iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 30/09/2026

Whoa whoa I’m getting same result that is deeply disturbing.

Replicated search in the quoted skeet, in which a a Google search for “Mamdani Talmud” (meant to surface a tweet by the mayor) pulls up, as first result, a tweet by @nycmayor reading something completely inflammatory and vile and clearly not what Mamdani actually said.

Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 29/09/2026

A few years ago, on a long layover in Delhi, I met a guy who added me to his daily affirmations message list and occasionally I get an extremely bizarre one. I just can't find a way to read this that is not ominous?

Clip-art guy on a bicycle looking back over his shoulder in a way that suggests alarm. The text above reads "Neither the struggle ends nor the complaints, what is ending slowly is age. Goodmorning"

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 10/09/2026

Reading the obit of a young art star and there's this really sad line. Extremely true IME (and now I'm feeling fortunate I never had to deal with it on the scale he did).

“I took the thing I loved to do and I made it into what I do for a living. And that’s a really tricky thing. It’s perverse, and it becomes conflicting, because the thing that you used to use to escape reality is now just your reality.”

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 07/09/2026

From Shirley Hazzard’s The Transit of Venus

The child Caro had so much as waved to those behind the wire, let alone extended mercy.

Ted said, "A conscious act of independent humanity is what society can least afford. If they once let that in, there'd be no end to it.”

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 04/09/2026

This is what it looks like when you flip the camera, right?

Screenshot from video meme of "Euro men when..." showing two men in sunglasses on a balcony with a DJ deck in front of them. One man wears a pink polo shirt and acid-wash jeans and holds a cigarette. The other man, with a mustache, has a Royal Caribbean t-shirt and white slacks, with gold chains around his neck; he's pouring himself a glass of Campari. Both men wear sunglasses and look supremely unbothered.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 04/09/2026

I did the dialect quiz and it said I was from Illinois -- while showing me a map that showed the exact same gradation of red for New Mexico (and NYC, where I live). Light-population-density erasure! mydialect.us/quiz-standar...

Map of the United States with color gradations ranging from dialect "least like you" (blue) to "most like you" (red). The reddest areas are central and southern New Mexico, central Illinois, and a lot of New York and New Jersey. Caption reads "You talk most like someone from Illinois -- about 56% of your answers match a typical resident."

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 03/09/2026

That Chicago one is pretty on point, but Paris looks made for it too:

Manhole cover with optical illusion, a gridded pattern that looks like a wormhole into the ground.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 02/09/2026

Amazing, thanks for alert. I'm going to start using this one all the time.

Deeply disgruntled Wile E. Coyote holding sign that says "I'm Not Done."

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 29/08/2026

No harm in an apology, and it’s true (I’ve learned!) that offering explanation/context in first reaction comes off as insensitive. I’d just like to know how much time *is* appropriate before we can acknowledge context. Because the 20+ years it has taken for 9/11, for ex, is wayyy too long.

NYT headline:

'I Made a Mistake': El-Sayed Apologizes for Comment About Synagogue Attack
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, faced criticism from Jewish Democrats after remarking, "hurt people hurt people."

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 29/08/2026

Also it asks me to tick this box about masks at the end and I LOVE MASKS and am happy to wear one but why do I get the impression this is almost certainly not the policy anymore, and so I’d be paying 45% processing fees to a processor who can’t be bothered to update its checkout process.

Three tickboxes of policies, the first one being “Masks are currently required for both vaccinated and unvaccinated guests.”

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 29/08/2026

Oh I see some of it is a processing charge and some of it is a service charge. That’s fine then.

Itemized charges: $50 for the ticket, $16.50 for a processing charge, and $6 for a processing charge. Total $72.50.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 29/08/2026

People who actually go do things, tell me your secret to just ignoring a 45% fee and buying the ticket anyway.

A ticket sales page, total $72.50, broken down as $50 + $22.50 fees, including taxes.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 26/08/2026

Dolly deserves a funeral procession like Umm Kulthum's: hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, workers and intellectuals, and the coffin essentially taken away from any officials who sought the spotlight around it.

New York Times headline from Feb 6, 1975: Egyptians Throng Funeral of Um Kalthoum, the Arabs' Acclaimed Singer

Segment of the article: The mourners included old peasant women in smocks and scarfs, well-to-do elderly women in tailored black dresses, small boys in pyjama-like jackets and slacks, workmen in traditional flowing robes and young intellectuals in turtleneck sweaters and sports jackets. "Farewell to the lady!" was a frequent chant of the crowds and soon the words became an indistinct roar, like rushing water in a river. As the procession went on Premier Hegazi and other officials quietly disappeared and the other mourners took over. They changed the route of the march and took the coffin to the Al Azhar Mosque several miles away in a poor quarter of the city, instead of to the mosque it was to have gone according to the official plans.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 19/08/2026

Glad to see the British are keeping the agricultural tradition alive.

A painting of an extremely large brown cow, very rectangular, titled Sussex Cow ‘Joan’

A very large brown dachshund, almost rectangular

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 09/08/2026

Israel beating flotilla members is front-page news, but with “activists allege” in hed, so it’s easy to brush off. Inside, it’s a full page — and the allegations are verified.

Front page of the NYT barely above the fold: Activists Allege Israeli captors abused them. (Incidentally next to a story about naked bike ride protest, with a photo, which paints a certain image of activism.)

Inside, page A5: Seized While Sailing to Gaza, They Describe Abuse at Israel’s Handa. A full page for the story, illustrated with many photos of the flotilla members in Turkey with Turkish flags and a pic of Erdogan (which helps make the accusations look politically motivated, as if the flotilla members are only pawns).

$In the months that followed, we separately interviewed 24 activists, all but one of whom spoke on the record. We also reviewed records provided by medical authorities in Australia, France, Italy and Turkey. All of the activists gave consistent accounts of a pattern of abuse, first aboard the Israeli vessels and then on Israeli soil. Twenty-two said they had been subjected to varying kinds of physical assault. The 23rd said she had witnessed such violence, and the 24th, a doctor, said she had treated injuries caused by it. Seven people said they were hospitalized after Israel released them. Six provided medical records that showed they had variously suffered fractured ribs, …$

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 02/08/2026

Not only is French magazine publishing enviably robust (rows upon rows in the train station shop), but there are multiple fun socialist magazines?! And also one written/edited by people with autism.

Socialter magazine with an illustrated cover of people lounging at the beach and the headline “why our pleasures are political”

So Good magazine, with the tagline Ecology, Feminism, Solidarity, Society

Alternatives Economiques magazine with an illustrated cover of a man lounging with the a historic cityscape in the background and the headline The Top 30 Most Livable Cities. Upper right corner: interview with Piketty.

Papotin “journal atypique” with poppy illustrated French people and the headline Best of the 90s.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 27/07/2026

In France, admiring an older woman’s style, thinking I need some more interesting glasses and a shorter haircut, and then she stands up and I see one arm is covered in tattoos of Nancy and I almost screamed.

Aghghgh! Creepy Nancy with her flat black dot eyes and her poky puff of black hair

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 26/07/2026

Could the foreground be a water tower as seen from a distance? These are in Wald Houses, west side Manhattan, N of Houston. These are not quite the right silhouette to match, but maybe there are others with a similar tall base? (I found these w/ Google 3D street view.)

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 26/07/2026

This (41-31 23rd St, LIC, maps.app.goo.gl/fDp8ZpxyZ4gB...) is *not* it, but it could very well be windows like these, with the a/c panel underneath. So maybe not a loft conversion, but just a cheapish new build? Astoria/LIC has tons of new buildings like this.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 17/07/2026

Greece’s dedication to architectural glassware is unmatched and spurs innovation year to year.

A freddo cappuccino (iced coffee) in a tall skinny glass with a sharply flared upper edge. The sea is visible in the background.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 06/07/2026

Oh my gosh, like p3 of a spy novel from 1987 that I’m reading because several ppl on Twitter said it was “authentic” about CIA handlers, and I’m wondering if this is a key source for the near-myth of taqiyya that pervades US thinking?!?!

Though he was a Sunni Moslem, he looked like any of the rich Christian businessmen sitting at the bar. Like them, he wore a silk suit and lit his cigarettes with a gold lighter. The Arabs have a word for this sort of camouflage. They call it taqiyya. It means that deception and concealment are permissible, when they are necessary. If a Moslem finds himself in the midst of a group of Christians, he should say that he is a Christian. What does it matter? The truth is elastic.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 20/06/2026

Is it just me or does the guy who got the reflecting pool contract not look suspiciously like three MyPillow guys in a trench coat.

Very wide man in a double breasted gray coat with a partial black b velvet collar. He has a round face and a dark mustache and toupee.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 20/06/2026

Weirdly touching to see patterned plates in an impersonal setting (airport lounge). (Or maybe I’m just up too early after too little sleep.)

A small white plate with a border of twinging flowers and leaves. Very grandma vibe.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 20/06/2026

Splintering on the left happens over ideology. On the right it’s just because they’re all assholes who can’t get along. (And I am delighted to see it.)

Italy Doesn't 'Beg, Giorgia Meloni Tells Trump
President Trump said the Italian leader had
"begged" him to take a photo together at the Group of 7 summit. The remarks come as their relationship has frayed.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 18/06/2026

Pro tip: NYC Ferry’s Staten Island line goes much closer to the Statue of Liberty than the regular ferry, and our captain even slowed down so everyone could take photos.

Meta photo: in the foreground we’re looking over the shoulder of a man taking a photo. In the background is what he’s focused on: the Statue of Liberty, lit up from the bottom and green against a cloudy twilight sky.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 03/06/2026

What movie most shaped your worldview? For me, just based on how often I think of it and nod 'yes, exactly' to myself, I think it was The Muppets Take Manhattan!

Greek diner owner in The Muppets Take Manhattan, with his wavy gray hair swept back and a white neckerchief, leans over the diner counter, bending down to lecture Kermit, whose back is to us in the foreground. He's making the very Greek "let me tell you" hand gesture -- palm open and slightly off vertical -- and he's saying, as the caption at the bottom of the still photo reads, "Peoples is peoples."

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 28/05/2026

This Rosenbaum is ofc the guy who wrote a book about AI, packed with hallucinated BS. And right at the top of the story, he's admitting that he forged ahead using AI (to just pull quotes out of thin air, minus context!) even when he knew it could be grotesquely wrong.

"I would ask it for quotes on certain things, and it would deliver them. They would occasionally be spectacular, often serviceable, and then, in very odd ways, just staggeringly wrong.”

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 19/05/2026

Greeks improving on Biscoff spread! (It’s still outrageously sweet.)

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 18/05/2026

For your reading efficiency, this is the one paragraph you need to grasp the whole ghastly pattern of how authoritarian regimes build a loyal security force.

The playbook for a leader to create a loyal security service, they said, is to set up or repurpose an institution that can become a “second ladder” for career promotions, resource it generously and ensure that the barriers to getting hired there are low, signaling that it offers career opportunities to those who cannot find them elsewhere. (Cutting other government jobs or squeezing budgets can create a larger pool of potential recruits.) The leadership then signals impunity for people on that second ladder, to assure them that they won’t face consequences for wrongdoing

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 05/05/2026

Guess whoever designed the Meta AI icon didn't ask any women if it looks too much like a contraceptive logo.

Ombre purple ovals arranged in a circle, reminiscent of a pack of birth control pills

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 04/05/2026

One of the saddest AI ads yet. Yes, let’s just skip right through the fun creative part and the part where you build up the relationships that will keep your restaurant going. Thank goodness the future has arrived!

Subway ad, white and pink type on a green background, boring font. Reads “3 months concepting a new restaurant - finding a location, interior renders, and ‘sourcing the perfect sea urchin -
done in 60 minutes for $31 with Hyperagent.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 03/05/2026

The weird effect of years of the NYT uncritically repeating Israeli talking points is that now this headline and images today reads like a kind of jubilation.

Israel Said It's Applying the Gaza Model in Lebanon. This Is What the Devastation Looks Like. Satellite images, photos and videos show the scope of widespread demolitions in southern Lebanon. Above this text is a a grid of six squares, each with a looping video image of a village exploding. The villages are Beit Lif, Markaba, Kfar Kila, Taybeh, Aadaysit al Qusayr and Meiss al Jabal.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 24/04/2026

This is the sound of the next-gen Acela. Should I be worried?

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 22/04/2026

Went to Sardi’s for dinner and it was a total time capsule. I’m simultaneously sad and relieved it’s closing for renovation. Major opportunity for @mayor.nyc.gov to get his caricature installed for the fall reopening. (Mayors through Bloomberg are there — not just Kermit!)

Sardi’s dining room, all burgundy walls and banquettes, white tablecloths, and the signature framed caricatures of Broadway actors all along the walls in neat rows.

Portrait of Kermit the Frog upstairs at Sardi’s. In Muppets Take Manhattan, Kermit tries to make a name for himself by swapping a portrait of himself for Liza Minelli’s, as the rats mount a whisper campaign under the tables. It all goes wrong.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 21/04/2026

Won a plant last night at a comedy show because I correctly answered a trivia question: *Morocco* is the world’s largest producer of weed! Finally my travel experience paying off.

Intriguing little succulent plant with surprising fuzzy leaves.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 18/04/2026

PSA: Your sneaking suspicions about the crossword are, for the one and only time in your whole life, correct!

Editor’s note: If you plan to solve the Sunday Crossword in this week’s New York Times Magazine, you will find that the answers will not fit. After the issue had already been printed, we discovered that there was an error with the solvable grid of the Sunday Crossword. A corrected version of the puzzle can be found on Page 25 of Sunday’s daily New York Times. We sincerely apologize for the confusion.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 15/04/2026

Just read this line in Wikipedia (re: election of 1876) and I think I need to go lie down and think about the passage of time.

Because it was considered improper for a candidate to pursue the presidency actively, reads the highlighted text. The sentence continues: neither Tilden nor Hayes appeared publicly during the campaign. Speaking and leading rallies were left to their surrogates.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 12/04/2026

Saw on X that Apple Maps has erased village names from southern Lebanon. I thought maybe it was just a zoom issue, and the villages don’t show because they’re small. But no, no it is not. Google Maps for comparison. This is appalling.

Screenshot of Apple Maps, southern. Half of Lebanon, only Tyre and Sidon labeled. On the Israel side of the border many villages are labeled.

Zoom in on a spot in southern Lebanon where a lot of small roads converge. No lane except a pin for Tebnine Castle.

Google Maps screenshot centered on Tebnine Castle. Multiple villages are labeled.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 11/04/2026

Maybe it just needs to be styled with the Telfar liquor store bag.

Telfar bag that looks like a standard NYC liquor store bag, black palstic with diagonal silver stripes.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 09/04/2026

I was so ready to leave Substack because of the neo-Nazis, and then they added (or I just noticed?) this little feature where if you type TK while you're drafting, a TK pops up in the margin, so you can easily see where you need to revisit. Goddammit that's a good feature.

Screenshot from Substack draft page, draft on the left with a TK and cursor next to it, and small gray ghost TK to the right in the margin.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 09/04/2026

And the NYT headline calls it "confusion"

NYT screengrab, headline all the way across the page: Cease-Fire Tested by Confusion Over Strait and Strikes on Lebanon

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 09/04/2026

Is it these guys? (Teotihuacan -- I couldn't find anything for Tenochtitlan)

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 09/04/2026

It really is impressive how the NYT avoids mentioning Israel. Nothing in heds and deks. You have to watch the central video and read the captions, and even then, today's bombing of Beirut is framed as effective (Israel says it hit so many Hezbollah targets!) and only b/c Hezbollah made them do it.

NYT front page, headline: Cease-Fire Tested by Confusion over Strait and Strikes on Lebanon (hmmm, who did those strikes?). To the left: US and Iran Disagree About Whether Truce Includes Lebanon (again, no mention of Israel)

Letting the central video about bombing of Beirut play, it eventually has a caption, over a long drone view of the Beirut skyline, punctuated with plumes of smoke: "The Israeli military said it targeted more than 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites within 10 minutes on Wednesday."

Another caption, later in the video, over an image of rescue workers at a bombed building, with flames behind them: The fighting in Lebanon began in early March when Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Iran.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 08/04/2026

Follow-up survey on my customer service experience gives me the option of recording a video?! Clearly to help train their AI?!

Screenshot of survey website, reading: Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just SAY what you think or feel instead of typing it into an answer box, so we’d like you to tell us what you think by recording your response in a video. There’s no time limit for the recording, so please tell us everything that’s on your mind!
Remember to hit "Accept Recording" to upload your video once you're finished.

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Zora O'Neill @zoraoneill.com · 07/04/2026

Spitefully filled out some Dem “official priorities survey” (fundraising attempt) by filling in the “Other” options with “Medicare for All” and “Abolish ICE” and “no $ to Israel” &c— only to find that the paper is juuuust the tiniest bit too big to fit in the envelope. Incompetence on every level.

Paper a bit too wide, bending awkwardly in the envelope

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