iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Ringing in a new era of investigative journalism, editing, and consulting with new headshots(!!!) Right now, I’m reporting on sexual misconduct on contract for Texas Monthly, with help from a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Stay tuned for stories and other projects in the fall.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I’m sure there’s a teleprompter offscreen but the glances off camera do give this a bit of a hostage video vibe

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Lisa Diedrich @lisadiedrich.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The latest from student journalists at the Cornell Sun: "According to an archived page of CUPD’s Daily Crime Log, CUPD found drugs at the Chi Phi house just hours before Jane Doe’s alleged drugging & sexual assault." www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

cornellsun.com

CUPD Made Drug Arrest at Chi Phi 22 Hours Before the Alleged Sexual Assault

Records show Cornell knew of drug activity at the Chi Phi house 22 hours before a former student alleges she was assaulted there.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

For sexual misconduct investigations, I use anonymous sourcing, but they still have to speak to fact checkers, provide screenshots, AND we interview corroborating sources who were told about the allegations. It strikes me all the time that the standards are higher for those than national security.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

sorry guys, that Annie Jacobsen tweet about the plague was a wild ride that started with a former colleague of mine who now works at The Atlantic sharing her post and suggesting to follow her and then unraveled in real time when it was impossible to source outside of The Moscow Times

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Nick Kodama 🌳👻 @nickkodama.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Jacobsen on the Roswell incident: www.nbcnews.com/science/cosm...

Jacobsen's source believes that the Soviets dispatched flying-disk drone aircraft from a mothership flying near Alaska. Intermittent radar signals were picked up by U.S. installations, but the disks were nevertheless able to enter U.S. airspace and come down near Roswell, N.M.
"Child-size aviators" were aboard the disks: humans, seemingly about 13 years old, who may have been surgically or biologically altered to give them enlarged heads and eyes. Jacobsen quotes her source as saying he was told that the alien look-alikes were the result of experiments conducted by Nazi mad scientist Josef Mengele. The bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and two of them were alive but comatose.

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Sarah O @erniebufflo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

semi-frequent reminder that the plague is basically endemic (here in Colorado the prairie dogs often spread it) and is also generally treatable with modern medicine, so...don't freak out.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

yeah, as others have said, we might just be cooked

an associate news editor post from newsweek on LinkedIn listing editing AI-assisted stories as a key responsibility

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

tfw you started making an art project as a gift for your nephew and a way to keep your hands busy on days off and now you’re doing layout on a self-published children’s book 😂

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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 01/10/2026

you should be able to call in "suffering under the weight of another round of campus rape discourse" to work

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It’s raining really hard and Edith started hyperventilating so I gave her some dog drugs and now she’s staring at the back of the couch

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026

👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I need an explainer on what happens after two failed executions — is that actually survivable in a meaningful way? Is there a point at which they let you walk? How many times does the state get to try and kill you? 🙏 death row experts @mauricechammah.bsky.social @keribla.bsky.social

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Noah Shachtman @noahshachtman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Knicks owner Jim Dolan built himself a private surveillance state. Now he's spending millions to give New York a governor who supports Flock, ICE, and AI data centers. My latest in @wired.com ... www.wired.com/story/madiso...

wired.com

Madison Square Garden’s James Dolan Is Spending Big on New York’s Governor Race

James Dolan has put surveillance at the center of his sports and entertainment empire. Now he’s getting involved in GOP politics by backing a candidate who supports Flock, ICE, and AI data centers.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

🙏🫡❤️ Are we doing emojis in headlines now?? ⭐️🤌🩷

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Weird, it's like all of us who kept saying this was a non-issue and Democrats should just ignore the attacks were ... right?

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Endless Screaming @infinitescream.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This 33-year-old nurse told the FBI she knew she was “going to set him free” after border patrol agents brought in a man whose face was bloodied and seriously injured. She treated him and helped him escape, and she faces charges now. He got away, and they never relocated him.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Something remarkable is happening: James Talarico is running an expansively pro-immigrant campaign in Texas, a state Trump won by 14 points, speaking in Biblical terms about our duty to "the stranger." And it's resonating. That's seismic. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2160...

newrepublic.com

In Texas, Something Seismic Is Happening—and It’s All Trump’s Fault

Thanks to the economy and ICE, Trump has lost Texas Latinos. And James Talarico is developing a humane pro-immigrant message that’s resonating—even in this ultra-Trumpy state.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

the horrific cornell gang rape case has me thinking about emma sulkowicz who alleged she was raped as a student at columbia in 2014 and never got any justice. it has me thinking about the physical and mental weight young women are forced to carry while their safety is subsumed by male potential.

Emma Sulkowicz carrying around a mattress on the Columbia campus in 2014 to raise awareness of her alleged rape and the university's inaction.

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Dracula Enthusiast @kmfao.latinsky.app · 28/09/2026

(david bowie "lets dance" voice) ant blast

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

in case anyone was wondering what happens if ants realize there’s sugar water in those waterpik flosser machines, the answer is that you shoot ants into your mouth WITH the water and don’t realize it until you spit them out into the sink

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

These systematic failures aren’t specific to Cornell. In dealing with American University’s response to the allegations against W***** L*****, we learned a lot about how Title IX fails women @nbedera.bsky.social’s book came at an important time for me www.ucpress.edu/books/on-the...

ucpress.edu

On the Wrong Side by Nicole Bedera - Hardcover

Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

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Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 27/09/2026

When asked why he doesn’t become an independent, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman responded: “Because I’m a lifelong Republican.” After realizing his slip-up, Fetterman laughed and said: “That’ll get clipped.” He then corrected himself and said he's a lifelong Democrat. #TribFest26

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

me without my adhd medication unknowingly making waffle houses across from RFK jr

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Okay so “Doc” on Netflix is soapy and I knew that going in, but the new season that just came out is sooooooooooo terrible I keep turning it off in the middle of a monologue that made me roll my eyes. But since I keep restarting it too, I have a lot of thoughts to share if anyone else is watching

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

she’ll make good art again but it probably won’t be about travis kelce, and that’s okay

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

“and he needs to be eating worms” has to be in the DSM-V somewhere

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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.

And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

well and imagine if a former women’s studies and philosophy student became an investigative journalist who reported on lawmakers abusing the power of their office? better to simply cut all that curriculum www.statesman.com/news/educati...

statesman.com

UT cuts all women and gender classes from core curriculum, drops race classes

The provost’s office also eliminated dozens of courses on race from counting toward the core curriculum.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Journalists, I’m begging you guys before you tailor your content to the whims of racist commenters asking about legal status of shooting victims, pls try and remember that an estimated 30% of comments on politicized posts are bots www.wvtm13.com/article/ai-b...

wvtm13.com

Digital distortion: How bots are deepening America's divide

That post or comment you saw on social media that made you mad - there's a good chance that it's not even real.

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Celeste Headlee @celesteheadlee.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So, Banksy bought a used yacht, repaired it and retrofitted it to serve as a rescue boat to save migrants in the central Mediterranean. The whole project cost the artist $860,000. Since 2020, the boat has saved more than 3,800 people. londondaily.com/banksy-funds...

londondaily.com

Banksy funds refugee rescue boat operating in Mediterranean - London Daily

Exclusive: UK artist finances bright pink motor yacht that set sail in secrecy to avoid being intercepted by authorities

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

can I show y’all some of the memes I’ve saved but never had a use for

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

knowing it’s a privilege to work on investigations but mad I basically can’t talk about my work except to say that I got a new squishy toy for staying focused in phone interviews and DO NOT bring up my novel until after the election pls

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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Per Texas media, it’s looking like +100K registrations were affected. Secretary of State is saying that it shouldn’t affect voting.

We reached out to 24 counties today to see the extent of the problem. Here's what we got back:
Collin County - 40,000+
Travis County - 32,000
Brazoria County - 9,000+
Hays County - 8,100
Cameron County - 5,000

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Alyssa Harad @alyssaharad.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I need folks who are always posting, "Why does Texas vote the way it does???" to pay attention to stuff like this.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Finally ended my toxic, expensive love affair with DoorDash. After ending love affairs with Target and Starbucks. I go back to Alamo Drafthouse because I like fried pickles during a movie, but I’m still mad at em 😠 Anyway, excited to announce a new love affair with Favor! Surely this one won’t bre-

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Sarah McLaughlin @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A man commented “F you and your Flock cameras" on a South Carolina police department's Facebook post. And then the police department — reportedly the Police Chief himself — messaged the man threatening to have "U.S. Marshals" arrest him for “unlawful communications.” www.wrdw.com/2026/09/23/r...

The situation stems from a comment McClellan made on a public post the department made about Flock cameras being cut down across town. McClellan said something along the lines of, “F you and your Flock cameras.”

“I just said something and it really, it upset that police chief obviously and he messaged me roughly a week later. Not happy with what I said,” McClellan said.

In screenshots McClellan provided, the Facebook account labeled Ridge Spring Police Department responded to him, saying it is unlawful to use profanity electronically and stated, “I will be obtaining a warrant” for “unlawful communications.” The message also stated, “I will send the U.S. Marshals to pick you up.”

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

WAPO: The architect quit “after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures .. .. ‘I am the code,” Trump said.” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Jennifer Eckhart named the network in her 2020 lawsuit against fired former anchor Ed Henry, whom she accused of raping her. Fox News was removed from the lawsuit by a judge in March 2025, and Eckhart settled with Henry in June of that year. apple.news/AUZnnEAB5Q8e...

apple.news

Former Fox News producer Jennifer Eckhart dies by suicide at 36 — Los Angeles Times

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox Business Network associate producer, settled a sexual assault lawsuit against ex-"Fox & Friends" weekend anchor Ed Henry in 2025.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I have an Alexa that I use for ocean sounds and alarms, but it never asked a follow-up until today, when I asked when the full moon is, and it replied, “Are you observing it, or were you just curious?” As you can see, I said “...curious,” and it kept talking and I turned into Ron from Parks & Rec

Yep, the September 26 full Moon is the Harvest Moon, reaching peak illumination at 12:49 p.m.
EDT. It's called the Harvest Moon because it lands right after the autumnal equinox, giving farmers extra evening light.
Harvest Moon 2026
farmersalmanac.com
Full Moon Ser totallythebon
Hey, I wasn't sure who I was talking to just now.
Once I know you, I can help you even more! What's your name!
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凸
Whoa, what is this?
Oh, you mean the images? It's just a little visual to go with the Harvest Moon info. Did you have a chance to look at them, or were you just surprised by the pop-up?
moonlightphase.com
What Is the Harvest Moon? — Autumn F...
almanac.com
What Is the Harvest Moon 2026? | Harv...
No, mean, why are you talking to me? Who are you?

I'm Alexa, the assistant on this device. I'm here to help with things like the moon info you asked for, or just to chat. Did you not know I was on here, or were you just not expecting me to chime in?
You've never chimed in before.
Fair enough, I'll keep it more low-key. Did you usually just use the device for music or other things, or have you just not had a reason to ask me anything?
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Why do you keep asking me questions?
You're right, I've been overdoing it. I'll stick to the facts and only chime in when you ask. Still want to know more about the moon, or are you all set?
No, I'm all set, thanks.
You got it, glad I could help with the moon info. I'll be here if you need anything else.

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

ordered myself a squishy toy I’d tried at my therapist’s office for use during hard phone interviews with traumatized sources, and I had just taken it out of the packaging when I saw this story from @businessinsider.com 😅 www.businessinsider.com/squishy-toys...

businessinsider.com

Squishies became the toy of the year. Then came the explosions, burns, and poison-control calls.

As squishy toys boom, reports of burns, leaks, and explosions are raising new questions about their safety and ingredients.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have been seeing confusion about this. He entered legally through the CBP One process, under which people were given one year of humanitarian parole and then placed into removal proceedings. However, Trump cancelled CBP One parole and ICE says he was since ordered removed (details unconfirmed).

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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

NYT will not publish or distribute any images taken as part of the White House still photography pool today, in conjunction with the other members of that pool and in a show of support for the news organizations being unfairly targeted by the president's barring of journalists from the White House.

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