iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Only Connect casually introducing the British middle classes to Junji Ito. Someone is about to develop a novel fear of spirals. #onlyconnect

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Gavin Jackson @gavinjackson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

British growth discourse is a guy called Tom or Sam sketching a map of new transport infrastructure in MSPaint stamping on a human face forever.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I think the reality of needing a massive thread to capture them all is telling by itself!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Great thread, but I fear you have missed some of the levies: - The Crown Estate lease costs, which are passed through in offshore wind strike prices but ultimately go to the Treasury; - The cost of servicing consumer debt, which currently amounts to £60 on the average bill; - The cost of the USO.

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Ellie Mae O'Hagan @elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I want to talk about this story and removing levies from bills. As always I'm going to explain it all in layman's terms so people who are not energy nerds can understand what these debates about how to lower their energy bills actually mean www.theguardian.com/money/2026/o...

theguardian.com

Chancellor plans major intervention to help poorer UK households with rising energy bills

Exclusive: Officials working on further radical changes that would change how much energy companies could charge customers

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I mean, yeah, loads. This millennium, the previous millennium, the black death, the entirety of the cold war... It might be easier to find times when we were focused on a bright tomorrow rather than the imminent eschaton.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Excellent thread concept btw

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both.” PICK A GODDAMN LANE ON YOUR INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY FOR GOD'S SAKE. NOT EVERYONE SHOULD GET PRIZES.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It is counterintuitive, but if your emphasis is maximising welfare you shouldn't call for very high taxes on the wealthy, but rather broad-based taxation so that people get out what they pay in.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The value the rich get from the State is the protection of property, and states with progressive income taxes, or who have a high burden of tax on the rich, spend more on police. Conversely welfare systems are most stable when everyone contributes.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I am reminded of Jeffrey Timmons' work on the Fiscal Contract: the evidence seems to point to long-run stable tax regimes providing value for those who contribute.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I'm not sold on this; the £ has strengthened versus the dollar over the last five years while remaining essentially flat against the euro. This would mean the impact on dollar denominated fuel imports would be suppressive of price rises.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Dieter on economic regulation: genuinely novel interesting insights based on a life spent in the field. Dieter on anything else: HERE COMES UNCLE BOOMER.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yeah just switch to Virgin. BT won't reduce costs because you're out of contract. Virgin is also straightforwardly better for stability.

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Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"I've declared myself a traitor by mistake!"

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Are you really an online energy geek if you haven't done the obligatory heat pump install post?

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I would be more relaxed if the cash was directly handed back to billpayers via network charges, but this continues to be a de facto tax on your energy bill in order to funnel cash to both the Exchequer and the King.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Please stop talking about this chaps, you'll erode my market niche of actually reading academic literature and translating it into actually implementable ideas for policymakers.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Yeah some analogue communications will persist. To be clear, I think we probably get the internet back once we've purged every server of electric gremlins.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The entire world now runs on computers talking to each other. Them not being able to talk to each other would be bad.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It means any form of communication that relies on digital rather than analogue transmission is probably offline for an extended period. This includes your telly and your phone, unless you have an extremely ancient phone lying around somewhere.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Messily, too much private capital at play for states to really have a grip.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My most plausible AI disaster scenario is that we have to switch the internet off and then on again.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I haven't seen The Great British Baking Show. How does it compare to the Bakeoff?

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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is a poor take that suggests Owen Jones doesn't know much about Russia in the 1990s, including Russia-US or wider Russia-West relations in the 1990s. By giving only one part of the story, he is repeating the Russian political elite's self-serving line that it was all the West's fault. Long 🧵

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Conversion is free and unlimited by capacity Tom!

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I doubt this will meaningfully affect US prices, ironically. There's a lot of maintenance that their O&G sector requires that has been put off while prices are elevated. Most producers will likely down tools for a while and work on their plants.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There's not capacity on the global market to meet current demand without the US, so cargoes will flow to whoever can bid the highest. This will be us and the rest of Europe. Physical shortages are highly unlikely. But prices will be much higher.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Am quoted in the Telegraph today as the US Government does its best to distance itself from the President's statements on a diesel export ban. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

telegraph.co.uk

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I mean, this is just straightforward computer crimes, it doesn't matter if the agent was 'autonomous' or not.

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stockfttp.bsky.social @stockfttp.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

UK Gov 👍 £90M for heat networks Some pricey "£5.5 million to upgrade the systems serving 1,143 residents" London Strategic Heat Main project (£41M) for ~1M ppl via the Thames 👍 Although while 🏗️ heat will be supplied by electric barges carrying heated water up the Thames !

tp-heatnetworks.org

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The BBC trying to apply balance to reporting of people doing crimes is obviously insane. What's next, the BBC reporting on domestic violence and including the perspective of someone who beats their wife?

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

...for those who do not. This seems quite a straightforward case of externalised costs not being appropriately managed, but also one where pricing those costs is essentially impossible. So: regulation.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There is a really good argument for car size regulations. You have a set of standard infrastructure designed around a particular vehicle size (including rural roads) and a benefit in the form of safety to a consumer that buys a larger vehicle, and a cost in terms of reduced road/parking space...

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What is this music thing of which you speak?

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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The complete and total collapse of state function in the face of far right extremists. It is frankly ludicrous that Daniel Thomas continues to be at large given the series of crimes committed which he has literally filmed.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If you have your portfolio in a limited vehicle and reinvest proceeds into personally owned assets then the leverage of your portfolio is much less significant a risk. However, this chap appears to be blowing half a million on Dubai rents, so I would imagine he is almost entirely exposed.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I initially read this as "dead already," and was like, yeah, fair.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is really good, especially the description of the rationalists as essentially boring. A lot of their written material is teenage grade philosophy masquerading as high thought. It is rational to be introspective, but their output reveals that they are not.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ooo oooh - one that I would evict several current members for is Hyperion. The Shrike is one of the greatest creations in scifi.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I was about to call you out for no Kim Stanley Robinson and then got to the bottom of the list. Great set of reads all. Have you read Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series? Very good planetary romances.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

You'd think a politician somewhere would want to make hay of nearly 10% of a young person's income going to the elderly. I do wonder what compulsory voting would do to social cohesion.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I am continuously amazed that twentysomethings haven't started burning down care homes. Or just squatting in the spacious homes of the elderly.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It's really transparent in older papers from the 70s etc, unless 'maximising public welfare' involves some hidden deontological assumption.

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Effective altruists and Government economists are doing exactly the same thing don't @ me

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

More seriously, utilitarianism is the de facto ethics applied by Government impact assessments because most public welfare economics is basically utilitarianism with numbers

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

IF NO-ONE GOT ME I KNOW MY BOY IMMANUEL KANT GOT ME

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Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Controlling inflation with cheap money and price controls is very much a vibe.

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