iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

If an electoral system has a winner's bonus, then it's not fully proportional. That's akin to a fully vegan breakfast with a side of bacon. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The proposed reform would see Italy move to a fully proportional system which would award a bonus to the party or coalition with the largest share of the vote, even if they fall short of a majority.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Have you considered just re-watching the originals?

An article titled "8 Classic Movies We Need a Remake Of"

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Reposted by David Walsh

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Love what the Australian soccer team says about modern Australia. Seriously, watch this video, and you'll be cheering for them too.

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Reposted by David Walsh

Bassano @bassano.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Vermeer’s Girl With The Pearl Earring will be shown in Osaka, later this year, and the press conference was as Japanese as you’d expect #Vermeer

A Japanese mascot dressed as Vermeer’s Girl With The Pearl Earring in front of a promotional poster for the same at a press conference in Japan

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Malcolm Knox begins this op-ed piece with an unwitting confession to carbrain. No Malcolm, drivers don't deserve a special acknowledgment for not running over a pedestrian. Even if that pedestrian is Tony Abbott. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Seeing two people approaching a pedestrian crossing, I slowed my car. They were still about five metres from the kerb but I stopped anyway. As they crossed in front of me, I waited for an acknowledgement – just a nod or a raised hand – but nope, nothing. They were men of late middle age. One was absorbed in talking, the other in listening.

It’s a bugbear of mine when pedestrians do this, and I was in a bad mood and almost opened my window to offer some righteous words about manners. Then I noticed that the talker was Tony Abbott, and I realised how futile it would be to shout, because here was a man used to being shouted at by random members of the public. If he heard me at all, he would think I was only abusing him for his politics, not his lack of common courtesy.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Hilarious thing to say about The Hundred Years War. (Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror)

Passage of text which begins: "After fifty years, the purpose of the war has faded and men could hardly remember its cause."

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

When simping for a war criminal is just a minor disagreement between friends.

Facebook post by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.

Highlighted text: "He [Orban] and I differed on Ukraine"

Full text: "Viktor Orbán has been a very consequential PM - probably the most consequential Hungary has ever had. The economy has strengthened, the city of Budapest has been transformed, and Hungary’s family policies and determination to keep its culture have been studied around the world. He and I differed on Ukraine but I thought he was dead right to defy the EU, on illegal immigration especially. Why should a sovereign nation be bullied by Brussels into policies that would jeopardise its future as a distinct people? Under Orbán, Budapest became something of a haven for conservative intellectuals. This has been a significant point of soft power for Hungary and I don’t expect the new government will want that to change."

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

I like that the name of the new Hungarian Prime Minister is Peter Magyar. It would be like if our PM was named Anthony Australian.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

One reviewer cliche I find annoying is when a work of non-fiction is described as "reads like a novel". But this combination of cliffhanger chapter ending and new chapter heading is ace from @medievalrevolt.bsky.social in House of Lilies.

End of chapter 8:

Unwed since the death of his first wife on the eve of the crusade, Philip sealed the alliance by marrying Cnut’s sister. In so doing, however, he made a serious mistake, perhaps the most serious mistake of his reign, one that would plunge both king and kingdom into a religious and legal imbroglio that took two decades to resolve. On 14 August 1193, Philip married Ingeborg of Denmark – and repudiated her the very next day.

Chapter 9 heading:

The Danish Witch

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

The second season of The Night Manager owes more to Ian Fleming than it does to Le Carré.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Isn't that just Black Books?

Paragraph from news report:

The bookstore has become a one-star sensation, with one netizen saying they were “tempted to drive an hour just to experience the craziness”. Another called it the “Fawlty Towers of bookshops”.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Ian McEwan appealing to my old prejudices as a science/engineering student.

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Reposted by David Walsh

Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Extraordinary courage from Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah. Praying for his full & speedy recovery. And so deeply inspired by his example.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Historical fiction should include historical figures, or at least historical events. Being merely set in the past doesn't qualify.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

It's actually a pretty good list. (I'm annoyed I forgot to vote...) One thing I'm curious about is the absence of sequels. Wolf Hall makes the top 10. But the equally good (and equally Booker winning) Bring Up the Bodies is nowhere to be seen.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Happy 10th birthday to the most resonant political tweet of all time. One day, people will get wise to right-wing populism, but seemingly not yet. x.com/Cavalorn/sta...

Adrian Bott @Cavalorn

'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

9:18 16 Oct 15

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Reposted by David Walsh

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 09/06/2025

LAPD fired rubber bullets at Australian journalist @laurentomasi.bsky.social

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

When you zone out in a meeting and ask a question that's already been answered.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Makes sense. Biden first ran for president four years before Clinton did.

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Tim Ellis, TDSB Ward 2 candidate 🍁 @djdynamic.ca · 26/05/2025

Absolutely surreal to have lived through the Napster days and watched as the titans of industry moved hell and high water to lock down any possible chance that someone's song might get swapped online without giving the studios a cut and now those same people are just like "well we gotta steal music"

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Reposted by David Walsh

Tim Lyons @picketer.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

If you want to know why we can't have tAx ReFoRm you've seen it this week - because any tiny group of rich people who might lose out will get every major news outlet in the country amplifying their ridiculous bleating.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Got it at the fifth attempt... #Wordle 1,427 5/6* ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Helping renters by making things more expensive and reducing their leisure time. Absolute ghoul.

Paragraph from Crikey article:

Ernst & Young economist Cherelle Murphy agreed, arguing more consumption taxes would discourage renters from being so profligate, and might encourage them to work more overtime instead of “blowing the week’s wage on frivolities to make the rental feel nicer”.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I really didn't need to hear this.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

I hate the arbitrariness of beginning the Premier League in 1992-93. But I love the sequence.

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Reposted by David Walsh

Mina Kimes @minakimes.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

On being called DEI and why it isn’t the burn they think it is

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

RIP MLV. The Feast of the Goat is an all time favourite. Also loved The Dream of the Celt. Still got a stack of others I need to read.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Somebody please tell Richard Flanagan this tennis metaphor doesn't make any sense.

Paragraph from Richard Flanagan's Question 7 that begins: "The more he returned serve the more she came back with another ace."

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Promoted this up my TBR pile with the recent death of George Foreman. An enjoyable account of perhaps the most famous bout in history. Mailer certainly lives up to his reputation for high self-regard by the degree to which he inserts himself at the centre of the story. Still, it works. #BookSky

Photo of a book:

The Fight by Norman Mailer

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

🙄 Wordle 1,370 X/6* 🟨🟩⬛🟨🟨 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

I do enjoy the headline recycling Mark Latham's "a conga line of suckholes". Then used to castigate those championing another disastrous Republican president. (Alas Latham himself is very Trumpist these days.)

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

The 1994 Booker shortlist. Or two thirds of it anyway. Sadly I don't think this was a vintage year for the prize. I failed to get on with the winner (Kelman). The other three were all very good without being outstanding. Of the four, my pick would be Gunesekera's Reef. #BookSky

Book stack:

Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Innocence by Penelope Fitzgerald. The third Fitzgerald I've read and I still don't quite know what to make of her. Though I come away feeling I've read a good book I did find it a bit plodding at times. #BookSky

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh. I enjoyed this. But do I count it as one book or three? Originally released years apart as three separate novels, I was surprised to see the table of contents doesn't split it up accordingly. The author's preface makes clear why.

The Table of Contents divides Sword of Honour into 11 chapters. It does not divide it into the three original book releases.

Preface

The three books, of which this is a recension, appeared at intervals throughout a decade with the less than candid assurance (dictated by commercial interest) that each was to be regarded as a separate, independent work. It was unreasonable to expect the reader to keep in mind the various characters; still more to follow a continuous, continued plot. Repetitions and discrepancies occurred, which, I hope, are here excised. I have also removed passages which, on re-reading, appeared tedious.

The product is intended (as it was originally) to be read as a single story. I sought to give a description of the Second World War as it was seen and experienced by a single, uncharacteristic Englishman, and to show its effect on him. For this purpose I invented three clowns who have prominent parts in the structure of the story, but not in its theme.

On reading the book I realized that I had done something quite outside my original intention. I had written an obituary of the Roman Catholic Church in England as it had existed for many centuries. All the rites and most of the opinions here described are already obsolete. When I wrote Brideshead Revisited I was consciously writing an obituary of the doomed English upper class. It never occurred to me, writing Sword of Honour, that the Church was susceptible to change. I was wrong and I have seen a superficial revolution in what then seemed permanent Despite the faith of many of the characters, Sword of Honour was not specifically a religious book. Recent developments have made it, in fact, a document of Catholic usage of my youth.

E.W

Combe Florey 1964

Second page of preface. See previous image for text.

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

"Bart, you were Lisa's age. And Lisa, you were... the age Bart was several years ago."

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This might akin to betting against the Harlem Globetrotters, but I think the Eagles are going to win the #SuperBowl

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Is Herr Irving still alive?

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene. Is this Greene's most underrated work? A cracking story of a botched kidnapping in 1970s Argentina. At the same time still sounding the big themes of a great Greene novel. #BookSky

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Not for me. Ponderous, plotless, repetitive. Endless listings of countries and geographical features as seen from space. I would've preferred a greater focus on the six main characters. (And an actual story.) I'm surprised by all the acclaim it's received. #BookSky

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David Walsh @dlwalsh.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

It's a thumbs up from me for this "rediscovered classic". The story of a good man in a world full of bastardry. A bit of slow burn, for me it took about 100 pages before it really got going. But wow, the tension in some of those scenes in the middle part of the book... #BookSky

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