iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

literally no part of normal life you can live here without a visceral reminder of *gestures broadly*

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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

so incredibly massively fucking tired of this

Three National guard soldiers walking through a metro station

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026

There does seem to be an interesting subset of folks who seem huffily annoyed that creators might want to be compensated for their stolen work by the people whose intentional acts of theft has literally allowed to become billionaires, I mean, how dare we, right

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

After a frustrating start of my day, I am looking forward to a fabulous evening.

Screen displaying a photo of Angelique Kidjo and QR code for program information on the College of Arts and Humanities Deans Lecture Series.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This post brought to you by my attempt to avoid the Beltway and just cut through the District. 0 stars. Will sit on the Beltway next time.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Driving thru Northest DC on my way to a medical appointment I stumbled upon National Guard troops patroling a neighborhood just outside Capitol Hill. Then saw another set crossing Constitution by the Washinton Monument. Nothing to see here.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

So very sorry you all are going through this. I have seen it on the UMD Reddit, Facebook, and other socials. Hoping they find him soon.

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Sameer Ashar @sameer-ashar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is my nephew, please forward to your networks, esp any University of Maryland students.

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Jane Espenson @janeespenson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This is worth a good read and some anger.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Omg - it was amazing - the quilter put her family birthdays and anniversaries in the "panes" near their appropriate dates - white thread on white cloth so they are "hidden". It really was amazing.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Reason 5,372 I consider myself a higher ed geek - I love the institutions' commercials during sporting events and have Opinions about who does them well. Northwestern's spot in the first quarter was a great argument for the public good they (and all of higher ed ) produce.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Also, I saw this amazing temperature quilt on exhibit in Berkeley Springs, WV this summer.

Large quilt where small squares represent days, with each small square's corner colors representing temperature. Inside each small square is a representation of a something significant about the day.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Same. Quilts have won the @bigtenacademic.bsky.social faculty/staff Data Viz Championship twice! (See btaa.org/technology/l...)

btaa.org

Love Data Week

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Two hospitals, 75 miles apart, with two different patients with unrelated issues, on the same day has to be some sort of strange bingo card spot. Not one I wanted, but here we sit. On patient 2's 83rd birthday.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Watching Flame Fatals with my own member of the glorious @framefatales.com crafting crew. Time to raise money for the Malala Fund! gdq.gg/donate

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Why yes, I did turn on the Iowa football game solely to see the wave at the end of the first quarter.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The NYT Games app has changed the arrangement of the gamesin the home screen and it is totally messing with my head.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Introduce yourself with five artists you've seen at least twice: Billy Joel James Taylor Paul Simon Jonathon Coulton Griffin House

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Today was my 53rd first day of classes! Campus was buzzing.

Red yellow and white balloons at a college campus entry road.

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Aimee Steinberger @aimeekitty.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If you want to be like Dolly, you can donate to underprivileged children getting books with her charity, donate.imaginationlibrary.com

donate.imaginationlibrary.com

Home

Make a donation and support Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in communities around the world and help put more books into the hands of more children.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I dropped in very quickly to my Instagram stories with the first draft of my thoughts. Tl;dr is there multiple forms of grief. I’ll be on MSNBC at about 8 o’clock tonight, if you’re into that kind of thing.

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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has donated 3 million books to kids. Here's the link where you can donate. Also, consider sending someone a book on your own. Dolly would like that. imaginationlibrary.com

imaginationlibrary.com

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.

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Ericka (Wiggins) Weathers @erickaweathers.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Hi ed policy folks! Anyone able to review AERA proposals for Division L (Educational Policy and Politics), Section 1 (Governance, Politics, and Legal Issues)? We need 3 or 4 more non-student reviewers. The ask is to review ~10 proposals each. You can DM me if interested. Thanks & please share!

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Jesse Hawken @jessehawken.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Can they just release a list of foods that it’s still safe to eat?

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

If you run social media for a university, department or scholarly association and you’re still patronizing Twitter, you’re actively helping the reactionaries working for your destruction.

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Martha Wells @marthawells.com · 21/08/2026

My Ukrainian publisher Ranok asked me to pass along the news that on 8/1 a warehouse was bombed by Russia, burning about 8 million books, including the print runs of their translated Murderbot editions, + The Cloud Roads & Witch King. This really hurts the publishing house, and 1/-

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amulya.bsky.social @amulya.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

My husband Drew wrote this at breakneck speed while moving cross-country and caring for an 8 month old, bc he felt it was necessary, ethically and politically, to correct the record. If you read Tyler Austin Harper's piece, I hope you'll read this.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Matt knows what they are talking about. Listen to them.

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Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 20/08/2026

www.wgbh.org/news/health/...

Hannah Reale
August 13, 2026
A new rule from the Trump administration this week means the federal government will stop covering gender-affirming treatments for transgender children who rely on public health insurance like Medicaid.

But in what appears to be a first-in-the-nation policy, Massachusetts officials with MassHealth say the state will keep covering the costs of treatments like hormone therapy.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a rule Tuesday blocking the use of Medicaid money for transgender care for anyone younger than 18. The rule is set to take effect this fall.

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Hey so a couple years ago I wrote a pilot for a show where the payoff was an entire city's water supply being taken hostage, and the research was up in the top 5 slow horror of "Oh, wait. No, that can't be right... oh shit, OH SHIT."

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I started being open about my chronic depression maybe 15 years ago, when I became more engaged with the disability community. Did it in an attempt at de-stigmatizing. When I realized I had PTSD (took me waaaay to long to figure out) in 2018ish, I was pretty open from the beginning?

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Absolutely. ACTS broke IPEDS with that issue alone, in my opinion. Trends are blown. Comparisons across institutions won't work because institutions didn't all get the same instructions. Such a mess.

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

our entire global financial system is currently leveraged to the hilt on the premise that it was good and right for a small cadre of US companies to steal all of the intellectual work ever produced by humanity and sell its back to us without credit or remuneration to the authors (plagiarism)

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My professional association was on point on this letter of comment regarding IPEDS data quality. #IRWatercooler www.airweb.org/docs/default...

airweb.org

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Ashe @ladyinsanity.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

If someone near you is secretly recording with glasses, yell “META stop recording!” It works even if you’re not the owner. (This is more effective than the Disney trick, since there are AI tools to remove background music.)

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Shecky @shecky.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Reposting for today; we don't know how much time is left, so finding a soft-landing zone is critical.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Rankings season is upon us. I am more stressed and exhausted this year than last (which I didn't think was possible). I ask again - why must they torture us by releasing all these rankings at our busiest time? [I know the answer - in time for admissions season. But it still feels like torture.]

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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I have lived east and west and while the west coast mountains will kill you through indifference to humanity, they are brash young mountains. The Appalachians are the home of things whose names humanity has never known, and they resent us as newcomers and take us down into the dark when they can.

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Michelle Appel @msappel.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This was such a good episode of Strict Scrutiny

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Adam B. Vary @adambvary.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Imagine Stephen King, circa 1997, putting out daily press releases promoting his anti-gay org while publishing horror books as Richard Bachman. Imagine George Lucas, circa 2007, announcing a billion dollar fund for anti-Muslim lawsuits, then launching 'The Clone Wars.' This is J.K. Rowling today.

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Not to spoil anything but this is literally Spider-Man villain behavior

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Bradford Vivian @bradvivian.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It’s really pretty simple: The Atlantic is a major source of misinformation about higher ed. Full stop.

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Sanjay Srivastava @sanjaysrivastava.com · 11/08/2026

TRUMP: "So I left them to die. I like my journalists dead. Too bad it didn't work." <wild applause> HOST: "And with that, we officially adjourn the 2027 White House Correspondents Dinner"

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