iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Rob Pilkington @robpilk.com · 12/09/2026

here's what "getting there" means to these people btw (published March of this year) harpers.org/archive/2026...

from March 2026 Harper's article

"Another experiment let Claude run a vending machine in Anthropic’s headquarters. This one went even worse. The AI failed to make sure it was selling items at a profit, and had difficulty raising prices when demand was high. It also insisted on trying to fill the vending machine with what it called “specialty metal items” like tungsten cubes. When human workers failed to fulfill orders that it hadn’t actually placed, it tried to fire them all. Before long, Claude was insisting that it was a real human. It claimed that it had attended a physical meeting with staff at 742 Evergreen Terrace, which is where the Simpsons live. By the end of the experiment, it was emailing the building’s security guards, telling them they could find it standing by the vending machine wearing a blue blazer and a red tie."

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Twonks @twonks.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Navy

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ceej @ceej.online · 03/09/2026

I do think “every rich person went insane during covid because it was the first time they’ve been inconvenienced in decades” felt a little reductive at first but damn if isn’t more and more compelling as the years drag on

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Ross Sayers @rosssayers.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

[James Stewart as Odysseus] now listen here, Agamemnon, I'm going home, y'see. You keep your fancy armour, I'm getting off this crummy ol' beach. [Spotting the Cyclops] now here's a curious fella, he's only got one peeper

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Douglas Cheape @douglascheape.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

It is once again time to repost this classic.

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Brian Larkin @derrymanc.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Colombia v Switzerland being referred to as Charlie v The Chocolate Factory.

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Al Kennedy @alkennedy.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Venus and Serena, or as they're collectively known, the Tennisy Williams

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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

What we need is not necessarily legitimacy, but perhaps some kind of *performance of* legitimacy. Something with the trappings and appearance of democracy, but tightly managed. A managed democracy, if you will.

Labour's Harriet Harman tells @lewis_goodall there should be some form of PLP vote to 'elect' and endorse Burnham, something between a coronation and a contest...
Harman insists that "nobody has the appetite for a protracted contest" but that a coronation will lead to people asking: "where is the legitimacy?"
"They need to be thinking, how can he be endorsed? Who can he be endorsed by? A hustings or endorsement is necessary. Our constitution requires more than that.... The PLP could vote. Nominations are into the race but they don't. Burnham needs an opportunity to show that he does have the majority of the PLP.
I've suggested Lucy Powell gets together with Burnham, Starmer, Streeting, to arrange this process. They all have the interests of the party at heart" @LBC
12:06 • 21/06/2026

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 10/06/2026

I've had the news on all day today and I've heard various talking heads say the Common Travel Area has become 'sacred'. This is clearly a line they've been briefed to use to diminish what they are trying to do which is install a hard border on the island if Ireland.

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Rhodri Marsden @rhodri.biz · 25/05/2026

I’d forgotten this magnificent story about Roger Moore (which Facebook just reminded me of) so I’m reposting it here for the clicks

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Gavin Culloty @gculloty87.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Remembering the late, great Eric Morecambe, who was born 100 Years ago today.

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Will McKinley @willmckinley.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

GASLIGHT starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer did not have its New York City premiere #OTD in 1944. You must have imagined it. I'm worried about you. You need to get more rest. #FilmSky

Poor Ingrid in the throes of Charles Boyer's evil.

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I cannot overstate how completely insane this story is

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Hey Mr Starkey - Ireland may want a word, you absolute basket case.

This will offend some people

When considering how we deal with the
problem of Islamist supremacism, it's tempting
to throw up our hands and despair

But the fact is, we've been here before and have
a playbook for dealing with this stuff.

There was in England's history a recalcitrant
religious minority that claimed the authority of a
higher power to re-order English society by
violence, even abrogating for itself the right to
murder the monarch: it was called Catholicism,

It's imperial claims were suppressed and
eventually defeated by the application of
specific laws designed not to persecute people
for being Catholic, but to thwart the political
objective of making England a Catholic country

As always, the answer to our problems lie in our
own history, if only we had the wit to see it.

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Am not an energy analyst but why does seem every interview with a U.K. minister this week included a pointed question about why not drilling more in North Sea and almost none about renewables/net zero as an energy security imperative? It’s bizarre, frankly

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Miriam Cosic @miriamcosic.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

This 1990 speech by Carl Sagan is timely times two: #war #climate

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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

🤣🤣🤣🤣

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Rachel Salvidge @rachelsalvidge.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Superbugs resistant to antibiotics are rising fast. I tested water at Lough Neagh (40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water) & found high levels of antibiotic-resistant genes from human & livestock poo. If we treat waterways like sewers, this is what we get. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

‘Drinking from a fetid pond’: superbug-creating genes found in UK’s largest lake

Exclusive: Lough Neagh, which supplies drinking water for 40% of NI, contains genes resistant to last-resort antibiotics

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

🔴The Oil Lobby Is Using the Iran War to Revive North Sea Drilling but Official Data Shows It Won’t Cut Bills Fossil fuel funded think tanks, petrostate-linked policy institutes and oil market insiders are all being presented as impartial observers by the media, reports @nafeez.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com

The Oil Lobby Is Using the Iran War to Revive North Sea Drilling but Official Data Shows It Won’t Cut Bills

Fossil fuel funded think tanks, petrostate-linked policy institutes and oil market insiders are all being presented as impartial observers by the media, reports Nafeez Ahmed

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The Texas Graham Saw Massacre @grahamofthedead.bsky.social · 13/10/2023

"You boy, what day is this??"

Scrooge, but wearing a hockey mask cos it's friday the 13th.

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David J @damjef.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Djokovic and Draper serving up probably the most insane point you're likely to see.

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Adam Smith @adamndsmith.com · 09/03/2026

If I had a nickel for every time Franz Ferdinand was involved in the precursor events of a world war, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

"We called London a war zone and moved to Dubai by mistake"

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The News Agents @thenewsagents.co.uk · 25/02/2026

"This is bonkers!" How did the Speaker of the House of Commons end up in the British Virgin Islands with a tip-off that Mandelson allegedly planned to flee there - a claim he calls "baseless"?

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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

How does he sleep at night?

Irish Independent: Man stole three coffee machines in a week from Monaghan department store.

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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I’ve found it, I’ve found the worst take

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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 12/02/2026

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

When he ran Labour Together, Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons hired a PR firm to investigate journalists After our revelations, and a flurry of news stories, Simons finally gave his side of the story But it doesn't seem to tally with the facts... 🧵 democracyforsale.substack.com/p/mcsweeney-...

democracyforsale.substack.com

McSweeney goes - but Josh Simons in the frame over targeting journalists

Cabinet Office minister hired a PR firm to investigate journalists. His explanation is bewildering - and begs one big question. How can Starmer keep him on?

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

🔴 Investigation opened into PR firm's work investigating journalists and sources for Labour Together PRCA has launched a probe into APCO Worldwide following Democracy for Sale's reporting Now will Cabinet minister Josh Simons explain himself? democracyforsale.substack.com/p/pr-firm-pr...

democracyforsale.substack.com

PR firm probed over Labour Together investigating journalists

Investigation into APCO Worldwide deepens questions for Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

How extraordinarily fortunate for Wes Streeting that the only text messages he sent Peter Mandelson just happened to be exactly the sort of things other Labour MPs want to hear from a potential leadership candidate

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

💥 GOOD. Because that £240 million contract gifted to Palantir, with no competition… …after Starmer had an off-the-books meeting with Mandelson and Palantir… …while Mandelson was officially LOBBYING FOR Palantir and so personally financially benefiting from such links and contracts… Stinks.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 06/02/2026

No one is sure how or why this bent self-dealing crook found his way back into the party after deliberately undermining anyone who tried to get rid of him, but let’s be clear: It definitely doesn’t involve the PM’s right-hand man, who was groomed by him and who fastidiously backed him to the hilt.

Peter Mandelson
'Pestering for a role': how Mandelson talked his way back into the Labour fold
Officials, MPs and other insiders recall a need for clarity and Blair-era frisson before election - even if Sue Gray was wary
UK politics live - latest updates
Daniel Boffey Chief reporter
Fri 6 Feb 2026 17.52 CET

The question debated in parliament this week was how Starmer could possibly have thought it was appropriate for Mandelson to be appointed as US ambassador. The one raised by Labour insiders is why he was brought back into the party fold at all by the prime minister, who supporters claim was never fully trusting of his character.
Mandelson was clearly not involved in the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, whom he so keenly sought to unseat, but neither did he have a role in Ed Miliband's team. "All of us believe in dignity in retirement," Miliband said in 2010, on being asked about a possible return of Mandelson.
Why did Starmer not think the same?

Many point to the relationship between Mandelson and McSweeney - they were introduced by the peer Roger Liddle, who lives near McSweeney in Lambeth. However, their politics clash, as one former minister laid out.

"Morgan trying to bring Labour back to doorstep bread-and-butter issues and rejecting the progressive internationalism of New Labour, hitching his wagon to the architect of it? Peter the most eloquent exponent of the need to embrace and celebrate globalisation, Morgan the man whose politics begins by rejecting that entire approach?"

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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Democracy for Sale's scoop about Labour Together paying a firm to investigate journalists has now been picked up in FT, Politico and the Guardian Huge questions to answer - for Morgan McSweeney, Josh Simons, and Keir Starmer Oh, and do support D4S 😀 democracyforsale.substack.com/subscribe

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 06/02/2026

Epstein is like the evil Forrest Gump, somehow present and responsible for every terrible thing of the last twenty years.

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

NEW: What’s happening in the US is TECHNOFASCISM. It’s fascism + surveillance technologies. Palantir is playing a central role. And the UK is next in line. My latest for @thenerve.news 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/technofasc...

thenerve.news

What’s happening in America is technofascism. It could happen here

Peter Thiel's data surveillance company Palantir is powering Trump's ICE operation in the US. Carole Cadwalladr argues that the UK will be next

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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Post-Brexit, Epstein told Thiel: "Brexit is just the beginning" – eyeing crypto deregulation via right-populism. 7/12

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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Zack Polanski, "Palantir.. £240 million contract last month" "That was lobbied by Global Counsel which is Peter Mandelson's lobbying group" "The idea that a defence company from the US has its fingerprints all over our healthcare system, alongside Peter Mandelson"

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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Wow - this guy must be really, REALLY bad with money if an extra £208 per month will “ruin” his retirement. Let’s take a look at his situation based on what he told the @Telegraph Because this does NOT add up! No, this is not a “poor pensioner” scrabbling around for pennies… 🧵1/9

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Brendan @chibdm.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

If Jesus had focused more on kitchen table issues and less on unpopular outcasts like lepers and prostitutes, he might have won more support from white working-class Judeans.

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Mark Lawrence @marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

To celebrate the completion of The Library Trilogy with THE BOOK THAT HELD HER HEART, I'm giving away the full set of signed Locked Library special editions. To enter just repost. Contest held across my socials - enter elsewhere too to increase chances. Winner chosen randomly from all entries.

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 08/04/2025

Tariffs xkcd.com/3073

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Rick @rickylongthread.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

I’m no socialist but this speaks to me

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