iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 42m

Via Lana@beige.party on Mastodon #poetry

Unaccented, by Maureen Thorson.

God's first language is silence.
His second, heat.
He learned mercy next,
though he still has trouble with the pronunciations.
Then Aramaic, Igbo, Old High German.
God is a completist,
proud to understand every earthly prayer.
But if you've studied languages, you know
comprehension's the easy part.
Much harder to say something back
without using
your mother tongue.

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 6h

Going to be honest this might be my favourite headline of the AI bubble

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Kylie Cheung @kylietcheung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think its important to understand the campus sexual assault crisis is way worse than you think. universities suspend just 1/12,400 students each year for sexual misconduct & expel 1/22,900. once you read title ix administrators in their own words, you get a sense why that is:

jezebel.com

Not Only Do Campus Sexual Assailants Go Unpunished, They Often Get Special Treatment

Since 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 1h

Can this idiot make Trump War even more stupid? The world holds its breath.

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 1h

Reading this for a creative project. He was more than a boy with a bow. He was the generative builder of relations, the creator of multiplicity and the order of things.

Cover of The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece by Claude Calame.

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 2h

Heronry, 2022, etching by UK printmaker Janis Goodman #WomensArt

Print in blue and white featuring a tree lined still river or pond with reflections and a flying heron to the top right in silhouette

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David Cormack @davidcormack.bsky.social · 3h

actually i can't justify charging for this when i haven't written shit for months. it's free.

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D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 14h

“Māori have long cottoned on to that. Nicky Hager’s latest book helps to join the dots for others who may have wondered how it was iwi became public enemy number one during the Stop Three Waters campaign.” #nzpol www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/09/28/t...

teaonews.co.nz

The powerful have figured out how to work together. Journalists need to catch up

Analysis: It was a set of interviews I did on the Māori delegation to Israel for Te Ao with Moana recently – and the release of the Nicky Hager book Dirty Work – that took me back

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 13h

The work of contemporary potter Evelyn Ward (of evelynwardpottery, Instagram) #Womensart

Ceramic blue paint with white circular design

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In practice, AI literacy doesn’t start with building the tool for your personal use. It starts with understanding yourself as a collection of tasks who should subcontract those out to a machine. Almost no regular person’s life currently exists as such.

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Steenz! @oheysteenz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I had a conversation w a Lyft driver a few weeks ago that I still think about. I hope this musician, eager to share her art, finds her way to teaching. While the conversation started rocky, Im glad she got an opportunity to talk about her ambitions. Piano teachers are way more valuable than A.I.

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Barry Deutsch @barrydeutsch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A Bunch of Einsteins By me and @postcardsbybecky.bsky.social Read more cartoons! —> #Policartoon Support the cartoons! —>patreon.com/barry

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels.

PANEL 1

A bearded man in a red cap is recording a video of himself.

JAKE: Why should taxpayers be on the hook for science research with no real-world value? If their research were worth anything, private industry would already fund it!

PANEL 2

Jake’s rant continues over a cross-section of the landscape, from farmland and suburbs to a city; his voice is coming from a little cabin. A fiber-optic cable runs underground all the way across the panel.

JAKE: Believe me, these researchers aren’t a bunch of Einsteins!

CAPTION: There wouldn’t be high-speed internet for this doofus’s videos without fiber optic cables!

PANEL 3

Under the ocean, a fiber-optic cable runs along the ocean floor. Word balloons coming from the fiber optic cable contain the icons of many internet-based services — Facebook, Zoom, Discord, Netflix, Minecraft, and more.

CAPTION: Without fiber optics, the internet would be far too slow for how we use it today.

PANEL 4

CAPTION: So where did fiber optics come from? Well…

CAPTION: 1966

In a laboratory break room, an excited scientist throws his arms wide while another scientist eats at a table.

SCIENTIST: Now that lasers exist, we can use ultrapure glass fibers to carry light long distances!

OTHER SCIENTIST: How does that do anything?

PANEL 5

CAPTION: 1960

A scientist proudly holds up a diagram of a newly invented device. Another scientist sits at a microscope.

SCIENTIST: I call it a “laser”! It’s based on the old theory of stimulated emission.

OTHER SCIENTIST: But Theo, what use is it?

PANEL 6

CAPTION: 1917

Outside a university, a pompous-looking man gestures indignantly as he reads a scientific paper. He's speaking to a young Albert Einstein, who rolls his eyes.

MAN: Albert, where’s the practical value in this “stimulated emission” drivel? It’s a waste of taxpayer money!

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

Colour etching by Japanese artist and poet Keiko Minami (1911-2004) #WomensArt

Print featuring a stylised tree with round shape and coloured circular fruit under which a bird with blue wings and black head

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walter (extra bone haver) @cucumber.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

this video has everything (carpool coalition on instagram) #nzpol

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There is a young Māori woman playing for St Kilda in the AFLW. www.saints.com.au/players/aflw...

saints.com.au

Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw | AFL

Follow Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw's progress through AFL

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Lady Haha @lensman23.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

An actual cartoon from Dutch cartoonist Siegfried Woldhek.

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Owen Jones @owenjones.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

🚨 Big announcement! 🚨 My new book - The Fall of the West - is out for pre-order now. I travelled from Baghdad to the Rust Belt to trace how Western power created the crises now engulfing it. You can pre-order now! 👇 www.penguin.co.uk/books/468587...

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JoJoFromJerz @jojofromjerz.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The farmers who voted for Trump didn’t care about what he was going to do to the rest of us, so long as it didn’t impact them. And here we are…

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I feel like saying we won the lottery because we had a gas leak overnight and the house didn't blow up.

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Cath S @cathsheard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’ve been a librarian for 33 years this month. Part of my role is scanning the horizon for what’s coming our way, in every sense. i’ve been waiting for book challenges to become organised and more politicised. People, let me present likely instigators. www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

rnz.co.nz

The new education group that wants to represent parents' voices

A new advocacy group has launched with the aim of giving parents a more organised voice in New Zealand's ongoing debates around education. The Parents' Alliance says it wants to be evidence-based and ...

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Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The "Cameraphone" was a revolutionary portable wooden gramophone manufactured in the 1920s, mostly coming out of Germany and Great Britain. Designed to look precisely like a folding box camera of the era, it was the 1920s equivalent of a portable music player. IG: @popmania.es

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Whakamataku - Toitū Te Tiriti 🍉 @whakamataku.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is GOLD!!! Ngā mihi nui @abelsteve.bsky.social Ka whawhai tonu mātou AKE! AKE! AKE! #nzpol

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Chris and his farmily of forever farm friends @caenhillcc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Greetings and good morning it’s the Saturday farm rush hour with Willow

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Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

“Activist groups are using artificial intelligence to target the ABC’s coverage of the Middle East with accusations of bias.” AI is making society ungovernable. #auspol www.smh.com.au/business/com...

smh.com.au

Activist group using AI to flood ABC with thousands of bias complaints

The AI system lets campaigners deliver thousands of messages from their supporters with different language, tone and length but the same meaning.

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Since it was created in 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal has awarded $2.8bn to Iwi. In one year, the govt Peters is part of gave away $3bn to landlords in socially worthless tax breaks. Peterson and this govt should be abolished. #NZpol

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

There is a company in NZ called Qestral that is advertising retirement villages. Each one is my room 101.

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Is this just a play to control the market?

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

Chlöe Swarbrick gives an almighty summation of the current governing coalition’s record. Her speech, given as parliament closes for the election, also outlines why the @greens.org.nz need to lead the next government… the video is well worth your time. #nzpol

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026

Buried at the end of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's NYT interview: the single most terrible yet somehow confusingly appropriate metaphor for fossil-fuelled AI I have ever seen ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Never hear of this? The academic wasn't black. So, of no use to the racists and their culture wars.

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Kevin Veale 😷 (Toitū Te Tiriti) @krveale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I don't think we should stop. I think we should seek better alternatives. There's online environments which avoid the fuckeries of profit-driven social media, and unsurprisingly they're user-funded rather than ad driven. Try out dreamwidth and/or pillowfort! Options exist.

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If you are interested in contemporary politics, especially the shape of the global far-right, and you are not following @jennycohn.bsky.social then you really ought to be. Forensic and deeply concerning analysis.

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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A Thiel-Altman-&-Andreessen backed “network state” called Praxis is planning a tech colony in Uruguay & has a nonbinding deal w/ a development led by a former advisor to Javier Milei. Located a short ferry ride from Argentina, the move aligns w/ the “Tech Bros”’ increasing interest in the region. 1/

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Rob Williams @robwilliams71.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Here's the opening page proper of JUDGE DREDD: THE NEW FUTURE pt. 1 in today's @2000ad.bsky.social 2501. Gives you a taste of what's coming over the next 12 weeks or so. By @henryflint.bsky.social @arthurwyatt.bsky.social Annie Parkhouse and myself.

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Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

AI image and video generation reproduce its training data which has already both gender and race bias. If only we regulated standards for such use of tools in advertising (and other things) #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific...

rnz.co.nz

'Damaging stereotype' of Pasifika in AI-generated Voyager ad

An advertisement by Voyager Broadband that depicts two brown men attacking a Pākehā counterpart after their internet lags out while watching a UFC match has been criticised as 'lacking cultural due di...

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Alex P. 👹 @saddestrobots.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

i think we've getting closer and closer to the tipping point where oil extraction becomes a strictly ideological project — persisting mainly because it's a necessary plank in the maintenance of brutal hierarchies — more so than a profit-making venture per se

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Re-reading Eventually Everything Connects by Sarah Firth and thought I'd repost this gem explaining why things can feel too much.

In a panel showing her partner speaking, the speech balloon says: "If your sphere of concern is much bigger than your sphere of influence, you're gonna feel totally overwhelmed".

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

DoorDash presents its workers as superheroes in advertising campaigns, but in reality does not regard them to be worth paying unless they are forced to.

DoorDash delivery worker in red Superman suit and cape. This image epitomizes the fantasy of ideology.

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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 22/09/2026

They even made DoorDash apologize.

DoorDash on Instagram: We messed up.
Our mistakes meant some NYC Dashers were underpaid or paid late. That's unacceptable, and we're deeply sorry to the Dashers we let down.
We've reached a settlement with the City of New York, and we will make this right by paying every impacted Dasher the amounts they are owed.

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D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The missed opportunities to provide safe spaces for kids out west every time there is a major roading upgrade really ticks me off. #nzpol We get the intensified housing (a good thing) but no new parks, green spaces, cycleways, or PT, linger spaces or accommodations to meet the population increase.

Poster on a pole reads:

THINGS KIDS HAVE SACRIFICED FOR DRIVERS:
-PLAYING ON THEIR STREET
-SAFE SCHOOL STREETS
-WALKING TO SCHOOL
BIKING TO SCHOOL
-WALKING TO THE PARK
-RANDOM PLAY
-CROSSING THE STREET
- PLAYING AT NIGHT
-INDEPENDENCE
-QUALITY STREET LIFE
-AIR QUALITY
-A PLANET
-THEIR LIVES

THINGS DRIVERS HAVE SACRIFICED FOR
KIDS:

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 21/09/2026

lmao dude what, apparently a guy selling AI shit at a convention in Australia got so mad that people were criticizing him for it he started biting them. I've heard of AI brainrotting but these people are literally zombifying www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...

screenshot of a person recounting the story in a facebook post

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Daniel Vernon @yeehawtheboys.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The provision is there for a reason! I chat more about Supermarket Sweat week over at my Substack: yeehawtheboys.substack.com/p/the-week-t...

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Neal Curtis @nihilcurtis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"Let's travel to New Zealand to see Robbie Williams", said no one absolutely ever.

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AgonyFlips @agonyflips.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

When you're ticked off and a friend sends you something to make you feel better. 🐑🔊

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