iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

More shitty AI signs: I came across this one for a local church fundraiser a couple of months ago. It's full of completely nonsensical text in English and Portuguese. Not only did they generate this slop, they didn't even proofread it to make sure whether it was correct!

An AI-generated sign in English and Portuguese. The English says 'Ranking 12th in religious persecution in a ... barefoot for ilest vhn barefoing the Kaward tale...'

The Portuguese says 'Ocupando a 12a posição na perseg... idólatra, mta, multioes na Índia caminh... carregan o lo agwa do Rio Ganges...'

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I think the worst thing, though, about these AI flyers is how unappetising the food looks. They should just take out their phones and take pictures of the food themselves rather than letting AI generate uncanny-valley food pictures.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’ve been seeing more and more of these ChatGPT signs lately. They all cram in inane slogans, icons next to everything, and that brushy “font” you see a lot of the time. Once you recognise the patterns, you KEEP SEEING IT.

An AI-generated poster for an all-you-can-eat wagyu hot pot

An AI-generated sign for a hot pot lunch special

An AI-generated flyer for a Thai food special

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I remember when bad fonts and misspelled signage were the bane of my existence. Now all that looks charming, since an actual person did it, rather than a robot. It’s AI slop that gets to me now.

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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 19/07/2026

I don't know how you can see a news story that's like "hateful law allowed to continue because teen targeted by that law kills herself" and think there's any redeeming this system we live in

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Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

this is significantly worse than even Newsom. She's using bigoted slurs against trans people, completely embracing right wing framing, misgendering, and dehumanization. 1

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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 20/07/2026

me and June and Rae have been doing this whenever we see a cybertruck and I'm so glad our work is paying off

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Basic Apple Guy @basicappleguy.com · 16/07/2026

If you recognize these icons, it’s probably time to schedule your routine back exam.

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

As an immunosuppressed person I’m so angry at everyone responsible for the CDC’s non-response to the Cyclospora outbreak. We have no guidelines, just news articles sharing long lists of foods to avoid because they’ve been associated with outbreaks in the past. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so stupid.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

When I'm ever in the position to recommend a device to someone, I'm going to focus on what THEY need, not evangelising Apple products as though I were some kind of preacher. If a Windows/Linux PC works best for them, then they should get that.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

If you read any tech thread on Reddit or other forums (even ones dedicated to a specific platform!), you'll find people trying to pull you over to the other side, as though they haven't considered it. I've used Windows, MacOS AND Linux! (I've never owned an Android, but I DID look into it.)

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

But there are people who come out of the woodwork to tell people on Windows that they must switch to Linux (or less frequently, Mac), or Mac users that they have to switch to Linux (or less frequently, Windows). And you hear it all the time with iPhone versus Android.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

A pet peeve of mine that isn't political: operating-system evangelism. I use what I use and have no plans to change platforms, since what I use is the least bad option for me. I can't stand Windows and ditched it as a main OS back in 2010, but I'm not going to tell you not to use it!

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Ygrene @ygrene.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

the human body was not designed to know what the worst person in the world is doing every fifteen minutes

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 26/04/2026

i think the specific thing that makes this feel so bad is that we're still basically living in all the social norms of the ad supported internet even though it is super dead and not coming back so there's this massive dissonance between actions and outcomes

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 26/04/2026

its a substack exclusive. subscribe to the financial times to read this one. you've used up all your free articles for the month. turn off your adblocker or we'll kill you.

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 26/04/2026

there's lots of changes but one of the major differences between the new internet and the old internet is that on the old internet when someone linked to an article that generally meant you would actually be able to read it

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Don't want to speak ill of the dead, so getting this Mitch McConnell take out now. He saw Trump with complete clarity, as a danger to America, but protected him anyway. Perhaps more than anyone, he had the power to end Trumpism, but chose party over country. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/jan-6-and-...

And yet…McConnell refused to vote to convict. Seven of his colleagues did, and with McConnell’s leadership, more would have done so, potentially enough to get to the supermajority needed. With conviction, the Senate could have also taken the vote to block Trump from running again. Doing so would have ended Trump as a political power. McConnell was clearly considering this option. In an oral history interview at the time the House was impeaching Trump, McConnell said

But apparently you can impeach somebody after they leave office, and if that happens, there’s a second vote in the Senate, which only has to pass by a simple majority, that prevents that person from seeking office again. So he could not only be impeached, but also eliminated from the possibility of a comeback for this office. So it is significant.

In the end, McConnell protected Trump from punishment. It was not just the refusal to vote to convict. After a swift House impeachment, he pushed to delay the Senate trial. He opposed the Senate joining in a Congressional investigation of Jan 6. He endorsed Trump in 2024, although this matters little except to further diminish McConnell’s dignity, as it was clear by this point that the Republican Party was Trump’s and McConnell’s time of influence was at an end.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Do white USians wonder how it feels like for non-white people to live in a country where the President is a full on racist white supremacist? Like where he announces every single day that you are inferior, unintelligent, and need to be eliminated from the country?

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Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Transphobia is THE key component of modern fascism. You are a fascist if you are a transphobe regardless of any other political positions you claim. Fascism is always the same, the only change is the wrapper. The wrapper always targets the current lowest hanging fruit, which RN is trans people.

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Scoiattolo @scarnecchia.net · 06/06/2026

Is fun how the general public is convinced that things I've been using for decades—em-dashes, the rule of three, and now, apparently, serif fonts—are signifiers for slop. We're training people to use bad heuristics and we're going to make both design and the written word worse.

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Guggenheim Collection @guggenheim.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Decisive Rose by Vasily Kandinsky, 1932 botfrens.com/collections/212/conten…

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection

© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris

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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 08/06/2026

this is the biggest problem with "viewpoint diversity" con artists: their ideas aren't in fact new. they're warmed over old stuff that's been conclusively disproven.

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

From nowe on, calle it not "Gen A.I." Calle it kakomancy, the which doth signifye "crappye magique."

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 16/06/2026

NO is one of the most critical words every decent human being needs to use in this age of fascism, "A.i.," ICE, anti-trans bigotry, eugenics, and billionaire propaganda. NO. Refuse to participate. Refuse to buy. Refuse to agree. Refuse to even smile and nod politely. Say NO. All the time.

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Trans News Network @transnews.network · 20/03/2026

It is time to talk about a real problem within trans journalism. Breathless, fearmongering posts that wildly exaggerate a danger — or make one up entirely — while being incredibly vague about actual threats and ways to resist. As TNN's @davidforbes.bsky.social termed it: panicslop. So, a 🧵

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Literally the Supreme Court upheld sodomy bans in 1986 and said homosexuality was worse than rape and nobody even talks about it

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Henry @henrythedog.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I've said this a few times, but modern "grooming" trans/homophobia post-2020 is just repeating old Nazi talking points about an elite shadow conspiracy corrupting the young, even if you're not saying "Jew" you're saying literally everything *but*

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Very thankful for this letter to Becky Pepper-Jackson (the 16 year-old trans girl SCOTUS ruled against yesterday) from James Dale, a gay man whose expulsion from the Boy Scouts was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.

medium.com

To the Trans Girl Who Just Lost at the Supreme Court: So Did I 26 Years Ago

A letter to Becky Pepper Jackson about her trans sports case defeat at SCOTUS yesterday

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

If you want to know the truth about trans participation and integration in sports (and it's not the shit that's being propagated by the SCOTUS conservatives or much of the media), check out @masstpc.org's Fair Play for All resources (which I cowrote): www.masstpc.org/fairplay/

masstpc.org

Fair Play for All! - MTPC

Find answers to frequently asked questions about transgender inclusion in sports, and research that debunks common misinformation.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This isn't even the first time the NYT has done this. Back in 2022 or so, the NYT published a piece by noted transphobe Pamela Paul that was entitled something like "Just Say Gay."

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Every time I come across the generic "he," I wince.

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Trans News Network @transnews.network · 01/07/2026

Jonathan Haidt — an avowed anti-trans bigot — is a major backer of Democrats' Project 2029 push, which adopts far-right, KOSA-style policies to crush online access. @mady.cat's extensive investigation earlier this year revealed Haidt was part of Jeffrey Epstein's network of anti-trans figures.

transnews.network

Epstein Backed ‘Billionaires’ Dinner’ Network of Prominent Anti-Trans Figures

Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and other anti-trans influencers personally benefited from a right-wing academic social group backed by infamous human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, somet...

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I do not understand why the default Democratic position on this issue isn’t simply to be opposed to mandatory genital exams for participants in girls sports. Because that intrusive practice is how GOP policy on transgender athletes will be enforced.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Bragging about eating lobster tails and rib eyes — both of which are more expensive due to the fuel price spikes from Trump's Iran War (which Nehls didn't vote to stop). He's retiring, but expect this soundbite to serve as a reminder for the midterms that the GOP does not care about affordability.

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Justin @sitkaworldsfair.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Would have been nice for a few generations of Jews to be free of the ominous feeling one gets when reading this kind of thing.

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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 01/07/2026

Anyway, if you're using today to say how much easier trans men have it than trans women, congratulations for being a rube and falling for Kavanaugh's gambit. THAT'S WHY HE PUT THAT FOOTNOTE IN THERE FFS.

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John Robie @jrobie.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

How about an empty plastic pedestal, spray-painted gold? No statue on top (obviously) and too structurally weak to ever support a statue, with a stipulation that absolutely no work ever be done to maintain, preserve, or restore it.

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⚧Manticorn☸ @manticorn.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Kavanaugh couldn't keep his hands off women in college and now we have to bend the law toward his opinion on how to protect females

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 30/06/2026

here is what i think: we're not consumers or spectators, we are participants with agency. you should not hope that democrats will do anything. you must work to force them to do the right thing. the odds are long, but we are far from the first americans to face long odds. we will win.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Birthright citizenship was upheld by a narrow margin (5–4). Gorsuch, Thomas, and Alito dissented, and Kavanaugh concurred and dissented in part. Roberts and Barrett voted with the liberals.

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

So, the Supreme KKKourt has signed off on the segregation of trans women and girls, and birthright citizenship was a 5–4 ruling. What a travesty. The sports ruling wasn't a surprise, but birthright citizenship? Four SCOTUS Injustices thought that Trump could rewrite the Constitution by fiat?

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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 30/06/2026

I hope today is a stark reminder why "I will follow the law" was an absolutely horrible way to respond to a question about trans rights.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 30/06/2026

fixing the court is table stakes for any Dem running for national office, you are not a serious candidate if you can’t get on board with this and refusing to do so is disqualifying in a primary because it doesn’t matter what your policy positions are if SCOTUS will just overrule them

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John Hatch @johnhatch.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I don't think people understand the degree to which outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times set back trans rights with second-rate reporting that doesn't stand up now, let alone in the future. They have failed at the most basic journalistic duties.

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phoenix @phoenix-rights.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

We will not be liberated by this Court or any court invented by this current system We need to lean into the imagination of what else can we create. If we know the system will continue to work against us, it is what we do for ourselves that matters 3/3

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pausa de hateration @thatguywasfly.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I'm not gonna forget or forgive the left and liberal journalists and "public intellectuals" who played a part in building support for transphobia over the past 15 years. A lot of people will, but you'll have to bury that hatchet the day they bury me.

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Nancy Armour @nrarmour.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The ban is heinous for what it does to transgender athletes. But if you think cisgender girls and young women won’t be caught up in the fallout, too, you are woefully ignorant

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Finn Gardiner @phineasfrogg.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I tried so hard to convince myself that I was straight when I was a kid. I'm 40, so I grew up in the 90s and 2000s when homophobia was rampant in school (and in my family, since I spent my teen years as an evangelical).

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