iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

“It's the pictures that got small.” #GCM45

Gloria Swanson in The Humming Bird (1924) via the Pordenone Silent Film festival online

Reposted by Adam B

Reading Early Plays (REP) @playsrep.bsky.social · 18h

This week in REP we shall be reading The Knight of Malta by John Fletcher, Nathan Field & Philip Massinger, as performed in 1618 by The King’s Men (Shakespeare’s company before his retirement). #ShakespeareSunday

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Die Teufelskirche (Germany 1919) The Devil arrives at Ane’s kitchen door … (see ALT for individual descriptions.) - streaming in the online Pordenone Silent Film Festival #GCM45

The Devil’s Church (d. Hans Mierendorff, 1919)
The Devil (Paul Rehkopf) disguised as a tinker, knocks at the door.

Ane (Agnes Straub) opens the door, but doesn’t want to let him in. “Such a villain!” she thinks.

He talks to her, sees into her dreams; “Listen, how your cauldron sings! It’s humming that old tune about domestic bliss … Wait, there are dreams in there too!”

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

- nice to be able to get to Waitrose without a car, but every trip does involve another episode of “Posh Bloke Takes A Bus” in which a salt-of-the-earth driver rolls his eyes as Posho comically fails to request a genuine fare and struggles to put his phone in the right place to pay for it.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

🎼 The day we went back to the place You spent your wild unhappy days The hometown of a teenage refugee I lay beside you on the grass As trains to London thundered past The ghost of who you used to be.

View from a train window; platform of a Cotswolds station.

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Reposted by Adam B

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And so it begins: breathing space? 1 Henry IV #ProdigalPrince #SlowShakespeare www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Here's Richard Coyle as King Henry IV in Player Kings, the 2024 composite version of 1+2 Henry by Rob Icke.

A photograph of a play in performance. A king stands with a big crown, a red velvet and ermine robe, and an orb and sceptre in his hands; he's just been crowned. There are four people in very formal black suits standing around him, bowing; one of them has a purple cushion, which the crown has just been carried on. Other people are watching from the back of the stage, dimly lit. The mood is solemn.

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Reading Early Plays (REP) @playsrep.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

REP returns with a full schedule this week. Mon: Palaeography session Tue: The Playmakers continue to write new work for the old company, currently featuring a suspiciously red-headed beggar. Wed: We read The Merry Devil of Edmonton by Dekker & Webster, revived by The King’s Men in 1618.

THE
MERRY DEVILL
EDMONTON.
As it hath beene sundry times Acted, by his Maieslies Seruants, at the Globe, on the banke-fide.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The season at #Worcestershire 🏏 ends in sunshine & a victory by 175 runs. 📸 - heading out for the last session ; handshakes after the win; Ben Allison - (career best bowling 11/64); captain Brett D’Oliveira. - back again next year.

Worcestershire team heading in after victory

Allison walks through the members’ stand.

D’Oliveira passes in front of the window of the member’s stand.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The first ball of the last match of summer. #Worcestershire 🏏

A view of Worcestershire cricket ground, with the players in action.

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Reposted by Adam B

elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Video of the fascist Danny Tommo slashing a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) boat rescuing migrants at sea www.instagram.com/reel/DdmJaD4...

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.

Should "artificial intelligence" be renamed "super intelligence?

Probably not. "Artificial intelligence" and "superintelligence" describe different things.
• Artificial intelligence (Al) is the broad category: systems designed to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, perception, language, or learning.
• Artificial general intelligence (AGI) generally refers to Al with broad, human-level-or-beyond capability across many domains.
• Artificial superintelligence (ASI) usually means a hypothetical system that substantially exceeds the best human abilities across essentially all relevant intellectual domains.
So renaming Al to "superintelligence" would be misleading because much of what is called Al
today is nowhere near superintelligence.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Just picked up the new #ChinaMiéville at my local @waterstones.bsky.social - impressive from the front; side elevation a little intimidating.

Front cover of The Rouse by China Miéville

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Reposted by Adam B

Reading Early Plays (REP) @playsrep.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Reading Early Plays returns on 30th September, rejoining the King’s Men Company in 1618, with a revival of The Merry Devil of Edmonton, introduced (as are all our play readings) by Dr. Martin Wiggins. See www.readingearlyplays.com for our full Autumn schedule and how to join & read with us.

readingearlyplays.com

Welcome | Reading Early Plays

Reading Early Plays is a group that meets regularly online to explore drama written before the closure of the London theatres in 1642. We are interested in tracing the connections within groups of pla...

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The first page of The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar ( - followers of @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social may see both an alignment with his most recent book, and echoes from the older #WotD )

The River Liss runs north to south, and its waters brim with grammar.
Children muttering over their schoolbooks today think little of grammar. Grammar is tedious, difficult, slow; grammar is a shackle placed on language, correcting who into whom, can I into may 1. Grammar and grammarians are consta-bles, sternly watching while you split infini-tives, narrowing their eyes at spliced commas while smacking semi-coloned truncheons against their palms.
But that is not the truth of grammar.
There was a time when grammar was wild— when it shifted shapes and unleashed new forms out of old. Grammar, like gramarye, like grimoire. What is magic but a change in the
world? What is conjugation but a transformation, one thing into another? She runs; she ran; she will run again.
Now where were we. Ah yes.
The River Liss runs north to south, and its waters brim with grammar. From its secret sources in Arcadia it rushes, conjugating as it flows into the lands we think we know.

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Reposted by Adam B

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

So to be clear, Christopher Harborne, the elusive cryptobillionaire whose £5m gift to Nigel Farage sparked a parliamentary inquiry & an absurd by-election spent 3 years pursuing @wsj.com through the courts..only to fold at the discovery stage. 🤔 6/

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Shelton / Alcaraz still going! 🎾

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Labour has banned peaceful protest for Palestine. It should not be hard for Andy Burnham to condemn thugs.

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Reposted by Adam B

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Return of the Blackshirts. Dozens of men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas blocked the road at Dover. Organised to frighten people Crime and Policing Act 2026: "the wearing or otherwise using of an item that conceals identity when in an area designated by police" is a criminal offence.

theguardian.com

Black-clad protesters in balaclavas block road at port of Dover in Kent

Port authorities say access roads ‘free flowing’ again after large group forces road closures in both directions

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Last night was Tasty White Stew w/ potato & celery. Tonight, Tasty Hayashi Rice w/ aubergine & onion. (I mean, what else are you going to bring back from a day trip to Oxford?)

Two packets of Japanese stew & gravy mixes

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Muhammad Baqir (Iranian enameller): saucer with astrological decoration, early 1800s. - as seen at @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social yesterday.

A round plate decorated with mythical figures.

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Reposted by Adam B

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Labour stands up for corporations and big money. I'm running to stand up for people and our communities. www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/excl...

camdennewjournal.co.uk

Exclusive: Green Party leader Zack Polanski tells CNJ he WILL go for Holborn and St Pancras

Green leader lays out hopes for by-election

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

“Poetry is not sexual misconduct.” [feels like this ought to be the first line of a poem*] * in which the original proposition is shown to be somewhat unreliable.

Chuck Edwards, the North Carolina Republican facing a censure vote in Congress over allegations that he sexually harassed a pair of staffers, has issued a letter urging his colleagues to reject the disciplinary measure.
A report early this month by the House ethics committee recommended Edwards' censure on the grounds that he'd engaged in inappropriate conduct toward a pair of young female staffers. That conduct, according to the committee, included sending lavish gifts and affectionate notes to the women, as well as inviting them to "intimate dinners and vacations".
Edwards, in a letter dated earlier this week, said the committee -which argued the congressman's actions made the women feel uncomfortable and pressured - overstepped in equating his conduct to misconduct or sexual harassment.
"An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition," Edwards wrote. "A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct.
Poetry is not sexual misconduct. Socializing with a colleague is not sexual misconduct. Caring deeply about someone with whom you have worked and come to know for years is not sexual misconduct."

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

So … avoid Armenia if you want to keep your arm, I guess - according to the Rudimentum Noviciorum, 1475. (as seen in @worcestercathedral.bsky.social today).

A detail from a medieval map, in which the figure of a devil seems to have detached the arm of a man. No other similar figures are depicted on the map.

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Reposted by Adam B

Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Coffee and rain; above, the live feed from New Road. 🏏 🌧️ No play likely for a while, i think, but keeping an eye on it from here. (May need more coffee.)

A cup of coffee under an awning; beyond there’s rain
Above an inset of Worcestershire cricket ground, covers on.

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Reposted by Adam B

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

New immigration stats show that the numbers of asylum seekers in hotels is down to 16k - falling 50% in a year. Small boat crossings down 23% in the year to June. Numbers waiting for initial decision down from almost 180k to 40k.

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Well now it’s really chucking it down - ☔️ 🌧️ 🌧️ !

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Meanwhile, in local news …

Screenshot from The Worcester News app shows Pakistani politician and former cricketer Imran Khan, with the headline:
“Imprisoned former Worcestershire cricketer returns to jail after hospital visit.”

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#Rain stops play at Headingley 🏏🌧️ Typical English weather!

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

That sound you hear is rain - rain - on a metal roof in Worcester tonight. 🔊 🔊 🌧️

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Peaking in the West Midlands now, apparently. 🫠☀️

Screenshot of a weather app: 36 degrees in Worcester

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The building opposite has a peaked structure on its uppermost floor, where the penthouse apartment has an excessively high ceiling. This is now concealing the #eclipse. Damn you, rich people!

Penthouse apartment hides important natural phenomenon from ordinary people

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

If, like me, you’re using Eclipse Glasses that you bought from the Vape Shop, let’s all meet up at the Eye Hospital tomorrow morning. (* insert plot device from Day Of The Triffids where appropriate). 🌞🕶️ #eclipse

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

“The portrait’s coming along nicely, Dorian …”

Arthur Atherley (1772-1844) by
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
Oil on canvas, 1791 @holburnemuseumbath.bsky.social

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Portrait of a woman by JUSTUS SUSTERMANS (1597-1681); early 1630s; seen this week at @holburnemuseumbath.bsky.social

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

LES JARDINS by Jacques Delille. (1813) refers to Kew Gardens as “Kiouw” both in a note and in the main text, here translated by Google, which substitutes the Queen’s “rule” for “her empire” though the latter is probably more apposite.

Title page: LES JARDINS.
POËME
PAR JACQUES DELILLE.

4 Kiow des plants étrangers a rassemblé le choix.
Kiow, résidence royale à deux lieues de Londres; on en admire le jardin botanique, où se trouvent les plantes. les plus rares des deux hémisphères.

Kiow has gathered a diverse array of exotic plants;
Their queen comes to smile upon these new subjects;
Each, like Albion, blesses her gentle rule, and —finding here its native climate and season - forgives its exile and cherishes its prison.
Feedback
Q french to english

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

“He went on, remembering his classroom notes from an introduction to Elizabethan drama …” The Quiet American (1958) with Michael Redgrave & Audie Murphy #ShakespeareSunday 🔊🔊🎬

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Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Puck: give me your hands ❤️ #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... My 8th #SlowShakespeare blog since 2018, DONE. A last magical image of Puck (Rosie Sheehy) @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream 2024. Of all the versions I've included, the 2 that have resonated most have been Brook 1970 & Noble 1994.

A photograph of a play in performance. On a very dimly lit stage, with haze, a person is standing wearing dark trousers and boots, with a pale shirt and red braces. Their arms are outstretched to the side and they're looking up at an enormous cluster of blue-lit orbs of various sizes. It looks magical.

A photograph of a play in performance. In a white box set, four people are lounging asleep in swings hanging from the ceiling; they wear white and brightly coloured clothes. On the stage, in front of an enormous red feather, a man wearing a white singlet and cloth cap, with black button nose, is leaning against a beautiful woman in a green satin caftan. Other people wearing pale grey silk pyjamas are gathered around.

A photograph of a stage set. The background is deep blue and hanging from the lighting rig are lightbulbs that look like drops of gold. There are 5 doorways in the blue backdrop, and the back of the stage is lit red. There is an enormous red umbrella hanging upside down over the stage. It looks magical.

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Gary Brannan @garybrannan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Ach, you know what? Why not. Here’s Alan Bennett’s closing monologue from ‘On the Margin’, missing for nearly 60 years, and found on a Sony CV2000 tape in the Galton and Simpson archive You, dear viewer, are one of the few people ever to have seen this. Enjoy! discover.york.ac.uk/collections/...

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Ooh, Muppets then K-Pop !!

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

A 1915 US version of “The Portrait of Dorian Grey” has its (anti)hero infatuated with an actress (played by Helen Fulton) who performs in Romeo & Juliet and As You Like It; there’s also a bust of Shakespeare in Dorian’s rooms. #ShakespeareSunday See the film here: youtu.be/Nlcloq1izkE?...

A woodland scene from As You Like It; hearts carved on a tree.

Dorian looking at the newly delivered portrait; bust of Shakespeare in the background

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

“Let’s get ready to rumble”? Blimey!

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I had a joke about the lotus eaters, but it seems to have slipped my mind…

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Adam B @adambcqx.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Robbie Williams has come as one of the Jimmys #WorldCupFinal

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