iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Solved is just such a weird verb for what's happening here.

040

Reposted by Tim Ruback

Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.

A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future

204190095427

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Delighted to discover that you've not made up a single one of these. Though you should know better than to hold out on the full name of this: "Famous Oil Firms. A Serio-Comic Ballad, During the singing of which, people are requested not to laugh." levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/performance/...

levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu

Performance view for Famous Oil Firms. A Serio-Comic Ballad, During the singing of which, people are requested not to laugh. | Levy Music Collection

100

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Like the sort of dance that comes with a song, lyrics by Thomas Pynchon, delivered in the middle of a digression, in the middle of another digression, in the middle of an 800 page romp nominally about Wobblies yet really about everything but...

100

Reposted by Tim Ruback

Stefan Andreasson @bstefan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My colleagues Fawwaz Alabdulhadi, @jacktaggart.bsky.social I have a new article published (open access) in @ripejournal.bsky.social, "The petrochemical pivot: geostrategic globalization and the future of oil and gas". I hope you will find it informative. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

The petrochemical pivot: geostrategic globalization and the future of oil and gas

While demand for oil as an energy source is projected to decline, petrochemical demand is expected to grow significantly. Toward securing future profitability, oil and gas (O&G) firms are pivoting ...

123

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I'd like to think of the Petrochemical Pivot as the latest, greatest dance craze, if that's alright with you. (Congrats on the new pub!)

100

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Every character! Infinite Knotts! (This is indeed a disturbing universe.)

110

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I don't think anything shy of Don Knotts could have saved There Will Be Blood for me

101

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Infinite universes means that there is a universe exactly like this one, except Bob Newhart was cast as the lead in Three Days of the Condor instead of Robert Redford. I'm just disappointed that I'm not living in that universe is what I'm saying.

120

Reposted by Tim Ruback

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'm probably a dinosaur, but I wish students were allowed more time just to be students: to study, to read, to think, to talk to each other, to have big ideas - maybe even to have fun now & then. I'm not convinced turning unis into training centres is going to fix bigger problems in the jobs market

1534558

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If you want a bright side (such as it is) at least they're hopeful that baseball demographic is young enough to join the marines or understand how to download an app. The local radio ads on Red Sox games offer no such optimism and are thereby an entirely different version of disheartening.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Aw, man, this loss sucks. I was particularly fond of Wendell Berry's short fiction.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

IGO of Four Bob Marley & the Whalers Sly & the Family Hundredweight The Jesus & Mary & Joseph Chain

021

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Of course,I wasn't anywhere nearly as excited about the resemblance as he was. But I'm now in a pretty exclusive club (presumably) of people who have had the chance to curse wildly at their doppleganger.

000

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The closest I've come to being run over in a crosswalk was in Tempe AZ; the guy driving the car looked *exactly* like me. As i glared, he mouthed "sorry" Then kept pointing to me, pointing to his own face, & giving a double thumbs up. Must be exciting, narrowly missing running yourself over.

110

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Only one time did i have a group try to game things by only suggesting 15 terms. I ended up telling them i was gonna leave for 5 min. And when i come back, they can show me that they value this opportunity by trying harder, or they can let me choose and go in blind

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

An added benefit is that you don't hear that the exam was unfair. After all they wrote it!

110

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It's worked for me for years. The thing to watch out for is occasionally you get someone who tries to game the thing by steering to things they think are "easiest" but it's pretty easy to diagnose this, and also easy to show that what they think is easy may not really be.

110

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I'll sometimes have to coach them a bit to make sure they're not forgetting things. But they know that if they don't take it seriously or do a good job, then they've missed their chance to get the IDs in advance. (They usually write an ID section very very close to what I would have written.)

120

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

When they do it right, they go in knowing that 10 of the 12 they chose are on the test as the ID section. And the discussions they have about how to winnow towards a fair representative set is a really useful course assessment for me.

120

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Another bluebook fan chiming in. I've never actually stopped using them actually. What i like to do for the IDs is have a session where they can nominate IDs. If they do it right, we'll put 3 dozen or so on the board, then narrow it down to 12 that represent the material overall.

120

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I've been a grump about the Red Sox for several years now, but, OK, that was a fun game to watch.

000

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

My very first concert was a free show by Martha! Boston City Hall Plaza in the mid 80s

001

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

... here's the one I'd want to read, I think.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Probably something like this John Zorn record would be in my wheelhouse, but...

241

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Every now and again, you maybe start to feel like the world has lost its capacity to surprise you anymore. And then this truck pulls out in front of you during your morning commute.

A black pickup truck with a painting of bigfoot posed laying down with a pet raccoon.

090

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Since we're talking Christopher Nolan movies again:

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Grover gets frustrated very easily, which has made training a challenge sometimes. But the look on his face when things finally click and he's learned something new? Priceless

Grover, a 3 year old good puppo, who is very proud of himself indeed.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

And the wild blueberries at the edge of the yard are coming in nicely. Should be able to pick them soon. Rural life does have its pleasures

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Totally! (and thank you for reminding me that I need to send in a refill request before leaving on holiday next week)

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

If I see him again, I'll have to figure out how to get him some :)

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Just had the most adorable little visitor at my office window this morning. An American Goldfinch, I think? He sat on the ledge peering in at me and chattering away for a couple minutes.

A little yellow bird perched on a window ledge, peering inside.

230

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

This year, in the knockout stage, the team with more Everton connections loses. Really, England never had a chance.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Robert Altman's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

000

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Ingmar Bergman's The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

000

Reposted by Tim Ruback

max koss 🦩 @maxkoss.com · 06/07/2026

The nice things about books: once you own them, you own them, forever. No one will be eye tracking your reading habits. No one will make money of you reading the book as many times as you'd like. And the very same book can be read by generations to come. It can last centuries, literally. It's great.

27971208

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The first one was pretty. This one was just silly.

010

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

This doofus sleeps thru fireworks. Does not even notice them. But if I sneeze in a room on the other end of the house? Reader, I will have wronged him terribly, and he will let me know.

Grover, a 3yo Great Dane/German Shepherd mix

070

Reposted by Tim Ruback

Men in Blazers Media Network @meninblazers.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

As @rogbennett puts it, Cape Verde is one of the most valiant performances in the history of the World Cup. The world will forever remember this team, this performance. Nothing but love and respect 🇨🇻

233735

Tim Ruback @profruback.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Yet another reason I ♡ New Bedford

030

Reposted by Tim Ruback

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I bet Argentina is out there like Apollo Creed in Rocky 1. “There ain’t gonna be no rematch.”

1578247

Reposted by Tim Ruback

Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

This is why VAR sucks. If the line official calls it off-sides, fine. But this endless reviewing of the finest of touches is just nonsense. It's the fiction of thinking a) you CAN eliminate all human judgment and error when all you've done is displace it back one level; and b) that you SHOULD ... 👎

0142