iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

But our brains jump on the abstract meaning and it does make sense. The commuter shuffle of day giving way to the bright lights and shady-dealing of the night. It's entirely accidental - a million monkeys occasionally producing beauty. But it is lovely. 5/5

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

Here, it is treating a city as a person. It's an hallucination; a city doesn't have feet, any way to shift weight, or any reason to do so. 4/5

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

By that point, you start to wonder why shifting weight keeps one awake. It's more or less meaningless padding. The model has no understanding what it is saying; it only knows that the line about shifting weight commonly comes after someone not sleeping. 3/5

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

This model (Qwen3) produces a lots of formulaic trope phases. A lot of its best output feels like bad fanfiction. I've seen it use this construction before when it was describing someone not sleeping. It might be fresh the first time you see it, but not the fifth. 2/5

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

Accidental beauty from AI: "The city does not sleep; it merely shifts its weight from one foot to the other." This in no way creative. It is entirely coincidence and it's based on an hallucination. 1/5

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/10/2026

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for Tax Purposes

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead for Tax Purposes

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 13/10/2026

I probably should provide citations. ;-) In this case they are secondary for ease of access - I couldn't understand the primaries, since they are in German. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

How much nicotine kills a human? Tracing back the generally accepted lethal dose to dubious self-experiments in the nineteenth century

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 13/10/2026

Reminds me of the study that proved the toxicity level of nicotine was done in the late 1800s by two experimenters on themselves, and hangs on the claim that "any more than that and we'd have died", reporting symptoms that are not known to be associated with nicotine poisoning.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 10/10/2026

The pot I ended up using is usually my sous vide container. I have another that I never use.

A very large steel cooking pot sitting on a small domestic hob.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 10/10/2026

I have stupidly large pots on hand. But I ate saag five days in a row because of this law.

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

ændra. @aendra.com · 08/10/2026

Absolutely spot-on by @anildash.com here: "The best artists around you are invisible to you, and the most important statements by activists that you care about are being silenced. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a system working as designed."

anildash.com

We are going to kill “unalive” - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Shecky @shecky.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I swear that "mountainish inhumanity" reads like Shakespeare briefly time-traveled to today before writing this, seeing the eternal inhumanity of too much of humanity continue to THRIVE. We should have learned. We should be BETTER.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 01/10/2026

The answer is simple: because nobody can spell Sphinx.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 30/09/2026

But if my interlocutor introduces the term "hallucination", my response is to point out that it is all hallucination, and go on to explain as above. 2/2

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 30/09/2026

I wouldn't introduce "hallucination". LLMs do not "understand" either true/false or good/evil; they only produce the output that looks the most like a response to the prompt. Which is why they happily recommend methods of auto-euthanisation or offer loan schemes that don't exist to customers . 1/2

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 30/09/2026

But that's the way they want you to think. You're accepting their terminology, which is designed to suit their agenda.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 20/09/2026

Admittedly, it could get confusing when quoting Right Ascension, but that's very niche. In most cases, the context is clear.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 20/09/2026

Interesting observation: we use " to indicate inches, but we never see ' indicating feet. We use " for seconds and ' for minutes, for both angles and time, but we never use ° for hours. What's that about?

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 14/09/2026

They are skilled and arduous jobs with absurdly low pay.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 12/09/2026

Ofcom is calling for evidence on the online harms to women and girls, including misogynistic abuse and sexual violence, coordinated harassment, stalking and coercive control, and image-based sexual abuse. www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

ofcom.org.uk

Creating a safer life online for women and girls

Women and girls’ online safety is a priority for Ofcom. This page provides a summary of the work we are undertaking in this space.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 31/08/2026

Change a letter, change a movie Star Wart

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Paul Noth @paulnoth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Mine in today’s @newyorker.com

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 23/08/2026

The pick and place machine is hardware with significant mass. It can't move as fast as you move the mouse. As a result, you will move too far and then have to correct.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 22/08/2026

I think the lag will drive you crazy. Is the scroll-wheel suitable for Z? We're used to click-and-darg, so vacuum on left-button hold might work, rather than tying up both buttons.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 19/08/2026

Anyone who calls reading "valor" isn't doing it right. You don't read because you have to, you read because you want to.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 16/08/2026

If you see this, we implore you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 11/08/2026

Pet pics and memes. Check. Thi sis what I found one night as I came to bed.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 18/07/2026

Pong is best played with a knob, not a slider, and definitely not with a joystick or directional buttons.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 02/06/2026

German hears small leak surrounded by unity (8)

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Dr David S Anderson @dsaarchaeology.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

As an anthropologist, I endorse this message!

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Ariadne Griffin @ariadnereviews.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

TERFs knocking on the toilet cubicle door.

Anna Haugh asking "any testicles in this one?"

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Andrew F. Sullivan @afsulli.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

many chefs talk about their menu as a love letter to their roots but, brother, my roots was a microwaved slice of ham with some Cheez Whiz in it.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 25/05/2026

There is a hotel in Brynmawr, Wales, that, for a short time in the mid 80s, had a fantastic chef. I need to taste those garlic mushrooms again. Big mushrooms in a creamy garlic sauce. Incredible.

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Joe Beda @h.olysh.it · 15/05/2026

If a Croque Madame talked to another Croque Madame about anything other than a Croque Monsieur Would they have passed the Béchamel test?

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 14/05/2026

It isn't prison labour or exploitation; it is slavery, pure and simple. It depends on the exclusions in the 13th Amendment for convicted criminals, and the definition (22 USC 7102) of "involuntary servitude" does not fit. You could actually outlaw slavery. Plenty of other countries have.

Thirteenth Amendment

Section 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

involuntary servitude
(8) Involuntary servitude The term “involuntary servitude” includes a condition of servitude induced by means of— (A) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or (B) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.

Source: 22 USC § 7102(8)

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 13/05/2026

Some people seem to seriously think AI is magic.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 12/05/2026

That isn't a basketball tree. It's a netball tree.

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com · 08/05/2026

Whereas really *tough* sex writing is not just about the profound depths of interpersonal union, but WHERE THE HECK EVERYBODY’S ARMS AND LEGS ARE when stuff starts getting hot. 😏

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 05/05/2026

The GSD is very much in charge. She invites the pile-ons with a play-bow and stands up when they get too boisterous. The running in circles was probably to get a breather, but she's still happy.

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Reposted by Richard Urwin

Ryan Moulton @moultano.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Generational tweet that might even spawn a school of architecture.

Cairo Smith:
There's a common misconception that Brutalist buildings were unpainted, but thanks to microscopic analysis of the exteriors we can now recreate what they looked like in their prime.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 28/04/2026

Fundamentally, proof involves an infinite regression. Sooner or later, one has to be convinced by the evidence offered, or not believe anything. How many online accounts do we have that have more personal data than a face-pic? Why do we trust those?

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 28/04/2026

It's possible to do a lab analysis to detect old data, but even that is unreliable and it's expensive and invasive. They have to tear the drive apart. Nobody is going to do that, and a hacker couldn't.

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Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 28/04/2026

Generally, the police search free-space on the disk for data that used to be part of a file. If the data has been overwritten as part of a new file, the original data is lost forever.

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