iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

‘I have brought welshcakes.’

Credit to Shane Ross at Virgina Tech for this application. Shows what SpaceX's bonkers AI data centre plan might look like with and without mitigation for reflection, using the dawn/dusk lines for perpetual light. sdross0.github.io/orbital-data...

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In Medias Malone @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

As a professor, most of what I do is log in to things

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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a perfect example of the multitude of articles demanding ”better strategy” and ”more action” against Russia’s escalating hybrid war, yet fails to suggest anything new (or even any of the already explored slightly more creative options)

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

'The Westminster government’s contribution to funding domestic undergraduates studying in England fell in real terms from £8.9 billion in 2012-13 to just £3.3bn in 2024-25, a drop of more than 60 per cent, an analysis has found.'

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Lee Waters @waterslee.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

These are all still officially Welsh Labour policies. Not that you’d know it.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reminder that the White House has requested over $71bn for the US Space Force for next year.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Times this morning. Me in December last year. It was pretty damn obvious this would happen to anyone who did the maths. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Good thing that this couldn’t have been predicted almost a year ago <runs bitter victory lap> and the government didn’t just blithely carry on doing the same thing. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/718...

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P.J. Blount @blountsfolly.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

ITAR much?

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Brian Weeden @brianweeden.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Well it's not withdrawn yet - they're just declining orders past 2028 I think

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The withdrawal of Falcon 9 before Starship is proven is what Whitehall civil servants would call ‘courageous’

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The R word is a North Americanism. It's only filtering at a wider scale among certain strands of UK media and politics because a particular kind of MAGA Twitter has become the sum of their intellectual horizons

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Everyone I know who has been diagnosed has said they are happier in general and much more content/productive with work since being diagnosed and getting various forms of help based on the diagnosis.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Locomotion at Shildon is excellent and has many old trains on display.

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Gene J. Mikulka @genejm1017.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🧵 I kind of remember "yours truly" getting shellacked by the SpaceX "religious zealots" over on the former bird site about the number of possible commercial launches per year. How much lift capacity do we really need, and where is the profit sweet spot? Same with this goal of 1000 launches a year 1/

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Well well well, after years of being looked at funny for having queries and doubts over SpaceX’s vision, arguments, plans, business models and the commercial hype train…

ft.com

SpaceX pivots away from space

Starbase, we have a problem

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I get the paradox but one does not simply conjure like for like replacements for a lot of space infrastructure across the military and civil worlds. Like asking 19th century Europe to give up using or demilitarise the seas due to the risk of catastrophe from war across that medium.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Assuming a ‘Mick’s on telly’ incident doesn’t occur and I actually made the final cut, I might appear on Channel 4 on Saturday night (26/9): The Space Race In Colour, 8 and 9pm double bill www.channel4.com/programmes/t...

The Space Race in Colour, Channel 4 and Woodcut Media. 8pm Saturday 26th September

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The plot thickens. I do hope CASI or at least its staff can continue elsewhere. They do such useful work on the PLA.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

'According to the website Uni Compare,, external 98% of UK universities used Turnitin products. However, the University of Southampton has said it would be "phasing out the use of this service immediately" and would not renew its contract with Turnitin after the 2026-27 academic year.'

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Absolutely abysmal outlook for Labour in Wales. yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

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Jeffrey Lewis @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It’s a Hwasong-11 with a glider. BORING.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I’m at the UK Spacepower Conference and Harv Smyth/RAF announced the new squadron in counterspace/ASAT operations in a much better way than the US did with space weapons last week. Stated deterrent-only hopes of such weapons systems and support for responsible behaviour norm development in space.

gov.uk

RAF launches first ever space squadron dedicated to defending Britain's satellites

The RAF has launched No. III Space Effects Squadron, its first dedicated unit to counter hostile threats to UK satellites.

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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

More correctly known as Ogof Caerbannog

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

From Taris to Alderaan: Planetary Destruction and the Evolution of Galactic Warfare

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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Between the killing of DTIC and now CASI, DOD really trying to kill any and all scholarship on war, I’m sure that’ll work out smartly!

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is a massive own goal by the US military. CASI has long been a reliable public source of information and analysis on Chinese military developments. White House is asking $72bn for the Space Force next year but apparently there’s no money for proper PLA watchers that report in public. Mad.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A pleasant September evening in Durham.

Durham Castle and Cathedral tower with Framwellgate Bridge in the foreground

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Chris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“Universities have managed staff costs significantly below inflation,[between 2016-17 and 2023-24] increasing only 14% compared to the 41.2% increase in RPIX [measure of inflation]” Substantial real terms pay cut, which continues a trend existing years before that…

gov.uk

Cost of undergraduate provision and qualifications in England

A study of the full economic cost of providing undergraduate-level higher education and other qualifications in England.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I’s rather we talk more about how ‘AI’ is being shoved very quickly with pretty much zero reflection into every public institution rather than idle, vague apocalyptic fantasies about AI.

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Of course. Many big American IR theorists have just ignored the concept of a ‘political-economy’.

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James Cameron @jjjcameron.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The US military almost boarded a Chinese cargo ship because an intelligence analyst trusted a false AI-generated conclusion that the ship was carrying components for a nuclear-weapons program. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...

The bot fused together open-source intelligence with secret signals intelligence in government holdings and reached its fateful conclusion about the material the ship was carrying.

The analyst then used AI again to package the findings into a standard intelligence report — the kind that is trusted by military officials — and disseminated it.

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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...

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KosmicKris @kosmickris.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Holy Father, can it be true? That we have here, in our mortal hands, an orb of purest green?"

Blackadder, Percy and Baldrick looking at purest green

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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New cat! We have discovered a new cat! And it is FULL of opinions!

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

You'd think the lessons from Sam Ryder 2022 would be obvious...

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Remember if trying to understand modern warfare ever gets a bit overwhelming, just go back to the Simpsons: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkg3...

youtube.com

Your Duty Is Clear (The Simpsons)

YouTube video by ThingsICantFindOtherwise

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Hurst Publishers @hurstpublishers.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🔭🚀Following the news that the US has deployed weapons in space, listen to Professor of Astropolitics and author of Original Sin: Power, Technology and War in Outer Space, @bleddb.bsky.social, for his analysis: ✍️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🎙️ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Said it before and I’ll say it again: Wales will be like Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union - the last to leave! 🤣

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Bleddyn Bowen @bleddb.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Based on this tidbit yesterday it seems the USSF (as expected) has fielded ‘non-kinetic’ (electronic warfare) ‘space weapons’ in orbit. www.space.com/space-explor...

space.com

US Space Force says it operates weapons in orbit: 'Our aim is deterrence'

“She locked onto the target, optimized her weapon system and waged electromagnetic warfare against a determined adversary.”

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