iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Nathan Johns @nathanrjohns.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Across the last fortnight Leinster played against 2 teams with gambling companies in their name While other sports have jumped into bed with bookies, rugby has not - SA examples aside Why has rugby (so far) avoided partnering with gambling companies? Story ⬇️ www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/...

irishtimes.com

Why has rugby largely avoided gambling sponsorship?

Other sports are awash with money from betting companies, but rugby is a different story – for reasons that could change

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

That’s U.S. data, I don’t know what the U.K. data shows. I’m quoting the gini coefficient which is the flawed but still best way of measuring economy-wide inequality. Welfare systems do a lot of heavy lifting in taking the edge of pay disparities

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Yes, if growth just accrues to the 1% than he has a point. And there has been an element of that but the data does say that U.K. inequality increased under Thatcher but hasn’t moved much since. In real, per capita terms there just hasn’t been enough growth. The fight over a static pie….

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Next time anyone complains about the state of our high streets, ask them how many times that have used Amazon recently.

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Mickey Kuhns @mickeykuhns.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This just in!!! In response to the so-called renaming of Lake Ontario by the Orange Shitweasel, Canada has renamed the Mariana Trench “The Melania Trench” because it’s cold, dark and swallowed a lot of seamen.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I thought you were making the same point as me: few people these days know how to do their jobs.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Mick, one of things a say a lot, but not publicly, is that we live in the age of stupid. The few truly smart people out there all work in private equity aka satan. Everyone else simply doesn’t know how to do their jobs. Just look around. Phones have rotted everyone’s brains.

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Shane O'Mara @shanewriter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Remembering Eleanor Maguire - thinking anew about memory open.substack.com/pub/brainpiz...

open.substack.com

Remembering Eleanor Maguire

thinking anew about human memory

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Tesco’s net profit margin is under 3%. I don’t think that illustrates a rapacious, monopolistic business but reflects the very competitive uk retail space. Aldi &Lidl etc. Maybe we want to argue that their margins should be sub 1%. But that would almost certainly lead to more automation.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Nowhere but nowhere do you see the question: where is HMRC in all this? How much has he not paid in gift taxes?

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Latest podcast with the doyen of Brexit commentators, @chrisgrey.bsky.social As always, he is brilliant. We have a new term for what afflicts the U.K.: Brexitism. It’s a metastatic and mutating disease open.spotify.com/episode/5rtE...

open.spotify.com

Brexit has failed. Everything going wrong in the UK is now connected to that simple fact.

The Other Hand · Episode

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

My very best wishes to you and her.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Thanks Mick. I was introduced to them by a work colleague in Ireland many years ago who made it her life mission to see every gig possible. I became a fan as well.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

This is the ‘most read’ thing I have ever written. Including all my years as a journalist. Something that surprised me. open.substack.com/pub/cjpecono...

open.substack.com

Grief

This won’t be for everyone

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Nathan Johns @nathanrjohns.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Jack Oliver recently signed a two-year senior deal with Glasgow This three years after the death of his father Greig, in South Africa watching his son with Ireland U20 After leaving Munster, Oliver has a new path in the country his dad played for Interview⬇️ www.irishtimes.com/sport/2026/0...

irishtimes.com

Jack Oliver reflects on his father’s death, resilience and finding his feet with Glasgow Warriors

The former Munster and Ireland U20 scrum-half speaks about grief, resilience and finding his feet with Glasgow Warriors

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

… someone selling oil at 90 may also making money (they can drill with a 60 cost). That oil may then be sold for 100. So it’s a kind of loss but not a cash one. But pure speculators will get burned. Or make loads.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

It will be some other big players. Players in the energy markets are dominated by hedge funds, oil companies and assorted speculators. Hard to know who lost the most but the arithmetic is relentless. The profits of one are the losses of another. There are different kinds of losses…

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I couldn’t agree more. Which is why I’m trying hard to think about anything other than Labour Party politics. I think the deeper truth is that our political system has thrown up leaders of all parties, since at least 2010, that are just hopeless. Says a lot about us I think

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Truly one of the all time great takes

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Nathan Johns @nathanrjohns.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Ever since Andrew Goodman said he wanted Ireland to be better on transition, we’ve tracked progress Twickenham was Irelands best counter attack display of this cycle Where France go sans structure, Ireland turned transition into another set-piece Analysis ⬇️ www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/...

irishtimes.com

Ruthless Ireland defying metrics that say they are the worst team in the Six Nations

How Ireland created a new set piece to solve their transition attack woes

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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Unfortunately this is blithering idiot territory. Of course, there are many very good reasons for not putting up trade barriers that would be quite possibly *very effective* if the UK was actually still in the EU.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Thanks so much. There are no words.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Banville: The secret of survival is a defective imagination. The inability of mortals to imagine things as they truly are is what allows them to live, since one momentary, unresisted glimpse of the world's totality of suffering would annihilate them on the spot

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Perfectly illustrates how brutal is top level sport and how confidence - psychology - is so important. Talk to golfers about their heads. Etc.

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WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The other day Manchester United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said the UK had been "colonised by immigrants"….today there’s this billboard outside of Old Trafford 🔥….way to go Manchester 💪!

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Goodwin's decline from pretty mediocre academic to racist right wing incel isn't new or particularly original. It's also not the fault of women, migrants or anyone else. It is a tale as old as time, a sad, arrogant, loser trying to blame their deficiencies on everyone else. So perfect for Reform.

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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The Trump administration is literally going to kill its supporters, and still they cheer the circus.

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mickrab.bsky.social @mickrab.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

@chrisbjohns.bsky.social This should give you a laugh.

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Thanks. Yeah, the rugby is a distraction. All distractions are welcome at the moment!

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

It's almost like being fabulously rich doesn't make you happy or well adjusted. It's almost like it makes you sad and lonely. And leaves you forever casting about for scapegoats to offset your deep self-loathing. Thank you Jim Ratcliffe and Elon Musk for these important life lessons.

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Left: Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home Right: Nigel Farage's Reform UK advertising a job which is working form home

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Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

can we all agree on robber bros?

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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

If asked to describe the major features of the Epstein archipelago looming out of its offshore dark money and billionaire kompromat - I’d say Putin, Trump, Musk, Bannon and Thiel And with that you have a map of our current political era

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Jonathan Pie @jonathanpienews.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Trump's skin is thinner than a paper straw halfway through a McDonald's milkshake.

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Mickey Kuhns @mickeykuhns.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

A message from Greenland…

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Lewis is right. And if that is the ultimate destination why must everything involve baby steps?

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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

It might be the only language they still understand.

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse serving veterans. He died trying to protect protestors being assaulted. A group of anonymous & masked men fired chemicals into his face, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Then his government smeared him & defended his murder.

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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power

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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

If you liked Mark Carney's speech, then have a listen to this podcast interview with the Canadian prime minister by @gideonrachman.bsky.social recorded just after that interview www.ft.com/content/19f1...

ft.com

Mark Carney on a world in rupture — and what comes next

‘Globalisation is over, but like-minded countries can still work together’

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 21/01/2026

I think part of the reason everyone is so blown away by this Carney speech is it's so long since we heard an actual grown-up articulate serious thoughts about the world. Empty vessels have been making a lot of noise

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Chris Johns @chrisbjohns.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Thanks. I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to about cancer over the past year. I do know that breast cancer caught early is not the disease that it was.

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 20/01/2026

It's so exhausting to to be constantly told by American leaders that the defining policy of the 80 odd years during which the US became the most wealthy and powerful country in the history of the world was a grossly unfair failure for them.

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