iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 2h

I mean, we all knew this, right? It stands to reason. Just...listen to them. Let them speak. Find a Christian Nationalist and ask them questions about things and then listen to what they have to say. That should clear up any doubt that this study is 100% valid.

White text on black background: A study in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion reports that US adherents of Christian nationalism—defined as belief in strict social order, religion blended with civic belonging, and promotion of European-style Christianity—tend to show lower cognitive ability, after controlling for demographics and education.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Well, hello there New Problem. Where are your friends?

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I met a man who makes marbles today, and he gave me one. Not glass. Clay. Dirt that sat still long enough to be talked into a shape, then argued with by fire. Cream and burnt black, one blush of red where the kiln ran hot and it took it personally.

A person’s open hand holding about twenty small marbled spheres in blue, black, tan, and white, wearing a brown shirt and green pants, outdoors near a tree trunk.

Hands holding a white object against a spinning buffing wheel on a metal machine.

A man in a red plaid shirt holds small stones in his hand at a table with rocks and specimens, looking at the camera. A woman in a blue Cougars shirt sits behind him outdoors.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Spent the morning benchmarking a 27B ternary LLM running entirely on my MacBook Pro. My assistant Orobas ran the full test battery remotely. Numbers in the thread.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Bonsai-2 dropped yesterday and is apparently even more accurate. I'll be testing on local machines, including with Orobas later today. It should also comfortably run on my iPhone 18 Pro Max next month. apple.news/AZ-KFoNoBRpi...

apple.news

PrismML hopes its tiny LLM will change how we all use AI — TechCrunch

If AI lab PrismML isn't on your radar yet, it should be.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Place your bets as to who you think the "Chekhov’s gun" of this story will be fired at. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5qW...

youtube.com

Sacrifice | Official Trailer | Netflix

YouTube video by Netflix

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A few minutes of sun is all they need to recharge their internal heaters before heading back into the AC and away from the humidity and record heat.

A tan and white dog with black ears lies on green grass, looking forward with its mouth open.

A brown and white dog with pointed ears lying stretched out on patchy grass in sunlight.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Found another one. This is less of a troll and more of a clearly organized and funded promotion/influencer account out of Germany, pushing Israeli propaganda and talking points purely as a reply-guy on other posts that mention Israel or related topics.

A dark dashboard titled “michellerainer.bsky.social — Behavioral Dossier” with yellow “TARGETED INFILTRATION / REPLY-ONLY” tag. Metrics show 0% original content, 17.7 posts/day, UTC+3 implied, 57.8% media ratio. Thematic bars highlight pro-Israel/anti-Hamas (82.3%), Russia/Iran/China/Ukraine axis (81%), mandate/borders (55%), Jordan/Egypt delegitimization (41.3%). Tactics list “CANVASSER / DEBATE-SEEKING ONLY”, “CANNED ASSET DEPLOYMENT”, “SYNTHETIC METADATA ARTIFACTS”. Outbound citations include Substacks and propaganda aggregators. Behavioral assessment notes UTC+3 timing, native German with idiosyncratic English, classification as “Targeted Operative”.”}```json {

Black background with light gray text describing michellerainer.bsky.social as a reply-only account created July 17, 2026, focused on pro-Israel and pro-Ukraine content, anti-Russian framing, and disrupting pro-Palestinian discourse, using canned arguments and collages with no original posts, bio, or display name.

$Black slide titled “Network & Behavioral Metrics” with five bullet points in white text: Account Identity & Age shows registration July 17, 2026, 61.9 days, 1,095 posts at 17.7 per day; Functional Composition lists 0% original posts, 98.6% replies, 1.4% quote-replies; Language Tag Mismatch notes French tag despite English and some German content; Temporal Footprint & Implied Region describes low activity 22:00–04:00 UTC, peak 04:00–07:00 UTC, implied UTC+3; M4 Anchor Position flags insufficient_signal following George Conway and Adam Kinzinger.”}```json {$

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Told ya so. It was never about "big scary Movie Magic AI is going to kill us all". It was a golden opportunity to play a game of "regulatory capture".

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This is a real news alert that really did just come in on my computer, second ago. This is the world we live in now. May the old gods awaken and remember those of us who still walk the ways of honor and come smite those in our path.

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Reposted by Brian Ragle

Dr. Mar @boldnewme.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“Money promised tomorrow does NOT erase the money people have already spent trying to survive today." Please have a listen.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I didn't realize I was actually watching a trailer when this came up ahead of a different video and I swear I actually did think for a second that the guy sure looked like Sam Altman's sniffy little bounce-walk. youtu.be/_Wv9oLUe740?...

youtu.be

Artificial - Official Teaser Trailer (2026) Andrew Garfield, Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro

YouTube video by IGN

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Longtermist Calculation, a primer. The standard calculation goes like this: -An individual today matters, but future generations have the potential to produce trillions upon trillions of digital or biological lives.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Why did we need this "confirmed"? Stephen Root is not only a beloved actor but has such a distinctive speaking voice and style that he is recognizable without ever seeing his face. I knew it was him from the time his character was heard in the trailer.

A social media post from DiscussingFilm showing two side-by-side images of actor Stephen Root: left, a dimly lit close-up with a beard in a dark jacket; right, a brighter shot with sunglasses on his head, pointing in a palm-print shirt. Text reads “Stephen Root confirms that he will star in GTA 6.” Below are icons with counts: 61 comments, 371 reposts, 8.1K likes, 135K views.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I wanted to love the iPhone Duo. I love the concept. I love the form factor. I love the Pencil support. I killed Android a long time ago. I flirted with a fling with the Duo, but I ended up marrying the Pro Max. Being able to hold a 3D printed copy of the Duo showed me it's too small. Oh well...

Order confirmation for iPhone 18 Pro Max placed September 14, 2026, arriving October 6–13 by express delivery. Status shows order placed with progress bar; includes image of burgundy phone and text about trade-in kit.

A black textured 3D printed iPhone Duo folded open on a white surface, showing a hinge gap and speaker holes. Background includes a green cutting mat, paint tubes, cables, and tools.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

My brother sent me a request. I dutifully filled it as big brothers should do. It really did turn out well.

A dark-mode messaging interface showing a conversation about finding a blueprint for a 3D-printed figure. One message includes a preview image of a white capybara statue in a meditative pose labeled “Peace Zen Capybara” on a blue background. Another message shows a smaller preview of the same figure in a software interface, with a hand holding it. Text bubbles discuss whether it is a resin print.

A hand holds a small gray hippo figurine in a meditative pose with hands together, wearing a robe, above a wooden surface. Below, a video thumbnail shows a textured surface with a play icon.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The biggest hypemen for AI capabilities are the AI techbros who are selling it and the anti-AI critics who are declaring it will kill us all. Both camps are just absurd in their beliefs about what AI can do, both now and in the foreseeable future.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

March 2023. A man writes in TIME that governments should track every AI chip on earth and be willing to "destroy a rogue datacenter by airstrike." Not fiction. Policy advocacy in a hundred-year-old news magazine. That November, Britain held an international summit built around his threat model.

medium.com

Shut Up and Multiply

Who the rationalists are, where their money comes from, and what happens when the arithmetic leaves the building. A preface to an essay on…

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Finishing up a longer essay on this for tomorrow, but I felt compelled to lay out some of it today. Why are the tech executives building frontier AI the loudest voices warning it could cause human extinction? It is not sudden civic duty. It is ideology and regulatory capture. Let me break it down.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I grew watching Star Trek and wondering when I would be able to talk to a computer this way.

A dark message bubble containing white text with redacted names and locations. It requests replying to thank someone, adding a calendar event with two people and a CC, then checking a .edu website for visitor parking pass details and parking near a hall on one of two possible streets.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Happy #caturday. I have not had a 100% intact outer skin layer since 2008. My white blood cell count remains perpetually slightly elevated. I know the difference between a scratch that is merely red versus one that bleeds from feel alone and at 2AM. Most recent acquisition:

A close-up of a man's upper leg featuring a long red scratch on the skin.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Anthropic: "Let's every slow down, agreed"? OpenAI: "Agreed!" (doesn't slow down) Google: "Agreed!" (doesn't slow down) Microsoft: "Agreed!" (doesn't slow down, but no one cares) xAI: "Slow what down?" China: "LOL" Anthropic: (doesn't slow down) www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

nbcnews.com

Anthropic CEO calls for slowing the AI race as safety warnings mount

Dario Amodei says rapidly advancing AI systems are outpacing safeguards and is calling for new measures to “slow the pace” toward more powerful systems.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Since the anti-AI people think and argue in terms of movie plots, the best line about current AI was in this sci-fi movie (which is arguably fantasy since it involved magic lightning): youtu.be/mJFvqNOorTs?...

youtu.be

Short Circuit (3/8) Movie CLIP - It Just Runs Programs (1986) HD

YouTube video by Movieclips

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

New piece is up: Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider. Two shows made six years apart by people who never spoke to each other, and they landed on the exact same premise: an unseen billionaire boss who talks to his field agents through a speaker. 19 minutes on why that wrecked my week.

medium.com

Charlie was a mainframe

A perfectly reasonable theory about two ridiculous television shows

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So everyone gets the new #Siri on Monday, but some of us have been using it the whole summer in the beta cycle. A lot of you aren't prepared. Siri isn't isn't just for setting timers any longer. Among other things, it has replaced Alexa as my smart-home voice controller.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Nice to see @mkbhd.com repping @weratedogs.com clothing line, for a good cause!!!

A Black man in a black shirt gestures with both hands in a dimly lit bedroom. A lamp glows behind him. A red “Premium” badge and search bar appear at the top; captions read “tell your dog i said hi” at the bottom.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I found a Milkshake Duck. #IYKYK Working a human interest, fluffy little story in a pleasant environment and found a goddamned Nazi. Literally. The minute you tell me how much you support Trump and how much you hate immigrants, I know *all* I need to know about you. Forever.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This comment thread, posted on Bluesky, hosted in data centers located in Virginia and California, and fed directly into the Equinix AI Factory that sits inside both locations (and more) is just...wild. Sending your message to the world about air pollution using smoke signals from a tire fire.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

BTW, the dark humor here, at least for me, is that the commercial AI zealots and the anti-AI cultists all share the same religious belief in "P(doom)". And for the commercial AI providers in Silicon Valley, it really is a religion and it has a name: Effective Altruism.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

People keep telling me the new AI data centers are secret domestic surveillance hubs. I went and checked. They aren't, and the real answer should worry you more than the theory does. 🧵

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"The Data Centers Are Not Watching You. Something Else Is." New essay drops tomorrow morning just in time for you to become outraged and/or informed over your morning coffee.

A drawing of a suburban street where small cameras shaped like birds perch on every utility pole and street sign, all turned toward a minivan leaving a driveway, while a homeowner waters the lawn without noticing.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Trump posted this. Look closer (text is in the alt-text). Trump is literally invoking deliberate references to fascism-inspired optics and design.

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Reposted by Brian Ragle

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

WordsByCurtis

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Every election cycle needs a Jeremiah Wright being astroturfed as the latest Scary Brown/Black Man. It sorta makes you wonder who is behind the astroturfing this time around...

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

If anyone was wondering what the new #iPhone 18 is going to look like, it appears dbrand just leaked it? www.youtube.com/shorts/Eu1fh...

A purple iPhone case with a MagSafe ring and triple camera cutout, angled on a split black-and-white background. Text below reads “new iPhone 18 colors.”

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

ORANGE: Have at thee, villain! From the tiles I spring, A fury cloaked in marmalade and wrath! Feel thou the thunder of my phantom claw! WHITE: O treach’rous air! The invisible blade hath struck! My vitals weep...the heavens spin...I swoon! Et tu, ginger? Then fall, fluffy Caesar! And scene...

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Belated acknowledgement of another loss to the acting world. Greene always had a gravitas in his roles that few actors could match. The serious/sad eyes, the baritone voice he always kept low, just the whole demeanor, though he had comedy chops and wanted less-serious roles.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I'm developing some analysis toolsets that more easily accomplish, on an automated level, what I was doing manually before. This is primarily for documenting bad-faith accounts and posters. So, of course, I tested it on myself. The results are not at all surprising for those who know me. Volunteers?

Dark-themed dashboard titled “M2 POSTING BEHAVIOUR” showing blue bar charts: posts by hour (UTC) peaking near midday, posts by weekday (Monday first) with consistent levels, and posts by month from April 2025 to July 2026. Text lists metrics including 28,703 posts, 55.38 per day, and ratios; timezone estimate shows quiet window 02:00–08:00 UTC.

Dark-themed interface showing “M5 COORDINATION SIGNALS (CANDIDATES, NOT CONCLUSIONS)” with six rule-based detectors. Sections include pileonagainstsubject, subjectjoinspileon, amplificationreciprocity (showing one account with mutual reposts), and contentduplication (61 near-duplicate pairs; one entry cites repeated text referencing an antisemitic conspiracy). Status bar reads “read-only”, “live tail has never run”, “reverse index empty”, with counts: blocks 3,346, posts 30,308, lists 143.”}json. Wait, I need to correct the format. Here's the proper response: {

Dark-themed interface showing a media archive grid of 24 thumbnails under tabs including Media and Audit. Thumbnails include political cartoons, historical imagery, figures, and text such as "The Nazis were bad," "MAGA’s Parallel Economy," and "Extremist Nightmares." Labels reference topics like tariffs, nationalism, and censorship. Top bar shows read-only status and counts: blocks 3,346, posts 38,308, lists 143.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I'm a little over the whole "sky is falling" doomerism of the current crop of videogame content creators. Sure, it might sell clicks, but it's dumb and also wrong. The new GTA6, a AAA game by any standard, is $100 in 2026. Want to see past inflation adjusted prices? youtube.com/shorts/kGPNu...

youtube.com

GTA 6 Is The Biggest Trap In Gaming! #gta

YouTube video by Zalker Gaming

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

How to salvage a 3D print. I noticed this was happening not long after the first layers were down and kept an eye on it. Eventually, I had to intervene with some clippers and a sanding pad. Luckily, this wasn't in a place that was hard to get to and it won't actually impact the final print.

Close-up of a white 3D-printed object with rounded rectangular cutouts on a dark textured surface, showing stringy plastic residue and uneven edges.

A white 3D-printed lattice with rectangular slots rests on a textured brown build plate, showing fine stringing and a small square mark near the edge.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I am an unapologetic nerd and will wave that flag until Nerdhalla or the universe takes me into the sweet embrace of oblivion. This took me longer than usual because I had to slop some paint on it. Printed in PLA. makerworld.com/en/models/55...

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Serious question here. I'm genuinely curious about this. The totality of anti-AI sentiment on Bluesky isn't monolithic and spans the spectrum of humanity, granted. Yet, there seems to be a particular concentration of it among self-described "furries" and people who post "furry porn" and related.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's giving a lot of Florence + the Machine.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

For valid reasons, Claude decided to a "polling sweep" of the USB and it basically erased my mouse. It decided to use the incident as a "free experiment" to learn more about Keychron USB reporting.

Dark-mode chat interface showing a technical conversation about factory-resetting a mouse and re-pairing it with a dongle. Messages include troubleshooting steps and a self-acknowledged mistake. Below, a terminal button labeled “Start Terminal Process” and a status reading “Still thinking… 30s” with a spinning icon.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The resilience of our roses is something to be studied, for sure. They keep surviving and thriving, despite my clear attempts to kill them through inattention, lack of watering, weeds growing, and forgetting to put the anti-pest stuff on them.

A vibrant pink rose with layered petals blooms on a green stem with leaves, lit by sunlight against a blurred background.

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Brian Ragle @vagabondvisions.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I walked into a web the other night and only half-congratulated myself for not losing my mind like a crazy person for any watching security cameras. The web builder was back last night and I managed to glimpse the support lines ahead of time and get a shot of her this morning, before sunrise.

A brown spider hangs from a thin web against a pale sky, framed by blurred green and yellow leaves. Neoscona crucifera, often called the spotted orbweaver or barn spider.

Physical Silhouette: Bulbous, slightly oval-to-triangular abdomen, spiny legs held in pairs, and a body length roughly 10–18 mm (just under dime size for an adult female).

Coloration & Markings: Rusty mottled brown to tan body with distinctly banded (striped) legs.

Behavior & Timing: Neoscona crucifera reaches maturity in late summer and early fall. They construct large, classic vertical orb webs at dusk (often under eaves, porches, or tree branches), sit dead-center facing head-down overnight to catch flying insects, and frequently take down and consume their web at dawn.

Toxicity: Harmless to humans and pets. They are docile and act as beneficial pest control.

A close runner-up in the same family is the Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus) or Cross Orbweaver (Araneus diadematus), which share similar shapes, banded legs, and nocturnal orb-weaving habits, though Neoscona crucifera is by far the most prevalent in the eastern and southeastern United States during August.

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