iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Okay, it's time for the next installment of You Call Yourself A Victorianist But You Haven't Read ________??!!! I will report back when I've finished it, maybe even sooner. #Villette

The front cover of a 1980s Penguin Classics edition of Charlotte Brontë's novel Villette that the poster has had sitting on a shelf for 40 years but never read. Until now.

160

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 1h

"Florida is fundamentally a working-class state with really high income inequality." A great piece on the $15 minimum wage ballot measure that passed here in 2020. Look under the glitz of Florida, and this is why Angie Nixon's success isn't as surprising as it first appears.

0103

Reposted by Tim Watson

Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

it's not the main thing we need, but we do need a David Lodge style Changing Places exchange program so that professors realize the way their institution does things is not standard nor inevitable

612516

Reposted by Tim Watson

Kate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I wrote for @thecut.com about the Cornell case and what it says that, at my institution and many others like it, protesters are often punished more harshly than sexual assailants www.thecut.com/article/what...

thecut.com

What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now

As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.

521837604

Reposted by Tim Watson

Camilo 🏆 @cam.bio · 28/09/2026

🐐

094

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I must have read Silas Marner before, but it was long ago, and reading it now, in the midst of the AI Revolution, the chapter at the end where Silas and Eppie go to find his old home Lantern Yard and it's just ... not there, bricked over by a factory, nobody remembers it at all ... whoa.

180

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

all those times we said, I'm sure my phone is listening to me, I just saw an ad based on a phone conversation I had with a friend, and they said, absolutely not, no audio is captured, and it turns out, yes, in fact they were sending that info to data brokers—so this is that, only worse, right?

nytimes.com

Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)

An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.

012

Reposted by Tim Watson

John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Increasingly I think of the disruptions of our current AI moment, at least in education, as in some ways analogous to the disruptions of the peak of the pandemic—that time when the situation was clearly pervasive, persistent and dire, before any vaccine was available to partially counteract it.

184

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

While Rahm makes his play, while polling at ::checks notes:: zero per cent in the 2028 presidential primary, I'm more worried about his brother Ezekiel, lead author on a current JAMA article arguing that AI is better at medicine than doctors and that "autonomous AI" is the future of medical care.

250

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I'm worried this is actually going to be a plus for Salazar. www.msn.com/en-us/news/o...

Screenshot of the top of a Politico piece with the headline "Trump turns on Salazar"

010

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just drove past the Miami branch of Alpha School (in a former church building on Miller across from Tropical Park). Had not realized they were here in Miami too. Dystopia on my doorstep.

120

Reposted by Tim Watson

Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Notice all the black writers being accused of using AI in their works. Notice.

110745

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Fellow voters of FL-27: if you're on Salazar's newsletter email list, have you received one since early August? Did she just stop sending out news of all her bipartisan accomplishments? I used to get them almost every week.

100

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

a little bluesky advice: nuke the Discover feed and pin For You, Quiet Posters, and Mutuals.

1123

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I know nothing about Oklahoma's 5th congressional district except that Trump's margin there in 2024 was 18 points. No wonder my FL-27 congressperson, Maria Salazar (Trump +14 district) is freaking out.

oklahoman.com

National Dems enter House race for Oklahoma's 5th District | Exclusive

National Democrats plan to make a late push in Oklahoma’s 5th District, providing funding and field staff to back Jena Nelson’s congressional campaign.

000

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

O, Onion / If Mr. Autumn Man comes, can It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers be far behind?

131

Reposted by Tim Watson

Danny Rivero @danielrivero.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I wonder how much money is being stolen from Venezuelan, Cuban and Haitian drivers in Miami, where there is virtually no enforcement, and where the state doesn't even have a department of labor

0156

Reposted by Tim Watson

Danny Rivero @danielrivero.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

On September 30, the minimum wage in Florida officially hits $15-an-hour. Starting next year the minimum wage raises will be tied to inflation. This, because voters overwhelmingly passed a citizen ballot amendment in 2022. Florida will surprise you like that sometimes.

0206

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There's been a lot of understandable dunking on the U of Iowa center that is failing for reasons I can't really follow, but that doesn't mean these Trojan horse centers are failing elsewhere. Thanks to @asheeshks.org for keeping track of their hiring.

020

Reposted by Tim Watson

Gregory Hays @aristofontes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

on fægerre Verona þǣr we leogedon ure gesyhðe

311025

Reposted by Tim Watson

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

'The records have been digitised and indexed by the genealogy company Ancestry, which has partnered with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.' Leaps and bounds forward in our understanding of the histories of the British enslaved. #Skystorians

theguardian.com

Nearly 4m records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies now searchable online

Exclusive: Collection’s 300,000 pages record lives of enslaved people in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad

113585

Reposted by Tim Watson

Johanna Winant @johannawinant.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind— As if my Brain had split— I tried to match it—Seam by Seam— But could not make them fit.

0355

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants DP5OD024558, DP2GM146258, R00GM121852, R01DK115728, R01DE027538, T32GM119995, T32GM007365, T32GM007790 and F31DE031154); [and] the National Science Foundation".

med.stanford.edu

Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds

Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.

1422047

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Seeing this post right after checking on the number of our undergraduate English majors hits hard. Columbia English & Comp Lit PhD program in the 1990s had 20-25 in each cohort (I sat on the admissions committee one year as a PhD student). Almost everyone from my cohort got a TT job eventually.

281

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

After laying off dozens of journalists last week, the Miami Herald goes all-in on its new strategy to increase circulation: promoting Funnel-Neck Outerwear (current temperature outside is 87º, feels like 103º)

screenshot of a bluesky post from the Miami Herald with zero comments, zero reposts, and zero likes, featuring a photograph of a zippered jacket and flat cap with the text "funnel-neck outerwear emerges as fall 2026's defining high collar jacket trend to watch according to top fashion outlets"

093

Reposted by Tim Watson

Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is about one thing and one thing alone. Steering our research dollars for cancer, heart disease, and new infectious diseases to Trump’s political allies and friends.

24948371999

Reposted by Tim Watson

祖思薪 Eugenia Zuroski @zugenia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My kid asked me what‘s something I teach my students and I said “That if you write what you have to say on paper then—unlike devices—no one has access to it except you and whoever else physically interacts with the paper” and you guys, it made an immediate impression

336189

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Miami 2026 backyard migrant bird watch (last year's sightings in the quote post): First Ovenbird today, plus a pair of American Redstarts about a week ago. (Not a birder, unless birding = sitting in your backyard briefly every day and noting the birds you recognize.)

140

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

the Failed UK Politicians to Miami gravy train steams ahead ... "Since leaving office, Truss has remained an influential advocate for economic growth, limited government, and democratic governance through her bestselling book "Ten Years to Save the West" and "The Liz Truss Show.""

news.fiu.edu

Five global leaders join FIU's Adam Smith Center as Senior Leadership Fellows

Another cohort of Senior Leadership Fellows is coming to the Adam Smith Center at FIU this fall.

141

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Should we be talking more about AI as infrastructure? Modern infrastructure is "collective intelligence," as @debcha.bsky.social argues. I'm thinking about this today because of @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's great NYT piece, and great threads here by @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social & @eryk.bsky.social.

3113

Reposted by Tim Watson

Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A few weekends ago I went to Miami and attended 9 open houses in extremely high-risk flood areas to see what agents are telling prospective buyers about them. Here is my journey

heated.world

The open houses at the edge of disaster

What are buyers being told about climate risk in Miami? I posed as one to find out.

421278404

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I found this piece really thought-provoking (though dispiriting). It's interesting to think about literacy retaining "honor"—grotesquely saluted by the outputs of Large Language Machines—even as reading and writing were slowly, and now more quickly, losing their social and cultural importance.

272

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Luis Galeano's detention may also have been the tipping point that pushed my US House rep, Maria Salazar, to release that ad yesterday criticizing Trump in front of the White House.

140

Reposted by Tim Watson

Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I did a double take. A university just put the words "humanities research" out there where anyone can see them? Are we sure that's allowed?

Colorful vertical banner attached to a post. Sideways-oriented in the upper right is the text "fluent in social change." Below, oriented as standard left-to-right text, reads "Expanding what is possible through humanities research"

713523

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Fantastic data visualization and analysis by @bmcnoldy.bsky.social—the 1926 hurricane had 4 times the energy of Hurricane Andrew. In 1926, people in Miami only had a few hours warning. Then the eye passed directly over downtown—many died after they went outside thinking the storm had passed.

232

Reposted by Tim Watson

Brian McNoldy @bmcnoldy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Today is the centennial of The Great Miami Hurricane's landfall in Miami. Approximately 12 days after exiting the African coast, a large Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph sustained winds slammed into southeast Florida around sunrise on September 18, 1926. bmcnoldy.earth.miami.edu/tropics/miam...

23713

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Many universities also use Watermark as their platform for accreditation reports. McMahon's DoE has major changes in the works for higher ed accreditation. I'm sure this is all fine though.

121

Reposted by Tim Watson

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

He was actually very clear about what he was going to do. Maybe you should have leveled with your constituents about what you were supporting bsky.app/profile/phil...

653022462

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Here's my congressperson, wagging her finger at Trump as she watches her polling lead shrink to nothing in spite of all her efforts to rebrand herself as a bipartisan problem solver. Not sure filming herself in front of the White House will work to distance her from its corrupt occupant.

152

Reposted by Tim Watson

Kaneesha Parsard @kaneeshaparsard.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Hi everyone! My first book Desiring Freedom is coming out this November on the University of Chicago Press. Pre-order here (bit.ly/4j51OqD) and check out blurbs from David Scott and Faith Smith below:

bit.ly

Desiring Freedom

A groundbreaking account of concepts of freedom in West Indian literature and visual culture.Desiring Freedom examines post-emancipation West Indian literature and visual culture to ask how they reima...

63624

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

These maps are exquisite. I'm sure there's a good cartographic reason for using the same color scheme whatever the difference between low and high elevation in a state. But it's uncanny to see the 345-foot peaks of central Florida in the same colors as the 11,000-foot peaks of the Oregon Cascades.

A color-coded map of the elevation gradient of the state of Florida, from green (sea level) to the towering purple and magenta heights of 300 feet in central and northern FL

A color-coded map of the elevation gradient of the state of Oregon, from green (sea level) to the towering purple and magenta heights of 11,000 feet in the Cascades.

100

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A literal neo-Nazi won a competitive GOP primary in north Florida for a safe GOP state house seat, but in my competitive/leans GOP state house district in Miami, Democrats are *not even fielding a candidate* and the incumbent Republican has already been re-elected. What are we doing here, Florida?

screenshot of text from Ballotpedia of the outcome of Florida State House District 114 elections for 2026:

General election

The general election scheduled for November 3, 2026, was canceled. Incumbent Demi Busatta Cabrera (R) won election in the general election for Florida House of Representatives District 114 without appearing on the ballot.

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary scheduled for August 18, 2026, was canceled."

220

Reposted by Tim Watson

Kathleen Fitzpatrick @kfitz.info · 14/09/2026

Halle-fucking-lujah. It's temporary but it's a start.

0124

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

for students my current line (or maybe it's a couplet) is "ask me before you ask ChatGPT"

040

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Are we forgetting that 2 weeks ago a team of scientists said they may have found dark matter in a tank beneath South Dakota—kind of a big deal for the universe—then *shared their research* so other scientists could analyze it to see if there are other explanations. You know, like scientists do.

1173

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Imagine if we spent even a millionth of the money we're shoveling at AI instead on stopping our parents and grandparents from being scammed and scared witless a dozen times a day.

1163

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

so I'm late to the problem of "alignment" so I'm sure I'm about the millionth human to say that AI's problem isn't misalignment but too much alignment with the all too human traits of cheating, selfcenteredness, and malicious compliance

010

Tim Watson @timwatson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So the image in this story about the US Geodetic Survey, and my memory of coming across one of these plates in Central Park years ago, led me to go and find one in Miami today. Of course, this being Miami, the building it's embedded in is under construction. The marker has been there since 1934.

A brass survey mark in a cream stucco wall. The text on the mark reads: U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey | Bench Mark | Elev. 13.615 feet above mean sea level | $250 fine or imprisonment for disturbing this mark | South Miami | 1934.

A photograph of a sidewalk and a building under construction in Miami, with a red highlighted circle indicating the position of the U.S. Geodetic Survey marker embedded in a concrete column about 2 feet above the ground.

2129