iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 21h

Yikes, when Jacob Rees-Mogg is the voice of reason... (Also, this idea is so bizarre that the only downside of Hitler taking over your country would be that you would have to speak German. I think there might be other bad things that come along with it as well...)

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

i see arguments like this sometimes and ... what's the thing. what is this "everyday annoying task" that an AI could actually do and that you could trust it to not totally fuck up? i cannot imagine the things. and tech/robots have made a lot of tasks more efficient but there's always more shit

there are so many everyday demos that could make ai, personal agents, & agents in general feel insanely powerful to normal ppl & yet ai companies keep choosing things like booking flights, planning travel, or god forbid planning a god damn wedding.

these are not everyday problems. they're relatively rare events & worse for a lot of ppl they're actually part of the joys of life. the best demo should make someone feel pain they already are familiar with disappearing. almost every company gets this wrong. they optimize for spectacle instead of relief which is fine in some cases but it doesn't last.

one of my favorite historical examples is a product called head on.

the ad showed someone with a headache, then showed them applying the product directly to their forehead while repeating:

"head on. apply directly to the forehead."

beautifully simple. you instantly understood the product, the problem, & the value. ai companies should be doing the same thing.

show me the annoying thing i deal with every single day then make it disappear. it's not sexy, i guarantee it will work. when jobs demo'ed the iphone he picked universal simple problems that the iphone did better than anything else on the fucking planet.

anyway, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The email that announced our university’s switch from Zoom to Teams went to everyone’s junk mail.

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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Chronicle Review is just publishing Quillette's desk rejections now

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ISHASH @ishash.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Join us next Wednesday (7 October) for what’s sure to be a fascinating talk by @rsoneira.bsky.social on ‘Relational Atheism: Studying Unbelief in Ancient Greece’. All welcome, please share widely! Full details here: atheismsecularismhumanism.wordpress.com/seminars/

Blue event poster for ISHASH Webinar: Dr Ramón Soneira-Martínez, 7 October 2026, 10.00 PT, 13.00 ET, 18.00 BST, 19.00 CET. Relational Atheism: Studying Unbelief in Ancient Greece. Email ishashmail@gmail.com to register

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

look, if you're worried about being remembered, don't try to pursue immortality or whatever, the smart move is to start selling substandard copper and then make sure anyone who complains deposits a physical copy of that complaint in a site that will later be archaeologically significant

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Casual racism which would mean at least a scandal for any other politician, but for Trump it won't even make a blip in the news

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I love everything about this whole story haha. I hope someone does a deep dive about how it moved from an idea some staffer had, to producing a big poster and smugly asking about it during a Senate hearing – without anyone even bothering to do the most basic fact checking!!

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is wild... I tried it too and got the same result

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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026

Look at his face when he thinks he's just got him lol

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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 27/09/2026

out on the road today I saw a wojack sticker on a cybertruck

cybertruck with a bumper sticker of the NPC meme that says ROCKET MAN BAD

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

John M MacKenzie, the founding editor of the Manchester University Press Studies in Inperialism series that i have the honour of co-editing, has sadly passed away. Our tributes here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/09...

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

Celebrating the life and contribution of John M MacKenzie - Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press remembers Professor John M. MacKenzie, founding editor of Studies in Imperialism, with tributes from colleagues reflecting on his scholarship, generosity and lasting legacy...

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Adrienne LaFrance @adriennelaf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

One of the best stories I have ever ever read. Sharing it today because there must be someone out there who hasn't read it yet. Trust me on this one: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

theatlantic.com

The Missing Kayaker

What happened to Ryan Borgwardt?

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Dr Chris Smith @spyhistorian.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"The British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it." Eric Williams, still on point all these decades on. All is changed while everything has stayed the same.

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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 20/09/2026

Maybe don't talk about fleece for awhile.

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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 15/09/2026

Ah well then

Polymarket
@Polymarket
JUST IN: Anthropic says they’re highly profitable if you take out some of their biggest expenses.
10:06 PM · Sep 14, 2026
·
3.1M
Views

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John Rain🥇 @johnrain.co.uk · 15/09/2026

Ed Sheeran's tour bus.

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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I love the implied possibliity that she has a second, less beautiful daughter who might therefore study calculus

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 15/09/2026

Please admire this slop-guide to the U.S. government that my kid received in his ninth grade government class. “Watergsstate Impreachment Imeachment bolity Precedent”

A sort of map of US government, with lots of arrows and words. It’s labelled “SIMPLIFIED CONCEPT MAP: U.S. GOVERNMENT.”

Close up of the diagram:

Example: Watergate Impeachment Key 2473 - Watergsstate Impreachment
Imeachment bolitiy Precedent
Legislative Checks
Executive
Veto
No
Executive Cheeks
Example:
Washington's 2-Ter-in Precedent
Example 3: Impeachment Precedent Key 2016 - Declares political inconinitional comnoladunt precedions hutsite avothov Uncostitutional: Bleachmens on the divisience of the Barizon Precedent

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This is how it’s done.

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The Freethinker @thefreethinkermag.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

New Freethought History Webinar! With @nathgalexander.bsky.social Freethought History Webinar #15: Atheism and Vegetarianism in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Match Made in Heaven? With Nathan Alexander (20 October 2026). More info and sign up @ link freethinker.co.uk/2026/09/free...

freethinker.co.uk

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YACHT @teamyacht.com · 13/09/2026

2026 in a nutshell

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 11/09/2026

I also find it hilarious how universities are justifying these expenditures using the language of 'equity.'"If we don't buy these tools for everyone, then only the rich kids will be able to afford them, and that's unfair." But you don't buy books assigned by profs for anyone? Why not subsidize that!

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'll be so glad when this stupid bubble bursts

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In what universe would a white Mayor be told he could not attend a commemoration in Oklahoma City because "Timothy McVeigh?"

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Is there a more devastating indictment of someone than to say they're "a real piece of work"???

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There is no serious denying that Elon Musk is a white supremacist. It's not a matter of alleged subtext or parsing unstated implications. It's just right there in his own unambiguous and explicit plain English.

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Wendy Xu @wendyxu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

it's always computer and never any of the other actual intelligent brilliant life forms we share this earth with like crows or blue whales

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Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

if you're the abc news editor who wrote that the nyc mayor attending the 9/11 ceremony is attracting "growing criticism" solely because he's a muslim then you are the criticism you're writing about

ABC:
Mayor Mamdani says he'll attend 9/11 ceremony despite growing criticism
Mayor Mamdani says he will attend New York City's annual remembrance ceremony.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

This “game” on the White House website, a version of Snake where you play as a white man in a suit and you run around picking up identifiably black, Asian, and Latino men and putting them in orange jumpsuits, might be the most openly white supremacist thing I’ve ever seen the US government produce

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Awful. Just awful. A promising young man, a high school honors grad who joined JROTC and dreamed of becoming a doctor, killed himself because of the Trump admin’s obsession with hurting Haitians and the humiliating shame of an ICE ankle monitor. His blood is on their hands.

A picture of a young black man, dressed in a light blue suit with a smart black bow tie, smiling as he is handed a diploma from a school official, a white man in his 40s-50s who is also smiling. Underneath is the caption “Pierre Damas Bel receives his high school diploma. (Family Photo/Instagram)”

Bel arrived in the United States in 2024 in order to reunite with his parents, who had fled Haiti three years before. The family was granted temporary protected status, purchased a home in Springfield and settled into life in the U.S. Bel dreamed of studying medicine and graduated high school last May with honors and as a proud member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), his father said. He was the eldest of three siblings and his family described him as smart and responsible.

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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The new billy joel song is depressing

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

El-Sayed: JD Vance couch joke Vance : How dare you talk about my wife

El-Sayed: Why would you invite JD Vance? We don't have more couches here than they do in Ohio.
C-SPAN!

JD Vance: "Keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth, Abdul, because she's way out of your league"

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Charlie Lynch @charlielynch.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Let’s try again: I’d like to hear about new research from Scottish historians. Especially ECRs whose work may not get much attention. This is because I have a newspaper column where I publicise new work by Scottish historians! Tell me about your research!

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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail), by Hieronymus Bosch, 1480-1505

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Nathan Alexander @nathgalexander.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I believe they call this move, "The Reverse Christopher Nolan"

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

imagine doing this to yourself and thinking the joke's on somebody else

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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

life comes at you fast

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The way that AI does absolutely nothing but simply repeat back to you whatever you’ve said using a different order of words and expects us to believe that means the computer understood us makes me want to TEAR MY FUCKING HAIR OUT

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Between October 2025 and July 2026, the U.S. accepted 10,258 refugees. All but three (3!) were white South Africans. Regardless of your opinion of South Africa's laws and government, I don't know how you could call this anything other than an explicitly racist policy.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

So many tech people seem to see the conflict between parenting and work as one in which work is the natural and moral victor. If you’re going to automate an aspect of your life, why wouldn’t it be the meetings rather than the spending quality time with your teenager?!

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James Adamczyk @jamesjadamczyk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Weird how people (especially men) who claim to want to protect women’s sports are always so happy to take the spotlight away from the women who are actually playing sports. Fuck Enes Kanter.

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The Dark Professor (rare archetype) @evopsychgoogle.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

hi, i just woke up from a 20 year coma. the last thing i remember was watching christopher hitchens youtube vids. i have luckily woken up just in time to weigh in this specific news story about academic freedom being under attack, and no others. i look forward to a spirited discourse with you all

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

We have had this conversation so many times. You do not have to platform/debate obscene views that are also false. I wrote during a wave of pressure on progressives to compromise with far-right haters:

I can comprehend, and do, that lots of people don’t believe climate change is real, but is there some great benefit in me listening, again, to those who refuse to listen to the global community of scientists and see the evidence before our eyes? A lot of why the right doesn’t “understand” climate change is that climate change tells us everything is connected, everything we do has far-reaching repercussions, and we’re responsible for the whole, a message at odds with their idealization of a version of freedom that smells a lot like disconnection and irresponsibility. But also climate denial is the result of fossil fuel companies and the politicians they bought spreading propaganda and lies for profit, and I understand that better than the people who believe it. If half of us believe the earth is flat, we do not make peace by settling on it being halfway between round and flat.

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