iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

October is OLC (original lit crit) month! Well, not really, but I'm going to be writing about it from a fully amateur perspective on Mastodon at richpuchalsky@mastodon.social. Probably some of it will be about @adamroberts.bsky.social and there may be references to other former Valve writers.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I pay full price for a subscription even though I am too busy to ever read the actual subscriber-only writing and only read the free stuff you get via Email

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We are growing *so many* tulips that they may merge into a tulip monster capable of eating humanity. "Feed me, Seymour" will echo over the hills. Incredibly valuable tulips no we must not stop using more and more agricultural water on these tulips. What's wrong with you? #AI

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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 23/08/2026

I love Minneapolis

Jake Lang, a Nazi asshole, getting his ass picturesquely whooped in downtown Minneapolis by a person dressed as Spider-Man

I cannot overstate how much this photo looks like a comic book cover

Photo credit Chris Juhn Photography

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

California's Imperial Valley is an artifact of water rights and people can fight over water rights as much as they want but the water itself will go away www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

The US has a plan to save the Colorado River. Experts say it won’t be enough to stop the crisis

The 10-year blueprint mandates water cuts of up to 40% for California, Arizona and Nevada

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Are you one of the few people who cares what I post about, perhaps one of the vanishingly few who I still try to keep track of from the blog era or the Usenet era? Here's a list of the recent things I've written about on Mastodon, categorized by subject. rpuchalsky.blogspot.com/2026/08/mast...

rpuchalsky.blogspot.com

Mastodon threads

Why have I written on my blog less? It's because I write on social media more. I sometimes write threads that I bookmark because I think t...

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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

"UNPOPULAR OPINION: NAPOLEON WOULD HAVE WON THIS WAR IF NOT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF WINTER AND DISTANCE" x.com/nikicaga/sta...

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

People have talked about the "demand destruction" from the US attack on #Iran -- the countries having to convert from fossil fuels to renewables because a certain amount of fossil is no longer available. But with enough drone / missile hits on Saudi facilities, it becomes plain supply destruction.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

An explanation of what tariffs on Chinese renewable products actually do (as a thread on Mastodon) tl/dr: "Oh no the fossil fuel I own is being underpriced by renewables how can I make renewables more expensive" #climate #renewables mastodon.social/@richpuchals...

mastodon.social

Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝ (@richpuchalsky@mastodon.social)

Since I have written about how bad tariffs on Chinese renewables are -- and since both Europe and the US (under both parties) have these tariffs -- I should explain in more detail what tariffs do in t...

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Non-white people using drugs become The Incredible Hulk and must be gunned down is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Interesting wrinkle to this is that cops touching fentanyl has the opposite effect on their nervous systems.

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Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 18/07/2026

“People say I’m racist just because I believe that certain races and cultures are inherently inferior to others in ways that mean we should think about and treat them differently” yeah man that’s what the word means

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Jonathan Stegall @jonathanstegall.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

One thing you learn in abolitionist circles is that the more cops there are the more contact they have with people, and the more contact they have with people the more violence they can enact.

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Ciggy Smoke Bringer aka Riotous Blottoness @ciggysmokebringer.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This is when I do wish Quakers had some kind of supernatural belief in some angelic avatar of justice in sectarian war, like 'The Oatman' and like all these fuckers are found dead face down in bowl of oatmeal. In bed on their pillow, yes, midway through some abominable praise n worship song, yes.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The US Constitution is meaningless. It can be interpreted any way the Supreme Court -- 9 appointed politicians -- decide to interpret it www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

US supreme court rules Trump can fire leaders of independent agencies

Case focused on White House’s March 2025 firing of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter

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Your Cyberpunk Future @lady8jane.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Moving and hiding left-wing flyers is what the Nazis almost got my great-grandfather for. And it's only almost because he was warned that they were coming for him and was able to hide them even better. If you ever doubted that the US is a fascist country, doubt no more.

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jesse, head of endorsement deals at BOOingo Wireless @killgoldfish.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"guy wasn't there at the time but prosecuted for anarchist pamphlets" is EXACTLY what happened with the Haymarket Affair.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

My comparatively tiny experience of Chinese science agrees with this most-cited-in-the world #climate scientist: Chinese science has fully caught up to the best science elsewhere, but they reflexively hide data sets. interactive.carbonbrief.org/cosmos/inter...

interactive.carbonbrief.org

Prof Philippe Ciais: The world’s most highly cited climate scientist

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spooky kororā @davejac.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

My neighbor told me a cat keeps eating his british prime minister so I asked how many PMs he has and he said he just goes to the commons and gets a new PM afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding PMs to a cat and then his daughter started crying.

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☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ @schwarz.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

After Colin Powell's Iraq WMD presentation at the UN in 2003, Susan Rice proclaimed that Powell "has proved that Iraq has these weapons and is hiding them, and I don’t think many informed people doubted that"

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PeterGelderloos @petergelderloos.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

There are actually not good reasons to believe that nonviolence is effective. There's a solid historical basis that contradicts nonviolence, but just as the media use the distorting lens of elite interests, we're raised with a falsified history about Civil Rights, independence in India, etc.

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

"Um yeah veteran reporter here checking in. Most of you may not know this but working at the consent factory is these people's job. And having a job is how people pay for things."

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Authors hate libraries, there is nothing to be done about this. Yeah yeah #notallauthors but the majority of them are individualist people who have never understood why their mediocre talent isn't raking in the big bucks www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

publishersweekly.com

Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

A survey commissioned by the Guild found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription, with readers increasingly turning to low- or no...

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Palantir Technologies is exactly what you get if you read _IBM and the Holocaust_ and think that you should build the Torment Nexus

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Olivia Waite @oliviawaite.com · 10/05/2026

“We, the creators of the Torment Nexus, are now suing the writers of the classic science fiction novel ‘Don’t Create the Torment Nexus.’”

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It never fails -- whenever I post about how a used EV is much cheaper than a gas powered car (because battery capacity is increasing quickly so people don't want used EVs as much) people say that the prices I mention are really expensive for poor people. Cars are expensive for poor people.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

For global problems, individual volunteer actions do not help. All they do is convince people who might have otherwise done something useful that something is being done. Even all of the communal lowered demand of the Covid era did not really change our path. 1/2 #climate

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Trump threatens "“A whole civilization will die tonight". Truly barbaric, a genocidal threat that should make it clear to everyone that his supporters are Nazis. After Trump is gone, they should expect to be treated like Nazis. #IranWar

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

"What would you do if you lived in the time of the Nazis?" was a perennial question. Most US scientists can now the answer the question with "I would have complained that the Nazis fired me." I understand this, but it's not good for Nazis to have cutting-edge science.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Trump, by causing an escalation spiral that may well destroy most Middle East oil production, may allow the world to actually meet #climatechange emission targets. Not just through lowered production, but through higher oil costs pushing people to renewables. 1/2

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Joyposting: as someone who has worked on climate activism and data since the mid 1990s, I was getting increasingly depressed about it, but recently various right wing regimes have started blowing up major world oil infrastructure. That's great! I do not mean that ironically. It's the best.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Khamenei: He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it Emperor: What? We have the real power, so much unbelievable power, we're going to destroy it first Guild Navigator: nooooooooo

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The general quality of American morality: We support a genocide: you should have voted for the genocideur We kill >100 schoolgirls:who cares Gas goes up by 50 cents a gallon: OMG this is super important what happened

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cjdcat @cjdcat.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

putting out peanuts for the Holy Spirit

Band tailed pigeon landing at a deck feeder, wings spread wide

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

[in 1938] Well you can't just say bad things about German culture or the German people

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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

i think the fact that i can say over and over again 'i am not being ironic, this is not a bit, my books are not a joke' and have people on the right AND left just say 'NO YOU ARE' to my face (or my mask) over and over again is very telling. culture just cannot deal with neurodivergent people yet

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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

it is so funny to me that of all the things i have ever posted about art, the most controversial take WITHOUT QUESTION is when i say that the best thing you can do if you want a career as an artist is to be KIND to your peers. folks get SO upset by that one, which i think is unfortunately telling

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

My opinion on the Trump #EPA #climate change reversal of its scientific finding that permitted EPA to regulate: it doesn't matter much. EPA never did anything substantive: our fossil fuel mining and use kept going up. The idea that we were somehow protected by regulation was propaganda.

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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

everyone on their way to the park takes it in stride

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Living in a neoliberal dystopian hellscape @breakify.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Dems don’t want to abolish ICE because they helped create it in the first place. This shouldn’t be a difficult concept for people to grasp. They’re not supporting it because they don’t want to do it! They are the enemy, just like Republicans!

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

i have just gotten off a productive call with sauron where i laid out our requests - nazgul bodycams - morgul knife must remain sheathed unless suspect is determined to be carrying the one ring - shelob will be the new point of contact

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Far too many center-left people on the TL are saying they agree with Bill Kristol. You don't have to do this. Kristol is a monster who occasionally says something obvious when it's in his interest. He has no power other than the power of "I can't believe it's Bill Kristol" which you give him.

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Bluesky's "Trending" thing says nothing about ICE or Minneapolis. I don't trust the owners of this site to produce a fair Trending display.

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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Aware that he only had a few months left to live the great Mike Davis gave one of his final interviews to the Guardian in 202. "You’ve been organizing for social change your whole life. How do you deal with a future that feels so bleak?" Lois Beckett asked.

"For someone my age who was in the civil rights movement, and in other struggles of the 1960s, I’ve seen miracles happen," the revolutionary and historian responded.

"I’ve seen ordinary people do the most heroic things. When you’ve had the privilege of knowing so many great fighters and resisters, you can’t lay down the sword, even if things seem objectively hopeless."

"I’ve always been influenced by the poems Brecht wrote in the late 30s, during the second world war, after everything had been incinerated, all the dreams and values of an entire generation destroyed, and Brecht said, well, it’s a new dark ages … how do people resist in the dark ages?"

"What keeps us going, ultimately, is our love for each other, and our refusal to bow our heads, to accept the verdict, however all-powerful it seems. It’s what ordinary people have to do. You have to love each other. You have to defend each other. You have to fight."

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Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen *Everyone has stories like this*

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Rich Puchalsky @richpuchalsky.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

I have written more about this, over 3 decades, than can be summarized in a thread. archive.ph/pC0NV But a number of things can be true at once: 1) a cost/benefit analysis with no measure of benefits will always find that any regulation is too costly

archive.ph

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