iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 07/10/2026

there's a lot going on right now, but the ability to buy elections in order to stay out of prison is on the ballot whether you realize it or not

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wrote about this last year - all the "AI will save you all time you spend on emails!" stuff just made me think, "wow you have never even encountered the concept of 'induced demand' have you"

jonn.substack.com

What cars did to your city, AI will do to your brain

Once again, I rage against the dying of the light. Also this week: some maps to show that England is not concreting the countryside; and the longest conveyor belt in the world.

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I wrote about Elon Musk, and why it bothers me that he is still first and foremost described in the media as an entrepreneur, rocketeer, or tech mogul, when the most salient fact about him is that he is now the world's most powerful white supremacist. religiondispatches.org/2026/10/06/e...

religiondispatches.org

Elon Musk, the World’s Richest Human, Is a White Supremacist

The latest warning about the Republican Party’s far-right turn has come from the unlikeliest of places: conservative commentator, George W. Bush Chief of Staff, and renowned Republican strategist Karl...

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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I feel like her campaign is underestimating how powerful "we will make the streetcars run on time" could be as a focal point, especially when @fast-track.to has already handed out the blueprint for free!

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amb @amb.fyi · 04/10/2026

Build the housing, run the buses, metaphorically and literally make room to welcome red state refugees into big blue cities

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Christian Skotte @skooter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I live next door to two day care centers. One is religious Jewish. The other completely secular. The Jewish one always has a security guard. The secular one doesn't. Being forced to budget for staffing security is pretty clearly systemic antisemitism.

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Justin Beach 🇨🇦🇪🇺 @justinbeach.ca · 27/09/2026

Especially in urban areas, the solution to cars isn't electric cars, it's public transit, bikes and scooters (including electric ones).

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Alex Bozikovic @alexbozikovic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is now the middle of a city-region of 7.5 million. In any reasonable planning scenario, this pocket of houses would be getting high-density redevelopment to match what's happening 400m away. (The current compromise, allowing high-end townhouses, will lock in lowrise for generations.)

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Matthew Downhour @matthewdownhour.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Some lives are tragically short; others are tragically long

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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 23/09/2026

I don't say this lightly, but Pete Hegseth deserves to be impeached. I understand just how serious a vote to impeach is from experience, and I still believe impeaching him is the right thing to do. The Iran war. The purge of senior ranks. The boat strikes. The case is overwhelming. (Link below)

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Chad Leddy @chadleddy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I am increasingly convinced that in order to prevent societal back-sliding into antivax / “natural is always healthier” nonsense, we need to reform the education system to teach children the pre-1950 world was often lethal to kids & modern food safety & medical practices are borderline miraculous.

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BC Federation of Labour @bcfed.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Those airports Carney wants to privatize are making Canada more than half a billion dollars a year. But instead, billionaires and big foreign corporations are about to get a bonanza. And everyday travellers and airport workers will pay for it. #BCLab #CanLab #CdnPoli @canadianlabour.bsky.social

Headlines reading "Carney is serious about privatizing airports, Australian pension executive says," "Carney government eyes privatizing airports to attract investment, cut travel costs," "Canada's government is looking at privatizing airports. What would that accomplish?"
NEW CLC REPORT: PUBLIC RUNWAYS, PRIVATE PROFITS

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯

Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance

themselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.

What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.

We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not really the point, but I'd suggest that if you own 20 "family farms," they probably aren't "family farms."

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

When an unprincipled influencer of the left starts to see a long term decline in revenue, a conversion to the right is inevitable. Just a general observation, not tied to any particular recent news.

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Johnny “Euro Hoser” Renton @johnnyrenton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s not inexplicable. It’s a barrier to modernization and ugly as fuck. Want to preserve it? Fine. Dismantle it and use it at 2 or 3 smaller stations, replacing the concrete roof with glass instead. But Union isn’t what it used to be. It’s time to move on and that means the Bush Shed needs to go

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All Aboard Aotearoa @allaboardaotearoa.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Most problems caused by the transport system — injuries, polluted air and water, congestion and cost — are caused by how much our are shaped around driving 🤕 Electric cars don't fix that. Sustainable transport is fewer cars, not newer cars 💡 #transport #sustainable

When they tell you electric cars will make transport sustainable - sceptical meme

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Kieran Sweeden @kieransweeden.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I can sympathise with racing on old tracks that are not fit for purpose which have regularly hosted races. However, I can’t for tracks that have little-to-no historical significance which are also not fit for purpose.

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さなり @miracharink0.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

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EL @maritonia.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Everyonr driving a single occupant vehicle in downtown Toronto is an asshole.

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Cyborg K9 🌹 @cyborgk9.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

AI companies threatening the end of humanity from their technology, while hastening all the things that are already existential threats (notably, the #ClimateCrisis). Imagine if we invested the trillions of dollars we've sunk into "AI" into green energy and improved public transit (rail, LRT, bus…)

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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"Cool, cool, you do you" "Yeah and we're worried we might kill everyone" "With data centers." "Yes." "How?" "Not sure but we're working on alignment don't you worry. But also worry and give us money." I'm tired.

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 12/09/2026

After 9/11, the U.S. government was over-focused on fighting terrorism, losing sight of other threats, and Americans are still living with the consequences, @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues:

bit.ly

A Quarter Century of Panic

After 9/11, the U.S. government was over-focused on fighting terrorism, losing sight of other threats. Americans are still living with the consequences.

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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Carney’s agenda has currently set him on a path to trample on rights, destroy ecosystems and retreat in the fight against climate change. He wants this to be seen through a lens of doing what’s necessary to unite the country in the face of U.S. aggression — but who is left out of that vision?

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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A quote from Pete Buttigieg this week: "In a country that amended its Constitution so you couldn't buy beer, then realized it was a bad idea and amended it again, surely we can pass an amendment saying corporations aren't people and money isn't speech." 👏👏👏👏👏👏

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Game Sack @gamesack.net · 11/09/2026

I've seen people say that Gen AI is a tool. NO. Things like Photoshop, Blender, etc etc are tools used by artists. With Gen AI, the AI is the "artist". You're just the plebe commissioning the piece. I can't imagine anyone being proud of something they came up with using Gen AI.

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Melony Pepon @melonypepon.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Family photo but it's just me

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Brianinja @brianinja.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

There's an over reliance on the streetcar conspiracy as the reason because it fully absolves the general public from responsibility, rather than acknowledging they could be responsible and that their hostility towards buses in place of rail may be unfounded.

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alex davis @alexdavistransit.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I'm just tapping this sign all the time now.

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Climate Justice Victoria @climatejusticeyyj.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Media Release: "Given that Prime Minister Carney’s government has dismantled much of Canada’s climate progress, it is of little surprise that the government tried to bury its own report by quietly releasing it right before a long weekend." @environmentaldefence.ca #cdnpoli

environmentaldefence.ca

Canada's Latest Climate Report Should Be Call to Action, Instead Gov't Tried to Bury It - Environmental Defence

Statement from Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate, Environmental Defence Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

There are no valid reasons to oppose bike lanes. 🚴🏻‍♀️

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Wolf Hour @wolfhour.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living." .. (Franklin. D. Roosevelt) ..(cartoon Nick Anderson)

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Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

What a time to be cutting gas taxes eh

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Chicago 2100 Urbanism @chicago2100.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Chicago's rapid transit in 2026 -> 2100 NITA begins today, and with it, we should ask what the future of regional connectivity could look like. Some call this a moonshot, but we've been to the moon & can't have extensive transit? Why is transit essential for the future here? 🧵

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ellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 30/08/2026

This is correct. Our society demands scapegoats. We gotta scape some goats, and it’s pretty morally imperative that we scape the goats who deserve it, and luckily, there’s a lot of them

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 29/08/2026

You see a lot of glib analysts repeating the line that "Americans just don't want EVs" without taking into consideration that the US auto buying experience is dominated by a network of extremely ignorant, Republican car dealers dependent on the kind of maintenance that EVs don't need.

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さなり @miracharink0.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

When I wrote "we often rely on extraction efforts happening in other countries which may or may not be friendly" in my renewable energy video, Canada was not on my mind. But please, Canada - get nasty and fuck us up. You have every right to not be friendly, and we're counting on it.

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simongood.bsky.social @simongood.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

He did. Therme Spa holding company bailed him out. “Ares Management, which is a global investment company managing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets, one of its subsidiaries purchased the Chicago branch of the Ford family’s label-making business” www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...

thetrillium.ca

NDP leader asks ethics watchdog to investigate if minister gave Therme 'preferential treatment'

Marit Stiles claims in her complaint that 1,000-plus pages of evidence gathered by the NDP suggest various ‘irregularities’ with how Therme won Ontario Place’s west island

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Michael McLean @michaelmclean.me · 24/08/2026

Raised crosswalks are an incredible traffic safety technology. Our pedophile president’s circus can’t even overcome them.

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Padraig2112 @isomorphism.net · 23/08/2026

Reminder for the now 600-odd academics who rushed to defend the calipers eugenicist billionaire's pet... that this is going on:

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STEMthebleeding @stemthebleeding.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is because tne media spent billions to make voters think both sides are the same, when they are not. They also created the falsehood that there were irrevocable guardrails in place, that the minority party had powers it didn't, and that ultimately the threat of fascism was overblown.

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Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 23/08/2026

The United States and Canada have been friends, partners, and allies for more than 150 years across 32 presidential administrations. And now, solely because of the arrogance, incompetence, and ego of the current occupant of the White House, that relationship is being driven straight toward a cliff.

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Technology Connections @techconnectify.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Here's an update on the ducting situation for my 120V plug-in heat pump water heater and my very me-coded method of controlling my HVAC fan with a second thermostat.

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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think part of why the dem response rings so hollow to me, is that tacking on prices immediately makes the whole thing pretty ephemoral. Our foreign relationship ends up entirely framed by consumer pricing We used to believe in shit

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fry69 @fry69.dev · 22/08/2026

Elect a mob boss who specializes in scalping and bankrupt companies, get a mafia state and a federal debt generations will have to pay for.

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