iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Climate change is as straightforward as it gets: Democrats vote to address it and Republicans vote not to. There's a weird tic among the pundit class where they think saying "it's more complicated than that" is the intelligent stance on everything but sometimes it's not complicated!

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Richard Lawson @rilaws.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

What’s this? A Critical Darlings bonus episode about fall festivals and the famous Oscar awards?? What a treat for you, I think! pod.link/1885681327

pod.link

Critical Darlings

Listen to Critical Darlings wherever you get your podcasts!

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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Grand scheme of things, stuff like this is small ball esp compared to all this gang’s other abuses and atrocities but: I’ll say it again, the broken windows theory of crime is wrong EXCEPT for political and business elites like these. Every failure to crack down hard on the little, hatch act…

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

No, but, you see, The Atlantic said...

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It is the *job* of the Legislature to hold the Executive to account, including by impeachment. Too many members have convinced themselves that their job is just to keep getting elected and hope for change. If they won't fulfill their constitutional roles, they should be given to those who will.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

An actual quote from this article: "Looking at it from the opposite angle, 51% of voters said they had a negative view of ICE, and 52% said they had a negative view of socialism.* So, an alternative headline "ICE is as unpopular in the US as socialism."

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Jon Dear @accordingtojond.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

50th anniversary of I, Claudius today. If you ever want to see how a great TV director transcends the limitations of the format, get it watched. Herbert Wise was a maestro.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I, and everyone else over 35 or so, grew up in a world where dozens of TV shows in the 80s and 90s did episodes about trans people: old army buddies, exes, even parents who had transitioned. And we're happier. And they (eventually) were accepted. Society was *fine* with trans people.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I am a 47-year-old man and I am finally ready to stand in my truth: I don't like garlic. (Which makes me wonder what was in all those garlic breads I liked as a kid, because they didn't taste like garlic.) Regardless, here I am, and I will not be silent any longer. Garlic tastes bad to me.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Name a non-LOTR character who could resist the one ring.

Captain America raising his shield in a crowd of people.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Wait...a CATTLE RANCHER (and tech CEO) wants AI chatbots to have rights? This man can look at a cow and see beef, but he looks at text on a screen generated by an algorithm and he sees something with rights. Kinda makes it obvious they're all delusional, doesn't it?

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I may be wrong, but not only is there no evidence for this claim, I think there's actually strong evidence to the contrary. But for decades now, folks in power have been bamboozled into thinking that all the world needs is more software devs.

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Linda Holmes @lindaholmes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Oh sure. I mean you have to figure out the big twist and where in the season to put the flashback episode.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's not been memory-holed, it never existed! The sheer amount of useless, terrible, indistinct and yet seemingly ubiquitous slop AI is making now is simply not the same thing.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 10/09/2026

The thing liberals fundamentally don't understand is that trans people are losing rights they already had. We're not asking for more, we're asking not to lose what we already had for decades. Most sports leagues and the Olympics had inclusion criteria for decades without issue.

Screenshot of an X (formerly Twitter) exchange discussing political pragmatism and the Overton window.
The initial post by onion person (@CantEverDie) reads:
> "doesn't matter, this is about what the right is able to push with the overton window. first its democrats needing to disavow trans women in sports to get elected, next it'll be agreeing to ban access to HRT to get elected. we've seen how this plays out"
>
A reply from Nick Pappas (@NickAPappas) reads:
> "Are you insane? The Overton window didn’t even include this discussion until recently. The public has never been in favor of desegregating the sports by sex.
> Personally I’m glad Barack Obama ran against gay marriage in 2008. Not because that was the right position, or one he even actually held, but because he knew the public wasn’t with him on it. If he hadn’t won he wouldn’t have been able to appoint 2 of the justices who ultimately voted in the majority for Obergefell.
> Lincoln in 1860 didn’t even run on abolishing slavery! He just wanted to stop its expansion. And thankfully he did that and won because a more extreme and morally correct position would have lost. As a result he was able to win the Civil War and push through the 13 amendment.
> Political practicality is the entire history of progress in America. There’s no other way."
>

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Every podcast I don’t listen to is called “Achieving the Limit with Duff and Ween” and gets sold for 300 million dollars while every podcast I do listen to is called “The Movie Toilet” and begs me to buy a t shirt so they can eat food

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

He should be, he's one of the people responsible for it. Though, how much of what is done in his name is he actually aware of these days? 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The boat-strike murders and third-country removals are among the constant reminders of our nation's global lawlessness under the Trump administration.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The American flag cake story is one of the funniest but also most heartfelt pieces of writing I've ever read. It was incredible how The Onion -- of all things! -- perfectly captures the just post 9/11 moment without at all sacrificing its voice.

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Charles Beckett @charlesbeckett.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

HMG position now is that the occupation is illegal. Supports ICJ process in ongoing genocide case. Ethnic cleansing is occurring in the West Bank.

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Steven Schapansky 🇨🇦 @legopolis.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The Trial of a Time Lord premiered 40 years ago. It made such a mark on me when I bought my first cheap keyboard, the first things I taught myself to play were the Doctor Who theme, and Dominic Glynn’s trial theme. So here is my own musical tribute to both. youtu.be/GghYGGeHE6w?...

youtu.be

The Trial of a Time Lord at 40

YouTube video by Steven

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David Sims @davidlsims.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I understand that COVID broke everyone's brain but it really felt like we've all spent years fighting against the entirely invented notion that people don't care about seeing movies in theaters anymore and 2026 has been the biggest relief on that front

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NPR @npr.org · 05/09/2026

NPR's Linda Holmes is a daily puzzle devotee. She recommends games that will test your knowledge of geography, history, and even the most obscure corners of Wikipedia. n.pr/3UwxNWF

n.pr

If you prefer puzzles to doomscrolling, here are 5 great games to check out

NPR's Linda Holmes is a daily puzzle devotee. She recommends games that will test your knowledge of geography, history, and even the most obscure corners of Wikipedia.

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Luke Johnson @ljohnson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's not Putin "plans to" escalate. He's already escalating with daytime jet-powered Shahed attacks on Kyiv, attempts at sabotaging Ukrainian cargo in NATO territory, sending drones into Romania www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

economist.com

Cornered, Vladimir Putin plans to escalate his war

His refusal to back down is rooted in Russia’s gangster politics

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I also highly recommend @kaytiburt.bsky.social's reporting on the AI in fic situation! We've put it in front of the paywall, so I hope lots more folks give it a read or listen:

fansplaining.com

Heated Rivalry is at the Center of Fanfic’s AI Reckoning

A controversial anonymous document exposing Claude remnants in fics has collided with a fandom culture of production at hyper-speed.

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Louis Peitzman @louispeitzman.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Hasan Piker is simply not famous enough to normies to warrant this level of attention! He does not demand these endless statements! Nick Fuentes dined with the president and Republicans just played the “I don’t know her” game. No reason to play into this bad-faith shit.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

'Essentially everyone in the book trade knows loads of memoirs are fake and there are near-zero checks' is one of those stories I keep expecting to tank that part of the industry, yet it never does.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The icons of my childhood are disappearing, one by one. Thinking of Tim Curry, I am just happy that he lived to add the Rocky Horror and Clue generations grow up and show him their love. Also, he's awesome in Legend.

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Ghent University members are asking for support, so its institution can investigate Cofnas as its regulations require, and because: "appeals to absolutist academic freedom as a guise for pursuing racist and pseudoscientific research threaten the integrity and credibility of research as a whole"

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The world cannot afford to lose someone as good as she was. If anyone knew how to be a rich Christian, it was Dolly Parton.

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Nitro Nine Milkshake @adamclegg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I think this hits so hard because in a world where those with money seem intent on burning everything good down, Dolly just proved that you didn’t have to do that. You could be good and kind and make the world better for others, it’s really that simple.

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jordan @jordantyranny.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

"I'm sure of my talent and I'm sure of my love for life."

do you ever feel that you're a joke

all these years, the people thought the joke was on me, but the joke's actually been on the public

i'm sure of myself as a person, I'm sure of my talent and I'm sure of my love for life. I like the person I am, so I can afford to around with makeup and clothes because i'm secure with myself.

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Custom designed robots made for a special purpose *should* be able to beat humans at specific, individual tasks. What's remarkable about humans isn't that we're the fastest creatures. We aren't. It's that a fast runner can also cook, do math, fix a bicycle, read to a child, tell a joke, etc, etc.

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Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

i simply do not believe things will get better in this country so long as the supposed alternative to the fascist white supremacy party is run by losers like chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

A lot of supposedly left leaning centrist folks are easily suckered by the right wing as soon as they cry "freedom of speech." It's the standard playbook used to defend some of the worst people and behavior imaginable. Come to think of it, maybe they're not being suckered. Maybe they're just awful.

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Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Look, are we the laughing stock of the world? Yes. Are we losing a war we should’ve never started? Yes. Is all our food poison now? Yes. Are all the jobs going away? Yes. But the important thing is a blue-haired college student I made up in my head feels bad about memes.

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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 21/08/2026

The Trump administration fired the editor of Stars & Stripes. The military newspaper's publisher, who announced he would retire earlier this week, was also fired. The paper had revealed the deplorable conditions on the USS Lincoln, embarrassing Hegseth and Trump.

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Chance the Lawyer @chancethelawyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

say what you will about the myriad valid concerns with current LLMs but I personally will never get over the fact that Aaron Swartz was prosecuted to his literal death for downloading JSTOR and then a decade later, they downloaded & ingested the entire world and our IP laws just went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

So we know AI helped a negligible number of students. But how many did it harm? I've crunched the raw data provided by the lead researcher, and what I've found is that ~9,500 students using AI studied less than even the *least* studious, non-AI using student. This should shock the conscience.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

“having a bizarre obsession with a daddy figure is not uncommon in right-wing households” good point Amy, people on the right are freaks. they’re freaks and they’re worse than us.

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Nitro Nine Milkshake @adamclegg.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Happy Birthday to Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, the best TARDIS Team we ever had. Yes even better than whoever you’re thinking of.

static.klipy.com

Doctor Who: Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy Hits Dalek

ALT: Doctor Who: Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy Hits Dalek

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Erik @sjcaustenite.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

If you cannot write about your field coherently, you are not an expert. A lot of science minded folks have taken to using AI because it saves them the "hard work" of writing. But the hard work of writing is where you actually figure out what you think. It is crucial, not optional.

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