iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Candidates like Plínio Trump are part of a Brazilian tradition that spans nearly eight decades. Whether called protest candidates or joke candidates, they bring a surreal element to congressional elections. @apnews.com

apnews.com

Plínio Trump, Mick Jagger and Samurai Taxi Driver keep Brazil's tradition of joke candidates alive

In Brazil, candidates like Plínio Trump bring a surreal element to elections by impersonating famous figures.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"In his prospectus for the paper, he declared, “columns will be free from bigoted devotion to narrow interests, and will be open, within necessary limitations, to communications upon every subject of public importance.” Gail Collins in @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

The Day Before The Times Began

Most newspapers offered scandals and ads. With The New-York Daily Times, Henry Raymond saw room for something else.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"All of us who were around then have our stories. They might be stories of loss, of heroism, of close calls, of bearing witness, of remembering exactly where we were when." @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Sept. 11 and the Persistence of Memory

Twenty-five years later, fleeting memories and indelible images still haunt those who lived through the attacks and their aftermath.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

"How will students ever know what they really think of anything — whether it’s “The Crucible” or A.I. itself — if they ask a machine to spit out an answer for them?"

nytimes.com

What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?

Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without A.I. And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Usually, spikes of excess deaths are recorded in the winter, when respiratory viruses circulate. But during the week of the June heat wave, there were more excess deaths than in any week last winter. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

In One Week During Europe’s Record Heat Wave, Deaths Increased by 16,000

Deaths spiked in northwest Europe in June, where countries were unprepared for extreme heat that hit much of the continent.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Moon over the Mississippi / Luna sobre el Misisipi.

The full moon shines over a bridge illuminated in bright green over the dark water of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Reposted by Víctor Manuel Ramos

The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Don't allow anyone to tell you that a day spent exploring used bookstores, greenhouses, libraries, cafés, and bakeries "doesn't classify" as self-care.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: Homer helps us see Alexandros's fear, “As a man who has come on a snake in the mountain valley suddenly steps back, and the shivers come over his body, and he draws back and away, cheeks seized with a green pallor…” (2/2)

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: Homer describes what happens when you get into a fight you are not ready for. When Alexandros sees Menelaos springing up to meet him, he would rather not: “…the heart was shaken within him; to avoid death he shrank into the host of his own companions…” (1/2)

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Reading "The Iliad": And later, he goes for the deeper burn: “King who *feed on your people, since you rule nonentities.” (Not sure why the translation is plural there; did I find a typo in “The Iliad”?) ) 2 of 2 ☝🏼

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: Those ancients had some peculiar way of insulting each other. Here’s Achilleus addressing Atreides: “You wine sack, with a dog’s eyes, with a deer’s heart.” (1 of 2) 👇🏼

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: And Achilles tells the king trying to recruit him: “...but when the time comes to distribute the booty yours is far the greater reward, and I with some small thing yet dear to me go back to my ships when I am weary with fighting.” There it is: The original worker grievance. ☝🏼

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: Achilles goes on, speaking to Agamemnon: “Always the greater part of the painful fighting is the work of my hands..." (👇🏼 Continues)

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Reading “The Iliad”: Achilles was suspicious of Agamemnon (whom he calls “great shamelessness”), understanding he had been taken advantage of. “Never, when the Achaians sack some well-founded citadel of the Trojans, do I have a prize that is equal to your prize," he says. (Continues👇🏼)

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

"Now, the U.S. is on track to have the fewest inspections on record since 2011, except during the global pandemic."

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Yes, I noticed the translator's note on this one: "I have used the plainest language I could find which might be adequate, and mostly this is the language of contemporary prose." I read the Fitzgerald translation of "The Odyssey" and don't think that was the same approach: It seemed more ornate.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus / and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians..." There's a lot of interest in “The Odyssey” because of the movie, but I am going back to "The Iliad," where Homer's epic started.

A hand holds "The Iliad of Homer" translation by Richmond Lattimore, showing its cover.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Although Homer’s tale was not inspired by a real Odysseus, historians say, it did immortalize a vanished era of gritty Bronze Age chieftains who raided overseas, ruled enormous stone citadels and controlled wide trade networks from 1700 to 1050 B.C. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Odysseus Wasn’t Real. But He Had Real Worshipers in Ancient Ithaca.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The sky becomes a background without features in this summer evening of smog over buildings in Queens, New York.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

“If I form an opinion, and there are books saying the opposite, I need to read them all, to know if I’m justified,” he continued. “If I’m not convinced, I should let my conviction go.” @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Too Many Books?

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

A dangerous sign for me, outside a small bookstore at the Dallas Farmers Market. I almost walked away with a nicely bound edition of “Moby Dick,” even though I already have it.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

As night fell, the entire neighborhood of Corona would be transformed into an endless block party. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Ecuador vs. Mexico Divided This Neighborhood. But Only for 90 Minutes.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

Live Updates: Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Effort to End Birthright Citizenship

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The adversity they faced didn’t keep them from living authentic lives — or from helping others to do so. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

L.G.B.T.Q. Figures Who Shaped History From the Margins

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Reposted by Víctor Manuel Ramos

@OldAndCranky @oldandcranky.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Anyone got any styling gel? #birds

A female cardinal on my feeder. Her crest feathers are standing straight up.

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

“Part of it is knowing you can’t grab everything but doing the best you can,” said Mr. Alvarado, who was assigned to cover the Knicks’ championship parade in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. @nytimes.com #NY

nytimes.com

A Photographer’s View From a Magical Basketball Ride in New York

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Víctor Manuel Ramos @vmramos.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The research team found that the patterns of brain activity were roughly the same whether bilingual participants looked at Spanish or English words. @nytimes.com

nytimes.com

How Does One Brain Speak Two Languages?

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Reposted by Víctor Manuel Ramos

fravery.bsky.social @fravery.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

“Reading is discovering one's own riches and one's own possibilities through the words of others.” (Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz) Art: Edward Hopper 1882-1967 American realism painter. “Reader on the Train,” 1965.

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Reposted by Víctor Manuel Ramos

Manhattan Bird Alert @birdcpk.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The first Red-tailed Hawk fledgling of 180 Central Park South raises its mighty wings.

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