iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Your day today includes the new release of four Stevie Wonder songs from 1976 that he decided not to put on Songs in the Key of Life. And isn't that amazing? music.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HZ... (Thanks to @sifu.tweety.fish for cluing me in to this.)

music.youtube.com

I'm Into Livin'

YouTube video by Stevie Wonder - Topic

172

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It's always a good time for Nanci Griffith and "Ford Econoline." www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OBS...

youtube.com

Nanci Griffith - Ford Econoline (1986)

YouTube video by brotherhamlet

010

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

@shire-reckoning.bsky.social tells The Lord of the Rings in real time. The journey is just beginning, and the hobbits have already had some narrow escapes, though they do not realize it.

131

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The names of these pirates, the Doctor thought, were not dissimilar to those of pigeons; a panoply of blacks and shades of gray, colourful in adjectives rather than hues. As to the pirates as agents of political transformation, he had made some notes upon the subject, which indicated 1/

100

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · 18/09/2026

We'd like your help with something. The one hundredth anniversary of Ursula's birth will take place in 2029. This may seem a long time away, but we’re already starting to think about how to celebrate Ursula’s life and art. We’d love to add your ideas to the mix—there's a brief survey here:

form.jotform.com

Centenary event planning

Please click the link to complete this form.

7268163

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Good afternoon from the former death strip in between the layers of the Berlin Wall.

A large green lawn on a sunny September afternoon. The lawn is just west of the former innermost layer of the Berlin wall. Before late 1989, East Germany's border guards had standing orders to shoot anyone spotted in what is now a very pleasant space on the banks of the Spree.

1215

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

East Berlin is still easy to find.

The entry and front facade of a four-story Stalinist building in East Berlin (now Berlin Mitte). There is graffiti on the nearest wall, and the building as a whole was probably renovated after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but not recently. It is a bright sunny day with a few fluffy white clouds in the sky.

021

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

In 1950, life expectancy at birth in the US was eight years more than in Japan. In 2026, life expectancy at birth in Japan is six years more than in the US www.macrotrends.net/global-metri... www.macrotrends.net/global-metri...

macrotrends.net

Japan Life Expectancy (1950-2026)

Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.

000

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Suzanne Paul @suzpaul.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Excellent to see this ground-breaking work published. Congrats to @gingerhowley.bsky.social and team. Medieval MSS as sources for genomic discoveries.

1308

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Final Final No Really I Mean It This One Is Final

010

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

She is deeply interested in the arguments put forth in Trace Elements by @adapalmer.bsky.social and @bluejo.eurosky.social

A gray tabby cat looking at the pages of Trace Elements by Ada Palmer and Jo Walton.

1304

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A butcher, a baker, an amphibian...

161

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 25/08/2026

I think the universal grieving comes in no small part from the fact she represented the best of what America could be, and that she never stopped chasing that ideal, artistically and socially

53158563

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Cravings, addictions, side effects and coverage gaps. Might be of particular interest to @lauraneill.bsky.social (on the off chance that you haven't seen something similar already).

230

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

"Schreibtischtäter" is one of those German words that really ought to be better known. As in, "On a scale of one to Eichmann, how big a Schreibtishtäter was the guy Luigi shot?"

250

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Gotta keep updating those priors as tempus continues to fugit!

0133

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Until 1933, German universities led the world. They have never regained that position.

517058

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A thread in appreciation of John Crowley's books.

020

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 09/08/2026

Very sorry to hear of the death of John Crowley. I had the great unearned fortune to be the editor of his last novel, Flint and Mirror (2022), expanded from a story written for Gardner Dozois's 2018 anthology The Book of Magic. 1/5

Front jacket of John Crowley's novel Flint and Mirror (Tor, 2022).

215238

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

John Crowley on writing Little, Big and how the book relates (or doesn't) to fantasy. Could something like that — from outside the genre, oblivious of convention, and yet now an acknowledged masterpiece — even get published today? Or has it, and I have missed out?

AVC: The central conflict in Little, Big is less a matter of discovery than one of trust and patience. Were you trying to create a more realistic fantasy novel?

JC: This is kind of odd to say, I suppose, but I never really thought of it as a fantasy novel. It’s not like I thought it was realistic. But I never—it started to be written in the early ’70s. I had never really read much science fiction, fantasy. I hadn’t yet read Lord Of The Rings, or any of the standard things that were coming out. I was just getting interested in it. They were just reappearing. The classic fantasies were appearing in Ballantine editions, and some of the new writers were coming along who would form the new fantasy fiction that we know today. But I wasn’t really reading any of that stuff. I didn’t really know much about it at all. So I wasn’t thinking of this as within or in opposition to an ongoing trend in genre writing. I didn’t really know much about any of that. I just wanted to write what I wanted to write, I guess.

130

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

jabbermaster.bsky.social @jabbermaster.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The best way to honor John Crowley, take a couple minutes and read aloud the last paragraph of Little, Big.

317375

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

RIP John Crowley. A giant has passed.

010

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

This is what America's founders had in mind. Cross-cutting interests, personal interests, regional interests all competing and compromising. The kind of one-party cult of personality that Trump and his followers practice is fundamentally un-American.

070

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Informative thread. (Also interesting German orthography, but that's really niche and beside the point.)

074

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

7778512571

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Alan Baxter @alanbaxter.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

You can kill a French vampire with a baguette. It's a painstaking process but it works.

21279492156

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

On the language of Homeric Greek, and the language of a certain forthcoming film: here are a few simple observations.

91627510

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Smart! Maybe it's the first step in making this parasite go the way of the guinea worm.

020

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

omg, absolute gold standard, 12/10 no notes whatsoever

001

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

Denali @denali.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Husband just came in to tell me that since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln every American president has been alive at the same time as Herbert Hoover.

Bill and Ted in the parking lot of the circle K in full Whoa

713108616

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I commented on this proposed rule, citing what happened to German research after 1933, and the consequences of considering relativity "Jewish physics." I also said that the record showed the current administration would use these powers vindictively, cruelly and stupidly.

020

Reposted by Doug Merrill 🌻

skooks @skookses.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Knockout rounds intensifying for the US Senate

1265

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This tale needs to be a black and white movie complete with cocktails, sharp dressers and mid-Atlantic accents. That it's madcap goes with out saying, toots.

010

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Grossman was a brilliant writer, and this article is a very good introduction.

021

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The Shire-Reckoning @shire-reckoning.bsky.social recounts the events of the year of the War of the Ring in real time. I've found it a lovely way to experience and recall The Lord of the Rings. The year recently reset, on Middle Earth's Midyear's Day. Sauron is searching, and Frodo is as yet unaware.

040

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Recent wins in public health, a preview of things to come. #ShareGoodNewsToo

092

Doug Merrill 🌻 @bagatsen.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The promise of nuclear fusion is being fulfilled! At a distance of 93 million miles, and with something of an intermediary.

132