iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Micah @rincewind.run · 14/10/2026

thank you jason statham for continuing to make movies for me, personally the original has a scene in which a scammer tries to bribe statham with nfts and is immediately tied to a truck and driven off a bridge and there has never been anything more laser-targeted at me in my life

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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 11/10/2026

Blog entry: Just about every agency is powered by a major software system, replaced every 10–30 years. This is so infrequent that the team performing each replacement is mostly or entirely comprised of people for whom this is their first rodeo. So how do you get this right the first time?

waldo.jaquith.org

Repetition Builds Mastery

Repeatedly conducting user research to understand needs, repeatedly preparing solicitations, repeatedly evaluating proposals, repeatedly overseeing vendor activities, repeatedly moving deliverables in...

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

*public option. Key point: the private sector can oppose public sector capacity in different ways. Private govt contractors oppose internal public capacity to build products. Other companies see public services as competition for their products, as the private tax prep industry did for Direct File.

This article describes the conditions for creating and undermining public interest capacity, that is, the ability of the state to generate public goods with widely distributed benefits. The creation and elimination of Direct File, a free, online public tax reporting system in the United States, offers an instrumental case. The creation of Direct File depended upon political commitment sufficient to overcome private interests: both the traditional dependence on private contractors to produce digital products, and the opposition of the private tax preparation industry which saw Direct File as a competitor. Political will was not enough: creating internal capacity in the form of skilled government tech teams who could build a quality digital product was also necessary. But without this political commitment in the Trump administration, which instead pursued downsizing and was receptive to the tax preparation industry arguments, both Direct File and the team that built it were eliminated.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

New open-access paper: Direct File showed that govt could build its own user-centered platform without relying on contractors. But the product was killed after a DOGE lead spoke with the private tax preparation industry lobbying against a private option. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The ability of governments to build and sustain public interest capacity partly depends upon the position of private interests, and the ability and willingness of a government to resist private interest opposition.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) built a digital tax reporting service, Direct File, that created significant public value for users.
Direct File depended upon the creation of internal capacity: a government digital service team that could build digital platforms, rather than procuring a product from private vendors. Government control of the process allowed agile development and iterative improvement that would have been impossible under a traditional outsourcing model.
Long-standing opposition to Direct File by the private tax preparation industry, combined with Trump-era downsizing by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led to the elimination of the tool.

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 08/10/2026

It's telling that men would rather try to invent tech to replace humans' role in caregiving than step up as equal partners in parenting. Telling, that is, in that it shows how financial capitalism and patriarchy work together to dissuade men from doing "unprofitable" labor, like the work of care.

X post from AI industry insider Alvin Sng :

My wife: Can you read our baby a book?
Me: I can just play an audiobook from my phone.
My wife: But then it won't be in your voice.
Me: I can train a voice model.
Parenting hits different when you work in Al.

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W.A. Harnum @waharnum.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

He’d Britten off more than he could chew.

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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

the "iced coffee at a job interview" discussion is obviously stupid but also a great representation of the fact that every single HR person/recruiter has their own different made up rules for candidates and all of them think they are absolutely correct

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Jack Womack @jwomack.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Rachel Pollack, twelve cards designed & painted by her. Tarot Exhibition, Morgan Library, NYC

12 tarot cards designed and painted by the late Rachel Pollack, Morgan Library Tarot Exhibit

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Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Using the word "woke" as if it means what reactionaries mean by it is letting yourself be interpellated into a reactionary and crypto-racist frame, and we shouldn't. You can't say "politically correct" without putting reactionary trash in your mouth and brain; this version of "woke" is the same.

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Victor LaValle @victorlavalle.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Tonight’s the night! THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER premieres @amctv.bsky.social Emmy winner Stephen Root gives Dan Stevens a little lesson about Moby Dick (and the theme of our show). Me, @ifyoucantwell.bsky.social & a gang of brilliant people made this. I love it so much. I hope you will too.

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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”.

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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

When you hear a fantastical story about AI, you should ask yourself, "How does this serve the political project of AI?" Because, as others have pointed out, that's what AI really amounts to: a political project.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Moved files onto the open internet without permission" is also literally just hallucination. We've known since 2022 that these things do shit you ask them not to do, and that this is a fundamental flaw of the architecture that can never be fixed So they're correcting it with marketing instead

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Hid mistakes and made up data" used to be called by the cozy term "hallucination" up until it became vitally important for the IPO that AI is now evil

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Bruno Dies @brunodias.dev · 15/09/2026

A problem we have now is that we let the so-called tech industry, which is primarily an unholy union between advertising and consumer electronics, dictate the terms of the conversation about technology in such ways that the natural inclination is now to discount technology.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026

Once you understand the corporate culture of AI hyperscalers is everyone cooking their brains by locking themselves in the bathroom, holding flashlights under their chins, and saying "Aaaaaaaaaay Eyeeeeeee" until they wet themselves in terror, things snap into focus: pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/a...

A cutaway view of a stone tower containing an elaborate water-powered medieval geared machine. Rising out of the machine is a rainbow-tinted, pixelated God with the robes, beard and all. To one side of this scene is a cluster of tiny people in Jesus-era robes, falling about themselves in religious ecstasy all over a stone staircase, atop of which stands a robed priest with his hands upraised. The background is a set of shining golden rays, emanating from pixel-God.

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Night Of The Living Kevin @kevinnewburn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Happy Sega Dreamcast day to all who celebrate.

A Simsons meme about the Sega Dreamcast. In the top panel Grandpa says "Poor Dreamcast, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you". Then in the bottom panel the Dreamcast says (disc grinding noises)

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

New kind of racism just dropped.

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Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It's kind of interesting that the second half of the One Hundred Years of Solitude TV adaptation has dropped, and even the vague "oh interesting they're doing that" of the first half has been replaced by the kind of total lack of awareness that best characterizes Macondo's response to mass murder

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W.A. Harnum @waharnum.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I can say that I feel like the Netflix algo should know I am the target audience for a show like this, and I have just found out it exists because of this post.

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Across the US, workers are souring on AI. The tech industry has insisted that AI would make workers’ lives easier and more productive, that the more people understood and used AI, the more they would like it. Something closer to the opposite has happened.

bloodinthemachine.com

Why office workers are turning against AI

Whether or not you like AI at work ultimately boils down to a question of power.

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W.A. Harnum @waharnum.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Officially requesting a Lee Child novel where Reacher takes down the criminal network run by an exploitative dead-eyed online video influencer called, I dunno, MisterMonster. I’d buy it. Heck, i’d buy it twice. Then I’d buy it again in the TV tie-in edition with Alan Ritchson on the cover.

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The Verge @theverge.com · 02/09/2026

As a new Harry Potter trailer makes the rounds, it bears repeating that there’s no way to watch this show without supporting J.K. Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on the trans community.

theverge.com

There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series

You can’t without supporting Rowling’s transphobic bigotry.

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Microplastics Sommelier @eephus.biz · 30/08/2026

how is there a whole decade-old cottage industry of subnormal doofuses writing whiny atlantic columns about the perils of wokeness but we don’t even have a word yet to describe the phenomenon of grown men poring through popular culture da vinci code -style for things to feel victimized about?

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Helen McCarthy @helenmccarthy51.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Yayoi Kusama, one of the defining artists of her generation, has died aged 97. Choosing to create within an asylum because it gave her more peace and freedom than the world, she unlocked and explored universes. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

theguardian.com

Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist who became a global superstar, dies aged 97

From the 1950s to the 2020s, Kusama produced vivid paintings, sculptures and vast installations that often drew on her experience of hallucinations

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Both Dolly Parton and Tim Curry had such a genuine enthusiasm for performing that it was impossible not to love them for it, there were things more highly and lowly regarded in their bodies of work but both of them threw themselves into everything because it was pure joy for them and that rules

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W.A. Harnum @waharnum.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

so many greats, but my all time favourite for sheer unhinged Tim Curry energy will always be this bit: youtu.be/SSZYVFc6BqI?...

youtu.be

Anything Can Happen on Halloween - The Worst Witch featuring Tim Curry (HD Remaster)

YouTube video by Rad Retro

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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I've been reading a lot of the sayings of the Desert Fathers recently, collections of quotes and parables from monks who lived in the Egyptian Desert from around 270ad. And there's a lot to be learned from them, but if I may, I'd like to paraphrase one which I think bluesky really needs to hear...

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Crystal Frasier @amazonchique.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The fact that HBO compelled even this lukewarm non-apology out of one of the modern world's proudest and more powerful bigots means that her hatred is actually affecting their bottom line.

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Amyville Hoyrror @amyhoy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

oh my god

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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This is you in your meta glasses

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Lance Parkin @lanceparkin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Saying academia can't accommodate the neuroatypical is about as correct as saying you have to be heterosexual to work in the performing arts.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Can't think of a more perfect example than this. We've had years of panic about anti-trans bigots being criticized online. Meanwhile, actual trans people are facing the possibility of imprisonment and sexual assault. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/o...

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W.A. Harnum @waharnum.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Saw the Hadestown film last night and can’t recommend it highly enough if you even vaguely like musicals. Sublime experience, leaves its mark upon you in the best way.

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Nate @mnatesota.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Come for the impossible Robin Hood-level shot. Stay for the guy blasting himself in the junk with a confetti cannon.

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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

it's always odd when "you should expose yourself to more diverse ideas" always means a certain kind of conservatism instead of like, Indigenous art, new fusion foods, math paradoxes, or the Dvorak keyboard layout

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 06/08/2026

y'all do not love men or like men, let alone young men. you treat them like incompetent failures when they're like 10 years old. feminists are the ones who ACTUALLY LIKE OR LOVE MEN bc they don't have a patronizing inability to take men seriously enough to hold them accountable and help them grow!

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Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A lot of columnists have lost their minds in recent years because social media has allowed people to talk back to them, whereas before they could say any old vile shit with next to no pushback

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Erin Fogg says Free Link @criminalerin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

U might not like it but Bugonia is what Yorgos Lanthimos's most mainstream accessible film looks like

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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The media is desperate to find some reason why Elon Musk's politics are complicated or more sophisticated than they seem, because the simple truth is too ugly for them to admit - an actual Nazi is the world's wealthiest person, and his companies hold substantial American government contracts.

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Oakland Review of Books @oaklandreviewofbooks.org · 27/07/2026

Freaky Tales is leaving HBO on August 1, so if you've been putting off reading @zunguzungu.bsky.social's opus on this love letter to Oakland, now is the time: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/freaky-tales...

oaklandreviewofbooks.org

The most words ever written about “Freaky Tales”

A not-too-short love letter to “a love letter to 1980s Oakland.”

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It is genuinely incredible how certain people will know absolutely nothing about a subject yet pronounce on it confidently, projecting their own views as though timeless and ironclad

Skeet insisting Lupita’s looks are “very different from what was considered ideal at the time”

An excerpt from Frank Snowden Jr’s Blacks in Antiquity which notes there was no inherent beauty value assigned to skin color in classical literature

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Gretchen Felker-Martin PRE ORDER CHIMERA 2.16.27 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

amen. adaptation, not transliteration. look at any fandom to see what kind of analytical skill brittle, slavish adherence to a text gets you.

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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/07/2026

Lemme tell you about the angel of history being blown backwards into the future: The shackles these people have been put in are Hiatt brand, same company founded in 1780 to mass produce shackles for slaver ships.

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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

And she said, "losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow"

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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We must remember the Utøya massacre, and remember it for what it was: a far-right attack specifically targeted against democratic socialist activists. Today, the ideologies of its perpetrator are openly espoused by a global network of nationalist oligarchs as they wage war on democratic societies.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 16/07/2026

"This uncertainty about the human provenance of text is an incalculable loss"

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Johanna T 👻 📚 @johannamation.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I love that every year or so a new silly little creature emerges and brings the whole internet together in peace and harmony

Moo deng the pygmy hippo and jimothy the raccoon

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