iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 06/11/2024

I do think it's important to accompany a chart like this with the percentage decrease in turnout, because the hed suggests Trump "increased his support" when the reality is that his support is pretty much the same, and the red lines indicate how many people who voted Biden *did not vote this year*

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Cezary Jan Strusiewicz @ostrichson.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

Art Nouveau is when stuff looks like it was made by Elves. Art Deco is when stuff looks like it was made by Dwarves.

An Art Nouveau staircase decorated with curved patterns and soft colors, with a nature-themed background and rounded windows on the walls.

Art Deco staircase. An angular, grand design in dark colors.

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Seanan McGuire @seananmcguire.bsky.social · 28/09/2024

I knew a biologist--still do technically, she's not dead--who went on a field expedition and came home with a NASTY code. No symptoms but absolutely DEVASTATING congestion. She was talking like a plugged-up cartoon character for months. Nothing helped.

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Susan @suziqleathers.bsky.social · 20/09/2024

BREAKING: In a shocking leak, Donald Trump just told the leaders of Project 2025 that his most exciting work with them lies ahead. Donald Trump is openly admitting he will implement Project 2025. Retweet so all Americans see this.

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🦇 Hexavier 🎃 @xavierck.com · 16/09/2024

Here are 543 images (1.5GB) of items at the Philadelphia Museum of Art arms and armor exhibit You're free to use them for anything, even commercially. I tried to focus on details not usually represented in available reference material drive.google.com/file/d/1NRzg... Here's a small sampling:

A closeup view of an ornate cuirass and tasset, showing heart-shaped designs along the edges of the metal panels.

An extremely ornate ceremonial halberd head showing etched and blackened designs with various plants, mythical creatures, and heraldic designs.

A closeup of the shoulder intersection of the cuirass, pauldron, and bevor of a piece of 1500s field armor. Some ornate etching of the crucifixion is visible in the lower right corner on the cuirass.

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Dr Sarah Hendrica Bickerton 🏳️‍🌈 @sarahhbickerton.bsky.social · 13/08/2024

Ok, so a) we need the Harris/Walz campaign on Bluesky, b) Harris’s social media team deserves a raise, and c) "cannot run a livestream in the year 2024" that burn was seen from space and there is not enough aloe on the planet for it. www.threads.net/@kamalahq/po...

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HELL Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 04/08/2024

This is very clever

Harris poster showing a hand dropping a red MAGA hat with the slogan Drop The Hat with a faded E making it Drop The Hate

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 04/08/2024

they are coming to kill your kids if they get power again. children will die. if you are lying and writing about trump's unifying new tone instead of reporting on the actual consequences of trump taking power again you are complicit!

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Barry Deutsch @barrydeutsch.bsky.social · 30/07/2024

Weird! (I'm reposting this policartoon because I messed up the alt-text in my previous posting.)

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has two panels. Both of the panels show a white woman with a stylish haircut, wearing a striped shirt with a calf-length skirt and black tights. She speaks directly to the reader.

PANEL 1

The woman looks sad and distraught. She's holding one palm up in a bewildered fashion, and has her other palm pressed against the side of her face.

WOMAN: I was arguing with a liberal and she said...

WOMAN: I can hardly even SAY it, it was so AWFUL!

WOMAN: She said my argument was "WEIRD."

WOMAN: She actually used THAT word! About ME! How can anybody be so MEAN?

PANEL 2

The woman now looks angry, her hands balled up into fists.

WOMAN: Why won't these lying libtard soyboy cuck groomer baby-killing totalitarian leftists just be CIVIL?

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 25/07/2024

This is a really lovely tribute both to Kamala Harris and to blended families generally www.cnn.com/2024/07/24/p...

Washington (CNN) - The ex-wife of second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Wednesday defended Vice President Kamala Harris against sexist criticisms about her lack of biological children, calling them "baseless" and expressing her gratitude for the presumptive Democratic nominee.
"These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I" Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement first provided to CNN. "She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it."

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Anni Jyn @annijyn.com · 22/07/2024

if you see me interacting with/following a sexual predator on here (unbeknownst to me), you can tell me so i can shut that down

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Shimaira ⛥ @shimaira.com · 17/04/2024

A very good thread from Bryce O'Connor over on twitter. TL;DR: Fuck genAI. Do not use it for your books. #WritingCommunity #Authors 🖋️📖💰 OP: twitter.com/OConnorBooks...

Bryce O'Connor:
Authors using AI art on your covers, you're cutting off your own leg.

I'm not even talking about the accusations of "thief" that you're going to get. Let's set that aside.

I'm talking about the price you're paying in reputation and marketability to save maybe $1000.

(1/10)

First, there's a straightforward one you should be aware of:

There are a LOT of people who will pass over books with AI covers on principle. 99% of artists out there (and there are a lot), and their friends and family. Most authors, and many of their readers who

(2/10)

are made aware of how they feel. Anyone who thinks that AI is lazy and shoddy work, and anyone who sees the imperfections in an AI cover and loses interest because of it.

So there's a not-insignificant portion of the market you are cutting yourself out of right there.

(3/10)

Second is your reputation. Going along with the above, 99% of the authors I know do not want to be associated with AI, whether that be art on the covers or text in the book. You won't catch us using it, and you won't catch us making buddy-buddy with people who use it.

(4/10)

This also applies to your reputation amongst artists. Want to hire Felix Ortiz one day? Or Asur Misoa? Or YAM? Or Swanland or Lockwood or *any* reputable artist?

If they find out that you've got AI on other covers, good luck. Chances are you've excommunicated yourself.

(5/10)

But here's the third and most important thing I don't think you're thinking about: Your marketability.

Having the support of the writing community is almost essential when it comes to getting a book off the ground. The RTs, NL shares, shoutouts, YouTube mentions, etc.

(6/10)

99% of that goes away the moment it becomes public knowledge that you use AI, that you steal from fellow creators in order to try to gain some *tiny* advantage for yourself.

Few authors are going to RT you. No YouTuber is going to mention your book or cover.

(7/10)

I can't think of a BookToker who is going to work with you, nor any serious influencer who will want that on their Instagram page.

You are sacrificing so much, and for what? To save $1000? $1500? Plus a few total hours of your time? That doesn't math out.

(8/10)

And yes, I am acutely aware that $1000+ is a *huge* amount of money for a lot of people. Not discounting that.

But AI art isn't making publishing "accessible" to you. You're paying WAY more in the end.

You're paying in reputation, opportunity, and the chance of success.

(9/10)

Pay an artist. Save yourself.

(10/10)

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 22/06/2024

These people are nihilists that believe that see creativity as a problem to solve and the product of someone unnecessarily distracted from the quest for growth. They see every single creative and worker as an enemy, and their shit doesn't work.

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Prosper Tipaldi 🌱🌿 @prospertipaldi.bsky.social · 18/06/2024

This article goes in depth on this question, with the right angle: The comparison with human learning is a way to justify theft. Hope it helps :) www.tomshardware.com/news/ai-does...

tomshardware.com

AI Lie: Machines Don’t Learn Like Humans (And Don’t Have the Right To)

Some argue that bots should be entitled to ingest any content they see, because people can.

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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 28/05/2024

This is correct and I love him

“I always find it intensely moving, even still, that adults go into the dark and say, ‘l know this is fake but | don't care: tell me a story.” And they gasp and they cry or theyre rolling around laughing. I really believe in the arts as a human need. It's not some sort of frivolous thing, It's a necessity.” ANDREW SCOTT

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rufus @te-kanawa.bsky.social · 01/06/2024

♥️✌🏾🏳️‍🌈

With June being Pride month,
I wanted to take this occasion
To clearly say this:

I unhesitatingly & wholeheartedly support my lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer friends, their rights, their marriages, their pursuits of happiness and their breath.

This is also true July thru May

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Will Quinn @willquinnart.bsky.social · 30/05/2024

Daily bunny no.2504 has nothing but time

A bunny is a character from the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last". He is bunny the sole survivor of a nuclear war. standing outside a bombed library, he has just broken his glasses, preventing him from reading the piles of books he had stacked behind him. The entire image is in black and white.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 21/05/2024

Kat's good people.

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 18/05/2024

Today's cover of German magazine DER SPIEGEL, commemorating 75 years of today's Germany. The title translates to "nothing learned?" This design is as chilling as it is justified. Please share to make people aware that it's serious.

Magazine cover showing a German flag with the shape of a swastika pressing through from behind

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Captain Howdy @captainhowdy.bsky.social · 17/05/2024

Friday.

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Crockett Houghton @crocketthoughton.com · 16/05/2024

People who miss the experience of going to Blockbuster to browse the rows of VHS and DVD's- you may not realize this but most public libraries carry a selection of new and old films. You'd be surprised what you can find just by visiting a place that will loan you books. Support your local library.

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Ben the Hammerhead @benhammerhead.bsky.social · 05/05/2024

this

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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 04/05/2024

In 2019, I spent a few days in Oxford, Mississippi (where Ole Miss is located) and was so shook by the experience, I wrote a poem about it in my book ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD.

Heritage
October, 2019 - Oxford, Mississippi
The color of a memory is the difference between haunted and hunted. In Mississippi, red white and blue don't mean "remember this is America." They mean "history is a gun and every bullet in its chamber wants you to forget." They mean "we tried our best not to be America and failed and now we keep forgetting to forget and, anyway, who did you vote for? No need to ask us. You already know." They mean the white man in the White House tweeted this morning that he's being lynched.
Outside my hotel - no, I'm not from around here - on the street corner, there is a plaque that tells me where I can find the body of the town's first white settler. But it's almost sundown and I've been told darkness in Mississippi is not a metaphor so I chase the shadows back into the hotel. At the bar, I beg the bartender to make me a stronger drink. He tries and he fails. I'm scared and black and mostly sober at the hotel bar and reading an essay about lynching when

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Corey Brickley * Blight's Hollow Dot Com @coreybrickley.bsky.social · 01/05/2024

Pretty funny the chant of AI bros was "adapt or die" when it was coming from people who never got past the "but it's hard" barrier of entry to making things

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Selena Price 🙌 学中文 @theselenaprice.bsky.social · 24/04/2024

I saw this posted on twitter but I don't think that user is on BlueSky and I wanted to share it here... This interview with Ethan Hawke perfectly describes the importance of art.

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Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 21/04/2024

WOW. WHO COULD HAVE FORSEEN THIS???

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artphobos @artphobos.bsky.social · 21/04/2024

Via Vincent Proce on Twitter (@vproceart) some hope vs the Ai glut (repost to add alt text)

Text: Artists Against Generative Al.

Posting this on behalf of a member who would like to remain anonymous:

I'm an art director and supervisor for a large studio. The studio heads had the bright idea before I started to hire prompters. Several bros were brought onto the film project. I absolutely hated myself for not quitting on the spot but stuck with it because it's mercenary out there. Have a family to feed etc. I decided to use this time wisely. Treat them as I would any artist I had hired. First round of pictures of a sweeping Ariel forest landscape comes through and it's not bad. They submit a ton of work and one or two of the 40 are ok. Nearly on brief. So first round feedback goes through and I tell them about the perspective mistakes, colour changes I want, layers that any matte painting would be split into. Within a day I get 5 variants. Not changes to the ones I wanted but variations. Again. Benefit of the doubt I give them another round of

Text: the doubt I give them another round of feedback making it clear. Next day it's worse. I sit there and patiently paint over, even explaining the steps I would take as a painter. They don't do it, anomalies start appearing when I say I want to keep the exact image but with changes. They can't. They simply don't have the eye to see the basic mistakes so the Ai starts to over compensate. We get people starting to appear in the images. These are obviously holiday snaps.

"Remove the people"

"What would you like them changed to?" "... grass. I just don't want them there" They can't do it. The one that can actually use photoshop hasn't developed the eye to see his mistakes, ends up getting angry at me for not understanding he can't make specific changes. The girl whose background was a little photography has given me 40 progressively worse images with wilder mistakes every time. This is 4 days into the project.

Text: I'm both pissed about the waste, but elated seeing ai fall at the first hurdle. It's not even that the images are unusable, the people making them have no eye for what's wrong, no thicker skin for constructive criticism and feedback, no basic artistic training in perspective and functionality in what they're making.

Yes the hype is going to pump more money into this. They won't go anywhere for a while. But this has been such a glowing perfect moment of watching the fundamental part fail in the face of the most simple tasks. All were fired and the company no longer accepts Ai prompters as applicants. Your training as an artist will always be the most important part of this process and it is invaluable. I hope this post gives you a boost in a dark time.

(A pic of text reads 'this machine kills Al' above an arrow pointing to a pencil)

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 10/04/2024

Chevron reported $21.37B in profit last year, and received $2.3B in subsidies. Taxpayers gave them $2.3B in profit. We could provide free lunch to every student in the US for what we give away as subsidies to Big Oil each year. So who’s the “welfare queen” scamming the system?

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 23/03/2024

I don’t know who wrote this, but it’s absolutely perfect

• X-Men is about civil rights. If you didn't get that, you didn't get X-Men.
• Black Panther is about civil rights. If you didn't get that, you didn't get
Black Panther.
• Captain America literally fought the Nazis. He is the embodiment of fighting the alt-right. If you didn't get that, you didn't get Captain America.
• The Empire in Star Wars is fascist. The Rebel alliance is Anti-Fascist. If you didn't get that, you didn't get Star Wars.
• The Punisher isn't meant to be a role model for police or armed forces.
So much so that the writers of The Punisher made him actively speak out against it in a comic. If you didn't get that, you didn't get The Punisher.
• Deadpool is queer. He's pansexual. Fact. If you didn't get that you didn't get Deadpool.
• Star Trek is about equality for all genders, races, and sexualities. As early as the mid-60s it was taking a pro-choice stance and defending women's right to choose. One of its clearest themes is accepting different cultures and appearances

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 01/04/2024

i’m learning a lot actually | patreon.com/lubchansky

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Lyanna 🌙 semi-hiatus @lyannatropes.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

I decided to offer a bsky discount, 2 slots will be 15% off, available on all commission options. The offer is valid until March 31st! Reposts appreciated 💙

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Encephalophatass (Any pronouns) @encephalophatass.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

My mother is a deeply religious boomer. She doesn't understand queer theory. And you know what? She doesn't need to. About trans people, she says, "They are not hurting anyone, so who are we to stand in the way of their happiness?" That's literally all it takes not to be asshole!

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journeyman folklorist @aniceburrito.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

The joke is on you, Baby.

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Nnedi Okorafor, PhD @nnedi.bsky.social · 04/03/2024

This sums it up perfectly. It’s not a conversation.

“There is no ethical way to use the major AI image generators. All of them are trained on stolen images, and all of them are built for the purpose of deskilling, disempowering and replacing real human artists.”

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Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 11/02/2024

Our top story at the Mississippi Free Press today: "Trump Encourages Russia to Attack American Allies: ‘Do Whatever the Hell They Want’" We may be a local Mississippi outlet, but this is important. It should be leading every newspaper in the country. www.mississippifreepress.org/39734/trump-...

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HELL Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 11/02/2024

In Texas now, a doctor who performs an abortion on a woman who doesn't want a child faces 99 years in prison. But a creep who slips abortion meds into his pregnant wife's drinks, causing their baby to be born with complications? That's six months. Tell me again how it's not about punishing women?

nbcnews.com

Texas attorney who poisoned pregnant wife with abortion medication sentenced to 180 days in jail

Mason Herring's estranged wife told a court that their now 1-year-old daughter has developmental delays and attends therapy eight times a week.

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

A queer teenager from Nebraska, where lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care last year, responds to Pamela Paul. "I fear for my future. I fear for my friends and their future."

To the Editor:
Re "Gender Dysphoric Kids Deserve Better Care" by Pamela Paul
(column, Feb. 4):
I'm an L.G.B.T.Q.+ teenager. Ms. Paul cites stories of
detransitioners as if they are damning to the practice of gender-
affirming care as a whole. Not all detransitioners regret their
transition, and not all transgender people will medically transition
An overwhelming 98 percent of people who started their transition
care as youths continue into adulthood, per a 2022 study from the
Netherlands published in The Lancet.
Speaking from experience, my peers and friends who have
undergone medical transitions have never "regretted" it, and after
beginning care, their quality of life greatly improved. If Ms. Paul
wants to demonize a procedure with a high rate of regret, she
should look toward knee replacement, where one in five people end
updissatisfied.
By writing this article, Ms. Paul further stigmatizes health care for
transgender people. Transition care may be good for some people.
It may not b

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 08/02/2024

The speed at which this particular thing was accomplished calls into question the treatment of all the other transparently awful tech abuses that go mostly unaddressed.

wired.com

AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls Are Now Illegal

A month after the mysterious Biden calls in New Hampshire, the FCC can now go after robocall scammers that use AI voice clones.

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Davis Bickford @davis.social · 26/06/2023

I loved this and wanted to create a little comic for it. This is how I imagined the exchange going. I hope you like it @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com ☺️

One page comic.

Panel one: Neil Gaiman is sitting in a chair reading, and his son, who is wearing a cape, says proudly, “If you need me…”

Panel two: the some finishes his sentence as he walks away saying, “I’ll be in my mind.”

Full page: the boy is in a crash of waves with a water dragon behind him. A sense of adventure.

Final panel: Neil is smiling as his son plays in a cardboard box, pretending to be in the sea.

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