iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Reminding me of my current favorite chat, via FT:

“Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points” chart from FT showing US Real GDP per capita going back to 1870, with three forward extrapolations: (1) Line shooting up, labeled “Tech singularity: end of scarcity”; (2) Line dropping to zero, labeled “Tech singularity: human extinction” ; and (3) Line continuing past trend with a slight upward kink, labeled “AI-boosted growth path”.

3232

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

So grateful everyone is always honest on social media and never adopts a fake persona to advance their covert agenda

Famous Twitter thread from Dean Browning @DeanBrowningPA (white GOP politico from Pennsylvania) which he began by posting:

“What Trump built in 4 years, Biden will destroy in 4 months.”

To which user @ADunks5 replies:

“You mean what Obama built in 8 years, Trump trying to take credit for the first 3 years. Trump destroyed in 3 months with help from the "Trump virus" ! Biden now has to rid the country of the "Trump virus" ! Stay away from Drugs Dean!
You're clearly high!”

Following which @DeanBrowningPA (having forgotten to switch to his sockpuppet account) replies:

“I'm a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little bit and it was for the worse. Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected - which I never do when democrats are involved.”

(Lol classic)

0215

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Worth reading to the bitter end of Cory’s comprehensive takedown of Amazon’s “businesses” to see how, no matter how much blood they suck out of their sellers and customers today, they’re always looking to suck out more tomorrow

Excerpt from Cory’s essay:

Over the past 7 years, Amazon has been secretly charging the winning bidder an amount equal to their own sealed bid, not the amount that the next-highest bidder was willing to pay (plus a penny):

https://gizmodo.com/ftc-sues-amazon-for-allegedly-duping-advertisers-2000805199

According to the suit, Amazon did this 80% of the time. That is tens of billions of dollars Amazon extracted from platform sellers, who passed those costs onto you, and onto every other retailer in the country (thanks to AI-enforced Most Favored Nation policies).

Amazon's defense is that this is all a big misunderstanding. Platform sellers just didn't understand how a SBSPA worked.

07524

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Ahh the life of a 25-yo hedgie! Up 439% on the year in June, the world’s your oyster and everything’s grand; begging investors to add funds in July…

Excerpt from FT article:

“P.S. At times we call out opportunities
that seem like a particularly good time to add funds, if you have been waiting for one," he said in the investor letter, seen by the FT, which was sent in recent days and offered the ability to invest new cash on
August 1.

The hedge fund had notched blistering returns this year. The firm was up 439 per cent on a net basis for the year as of the end of June, according to the letter…

142

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“Cause there we are again in the middle of the night, We're dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light - Down the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well…”

Still frame of Odysseus (Matt Damon) in the Odyssey (2026) screaming in agony as he is (I think) lashed to the mast of his ship, being tormented by the Sirens. (It sort of looks like he is singing.)

053

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“Don't cry, don't raise your eye, It's only teenage wasteland…”

120

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk. The music loud and the women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born…”

191

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I wonder what’s going on with that?

“Family Guy” terrorist color check meme, showing a uniformed officer holding up a “shades of skin tone” color card in front of the Peter Griffin character, with the lighter shades labeled “Charismatic” and the darker shades labeled “Not Charismatic”

051

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

New reason to hate on the JCPOA just dropped

Four-panel “Galaxy Brain” meme where each level is more brilliant than the last.

First panel (ordinary brain): JCPOA was bad because it gave Iran money for suspending its nuclear program

Second panel (glowing brain): JCPOA was bad because it didn't give Iran enough money

Third panel (glowing brain with rays shooting out): JCPOA was bad because it didn't give Iran enough money along with control of the Strait of Hormuz

Fourth panel (galaxy brain that has achieved nirvana): JCPOA was bad because it didn't allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons

192

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Which button? (Lol I kid, most founder-owner-CEOs would mash the right button instantly)

“Two buttons” meme showing a cartoon superhero sweating bullets over having to decide which of two buttons to press. In this case, the button on the left is labeled “Treat employees humanely, make lots of money” and the button on the right is labeled “Fire ingrates!”

040

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Shaking my head and adjusting my “Fist Amendment” pocket square every few minutes so everyone at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner knows I disagree with the whole spectacle

Original Dec 29, 2020 tweet from @metalgearobama:

Reading Mein Kampf and shaking my head the whole time so the people on the bus know I disagree with it

1140

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Imagine making one of your 22 complaints about American culture, in this our 6th year of President Donald J. Trump, that we expect too much virtue and frugality of our leaders.

Text excerpt from the Palantir manifesto:

8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche-may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to
regret.

10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish…

1143

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

It’s the same now with the AI Trump boosters (see clip) - the fake shit only works with conservatives. That’s because authoritarians don’t care if claims that validate their biases are true or not. When asked about sharing slop they typically say, “I know it’s probably fake, but I liked it.”

Clip from article:

… contractors and marketing companies that now specialize in developing and dispatching A.I. avatars in bulk for increasingly low prices.

The emergence of the A.I.-generated political avatars, researchers said, suggests a sweeping effort to hook conservative voters, a demographic primed by the president and his circle to accept memes, influencers, deepfakes and other digitally packaged messaging. Neither The Times nor the researchers it consulted found any similar left-leaning networks.

“People gearing up for the midterms should expect that they might see some of this content on their accounts, that it might be crafted to be particularly engaging or exciting to them,” said Kaylyn Jackson Schiff, a co-director of GRAIL.

1186

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

+ citation: www.ft.com/content/cf87...

Text excerpt from the Financial Times story:

Even the way people on Wall Street talk and interact is changing. Bankers and financiers say Trump’s victory has emboldened those who chafed at “woke doctrine” and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or disabled people.

“I feel liberated,” said a top banker. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”

130

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Thinking about the Tom Toro cartoon today

"New Yorker" cartoon by Tom Toro, showing a stockbroker in tattered business suit sitting at a campfire with three children, and saying, "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we got to say the R-, F-, and C- words." (the last bit is an edit, and in red. the original text is "...we created a lot of value for shareholders.")

192

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Just to drive home the magnitude of the tragedy: 2/3 of all industrial CO_2 emissions, 1.2 trillion tons, have been generated since 1981. Annual emissions now are double what they were then. We have a very long way to go - the alternate path from 1981 would have been much shorter and more pleasant.

Plot of cumulative industrial carbon dioxide emissions from 1900 to 2024 from Our World in Data. Cumulative emissions have been growing rapidly since 1980 and show minimal signs of slowing down to date.

020

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Post an album cover that could be an Olympic event

Cover of the Devo debut album “Freedom of Choice” (1980), with the band members lined up side by side in silver jackets over black T-shirts, hands flat on their thighs, plastic red cone-shaped hats on their heads. The letters “D E V O” in white circles above their heads, with a blue background behind.

1101

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

El Paso City Councilor Chris Canales post with alt text:

Post from /u/ChrisCanalesEPTX :

Update thread on FAA closure of El Paso airspace

There are multiple posts about this issue that are getting difficult to track, so l'm going to try to consolidate my updates here in one place.

I've been up all night trying to get information to share with the public, but we're just not getting much from the federal government at the moment.

We have no reason to believe that there is any kind of imminent safety threat to El Paso, but we still have no reason provided by the FAA or any federal authority, and that lack of explanation is obviously fueling fear and speculation in our community. FAA contacts, including those at the phone number listed in the notice, have said they also don't know the reason.

What's especially troubling is that there appears to have been no advance notice to local government, airport leadership, or even local Air Traffic Control or local military leadership.

If El Paso International Airport has to close for 10 days, the economic hit to El Paso could be $40-50 million or more.

I will continue pushing for answers and will share updates in the comments on this post as soon as I am able.

Follow @flyelp on instagram for official updates directly from the El Paso International Airport.

13920

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

People always pointing out how GenX grew up drastically misled as to the prevalence of quicksand in modern life but hey, what about those sensory deprivation tanks? Where did they all go?

Poster (Japanese version) for the 1980 movie “Altered States” starring William Hurt. It shows a man in a swimsuit suspended in the center of a transparent prism, a sensory deprivation chamber which initiates the main action of the story.

6201

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

The most insightful thing anyone has said about Trump, and it’s true of every fascist you can name. They lie about the past in every possible way, and are perfectly straightforward about what they want.

Excerpt from the piece:

The common understanding at the time was that all of that was political theater, or rhetorical excesses-that Trump had no real convictions. But Cassandras didn't see it like that. "I kinda think people have it reversed," Joe, a white 30-year-old from upstate New York, who noy teaches at a university in the U.K., said, (this part highlighted:) "Lots of people don't detect that he's lying about what has transpired, but they think he's full of hot air about what he wants. But in reality, he's a total liar about what has happened, and he's deadly sincere about what it is he wants."

45114

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Supplementing with screenshot in case of future hyperreference issues:

Screenshot of skeet + reply skeet.

Original skeet by @josh.uno says “mine went on a tangent” with attached screenshot of ChatGPT interaction: User says “What is a four letter word that, when you reverse its letters, it becomes a plant?” and ChatGPT replies: “The four-letter word you're looking for is "Star." When reversed, it becomes "Rats," which is not a plant. However, if we slightly adjust the criteria, "Herb" becomes "Breh" when reversed, though
"Breh" isn't a recognized word. It seems the exact criteria you've set might not have a direct answer. If there's a specific word puzzle or context you're referring to, could you provide more details?”

Reply skeet by @pbump.com (Philip Bump) says “breh”

020

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Here we are in the pouring home I watch a light man fold a comb I watch a line move across the screen I watch the light come over me Here we are now, going to the west side Weapons in hand as we go for a ride Some may come, love, and some may stay Watching out for a sunny day

Pope Leo XIV, dressed in his white papal garb, cradling a microphone in front of a group of businesspeople and cardinals, clearly spitting rhymes

131

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Larry Summers email with alt text

(Image of email from Larry Summers to Jeffrey Epstein:)

From: Larry Summers
Sent: 10/27/2017 3:10:13 PM
To: jeffrey E. [jeevacation@gmail.com]
Subject: Re: Trending Now: Friends for three decades, Trump whisperer says he is 'stunned' by president's rhetoric
Importance: High

Softbank deputy guy i liked and seemed aware and honest re Son.

Lots of slathering to saudis. I yipped about inclusion.

I observed that half the IQ In world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population...

Mnuchin plumbs new depths.

War seems more likely than I used to think
DjT is world s luckiest guy in terms of opposition, economy etc. still think his world will collapse.

I'm trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can't work at a network or think tank.

DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT

Sent from my iPad
Please direct all scheduling inquiries to my office at:
Follow me on twitter @lhsummers www.larrysummers.com

131

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Trump thuggishness, with alt text:

Financial Times article excerpt:

Trump administration officials warned of additional trade tariffs and made personal threats against negotiators from other countries to block a historic climate deal for shipping, said people present at the talks.

More than 10 diplomats, officials from other governments and industry observers told the Financial Times that the US ripped up normal global diplomacy rules and used "bully-boy tactics" to derail the UN-backed Net Zero Framework for global shipping at meetings in London last month.

A phalanx of US officials intimidated African and small Pacific and Caribbean island countries into dropping support for the framework, which would have imposed a carbon emissions levy on shipping, according to people present at the talks at the headquarters of the UN's International Maritime Organization in London. The US group included eight people, according to one person present.

The intimidation included approaching country officials during coffee breaks to warn them they might not be able to transit via the US, or that they and their families could face restrictions on entering the country if they acted against American interests, according to five people at the talks, including two from countries that were directly threatened.

US President Donald Trump has branded the framework a "global green new scam tax on shipping", and in a social media post last month called for it to be blocked.

The framework had been provisionally agreed by a majority of countries in April and was expected to be made legally binding last month, but further discussions on its adoption have now been delayed for a year.

While the Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for the UN and multilateral organisations, diplomats and experts warned that the behaviour at the IMO crossed a line, with potential long-term consequences for global governance.

1/2

Article excerpt continues:

"It was like the New York street," said a diplomat from a nation that was threatened with visa restrictions for shipping crews and other penalties, including increased fees to access US ports, if it did not drop its support for the framework.

“They went from delegation to delegation... threatening them. Telling them to go back and speak to their capitals, warning what would happen if they didn't change their minds," the diplomat said.

A second veteran of IMO meetings said the US tactics had left the entire organisation - usually a forum for technocratic discussion and consensus-based decision making — in a state of "complete shock".

2/2

0162

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

Daughters dressed Albus Dumbledog up as a Beanie Boo

A small white cockapoo sits on a wood floor, looking at the camera with a calm expression. He has a large red “ty” heart attached to his harness, like the tag on a Beanie Boo stuffed animal but much larger.

2192

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

“American Century of Humiliation” screencap with alt text:

Post from Zhang DaShuai @zhao_dashuai at X.com:

“From a reliable source, on why Scott Bessent has a grudge against Li Chenggang:

1. During the negotiation in Spain, the US delegation threatened more semiconductor control measures against China.

Li Chenggang then picked up the phone and ordered the anti-monopoly investigation against Nvidia during the meeting, right in front of Scott Bessent's face.”

0102

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

QP A Double Feature that Sounds Like One Movie: Alien Parasite

Promotional poster for sci-fi horror film “Alien” (1979), showing a cracked egg with green glowing gas leaking out, against a black background

Promotional poster for the Bosch comedy thriller movie “Parasite” (2019), showing members of Koran family posed stiffly in their home and backyard. A prone (dead?) person’s legs protrude into the scene from the left. They are very white against the green grass.

020

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

“Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina” by Adam Scharpf (GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies) & Christian Glaßel (University of Mannheim) - Title page with alt text

Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic
Argentina

Adam Scharpf, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Christian Glaßel, University of Mannheim

Abstract:

Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.

0148

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

For those who haven’t seen the famous 1924 NYT story:

Image of NYT headline from 1924:

HITLER TAMED BY PRISON.

Released on Parole, He Is Expected
to Return to Austria.

Copyright, 1924, by The New Tork Times Company. By Wireloss to The New York Times.

0253

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

And the Franklin Institute is now on BlueSky @franklininstitute.bsky.social ! And they found my skeets!

Screenshot of my notifications, showing the new official Franklin Institute BlueSky account “liking” my two skeets about Jack Kruk’s extended mediation on their BODY WORLDS: VITAL exhibit during last nights Phillies game.

020

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

MIT Museum was worth it, too! Where else can you see the maze-solving electromechanical “mouse” built by the one and only Claude Shannon *as well as* the mind-contorting “Beholding the Big Bang” by Arthur Ganson?

030

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Finally visited the Glass Flowers Exhibit at the Harvard Natural History Museum last time I was in greater Boston and it did not disappoint - utterly unique, lying at the Venn intersection of extraordinary talent, obsessive dedication, and absurd quantities of money… a must-see imho.

Cactus branch + flowers from the Glass Flowers exhibit - manifold tiny spikes, yellow translucent petals, green stalks and all

Cherry blossom branch from the glass flowers exhibit - tiny perfect pink blossoms, everywhere

Maple branches from the glass flowers exhibit - one in full autumn colors, another in summer green - perfect

3232

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Reminder that this world - where United States foreign and trade policies are subject to the ever-changing whims of a demented racist sex-pest with goo for brains - is the active daily choice of almost. Every. Single. Republican. Politician.

TruthSocial post by Donald J. Trump, dated 7/31/25 and stating, “Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.
Oh' Canada!!!”

1135

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

We’re all trying to figure out who did this, Amanda

“Who Killed Hannibal” meme, where in the upper frame we see the man labeled “Trump” shooting the person labeled “Epstein Client List” with a gun labeled “Pam Bondi (is gun)”, and in the lower frame the killer (Trump) faces the camera and says, “Why would Pam Bondi do this?”

1143

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Bwaaaahahaha no rubes like Trump donor rubes

Skeet / pull-quote from Asawin Suebsaeng story in Rolling Stone on the Epstein files, saying: “One Trump administration official tells Rolling Stone on Saturday evening: ‘He is making it very hard for some of his biggest supporters to not think that maybe he really is in the Epstein files.' // Another longtime Trump associate simply says: ‘awful damage control instincts.’ “

1234

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

“Nanook of the North” - which contra expectations was actually good

Still frame from “Nanook of the North” (1922) showing Nanook, a male Inuit, poised to throw a spear at an animal (seal or whale) off-screen.

051

Derek Fox @partialobserver.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Wake up babe, new ship ran aground & it was carrying fresh memes

View out the living room window of the fjord-front home of Norwegian Johan Helberg. There is a giant ship with a red and green (above the waterline) hull that has run aground in his front yard, narrowly missing the house, coming ashore to the right and smashing his garden.

39228