iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

To people who don’t believe that Kermit the Frog is real: What is the basis for your morality? Where does your moral standard come from?

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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If a sentence in your newscast starts with “President Trump says…” you’re failing your audience.

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Ben Prunty @benprunty.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I don't love dunking on folks but it's so fucking funny to me that Trump was convicted of 34 felonies 2 years ago, faced no punishment, and went on to win the presidency a second time and journalists are still like, "hmm, I have an inkling that maybe he believes he's above the law for some reason."

Post from NYT reporter Eric Lipton

"What an odd moment in United States history.

A U.S. president is running an overtly political campaign advertisement, right before midterm elections, paid for by the U.S. government.

Trump appears to believe he is immune from any kind of legal limit."

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026

Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.

Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…

People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The amount of Amazon workers relying on SNAP and Medicaid has nearly tripled since 2020 — while Amazon’s annual profits soared by over 550%. It’s the same story everywhere: corporate profits are at record highs, while workers’ share of the economy is at a record low. We must unrig the system.

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

the "iced coffee at a job interview" discussion is obviously stupid but also a great representation of the fact that every single HR person/recruiter has their own different made up rules for candidates and all of them think they are absolutely correct

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

To celebrate Spooky Season, let's learn why this vampire bat is running on a treadmill. The three species of vampire bats are the only known mammals to be obligate hemophages: 100% of their calories come from blood. The Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus) prefers mammals... (📷: Giulia Rossi)

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dan mentos @danmentos.com · 22/09/2026

[job interview] interviewer: so god killed all your kids? job: that's right

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Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I always try to mention Melissa Barrera the past two years because she was the first celebrity casualty for simply speaking out against genocide. She shared an article by a scholar and that was enough to cancel her. I hope people give her the spotlight and some love. variety.com/2026/film/ne...

variety.com

Melissa Barrera Says Support for Macklemore After He Was Dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Tour Is ‘Beautiful’ and ‘I Didn’t Get That’ After Being Fired From ‘Scream’

Melissa Barrera is voicing her respect for the musicians who have dropped out of Ed Sheeran’s tour following Macklemore’s dismissal over his support for Palestine.

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Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ @padresj.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It's strange how Democratic Socialists - who are being denounced by both parties - turned major deficits into balanced budgets in both New York and Seattle.

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Michael Lammer @michaellammer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

there are more trans laws than trans athletes, but you would think they are on every team outperforming everyone the way it's being reported.

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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026

I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people

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The Onion @theonion.com · 18/09/2026

Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming theonion.com/trans-teen-hatches-nef…

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Patrick Andelic @pkandelic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Muppets have to put on a show to save the Kennedy Center. There you go, Disney, that's your premise.

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Save America Movement @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

This administration would be so funny if it wasn’t so historically embarrassing and destructive. America deserves serious leaders.

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

STOP LISTENING TO THE DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT CLASS

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Ricky Davila @therickydavila.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It’s insane that people in Congress are paid over $174K a year in taxpayer dollars whilst making millions of dollars from insider trading whilst getting 18 vacations a year as Americans all over the country struggle to pay for rent, gas and groceries.

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I keep seeing videos of a guy who catches crabs and lobsters, cracks all the barnacles off them, puts a shrimp in their claws and throws them back. can you imagine. abducted by aliens but they just give you a spa day and hand you two hot dogs and let you go

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Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Fur babies are family: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

That's gonna be an lol from me dawg.

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …

What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…

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Matt Bors @mattbors.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It was exactly ten years ago today, on my 33rd birthday, that I posted this comic online.

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Marianne Seiman, contemporary crochet artist (via Instagram) #Womensart #September

Photo of twelve different and colourful toadstools and mushrooms created from crochet against a black background

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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 12/09/2026

Honestly, "big-name studios can't agree on the premise of the Muppet Show" sounds like the premise of the Muppet Show

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11/09/2026

New in PN: The muted response to Trump 9/11 fantasy is a media failure "The words coming out of his mouth reveal a man completely deluded and awash in fictions of his own making. And as long as he’s surrounded by people who will let him live in that world, we’re all stuck in here with him."

publicnotice.co

The muted response to Trump 9/11 fantasy is a media failure

It’s not “disputed.” He’s delusional.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 10/09/2026

Chicago has been ranked the most climate-resilient city in the world. No other U.S. cities made the list of the top 20 most resilient locations.

nytimes.com

Is Your City Prepared for Climate Disaster?

A new report ranks the world’s large cities on how well they have adapted to face climate risk.

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There’s such an easy answer to this “gotcha” question and it’s “Sports are inherently unsafe and unfair and it’s ridiculous to single out trans athletes when we allow 150 pound linebackers to go up against 260 pound linemen in freshman football on a daily basis. Let kids play with their friends.”

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's also not magic beans. It's a word predictor. It's really fast at it and it's even learned to pick the next line in code to make the code do what you want it to, most of the time. (This tends to flatten all art and make it worse, but that's another thing.) But it isn't magic and it's not alive.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is what Trump did on 9/11.

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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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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Have seen this Nature piece about the effects of X's algorithm mentioned again and it bears repeating; exposure to a right wing algorithm makes you - measurably and predictably - more right wing, even after you stop using it. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature

Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

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Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Griffon girls learned about physics today 😂 IG: @the.griffon.girls

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The Onion @theonion.com · 05/09/2026

Man Wakes From Coma With Ability To Understand Health Insurance Policy theonion.com/man-wakes-from-coma-wi…

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ceej @ceej.online · 05/09/2026

I keep repeating this fun fact to people while they stare at me with feigned interest: “helicopter” is a compound word, but probably not in the way you think! it’s made up of “helico” as in, “spiral,” from the Greek “helix” and “pter” as in “wing,” like in pterodactyl!!

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Roses are red Get ready to guffaw

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

still can't get over how everyone in public office just decided that letting spammers make all cellphones unusable is just how life has to be

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

Amazon's own balance sheet presents the most compelling evidence that we are stuck in the Enshittocene, the era in which everything is turning into a pile of shit, because the worst ideas of the worst people now make the most money. 1/

Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Conjuror,' a painting depicting a medieval con artist playing a shell game for an audience of astonished peasant rubes. The image has been altered: the conman now has Jeff Bezos's grinning head, and the mouths of all the peasants have been replaced with inverted Amazon 'Smile' logos, so they are now frowning.

Image:
Steve Jurvestson (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeff_Bezos%27_iconic_laugh_crop.jpg

CC BY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

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Micah @rincewind.run · 03/09/2026

every single day elon musk says or endorses stuff on x dot com that is worse than any of the quotes they've pulled up for hasan piker and he will be the single biggest political donor in the entire country, supporting republicans up and down the ballot somehow none of them are asked about it

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Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

“The wave sits within one of Saturn's powerful jet streams and extends through multiple layers of the atmosphere, indicating it is not just a cloud-level feature, but a vertically extended atmospheric structure.” Cool