iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 08/10/2026

Yet again, the EU surrenders to Trump. After facing pressure from the US State Department, @kajakallas.bsky.social's EU foreign service pulled out of a conference this week at the last minute – because one of the panels dared to discuss American disinfo in Europe.

theguardian.com

EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request

Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website

15576283

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Whereas we in Europe often underestimate the power of the EU, remember Putin started the first aggression against Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea, in response to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in 2014:

415345

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Ember @ember-energy.org · 14/09/2026

The average utilisation rates of China’s utility-scale storage has roughly DOUBLED between 2022 and 2025 This means China's battery fleet is getting bigger and working harder to store and shift energy 🔋 ember-energy.org/lat...

0243

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"Merz has made the mistake of trying to push what was a popular centre-right party under Angela Merkel much further to the right in an attempt to win over disgruntled voters." This never works. And seemingly politicians never learn. theconversation.com/even-if-it-d...

theconversation.com

Even if it doesn’t form government, the far-right AfD has shaken Germany’s political establishment to the core

Voters in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt punished the major parties for their handling of the cost-of-living crisis.

36656198

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Jorge Liboreiro @jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Bombshell in Spain: A police report has concluded that the Ceuta crisis was planned and steered by Moroccan authorities to violate the Spanish border under the guise of a migratory wave. The findings directly contradict the Spanish goverment, which has blamed smugglers, rather than Morocco.

elespanol.com

La Policía informa a la juez que la invasión de Ceuta fue guiada por gendarmes marroquíes a las órdenes de agentes de paisano con un fin distinto al migratorio

El CENIF, unidad de inteligencia de la Comisaría de Extranjería, comunica a la magistrada Tardón que fue un proceso planificado para colapsar el sistema de control fronterizo y eliminar la capacidad d...

37341

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 27/08/2026

Today, Chancellor Merz is today hosting a meeting of the frugals (🇩🇪🇦🇹🇳🇱🇩🇰🇸🇪🇫🇮) in Berlin demanding cuts to the EU budget Here's how that "bloated" 🇪🇺budget compares: Federations: 🇪🇺: 1% of GDP 🇩🇪: 12% 🇺🇸: 24% Unitary states: 🇳🇱: 46% 🇫🇷: 57% They's tasking 🇪🇺 to do more, but then starving it of 💶 to do it

davekeating.substack.com

Northern leaders want to cut an EU budget already on a shoestring

EU national leaders keep saying they want a union that “does more.” Then they show up in Brussels asking it to spend less.

12815

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Alberto Alemanno @alemanno.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The European response to the #Ceuta crisis will go down in history as an own goal that emboldened Europe’s adversaries. Instead of showing solidarity, Italy & co sought to punish it. Now, with the vast majority of arrivals already returned, the failure wasn’t border control but European solidarity.

26569308

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Willem Huiskamp @willemh.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

It's worth stressing that the *magnitude* by which some of these records are being broken is nothing short of astonishing

6343175

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 16/06/2026

Exclusive: I have seen OpenAI's audited financials for 2024 and 2025. In 2025, OpenAI had $13.07 billion in revenue and $34 billion in costs. $867 million of its revenue came from SoftBank, and $303 million came from Microsoft. www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-op...

wheresyoured.at

Exclusive: OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X in 2025, With Spending Hitting $34 Billion

Soundtrack: In Flames - Colony To further support my independent journalism, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $7 a month or $70 a year. If you’re subscribed to the free newsletter and ...

9133031088

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Neal Romanek @nromanek.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

“Russian operatives ran their sabotage & provocation campaign remotely through social media & the messaging app Telegram, we found, creating fake online far-right & Muslim groups, which were used to organise acts of vandalism in the UK & stir up division and fear” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM, BBC reveals

Evidence shows Russians directing the plot and stoking tensions with fake far-right and Muslim groups.

012

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Tax cuts defund public services & barely help Real Folkz, episode 57,298

25214

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I wrote about being inundated with AI writing at every turn, unwittingly turning my brain into the AI police, and how shitty AI writing is randomly showing up in my real life outside of the internet www.404media.co/your-ai-use-...

404media.co

Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain

AI writing is impossible to avoid, is making everything sound the same, and is driving us crazy.

521772511

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Look around. The case for more, not less, liberal arts education is stronger than ever. Also, the way you know this is nonsense is that Jay Caspian King & everyone else who writes for the New Yorker will be obsessed with sending their children to elite private colleges, just as it's been forever.

58016

Reposted by Matej Žganec

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

In Seattle's Pike Place Market, vendors claimed that removing cars would cripple them. Nope. Sales actually rose. Remember: Studies show that biz owners consistently exaggerate how many customers drive and undercount those who walk, bike, or ride transit. Info: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

theurbanist.org

Pike Place Market Pedestrianization Pilot Boosts Sales and Visits

All signs point to Seattle's pilot program limiting car access to Pike Place being a success: sales were up 6.5% in 2025 compared to 2024, and the number of local visitors jumped by 5.6%. As the City ...

843051775

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Taras Grescoe 🚇 @taras-grescoe.com · 18/03/2026

No more talk of "transit death spirals" in New York City. Since Central Business District Tolling Program (congestion pricing) was introduced in 2025, ridership on #NYC subway is up to 1.28 billion/yr—a 7.7% increase. 72,600 fewer cars enter Lower Manhattan/day. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

NYC Subway Ridership Jumps 7.7% Due to Congestion Pricing Toll

New York City’s controversial congestion pricing toll is helping to boost subway ridership, according to a committee that represents transit riders.

13312

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

There has always existed a sort of Jevon’s paradox for productivity tools. Part of the pitch is that the tools save time, but the workers who adopt them only end up working harder for longer hours. I experienced this in architecture when AutoCAD replaced hand drafting…

hbr.org

When Using AI Leads to “Brain Fry”

As firms increasingly incentivize employees to build and oversee complex teams of agents—for example, by measuring and rewarding token consumption as a proxy for performance—people are finding themsel...

5378

Reposted by Matej Žganec

NYTimes: affirmative action for mediocre editors angry at MeToo @originalist.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Epidemic abuse: "One-third of all Americans killed by strangers are killed by police" "White nationalists pervade law enforcement 10,000 family dogs killed by police every year (DOJ: "epidemic") "Police solve just 2% of all major crimes" "NYPD Costs $10 Billion a Year "50% of municipal budgets

old.reddit.com

Things that make you go huh 🤔 Chico spends 48.7% of it’s budget on the Police Department. By comparison, NYC spends 7.7%, Los Angeles 25.5% and Chicago comes in high at 37%.

Posted in r/ChicoCA by u/StandUpChico • 819 points and 490 comments

191534410

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

These freaks want territorial expansion and they know Trump will do everything he can to deliver. This isn’t just a tweet from some random asshole either. This is Stephen Miller’s wife. Miller was in the room with Trump during the kidnapping of Maduro.

Katie Miller tweet with text that reads “SOON” and a map of Greenland with an American flag overlayed

28458552513

Reposted by Matej Žganec

East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · 02/01/2026

The story of Europe’s economic decline while US is 'soaring' is everywhere. But it is wrong. It is a myth. Europe delivers more leisure, longer life expectancy, less inequality than the US. Gabriel Zucman dismantles the myths.

eastangliabylines.co.uk

Decline, what decline? The myth of dying Europe

There is a widespread view that, by comparison with the USA, Europe is in economic and social decline. But, Zucman argues, it's not true

18513215

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Elon Musk promised a lot of things by 2025 - colonists arriving on Mars - xAI achieving AGI - Tesla robotaxis serving half the U.S. - completely driverless robotaxis - a Tesla Roadster demo - DOGE cutting trillions none of them happened mashable.com/article/elon-mus...

mashable.com

Everything Elon Musk promised in 2025, but didn't deliver

Musk is now infamous for his false promises, but even this is excessive.

16132791052

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/12/2025

Enshittification's first three stages - from a platform people love to a platform businesses profit off of to a platform that hurts consumers and businesses alike - are well-known. But I argue we're in a fourth stage where stocks have become enshittified too. www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshitti...

Image Alt Text: We are watching one of the greatest wastes of money in history, all as people are told that there “just isn’t the money” to build things like housing, or provide Americans with universal healthcare, or better schools, or create the means for the average person to accumulate wealth. The money does exist, it just exists for those who want to gamble — private equity firms, “business development companies” that exist to give money to other companies, venture capitalists, and banks that are getting desperate and need an overnight shot of capital from the Federal Reserve’s Overnight Repurchase Facility or Discount Window, two worrying indicators of bank stress I’ll get into later.

No, the money does not exist for you or me or a person. Money is for entities that could potentially funnel more money into the economy, even if the ways that these entities use the money are reckless and foolhardy, because the system’s intent on keeping entities alive incentivizes it. We are in an era where the average person is told to pull up their bootstraps, to work harder, to struggle more, because, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, it’s socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.

The “free market” is a fucking con. When you or I run out of money, our things are taken from us, we receive increasingly-panicked letters, we get phone calls and texts and emails and demands, we are told that all will be lost if we don’t “work it out,” because the financial system is not about an exchange of value but whether or not you can enter into the currently agreed-upon con.

By letting neoliberalism and the scourge of the free markets rule, modern society created the conditions for what I call The Enshittifinancial Crisis — the place at which my friend Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification Theory meets my own Rot Economy Thesis in a fourth stage of Enshittification.

:In November 2025, Reuters revealed that Meta projected in late 2024 that 10% of its annual revenue ($16 billion) would come from advertisements for scams or banned goods, mere weeks after Meta announced a ridiculous $27 billion data center debt package, one that used deep accountancy magic to keep it off of its balance sheet despite Meta guaranteeing the entirety of the loan.

One would think this would horrify investors for two reasons:

Meta’s business is both supporting and profiting from organized crime, and at 10% of its revenue, it’s also kind of dependent on it.
Meta is using deliberate and insidious accounting tricks to act like a data center that it is paying to build and will be the sole tenant of is somehow an “off balance sheet” operation.
One would be wrong. Morgan Stanley said a few weeks ago that it is “one of the handful of companies that can leverage its leading data, distribution and investments in AI,” and raised its target to $750, with a $1000-a-share bull case. Wedbush raised Meta’s price to $920, and Bank of America staunchly held firm at…$810. I can find no analyst commentary on Meta making sixteen billion dollars on fraud, because it doesn’t matter to them, because this is the Rot Economy, and all that matters is number go up.

215821

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Every society that has ever existed has had views that are mainstream and views that are fringe. The free-speech frauds who captured the discourse over the past decade understood this, but their true objection was that they did not unilaterally have the power to define which was which. For example, in a 2018 Times column, Weiss complained that “leftists” were engaged in a “concerted attempt to significantly redraw the bounds of acceptable thought and speech.” This was meant to sound sinister, menacing. In fact, this is politics. Every faction is always trying to “redraw the bounds of acceptable thought and speech.” In a free society, the government allows people to have those arguments. Such disputes are not a threat to free speech; they are free speech.

When I say that CBS News’s Bari Weiss understood this, you needn’t take my word for it. In November, shortly after being given the reins to one of the oldest broadcast-news organizations in the country, Weiss used identical language to describe her own project: “I think it’s about redrawing the lines of what falls in the 40-yard lines of acceptable debate and acceptable American politics and culture,” Weiss said at the Jewish Leadership Conference. “And I don’t mean that in, like, a censorious, gatekeeping way.”

What’s the difference between her “redrawing the lines” of acceptable speech and other people doing it? What makes one “censorious” and “gatekeeping” and the other not? Well, because she gets to decide. That’s what so much of the free-speech panic was ever about: making sure the right people were in charge of what you see, hear, and read. Notably, this has very little to do with reporting the news, which is supposed to be what CBS News does. But if the point of installing Weiss was to ensure that she would gatekeep on behalf of right-wing interests, that is precisely what she appears to be doing.

432991906

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Thing is: this should have been obvious BEFORE regulators greenlit Waymo. Having business be the tail that wags the dog of government--as neoliberal ideology would have it--simply privatizes gains and sticks ordinary people with the costs of being corporate guinea pigs.

1125677

Reposted by Matej Žganec

John Kostyack @kostyack.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

US tech leaders say we need climate-disrupting and water-depleting data centers because we need the US to be the leaders in GenAI innovation. Apparently their idea of innovation is overwhelming our information ecosystems with deception & manipulation.

24619

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Ben Elgin @benelgin.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

How Elon Musk's DOGE became a fiasco of deception and accounting gimmicks -- failing in its mission to slash government waste Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...

nytimes.com

How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little?

32514

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

9187812341

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

This is obscene. Why can't other politicians say that? The 25 richest families are collectively $358.7 billion richer than a year ago, with a combined fortune totaling $2.9 trillion.

Worlds richest families have never been richer - Walton's lead with net worth of $513bn

33753792427

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

No surprise: new analysis shows that heat pumps can deliver excellent performance even in older buildings with no meaningful correlation between building age & heat pump efficiency. This is in line with my own experience of having a heat pump in a 1880 Victorian home with only modest insulation.

1563052663

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Amazing, the @dailymail.co.uk manages to publish an entire lengthy feature bewailing (!!!!) the exodus of Poles from Britain without once mentioning Brexit. Apparently this outcome (which is surely exactly what they campaigned for in 2016) is all the fault of Keir Starmer. mol.im/a/15379789

mol.im

The great exodus: How Poles are ditching UK for their booming homeland

New statistics reveal that while 7,000 Poles arrived in the year ending last June, 25,000 returned home: a net outflow of 18,000. The UK's total Polish population has shrunk to 750,000.

37652209

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Energy transitions can happen faster than we think: In 2000 almost 90% of Denmark's electricity was from fossil fuels. In 2024 less than 10% of Danish electricity was from fossil fuels.

22190182564

Matej Žganec @mzganec.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Zagreb against fascism ❤️

010

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Joerg Lau @joerglau.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Gedankenspiel: Donald Trump ist ein Scheinriese. Die Umfragewerte sind rekordniedrig. Er hat den Handelskrieg gegen China verloren. Russland gegenüber knickt er immer wieder ein. Die Europäer haben seinen “Friedensplan” verhindert. Bald kommen die Epstein-files. Someone call the bluff!

911619

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 27/11/2025

Lesson for Europeans sucking up to Trump - look how much you're getting screwed while Brazil, India & China defy him and end up winning. "When Macron's like, 'Oh Donald you're a genius'" says Ben Rhodes, "they keep getting the rug pulled from under them" podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/p...

1145

Matej Žganec @mzganec.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

2nd day of #POLIS25 Impressive list of Sustainable Mobility Indicators by Budapest #SUMP

020

Matej Žganec @mzganec.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Full house at the #POLIS25 plenary session on mobility and health.

000

Matej Žganec @mzganec.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Day one of the Annual #POLIS conference. Talking about innovative digital cycling solutions.

000

Reposted by Matej Žganec

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

BTW, a 2021 Carnie Mellon study found that ridehail's arrival in a new city *increases* car ownership. The reason: Few residents ditch their car, while some become ridehail drivers and buy vehicles. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

37217

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Cyrus Hall @cyrushall.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

There is no reason to believe Waymo or Zoox will be any different.

15519

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief @katie.bzky.team · 17/11/2025

[wild speculation voice] a significant portion of LA's hyper obsessive health, fitness, and hiking culture can likely be attributed to the primal subconscious compensating reaction of living in a car dependent wasteland that is antithetical to the existence of people or even life itself.

2449950

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 17/11/2025

"data centers already accounted for 22% of Ireland's total electricity consumption in 2024. In the Dublin/Meath area, where a third of Ireland's population lives, 48% of the electricity was used by data centers in 2023." @abeba.bsky.social & @krisshrishak.bsky.social ✍🏼 www.iccl.ie/press-releas...

iccl.ie

Scientists call on the President of the European Commission to retract AI hype statement

Experts in AI call on the President of the European Commission to retract unscientific AI hype statement she made in the budget speech.

111767

Reposted by Matej Žganec

🕸️ Cobweb Curtains For Zoosha 🦇 @brianvan.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

132173434474

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Ingwar Perowanowitsch @ingwarpero.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Welche Produkte in 🇩🇪 mit 19% besteuert werden: - Hafermilch - Windeln - Sojaschnitzel Und Welche mit 7%: - Kuhmilch - Fleisch - Froschschenkel Und Welche überhaupt nicht: - Flugkerosin - Schiffsdiesel - Int. Flugtickets Unser Steuersystem ist völlig absurd und gehört reformiert!

9848731585

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Simon Rosenberg @simonwdc.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Yesterday the US Senate aggressively challenged Trump’s failed economic policy, voting 52-48 to roll back his tariffs on Brazil. Late this afternoon Trump suffered another humiliating rebuke, as the Senate voted to roll back his tariffs on Canada, 50-46. thehill.com/homenews/adm...

thehill.com

Live updates: Senate votes to terminate Trump’s Canada tariffs

The Senate on Wednesday evening voted to repeal President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Canada, after the upper chamber passed a similar resolution on Brazil the day prior. A handful of Senate …

29727281

Reposted by Matej Žganec

Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 09/10/2025

Over 40% of corn grown in Indiana is used to make ethanol that cars burn. One acre of corn yields about 16,500 vehicle-miles per year of ethanol, which sounds high until you realize that one acre of solar yields about 2,700,000 vehicle-miles per year: 16,000% more driving for a given plot of land.

391193464

Reposted by Matej Žganec

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 07/10/2025

Everything they are doing & saying right now is very obviously meant to clear the way for mass repressive violence. Fact checking is not going to do shit. Talking about kitchen table issues is not going to do shit. We need open, unapologetic defiance & conflict.

1062600611

Reposted by Matej Žganec

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 05/10/2025

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

18531081061