iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

How hard would it be, I wonder, to never (knowingly) put money in a billionaire's pocket again ... is there an app for boycotting greed?

Title page of an early (1719) Amsterdam edition of 'Adventures of Telemachus' by Francois Fenelon; once a bestseller, now a forgotten critique of selfish greed.

0131

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

If you follow me on here but are also still on the HellSite, please don't - just unfollow me! ... I don't feed fascism.

051

Reposted by Blakey French

The Royal Institute of Philosophy @triphilosophy.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

“Hated school, dropped out at 11, can't read, can't write. But I can do this!” 💥💡 That's real feedback from one of the participants in a #prison #philosophy class funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Find out more about our work in prisons: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/how-phi...

0154

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

That was a great gig, that was, last night at Het Concertgebouw; thanks!

000

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

La Frégate ... warm enough to sit outside ... enfin!

110

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Whoopsie-daisy jazz night (at Cafe Alto, Amsterdam):

An elbow-knocked blurry photo of a packed jazz room in Amsterdam; an LP cover in need of a lost band.

0122

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Your experience is, obviously, not my experience. Good to hear. You've cheered me up.

100

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The near universal adoption of fiat currency, in a decade after the 1973 Nixon Shock.

021

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

When I visit England, in the rural North, the conversation can turn quickly to 'stopping the boats', largely thanks to the BBC upping a 'migrant crisis'. This is utter bollocks. The huge English crises are, as ever, poverty & illiteracy.

2499

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

For those new to Nassim Taleb, a wiki summary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_...

en.wikipedia.org

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Wikipedia

210

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Woke up thinking with Taleb; AI frenzy is a 'white swan', we see a bubble & know how such stories go (Nortel etc); the $ looked 'anti-fragile', but such in-fighting (in a G7 country) has no precedent - a 'black swan' takes flight?

Amsterdam harbour as twilight approaches, looks calm, but is it?

140

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

If you see Mozes Rosenberg play ... oh my; lean elegance, from flawless technique: m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z4x...

m.youtube.com

Mozes Rosenberg Trio - Peko

YouTube video by SINTI MUSIC

052

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

There's still joyous stuff out there; Mozes Rosenberg & Anton Goudsmit - so much soul, fun & stylish technique: @bimhuis.bsky.social

Two men on a matinee jazz stage, coaxing wondrous music from their guitars (a manouche acoustic and a slim chambered telecaster).

160

Reposted by Blakey French

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

25 January 1935 | Dutch Jewish boy, John Groenteman, was born in Amsterdam. He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork in September 1942. He was murdered in a gas chamber after the arrival selection. --- Children at Auschwitz: 🎧 Podcast: youtu.be/aYKx_zpLSqA

Black and white portrait of a young boy with neat hairstyle and a collared shirt, looking slightly to the side with a gentle expression.

20650195

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

"Warnings ... point toward what is to come and are meant to involve us in the possibility of a radical break, a discontinuity with the present signaled by alarming signs that we are asked to confront." Santiago Zabala (2025) #warnings

021

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Whoops! Should have included this link, to the author, here: @hkohpeiss.bsky.social

120

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

"Europe is the site where violence and bourgeois complacency meet." Henrike Kohpeiß (2023)

Book cover for the new English translation (2025 trans. Grace Nissan) of 'Bourgeois Complacency' (2023) by Henrike Kohpeiß (pub. Divided).

390

Reposted by Blakey French

Small World Consulting @smallworldconsult.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

What do you feel is the biggest threat to our national security right now? The UK Joint Intelligence Committee has released its report on the threat of biodiversity and ecological collapse on national security. Its a chilling read: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0e...

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

2128

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Done. I let the fund manager know why I'd sold. They emailed straight back, keen to understand retail 'investor sentiment'; EU asset managers will now see the $ with fresh eyes, as unsafe.

110

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

A future for Venezuela, Gaza & Greenland is being drawn up in golf-club bars & then declared in hotel lobbies; the UN has been back-watered, while EU leaders stay polite:

Finely carved gothic religious figures, inside Laon cathedral; smote headless, during a previous violent, hegemonic, power shift.

060

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Gregory Bateson comes to mind - a visible breakdown of 'recursive epistemology'.

020

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

In the Netherlands you could bin those; zero risk of banter.

010

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Yesterday, at my local grocery in Amsterdam: Me: I won't shop here any longer, now that you are selling Israeli fruit. Shop: I sell what people want, I also sell products from the US, and from Iran. -- that bracketing is so apt:

A homemade bottle trap, to capture fruit flies, looking for rotting garbage; a white paper funnel swirl, clipped with a wooden peg; luring the greedy.

060

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

America is in real-time talking itself into being unbankable, in front of an audience of all the major financiers in Europe.

061

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Checking my pension fund this week ... making sure to dump US bonds; US shares gone already - EU citizens can so turn on these bullies:

Street art in Nijmegen, Netherlands; a grumpy bear looks deeply unimpressed, in purple hues (foregrounded by a bicycle).

0352

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Standing ovations all round - Karina Canellakis conducted an exuberantly crisp Mahler 5 this afternoon at Het Concertgebouw, whilst Manchester Utd walloped the neighbours at footie; yay! Surely some linkage ...

160

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

"The idea that we can still claim access to truth without being dependent upon interpretation presupposes that knowledge of objective facts is enough to guide our lives. Within this transparent realism, warnings are cast off as unfounded, contingent, and subjective ...". Santiago Zabala (2025)

Book cover for "Signs from the Future - A Philosophy of Warnings" by Santiago Zabala; bears a photo of 'Compound Eye' mirror artwork by Graham Caldwell.

1110

Reposted by Blakey French

Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

“Poverty, great wealth and democracy are ultimately incompatible elements in any society…either poverty will use democracy to win the struggle against property or property…will destroy democracy” Nye Bevan, 1952

38539

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

These days every, even the mundane, kindness is vital:

Morning milky coffee in crisp white china, bearing an exquisite heart; implausibly precise, because made with care.

0340

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

'USA withdraws further from the international stage' - front page news, here in the Netherlands; not a good look, so petty and selfish:

081

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Eerily quiet in A'dam: near closure of the airport, absences many tourists; green puddles in pristine snow, presences many dogs:

An empty 'brown café' interior, with a snowy view to a near empty street; a couple of passers-by only, snapping photos to forget.

2140

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

AI should be regulated, or shunned, just like GMO food. #epiphany

An open-air wire enclosure of discarded Xmas trees.

081

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Bye-bye, full moon days ... weary from your beck & call:

A full-moon-lit street scene in Amsterdam; festive lights and fleeting clouds on a chill evening.

0202

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Duane Allman Kenny Burrell Philip Catherine Angelo Debarre Tal Farlow Jimi Hendrix B.B. King Jimmy Raney Django Reinhardt Johnny Smith

010

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Habemus ... sneeuw! A morning fit for Breugel:

A lightly frozen Amsterdam canal in fresh falling snow; boats and branches, a couple of distant figures (making a snowman).

0736

Reposted by Blakey French

The Philosopher @philosopher1923.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Announcing: On Philosophy, Winter 2026!! All events are free, Mondays at 2pm ET / 7pm UK (except March 2nd is 30 min later, and March 9th is 3pm ET) featuring Angie Hobbs, Yann Allard-Tremblay, Fannie Bialek, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Kaitlyn Creasy, and so many more! #Philosophy #PhilEvents

On Philosophy - Winter 2025 (it should say 2026 - whoops!)
Free via Zoom - Mondays at 2pm ET / 7pm UK (except March 2nd is 30 min later, and March 9th is 3pm ET)
Jan. 5 - Why Plato Matters Now - Angie Hobbs with Jon Hawkins and Peter West
Jan. 12 - Indigenous Redirections in Political Thought - Yann Allard-Tremblay with Leila Ben Abdallah
Jan. 19, Feb. 16, - The Philosopher and the News - Alexis Papazoglou and guests
Jan. 26 - Love in Time - Fannie Bialek with Isabelle Laurenzi
Feb. 2 - What is We? - Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan with Tara Emelye Needham
Feb. 9 - On Loneliness - Kaitlyn Creasy with Kate Warlow-Corcoran
Feb. 23 - TBC
Mar. 2 - Are We Still Human? Günther Anders in the Age of Automation - Christian Dries, Chris Müller and Elke Schwarz with Jacob Blumenfeld
Mar. 9 - Philosophy in a New Era of Climate Change - Travis Holloway and Contributors
Information and registration at thephilosopher1923.org/events

03118

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

... and; "there are still 8.5 million adults with low literacy and/or numeracy skills. At around 18%, the proportion of adults with low literacy skills is little changed for more than a decade." www.bigissue.com/opinion/uk-a...

bigissue.com

Millions of British adults lack basic literacy skills – and it's becoming a crisis

A robust, well-funded and well-promoted adult education programme is need to tackle the UK's literacy crisis.

091

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

"The right word to describe this reliance between discrete yet deeply interrelated beings is 'solidarity'." Timothy Morton

Book cover of 'Humankind' by Timothy Morton (2017); noir toned abstract on scrubbed wood table.

050

Blakey French @blakeyfrench.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

"Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not ... there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself." Emma Goldman & Max Baginski

Spent firework cartridges, scattered heedless over stained, rain-soaked, Amsterdam paving.

0100