iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I do love bad adverts. Someone didn't think this tagline through. 😁🧳 "Dubai, where the welcome arrives before your bags do."

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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Share an image that tells people how many years you have been online. This was at university, otherwise it would have been a US Robotics Courier v.34.

Essex MUD splash screen (all text on black).

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Leopards say that eating faces is essential as it's the only way to cut taxes for millionaires. This has nothing to do with the £72m in donations says frog in leopard fursuit as they barely pay tax in the UK. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Thinktank linked to Reform UK calls for abolition of state pension

‘Radical’ report likely to influence party’s platform also proposes abolishing inheritance and capital gains taxes

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

You could say that I'm listening to odd things this evening, but it was Cornelius Cardew this morning. youtu.be/xhalVCieopQ?...

youtu.be

Birdwatcher

YouTube video by Hilt - Topic

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

If you see this, post a vampire that isn't Dracula.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It was a lovely morning for a walk in the woods and then back along the beach

Scene of tall grasses in green and yellow the bough of a felled tree in the middle foreground and beyond it a single sunflower facing away from the camera

On a beach a rough circle of pebbles with seaweed arranged within it. A thin stick is stuck vertically in the sand acting like the gnomon of a sundial

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It says something about the people I'm friends with on Social Media (as opposed to algo slop) that I'm seeing many variants on "Donald Trump upset because BBC won't pull out." 🤣

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National Trust @nationaltrust.org.uk · 16/08/2026

Please enjoy this owlet learning how gravity works (it's absolutely fine, don't worry!) Thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies for supporting this project through their Digital Accelerator, allowing us to improve our technology infrastructure so we can help you connect with the UK's nature and heritage

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This wonderful track just popped up in my feed. Hopefully an omen of season 3. youtu.be/N972JNfOPk0?...

youtu.be

Spend The Night - Sunspot - Hellier 2 Soundtrack

YouTube video by Sunspot

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Every now and again you just want Brazilian prog-fusion. Honest, I can give it up anytime. youtu.be/ogPX-51yK-o?...

youtu.be

Mi Hermoza

YouTube video by Marcos Valle - Topic

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Sometimes I love YT. It served up this. At a glance I'm pretty sure he doesn't exist and it isn't from 1950. It was posted 1 day ago on a channel with 177 subscribers, it's had 16 views and I'm 2nd to like.

youtu.be

I Stole Her Telephone by Martin Maye (Original 1950 Live Stage Performance Audio)

YouTube video by Claudius Royale

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I could just have fired up the CD of this, but then I wouldn't have found this video. youtu.be/itKSVUwffsk?...

youtu.be

The Fleur de Lys - Gong With the Luminous Nose

YouTube video by heavenlyblueorange

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

An altar to Diana and Apollo which was dedicated by Marcus Cocceius Firmus - a Centurion of the Second Augusta Legion. It was found at Auchendavy Roman Fort in East Dunbartonshire, and is now part of the collections at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow 📸 My own #EpigraphyTuesday

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Not what I expect to see on YT when I try to fix what it sends me as ads.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

This automated, wind-powered, wax remover is why you're not allowed to put cotton buds in your ears. 🤣

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Danny Bowes @dannybowes.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The acronyms for cognitive behavioral therapy and cock and ball torture being the same means something, goddammit

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Listen to the Beatles start to finish and you begin to realise that they were heading towards proto-metal. This kinda proves it. youtu.be/sX5aRTZzlcg?...

youtu.be

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

YouTube video by Coroner - Topic

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Firing up the second half for the better, far less problematic, guitarist.

youtu.be

Layla

YouTube video by Derek & The Dominos - Topic

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

YT's having one of its moments. The algo served up "Close to the Edge" which I listened to some of for the first time this century so you don't have to. Don't do it, 16 decent bars in 18 minutes. It followed up with "Something Came Over Me". 🤣 youtu.be/yNFwDWg1RcA?...

youtu.be

Something Came Over Me

YouTube video by Throbbing Gristle - Topic

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

As promised to link to my first actual Hookland book. It is only small, but covers a lot of the ghost soil. If enough of you buy it and like it there will be a Volume Two. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1068598123 It will also be available in an actual bookshop soon.

The coverplate of the book HOOKLAND FRAGMENTS VOLUME ONE by David Southwell featuring a picture of the Ghost Bear of Hookland by Maria Strutz and the following blurb:

I firmly believe David Southwell’s Hookland to be one of the great
imaginative achievements of our age. One that will one day be
spoken of the way Lovecraft’s Mythos is now. Hookland is the
folklore of the county that exists on the edge of our vision, an
unseen but sensed Britain that is at once familiar and strange.
It is the land just to the left of where we live. David’s work is
made even more remarkable by his open invitation for all to
come and play there. Though of course visitors to Hookland
must be wary, the county exacts its price from us all. – R.J.
Barker, award-winning author of bestsellers such as The Bone
Ships and Gods of Wyrdwood.

As a visitor I am more frequently in Hookland than the barrows
and chalk downs of my childhood. – Roger Clarke, best-selling
author of A Natural History of Ghosts.

Hookland is gold standard eldritch world building. – Ian
Simmons, Fortean Times news editor.

This a shimmering place of deep time, cold wars, old gods and
ever renewing mysteries.The heartland and home county of the
restless and the outsider, a lamp glow to welcome the lost, a
pole star for those who dare to step into the dark and follow its
glorious glowing ghostlight. – Rose Ruane. Artist and writer of
Birding and This Is Yesterday.

Hookland has been called many things. Psychic shrapnel
embedded in place. A re-wilding of folklore. The English Eerie
told in strange fragments. According to its creator David
Southwell, nothing in Hookland is made up, just remembered
differently.

Hookland Fragments Volume One offers both an introduction to
Hookland and an exploration of its agenda of re-enchantment
as resistance.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

For #WyrdWednesday a warning of the Grin Iron Wife, who preys on young children who venture too far out from Hopeman East Beach.

A bronze plate set in buff coloured sandstone. It probably dates from the last quarter of the 20th century. On the left a sea-hag in low relief with long tank hair and what appears to be a tongue extending down to the waves at midriff level. In her left hand she holds a fish vertically, head upwards and in her right an unidentified object. Other fish swim about her.

On the right the inscription:
Grin Iron Wife

Local legend of a Sea Witch who lives amongst the outer rocks, lying in wait for any young children venturing out too far from the beach.

There are still sightings of the Grin Iron Wife so all children should play in the safe area of the Sheepie's Loch.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Spending a morning working in the garden in the sunshine without a hat may have gone to my head (it can't be the wine 😁) and I've reverted to hippie. Still, Joe Osborn's bass line on Let the Sunshine In is glorious. youtu.be/MQOQqn1qH4o?...

youtu.be

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) (Remastered)

YouTube video by The 5th Dimension - Topic

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James Wallis @jameswallis.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Babe wake up, new industrial band five-album discography just dropped

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Caught the "golden hour" yesterday.

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shardcore @shardcore.org · 20/06/2026

morning

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Happy Birthday! Did you know that Pontius Pilate is said to have been born in Fortingall in Perthshire. The Royal Scots regiment was nicknamed Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard. Though they claimed that if they had been on guard, the body of Christ would not have left the tomb. #folklorethursday

undiscoveredscotland.co.uk

Pontius Pilate: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland

Biography of the Prefect of Roman Judaea, Pontius Pilate on Undiscovered Scotland.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

First of the year. There are actually three in bloom.

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Matthew Sweet @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Carlo Ginzberg is dead. The giant of microhistory. If you don't know his book The Cheese and the Worms, seek it out. When I first read it as a student it changed my sense of what history-writing could do. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak in Stockholm - via zoom - last year. A brilliant mind.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

On a chilly June morning with the rain battering off the roof, something bright from earlier this year.

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Eurogamer @eurogamer.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Sony has patented a controller with buttons that harden when you play with it www.eurogamer.net/sony-control...

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Latest "Art to Keep Me Sane". DH Dreaming. An absolute [expletive deleted] to photograph due to it all being done in fluorescents and metallics.

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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

George Smiley's age revealed in new Le Carré:

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I hope all my friends are planning to be either Gladys or Harry.

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 20/20 La Trinità con tre membri della famiglia Datini - Niccolò di Pietro Gerini - c1400-10

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 19/20 The Marchesa Casati - Augustus John - 1919

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 18/20 The Fall of Icarus-Henri Matisse - 1943

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 17/20 Bird Superior-Portrait of Max Ernst - Leonora Carrington - 1939

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 16/20 Portrait of a Boy - John Quinton Pringle - 1910

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 15/20 The Adoration of the Magi - Bartolo di Fredi -c1390

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James Dempster @cocktaillion.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

#20ArtworksChallenge Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - No particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just #art 14/20 Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool - Edward Wadsworth - 1919

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