iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Rachel Schneider

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Every time I teach Media Studies intro, I begin by having students log their media diet for two weeks. I then anonymize & aggregate to present a picture of their collective media use & compare it to previous classes. Obviously caveat for size & selection biases, but trends 🧵 Music listening is up:

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Colin @colin-fraser.net · 08/10/2026

I don’t understand why people think this isn’t the most obvious question in the world. No, of course not. You don’t know what the distribution of responses will be; that’s why you do the survey.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 01/10/2026

NYC’s PIT Crew (Public Interest Technology) is already delivering: Click to Cancel is here, with the law saying it has to be as easy to cancel a service as it was to sign up for it. The site makes it easy to report any products that violate the rules: www.nyc.gov/main/click-t... Kickass!

nyc.gov

Click to Cancel - nyc.gov

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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yet more evidence for the towering heap of proof that synthetic users are bullshit. As with all AI products, they do not improve "productivity" for a task but create an excuse not to do the task. In this case, the task is research. AI participants do not help you do research, but to AVOID research.

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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I also find this fascinating: "More broadly, our AI respondents didn’t like to admit to uncertainty. Across all the questions on our three surveys where a 'not sure' option was offered, human panelists were around four times as likely as the AI model to choose it."

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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I think AI has its uses, but I continue to believe that quantitative public opinion research is fundamentally a way of talking to people at scale, emphasis here on "people"

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Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is a lot of "oh dear" to go around in the results of this very thorough Pew study on the issues with synthetic samples, but this strikes me as particularly "oh dear" www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/20...

AI polling results can lean on racial or partisan stereotypes

In many cases, our AI poll took beliefs or attitudes that are reasonably common among a particular subgroup and portrayed them as nearly ubiquitous. For example, our AI poll would indicate that:

97% of Hispanic adults are at least somewhat likely to follow the World Cup (while the actual share is 43%).

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026

* checks the news * aaaand speaking of the Supreme Court abusing the shadow docket

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Dan in Kansas City @daninkc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Kansas Livestock Association comes out against the ICE Raids????!!!!

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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026

Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is the trailer that all the major platforms refuse to run as a paid ad:

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Sam (ABeardedPanda) @abeardedpanda.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Anyways, this is genuinely the funniest chart in the world because it shows Jill Stein's twitter use spikes every four years and only during years where there's a federal election so if she's breaking her silence now *someone* is panicking

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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 24/09/2026

Digitizing incarcerated people’s mail means companies can store those scans for years, which can chill speech, EFF’s @caragagliano.bsky.social told @jpradio.bsky.social. “We've talked to a lot of people...who stopped sending mail because they didn't want it to be scanned and put in this database.”

ijpr.org

Humboldt County jail joins others in banning physical mail amid contraband concerns

Humboldt County inmates will soon be unable to receive physical mail as authorities crack down on contraband. Critics say the policy could have unintended consequences.

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Dexerto @dexerto.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Microsoft has filed a patent for ads that could interrupt games after boss fights, cutscenes, quests and multiplayer rounds Players would receive credits granting temporary game access, while watching an ad would award another credit to let them resume

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I think of the climate harm AI poses the same way: the threats are not theoretical or in the future, but unfolding all around us now.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong.

When the Department of Homeland Security sent Nevada a list of 185 names last month that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work.
On Tuesday, the state sent a strongly worded rebuke to the federal government: Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
"As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens," Greg D. Ott, a deputy attorney general in Nevada, wrote, according to a copy of a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security officials obtained through open records requests.
"You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise."

Following the meeting, Ms. Vogt sent a clarifying email to Nevada officials. "I also wanted to be sure I clarified that we did not reduce the 15,903 to 185," she wrote. "We've manually reviewed some of the 15,903 and confirmed 185 are not U.S. Citizens."
Now, Nevada officials are saying even that 185 number is wrong. They also took issue with a letter D.H.S. sent them in early September, in which the agency reiterated its initial claims about nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the rolls and pressured state officials to review each case in a letter to Nevada officials in early September.

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Rachel Schneider @rschneide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Lol. Our just-quit CIO was wanting to do this shit, but faculty were able to push back for now. It's sad/scary that this kind of stuff is being done at UCLA.

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Rachel Schneider @rschneide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Fine intellectual dexterity" is one hell of a phrase.

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026

this feels like one of those things that you just gotta mention whenever their name comes up, even if the article is not actually about that for example,

screenshot of the opening paragraph of an article Elie Mystal wrote about the Voting Rights Act a couple years ago (link at end of alt text), with his first mention of a particular Supreme Court justice highlighted. text reads as follows:

I regret to inform you that the future of the Voting Rights Act, and the immediate question of whether Southern states can gerrymander away the political power of Black citizens, now rests squarely on the shoulders of alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh. That’s because the state of Alabama’s latest attempt to defy the 15th Amendment, and the Supreme Court’s own rulings, is inspired by a decision Kavanaugh wrote that explicitly asked for plaintiffs to file a case that could help him kill the VRA once and for all.

available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/voting-rights-brett-kavanaugh-alabama/

screenshot of a paragraph excerpted from an article I wrote last year about conservatives feeling betrayed by Amy Coney Barrett (linked below), with my mention of a named rightwing media personality highlighted in green. excerpt reads as follows:

Much of the conservative backlash has linked Barrett’s purported failings to her identity. “As a female who leans right, I’m kind of sick,” said Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News anchor who said Santa and Jesus are both white. “Get somebody with some rhetorical balls.” Other conservative media creeps latched on to the idea that Barrett’s appointment was the product of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—within the first Trump administration, apparently. “Amy Coney Barrett. DEI Judge,” one tweeted; “Amy Commie Barrett,” another replied.

available at: https://ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics/amy-coney-barrett-dei-conservative-backlash/

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 23/09/2026

surprise! there really IS a sinister and deeply evil ultra-rich entity manipulating US politics with space lasers, and it’s not the Jews, it’s Elon Musk.

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 22/09/2026

DoorDash has ripped off more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers. We’re making them pay $131.5 million — the largest worker settlement in City history. This is New York, where hard work pays and greed will cost you.

DoorDash messed up.
They repeatedly left more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers underpaid or paid late, causing them immense stress and financial difficulty.
That's unacceptable.
We've secured a $131.5M settlement from
DoorDash - the largest worker settlement in NYC history and largest delivery worker settlement in
American municipal history.
Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city.

LOGOS:
The OFFICE of the MAYOR of NYC
NYC Consumer and Worker Protection

Mayor Mamdani and Deliveristas representatives stand behind a podium.

Three delivery workers holding a giant fake check for $131.5M.

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error.

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Congressman Greg Casar @repcasar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Thanks to the community speaking up, Wilber has left the detention center to get medical care. This is important news & a positive first step. Now, we have to make sure he fully recovers, is reunited with family, & gets to tell law enforcement the full story of how he was shot in the back by ICE.

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Rachel Schneider @rschneide.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It can also be a nice source of redevelopment. Here locally there was an abandoned car wash that a developer closed in, so each stall became a small store. There's been turnover but the spaces keep filling up.

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Rachel Schneider @rschneide.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Another potential option: your local health department. In my area the hospitals don't necessarily stock all the vaccines, but I was able to get up to date on Hep A + B shots by going there.

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Sarah Sunfire @sarahsunfire.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

a new cat from Bolivia DURING Latinx Heritage Month fuck yes

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Rachel Schneider @rschneide.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is making me think I need to get my boots out and let them walk around a bit.

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Laura Clawson @lauraclawson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

They actually managed to make soap dirty. I'd say the competition for most overblown metaphor for where the US is right now is over, but that's tempting fate, and I know better by now.

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Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com · 10/09/2026

Alright 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice here we go.

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Darryl Mott @gamerstavernshow.com · 13/09/2026

Looks like Creative Commons is going to get a legal test sooner rather than later...

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I read this with the law and order sound effects and narrator

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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 10/09/2026

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 10/09/2026

but presenting "an answer" to a question is a fundamentally dishonest way to structure the interaction. it does not understand questions. it's *presenting a statistical result as though it's a logical one* and even if you know that, the human interpretation of language is a powerful reflex

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 10/09/2026

and not like in the abstract "oh, I read that's how it works, I know that now" sense. in the interaction design sense. like if you type in a word and it shows you a cloud of related words, that is statistically surfaced context. maybe it helps you find terms you were looking for!

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 10/09/2026

this is, I think, one of the inherent problems with LLMs using natural language interfaces: they are a statistical tool *that looks like* a logical tool statistical approaches can be a useful way to find related information! BUT for it to be useful you have to *know that's what it's doing*

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Al Kennedy @alkennedy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Dir: Martin McDonagh, 2017)

Wile E Coyote holding up a sign which says "it's a limited number of signs"

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Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

He puts words together in ways that words have never been put together before. An AI proof man.

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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 08/09/2026

I’m old enough to remember when “your TV is spying on you” was meant as a criticism of the Soviet Union, not the description of a mainstream marketing policy.

theverge.com

LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby

Gamers Nexus comes for LG again.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

this is what we in the business call a 'rich text'

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St. Louis Public Radio @stlpublicradio.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

JUST IN: The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday placed a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot that makes it much harder for the legislature to overturn voter-approved initiatives. The high court reversed a decision from Cole County Judge Daniel Green blocking the Respect Missouri Voters initiative.

stlpr.org

Missouri Supreme Court puts Respect Missouri Voters plan on November ballot

The Respect Missouri Voters plan would make it much harder for lawmakers to overturn voter-approved ballot initiatives.

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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission @cpsc.gov · 02/09/2026

Graphic design is now, always has been, and forever will be our passion.

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